Before I begin, I want to ask you to take a moment, take a breath and check in with yourself about what assumptions or opinions you might be bringing in regarding what you are about to read and what you will think and feel about it…Ok, thanks.
For many around the country, the past month or two has centered around the annual late summer return to school; a formal reconnect to the role of explicit ‘studentship’. Even for those of us not actually enrolled in some course of study, this recent time of year can still serve as an invitation to engage with a particularly beautiful and powerful personal practice most commonly attributed to Zen Buddhist origin.
This practice, known as Beginner’s Mind, instructs us to approach our daily encounters from a place of curiosity rather than preconceived assumptions and judgments. Beginner’s Mind can be contrasted to the Expert Mind so many of us commonly walk around immersed in, believing we already know the content or outcome of a particular experience or interaction. In this way, we rob ourselves and others of the opportunity for genuine in-the-moment engagement with life and with each other.
Beginner’s Mind means approaching the moment with an “I wonder” versus an “I know” attitude. To give an example, it might look like not either interrupting aloud or disengaging your inner attention and allowing another person to complete their full thought without presuming you know where it is going and pre-issuing your judgment or reaction. It can also look like remaining present and taking in all the sensory cues available while out on a walk along a familiar path. Or it could mean exploring a completely new route for yourself all together.
Engaging in simple mindfulness practices is both a direct expression of Beginner’s Mind as well as a great way to train our minds toward awareness of our thoughts and behaviors throughout our day. A teacher of mine once suggested a meditation centered around asking ourselves, “I wonder what my next thought will be?” It is an incredible practice to bring off the cushion and out into the world with us, as well. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it can have a transformative impact on our relationships. We can take conscious breaths and use these pauses as a call to awareness of our mind’s activity and opportunity for intentional choice in our continued thinking and behavior. It allows for responsiveness versus reactivity.
One place this reactivity shows up for us is our automatic labeling of input as “good” or “bad” – and then the judgments and (again largely automatic) decisions that typically follow as a result. The invitation of Beginner’s Mind is to notice this automatic reaction and allow ourselves to simply be in the actual lived experience long enough to make any choices based on what is true in the here-and-now. It can also teach us that we don’t need to retreat from or defend against what we might normally default to labelling as “bad”, nor attempt to cling to the “good”.
I just want to return briefly to what I asked of you at the very beginning. Did you notice having any preconceived ideas or judgments about what you were about to read and how you would think/feel about it? Take a moment, take a breath and be aware of whatever thoughts and sensations might be present for you right now in the actual moment after finishing reading the words above. I wonder how your presumptions compare to your experience?
And I wonder what your next thought will be…
I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.” – Schweitzer
“Learn to listen, instead of desperately wanting to be heard” – Ma Jaya
Suddenly the mystery is clear
That love is only letting go of fear
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