Reflections on Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
“If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything, it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.”
Shunryu Suzuki
Whenever you learn, you are not only limited by what you don’t know, but by what you do know. If you cling to your ideas, you may be unable to see beyond them to further possibilities. A tea cup will overflow unless it is first empty.
It is normal to judge the value of your experiences. Your mind is constantly forming categories of good and bad, pleasant and unpleasant, right and wrong, up and down, black and white, here and there.
But are you seeing reality for what it is?
A mountain shrouded in mist is not hiding anything profound. There is no more wisdom on top of that mountain than there is anywhere else. It is just as sacred as a nap below the bough of a tree, washing the dishes, the sun fading over a meadow, belly laughter, a walk down a narrow path.
Enlightenment is nothing special, nothing you need to strive for. When you are empty, there is no you to consider things as empty. There is no you apart from everything else, not even from non-existence. You don’t have to capture your Buddha-nature. You are Buddha-nature. There isn’t anything that is separate from Buddha-nature. You don’t need to struggle for years to experience some magical state.
You are alive now, despite your ideas about now. You can wake up to this direct moment.
To awaken is so ordinary, you don’t have to grasp after it. You are already here. This is it.
There is nothing for you to gain because you already have what you need. Even when you realize you are here, it is not special. But it is so easy to forget.
You can spontaneously express your nature when you are not grasping. There’s no need for you to put on a show of spirituality or importance. To seek out a superior status, or an epiphany, or recognition from your peers, is to miss the point.
Even if you’re sitting in meditation or scrubbing the dishes, every moment is precious. If your mind doesn’t wander, that is ok. If your mind wanders, then that is ok too. Gently bring your awareness back.
Everything can be your teacher, even the rain dripping from the roof, even yellow flowers growing in a field, even changing a diaper.
When you look at the fleeting nature of existence deeply enough, you will see the divine in the mundane. There is no essential difference between the divine and the mundane. Yet you often make divisions with your ideas.
From the vibration of an atom to a leaf shaking off a tree, from the gray hairs on an old man’s head to a baby cuddling in a warm blanket, the universe is interdependent and impermanent.
To intellectualize about change doesn’t reveal its truth. It will reveal its boundlessness to you when you are ready.
