You have so many opinions. And you suffer so much from them. Why not let them go?”
Ajahn Chah
We have been talking about mindfulness — what it means, why it is important, and how to achieve it. One of the ways to achieve it is to cultivate a “beginner’s mind”, also known as the “don’t-know mind”.
Shoshin is a word from Zen Buddhism meaning “beginner’s mind.” It refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner would.
As adults we spend much of our thinking time looking at the world through opinionated lenses. We learn so much as we get older that we begin to consider ourselves as “experts”. As with learning any new practice, having that viewpoint is a disadvantage. A beginner’s mind is “uncontaminated”. We let go of expectations and are open to each moment as something new, something fresh.
An article on the website of The Chopra Center gives us eight tips for cultivating beginner’s mind. I encourage you to check out the full article at this website: https://chopra.com/articles/8-tips-for-cultivating-a-beginners-mind
A couple of my favorite ones are “Emulate the Wonder of Children” and “Treat Every Day Like It’s Your Birthday”.
Emulate the Wonder of Children
“A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life.”
Rachel Carson, Famous Naturalist; Author of The Sense of Wonder and Silent Spring
Treat Every Day Like It’s Your Birthday
Remember how you looked forward to your birthday when you were a child? You felt a heightened sense of how special the experiences of that day would be. I don’t think I’m alone in still experiencing some of the magic of having a birthday. You wake up with anticipation and excitement. You are able to choose special things to do and eat on that day. You bask in the attention paid to you by others and consider this day as the first day of another amazing year of your life. You meet the world with your arms open wide and expect to be surprised. What if we approached every day like it’s our birthday?
Test yourself. Answer the following questions to find out how much you may or may not approach life with a “beginner’s mind”:
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How often do you get stuck in a pattern of doing the same things day after day?
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Do you frequently think the same thoughts?
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Maybe you ruminate on the same old story lines?
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Are you haunted by indecision on the same problems?
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Do you hit up against the same resistance to getting something done?
Scott Jeffrey in “How to Adopt a Beginner’s Mind to Accelerate Learning and Increase Creativity” poses these questions and discusses the gift of divergent thinking. For more, here is a link to his article:
https://scottjeffrey.com/beginners-mind/
Next up in the world of mindfulness is trust. Check back in a few days to find out how trust is beneficial when cultivating mindfulness. In the meantime, let me know your thoughts or questions on this topic simply by replying to this email.
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