Nothing Exists Zen Story
- Dec 11, 2025
- 2 min read
Today we enter… Nothing Exists. A koan that unravels the ground beneath certainty. Not dramatic. Not mystical. Just a quiet hand pulling a single thread until the whole fabric gives way.
Let’s walk in slowly.
Let the Story Unfold
A monk asked the master:
“What is the ultimate truth?”
The master replied:
“Nothing exists.”
The monk hesitated, confused.
“How can that be?” he asked.
The master answered:
“Even that does not exist.”
Sit With the Meaning
Zen is not offering nihilism. It is not claiming nothing matters, nothing is real, nothing is alive.
This koan aims somewhere subtler. Somewhere the thinking mind cannot go.
The master cuts the monk free from the one place he still clings:
the belief that truth is a thing, that existence is a thing, that enlightenment is a thing
He goes to grasp it… and his hand closes on air.
Every concept breaks.
Every conclusion dissolves.
Even the idea of “nothingness” collapses.
What remains is not an answer. It is the quiet before answers exist.
A place where mind cannot cling because there is nothing to cling to, and no one to cling.
This is the freedom Zen points toward: not a new belief, but the end of needing one.
Turn Inward With Your Parts
Is there a part of you that panics when certainty slips away?
What happens inside when you imagine letting go of every conclusion, even for a breath?
Which protector believes understanding is the same as safety?
Can you sense a younger part who learned that “not knowing” meant danger or rejection?
Let Expression Rise
IFS Journaling
Write from the part that fears the loss of ground. Let it speak about what “not knowing” threatens.
IFS Parts Art
Draw what “groundlessness” feels like in your system, using shapes or colors rather than images.
Somatic IFS
Lie back or sit with your spine supported.
Let your body soften as if the ground is holding all your weight
Notice what shifts when nothing needs to be grasped for stability.
And if none of these feel right… simply sit with the koan. Let its quiet undoing work on you.
Stay here with your parts as long as you like, and we’ll meet again in the next story.
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