Reflection on the No Goal Way; Inspired by the Unfettered Mind

The Unfettered Mind: Writings of the Zen Master to the Sword Master (Takuan Soho)

Alex Punnen
2 min readJul 3, 2022
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/863239.The_Unfettered_Mind

For want of a better word — let’s call it Zen

And for want of a better goal — let’s call it Success

And there in the first few sentences; I have already made two mistakes — Goal and Success.

Or My Dream is this or My Dream is that.

This is not the right way

The Right way has no goals, but the right paths.

And nothing called Success or Failure, or Dream or Disappointment

The Right way is limitless; the No Goal way; (The Unfettered Mind)

And I have come to deeply value, fight for, and then understand

Your Dream is Important, But their Dreams are much more important

Anyone can Dream; many can reach their Dreams

Few can make the Dreams of others Come True; That is clearly the right way.

And part of the way is to find always the right way.

Imagine you are a runner. If your goal is to run one kilometre; you will reach there and cannot take one more step. Or say it is ten-kilometre or twenty, depending on how trained you are.

You Goals become your limits.

You become obsessed with your Goals

You are not aware of the path you are running on. The air you suck in, the way your muscle dances; the way your heart beats.

There is a danger too, being not aware — that you may stretch too much and burst your heart to reach your Goal.

This is not the right way; the right way is to have no specific goals to limit you, but to have all goals. This is not a conundrum of words. In essence, it means not bound to one narrow dream or goal, neither being a drifter and without any aims. To be always challenged but not narrow to something specific, to let your potentials grow and fill your destiny.

To use each breath wisely, efficiently, and purely and your limit is infinite. Your failures no longer are disappointments, nor heartbreaks, but experiences; just experiences.

--

--

Alex Punnen

SW Architect/programmer- in various languages and technologies from 2001 to now. https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexpunnen/