Beginner's Mind

"Beginner's Mind" number 52 of 200 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

Suzuki Shunryu Roshi embodied and spread what he called Beginner's Mind in his teachings. In Suzuki Shunryu’s book, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind there is a famous quote that reads “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the experts mind there are few”.

This is classical stuff. The stuff of beginners. I'm a beginner. Sometimes I forget that. My practice is a beginner's practice. I sit with other beginner's and if asked, my teacher would say he's a beginner. We are all beginners sometimes pretending we are not.

If I was into tattooing, Zen Mind Beginners Mind would make a good one.



Shoshin
The first character means first, initial,
primary, junior, beginning, or basic.
The second character means heart, mind, soul, or essence.



Mushin
In Japanese, this word means innocent,
or one with no knowledge of good and evil.
It literally means "without mind".


Let’s take a look at six aspects of Beginner’s Mind.

  1. Immerse your attention in your activities. Do this without regard for the outcome. The activity and the awareness of doing the activity are not separate. This is sometimes called 'flow' but a beginner is not conserned with what expericences are call by the so called experts. They look for themselves.

  2. Life as a beginner is all about asking questions rather than finding answers. Zen practice is a questioning practice. My teacher is fond of encouraging me to softly ask my question while sitting and wait. Just ask and wait. The most important thing is to remember to ask my question. A beginner remembers to ask questions.

  3. A beginner is encouraged by the newness of awareness. Starting a new activity shakes things up for the expert and it is what a defines a beginner. I recently took up spoon carving. I'm a beginner again. (Yet I already notice my tendancy to get comfortable with a method and design. My spoons are all starting to look alike.)

  4. The opposite of beginner is expert. We are all expert at something. Yet mostly this expertise is developed because of our habitual natures. Look at your habits and there will be the stuff to loosen up about, to question.

  5. Keep a don't know mind. Zen Master Seung Sahn was fond of giving this teaching. Once things are solidified in our mind we become ridged, fixed and closed. This feeling of uncertainty, of expectant questioning provides space to move in. Don't know mind is the only space into which we can full experince life. If mind is already full of ideas, there is no room for the moment to moment living of life.

  6. Have fun! This is the beginners motto. Lighten up and see the wonder in your life. Face it, we all have days which we have problems and issues to deal with. Yet a beginner approaches each situation with a question, even if that situation is unfamiliar or potentially sticky.


There is something counter intuitive about going to a teacher to learn about beginner's mind. This points to our ego's neurotic nature.

Quit taking directions from the ego and embrace this Beginner's Mind.

Improvised Practice

"Improvised Practice" number 51 of 200 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

The mechanics of our practice is not always aligned with traditional Zen practice. Zen practice is very conservative. It hasn't changed much in centuries. As Zen has migrated Eastward and been assimilated into Western culture, the forms of the practices have been modified and some improvisation has occurred. Bodhidharma started this cycle.


Our book group is reading Joko Beck's Everyday Zen. At the last gathering of the readers, we discussed "be a light unto yourself". This is a translation of a translation, written down and copied over and over again after being orally transfered from one person to another all the way back in time and space to the Siddhartha Gautama's death.

What is this 'be a light into yourself'? While that may allow for some improvisation, how do we keep from having our practice be makeshift?

The Exacting Master

"The Exacting Master" number 50 of 200 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.


Zhaozhou asked Nanquan, "What is the way?"

Nanquan replied, "Ordinary mind is the way."

Zhaozhou asked, "Does this way have a special character?"

Nanquan replied, "With the slightest intention it is lost."

Confused, Zhaozhou said, "Without intention or direction, how can one know what is the way?"

Nanquan replied, "The way is not subject to knowing or not knowing. Knowing is delusion while not knowing is mere blankness. When the way is truly attained, it is like a great emptiness, vast, expansive. So how can it be reduced to right or wrong?"



In this Zen story Nanquan (Nansen) is the the teacher and Zhaozhou (Joshu) is the student. It is from Zhaozhou, who later becomes a teacher, that we get the Gateless Gate of "Mu!"

Even when Zhaozhou penetrated this teaching, he still stayed and studied with Nanquan for and additional forty years before venturing out to teach. Both of these men were exacting in their practice. An example to us.

I sense that contained in this story is a question worth investigation.


The Beginning of Practice

"The Beginning of Practice" number 49 of 200 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

When is the beginning of our practice? Is it when we first take up the notion of Zen? Is it when we begin a zazen practice? Is when we find a sangha? Is it when we go on our first retreat? Is it when we find a teacher? Is it when we are assigned our first koan? Is it when we take jukai? Is it when we pass our first koan?

Yasutani Haku'un Roshi once said at a dinner party he threw for one of his students who had completed his formal koan study, "Now his practice begins."

Even before all of that, I was was still beginning. You?


I had thought that this morning's miniature was going to stiff and stuffy. Yet it slipped out so smooth. Before the question - there was the answer. On first reading it seemed too casual, just record of some dinner party. Yet the last line says in part "...but now I offer incense and bow in gratitude to my old teacher." This beginning touches me deeply and I'm surprised by that. 

The Buddha Dharma

"The Buddha Dharma" number 48 of 200 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

I find today's miniature by Robert Aitken to be a simple and descriptive. A simple event is described. Two monks meet and recite the Heart Sutra. At first it seemed obvious and I had a sense of so simple why even write about it. Yet as I look closer, slowly the flavor of the this miniature becomes intimate.

Two monks, Roshi's really, meet. Although they are both Asian, they can't speak a common language. Eventually they find the Heart Sutra and both begin reciting it together. Even now I can reach out into the moment and recite it with them. Paraphrasing, word by word 'we' chant, ending triumphantly together. This is the Dharma of the Buddha's.

MAKA HANNYA HARAMITA SHIN GYO

KAN JI ZAI BO SA GYO- JIN HAN-NYA HA RA MI TA JI
SHO- KEN GO ON KAI KU- DO IS-SAI KU YAKU.
SHA RI SHI SHIKI FU I KU- KU- FU I SHIKI
SHIKI SOKU ZE KU- KU- SOKU ZE SHIKI
JU SO- GYO- SHIKI YAKU BU NYO ZE
SHA RI SHI ZE SHO HO- KU- SO- FU SHO- FU METSU
FU KU FU JO- FU ZO- FU GEN
ZE KO KU- CHU- MU SHIKI MU JU SO- GYO- SHIKI
MU GEN-NI BI ZES-SHIN I
MU SHIKI SHO- KO- MI SOKU HO-
MU GEN KAI NAI SHI MU I SHIKI KAI
MU MU MYO- YAKU MU MU MYO- JIN
NAI SHI MU RO- SHI YAKU MU RO- SHI JIN
MU KU SHU METSU DO-Y
MU CHI YAKU MU TOKU I MU SHO TOK'KO
BO DAI SAT-TA E HAN-NYA HA RA MI TA KO
SHIM-MU KEI GE MU KEI GE KO MU U KU FU
ON RI IS-SAI TEN DO- MU SO- KU GYO- NE HAN
SAN ZE SHO BUTSU E HAN-NYA HA RA MI TA KO
TOKU A NOKU TA RA SAM-MYAKU SAM-BO DAI
KO CHI HAN-NYA HA RA MI TA
ZE DAI JIN SHU ZE DAI MYO- SHU
ZE MU JO- SHU ZE MU TO- TO- SHU
NO- JO IS-SAI KU SHIN JITSU FU KO
KO SETSU HAN-MYA HA RA MI TA SHU
SOKU SETSU SHU WATSU
GYA TEI GYA TEI HA RA GYA TEI HARA SO- GYA TEI
BO JI SOWA KA HAN-NYA SHIN GYO


The Great Prajna-Paramita Heart Sutra


Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, practicing deep Prajna Paramita,
clearly saw that all five skandhas are empty,
transforming anguish and distress.
Shariputra, form is no other than emptiness,
emptiness no other than form;
form is exactly emptiness, emptiness exactly form;
sensation, perception, mental reaction,
consciousness are also like this.
Sha-riputra, all things are essentially empty--
not born, not destroyed;
not stained, not pure; without loss, without gain.
Therefore in emptiness there is no form, no sensation,
perception, mental reaction, consciousness;
no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind,
no color, sound, smell, taste, touch, object of thought;
no seeing and so on to no thinking;
no ignorance and also no ending of ignorance,
and so on to no old age and death,
and also no ending of old age and death;
no anguish, cause of anguish, cessation, path;
no wisdom and no attainment. Since there is nothing to attain,
the Bodhisattva lives by Prajna Paramita,
with no hindrance in the mind; no hindrance and therefore no fear;
far beyond delusive thinking, right here is Nirvana.
All Buddhas of past, present, and future live by Prajna Paramita
attaining Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.
Therefore know that Prajna Paramita
is the great sacred mantra, the great vivid mantra,
the unsurpassed mantra, the supreme mantra,
which completely removes all anguish.
This is truth not mere formality.
Therefore set forth the Prajna Paramita mantra,
set forth this mantra and proclaim:
Gate gate paragate parasamgate Bodhi sva-ha-!

Zen Study

"Zen Study" number 47 of 200 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

In the Vimalakīrti Sūtra there is this wonderful reference to "lean on nothing" or "stand nowhere". This is the activity of the Buddhas.

Aitken Roshi, encourages us to study Zen not as preparatory to sitting but in our everyday activities. To study Zen is to live closely to experience both as we read the sutras or as we walk the dog. To study Zen is not to be stuck in books, discussions or zendo activities. Zen is nothing unless it is found in every moment.

My teacher once encourgaged me to compare translations as a way into the experience of a sutra. So here are two very different translations of the part of the Vimalakīrti Sūtra Aitken refers to in this miniature. These remind me of the flavor of Linchi's talks.

...

Free of worldly attachments, like the lotus blossom,
constantly you move within the realm of emptiness and quiet;
you have mastered the marks of all phenomena, no blocks or hindrances;
like the sky, you lean on nothing - we bow our heads!

The Vimalakirti Sutra (Not yet available for the Kindle)
Burton Watson

...

You nullify all signs in all things everywhere.
You are not subject to any wish for anything at all.
The miraculous power of the Buddhas is inconceivable.
I bow to you, who stand nowhere, like infinite space.

VIMALAKIRTI NIRDESA SUTRA
Translated by Robert A. F. Thurman
Copyright 1976, The Pennsylvania State University
(Can be converted to PDF for the Kindle)

Folk Stories of Zen

"Folk Stories of Zen" number 46 of 200 from Robert Aitken's book Miniatures of a Zen Master.

"Koans are the folk stories of Zen... They are deeply instructive and transformative, and they are destroyed by explanation." Aitken advocates the traditional view and modalities. Just yesterday I was exposed to a slightly non-traditional koan practice.

My two very favorite podcasters, Vince and Ryan over at BuddhistGeeks, recently interviewed Susan Blackmore. Dr. Susan Blackmore is a British psychologist and writer researching consciousness, memes, and anomalous experiences. Not just an academic, Susan has been a Zen practitioner for over 20 years.


Susan Blackmore 

The BuddhistGeeks talked with her about her's latest book Ten Zen Questions. This book takes ten questions/koans, some traditional and some with a modern twist, and Susan explores one of two treatments. The first is to take the question and sit with it in a traditional seven day sesshin with her teacher where together they explore that particular question. In the book she describes and journals on that experience. In the second treatment she uses her garden shed to create a three day or so personal solo retreat exploring only that specific question.

Now what is so nontraditional about this approach is that at the beginning of the sesshin, the teacher hands out a sheet of paper with a few questions/koans and each participant chooses one. This is different from my experience. She has a blog setup to discuss her book and the process at tenzenbookblog.wordpress.com. Sounds like fun. Susan has fun in the interview and looking at her pictures on her website, she obviously lives on the fun side of life. Susan was a TED presenter in 2008 and presented a talk on memes.




I'm considering a Kindle to help with my dharma study. Being able to search across my collection of Zen texts, being able to load PDFs, built in dictionary and reference, these are game changing tools. Books are cheaper and lots of classical Zen texts are already available.

Do you have a Kindle? Are you considering a Kindle?