Hi there and welcome.
So in this video I wanted to chat kind of briefly about this very foundational term in mindfulness called the beginner's mind or the beautiful beginner's mind as I often think of it.
Now this term comes from the Zen tradition and it refers to this practice of approaching our experiences,
Our life,
From a place of openness and curiosity and maybe just a willingness to see things a little freshly or differently.
So there's this really well-known saying by Zen teacher Shenru Suzuki and it goes like this that in the beginner's mind there are many possibilities but in the experts there are few.
Now at first this might seem slightly counterintuitive after all much of this life is encouraging us to become experts at something somehow you know to know all the things.
But this mindfulness teaching and practice,
It points to something very profound.
So just think about it.
The more that we assume we know something,
The less curious we tend to become.
We stop looking,
We stop listening,
We stop questioning,
And most of all,
We stop discovering.
And there's so much to discover.
So this practice of cultivating the beginner's mind,
It's going to invite us to kind of meet each moment as though it's never happened before.
Could you imagine just living your life that way?
Kind of reminds me of that movie with Jim Carrey,
Yes Man.
He has to say yes to everything.
It's kind of a silly movie.
But,
You know,
There's always something waiting to be discovered,
Always beneath what we think we already know.
Now,
I believe this is true in meditation.
I think it's true in somatic and embodiment practices.
It can be true in our relationships and perhaps it can be true of life itself.
When we approach this life,
Our experience with curiosity rather than certainty,
We can discover that there is so much here than we've ever realized.
Maybe it's a sensation that we overlooked or a feeling beneath another feeling or a moment of beauty hidden with just a regular day.
I love those moments.
And sometimes what we call beginner's mind,
I feel is really just a willingness to remain in the relationship with the great mystery.
And maybe to recognize that no matter how much we think we know,
There is always more to discover.
And there can be something so magical and freeing about this.
Maybe the world starts to feel a little less fixed,
Maybe more alive,
More intimate.
You know,
More full of possibility despite what the news is pumping that day or what everybody's saying out there.
So a simple question you might explore if you feel called to is what would change if you met this moment just from a place of curiosity rather than certainty?
And how might that feel?
How can you embody that as well?
Sometimes it's not the deepest insights that arrive when we think we've,
You know,
Found the answer,
But it's really when we become willing to just wonder again.
And there's so much beauty in wonder.
So curious what your thoughts are and maybe how you can practice opening up with the beginner's mind,
Or maybe you already do.
Love to hear your discoveries.
Thanks for being here.
