Mind the Beginner

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.

Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.

The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”

“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”

Have you ever heard of value rigidity or conceptual rigidity? You encounter them either in yourself or in others every day of your life. It’s where your opinions and perspectives preclude you from seeing things in a new light or appreciate something new. Incapable of letting go of your cherished view of the world or some part of it you reject anything that does not fit in according to how you look upon things. Like the professor, your cup is full and you’re not inclined in the least to empty it so something new can fit in. Preconceptions rule your view, you’re stuck.

Does this sound like you? It might not, maybe it reminds you of somebody you know. Value rigidity and conceptual rigidity are the products of a closed mind. Keeping an open mind helps prevent or perhaps overcome these issues. That is, if you’re bothered by them at least. It might be that the closed mind has become a refuge, a safe haven where you feel (or that person you know feels) comfortable and getting out of that safety into an uncertain world would be terrifying.

In Pirsig’s “Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance” The story is presented of the old South Indian monkey trap as an illustration of value rigidity. The trap consists of a coconut or small box with a hole that is bog enough for the monkey’s open flexible hand to fit through, but to small for his clenched fist. The trap is baited with whatever food it is the monkey would find appealing and the trap is fastened to a tree or stake. Of course the monkey has no problems with getting his furry little hand into the hole and grab the food, but getting that clenched fist out, well, let’s just say we now have a very confused and frustrated monkey with his hand stuck in a hole. The obvious solution to the Homo Sapiens monkeybrain would be to let go of the food for the moment and find another way. Evolution wasn’t to kind on our little furry friend though and he just can’t wrap is head around it. The food in his hand is to important to let go, no matter the cost. Enter our South Indian friend, exit monkey and enter monkey stew…

Now this story might seem silly but it’s something that happens in a daily basis. Have you ever attended a class where beforehand you “knew” that it would be boring? Perhaps even an entire course that has you feeling depressed beforehand just because what you’ve been told by students who have already taken that course. In a few weeks the new semester will begin at my university and we (my fellow students and me) have already started to size up the courses, trying to figure out what to expect. Combine this with my rigid idea that I’m allergic to math and things get ugly. Especially when it turned out that there are not one, but two courses labeled “math” that I will be taking. Panic is slowly flowing into my thoughts as the semester closes in for the kill. But still I can’t let go of the old idea that math is evil. For over ten years now, my math-cup has been full. Letting go of what you think you know will allow you to experience what’s really going on. How do you know something is no good if you haven’t experienced it first hand without preconceptions?

The first step in dealing with rigidity is awareness. I hope you saw that one coming a mile away as it’s the first step in solving just about any problem out there. You can’t solve a problem if you don’t know it’s there, obviously. To expand solutions to these issues, you have to expand conceptual boundaries. Sometimes the expansion of conceptual boundaries requires reducing value rigidity. Narrow-mindedness might stop you from seeing the solution because it’s outside of your current views. You know value rigidity or conceptual rigidity is present when you hear something or read something that sets off a mental alarm and you feel your mind racing, picking up arms and getting ready to brawl. Now you actually have a choice right at that moment – if you are aware of your mind getting ready – either you let your mind run wild, or you let yourself relax and examine what it is that set off the alarm. Examine it without prejudging.

No expectations, no preconceptions, no rigidity. The open mind is supple and alert, ready for anything because anything can happen. The closed mind is rigid, tense and brittle refusing to acknowledge things that can happen that are outside the box.

I don’t know where I’ve read it exactly (might have been Seth’s purple cow but I’m not sure) but on the Internet if people perceive you to be an expert in something, you are an expert.

Somehow I find this very dangerous, I’ve been blogging on several topics over the past months and already I have the feeling of people somehow looking up to me. Imagine the influence a blogger has who has been blogging for years.

Take myself for instance. For all you know I might be an elderly lady living in Canada somewhere bored out of my skull and in a flash of insanity decide to impersonate a 26 year old Dutch guy who’s into zen, personal development and lifestyle design.

Think about it, all you’ve seen from me is a single photo, I’ve never done a video blogpost, no podcasts or anything. Even the few people I’ve been talking to through google talk or twitter have never seen anything else than that one picture (no wait, a second picture of me in a suit which was also the picture I used on this blog a while back) and never heard my voice or anything.

How do you know I’m “the real deal”? How do you know I’m who I say I am. For that matter, how do you know who’s real on the Internet, who’s authentic. In most cases you’re limited to blind faith, you might get proof through a video blog, more pictures or other visuals and audio but can you every be certain? This is actually a recurring theme in zen. Only through experiencing for yourself can you be sure to some extent. Reading about it, hearsay, or whatever other channels won’t do it for you. It’s part of beginner’s mind, everything is new and what’s in front of you has never before been nor will it ever be again.

How do you know it’s hard to breathe on top of Mt. Everest, have you ever been there? It’s highly plausible, but you don’t actually know do you… If you start going to college with this attitude you’re in trouble, no textbook could ever teach you something, you’d have to experience everything for yourself.

“Breaking your neck and damaging your spinal cord on the C3 level will paralyze your respiratory muscles and without an iron lung, you will die”

“yeah right, that’s what you’re claiming, but is it true?”

“Allow me to demonstrate….”

-Famous last words of a medical student

Anyone can claim just about anything on the Internet and as soon as someone believes it, it’s true all of a sudden. It’s like the guy in a white coat and a stethoscope in a commercial. Somehow people think he’s a doctor and so what he’s saying is true. Dangerous.

You can’t do anything about it, everyone can claim anything, either you believe them or you don’t. But be sensible about it, if someone has something to gain by making a certain claim alarm bells should go off at the very least.

On the other hand you could trust in the honesty of other humans.

Who’s authentic on the Internet… … I’d like to believe I am but I can’t prove it beyond the shadow of a doubt without us meeting face to face and that would be a bit impractical now wouldn’t it (Traveling isn’t good for my old Canadian bones).

Are you who you claim to be? Are you authentic? How can you prove it?

As you sit reading this blogpost, close your eyes for a second and feel your body. The way you are sitting now, is probably the way you always sit. Maybe hanging to one side a bit more, maybe rotating your spine in some way. Are you sitting symmetrical?

The way we sit is just one of many things that have become habits. Our lives are filled with thousands of these micro habits we normally call “it’s just the way I do that”. Every time you brush your teeth you do it roughly in the same order, with the same motions and while standing in the same pose. And how about grabbing the toothpaste, twisting off the cap, putting it back on again.

Most of these habits have developed because they seem the best way to do things. It’s perfectly okay to have these although they offer one small problem: We do things on the automatic pilot. Have you ever driven back home because you don’t know if you locked the front door you’ll know what I mean.

Everything you do, do it consciously.

A great way to jolt your brain a bit and get out of the daily grind is do everything differently. The easiest way to do this is to do everything with the other hand for a change. Immediately you have to think about every motion you make. Pick up your computer mouse and put it on the left side of your screen. Now goof around a bit and see if you can match the precision and speed you normally have with that mouse cursor.

But why do you want to get of autopilot

It’s fun Or at least, it can be fun if you let it and don’t get frustrated that things go so much slower. Do them enough and things will speed up greatly.

Your brain will benefit from it As with anything in our body the phrase “use it or loose it” also applies to our brain. It’s always a good idea to stimulate the brain and let it experience new things.

Adaptation You’ll learn more ways of doing things, maybe making for some good laughs, maybe coming in handy when your normal way of doing things doesn’t work in this specific situation.

Variation is healthy If you always sit in the same position, your back will eventually change to accommodate that posture better. You’ll probably develop a scoliosis because of it. Always carry a backpack over your right shoulder only and in a few years your back will show this habit, even if you’re not wearing the pack at that time.

The single downside as I mentioned is that things will most certainly go slower. We have fine tuned our micro habits to perfection and sometimes we’ll have spend thousands of hours during our life so far in doing things in this particular way.

I have compiled a short list of daily activities that you might want to take a closer look at to see if there are any micro habits in there:

• toweling off after taking a shower
• getting dressed
• putting on your seat belt
• turning around
• opening a door
• chewing your food
• going to the toilet
• grabbing your wallet

Now this is were zen comes in again. Zen has the deliberate practice of getting off auto pilot and being fully aware of what is going on. Everything you do, do it consciously. For the remainder of the day I would like you to give it a try. Do every little thing with deliberation, pay full attention to every movement you make. Zen goes even deeper into this claiming that every situation is new and unique. So every situation deserves it’s own way of handling it. Brushing your teeth today is not the same as yesterday. So why do it the same way? They call it beginner’s mind. Seeing everything for what it really is: totally new and unique.

You’ll probably get confused at some stage because now you’re using a different part of the brain to do these tasks. As I said, it’s a great way to jolt the brain a bit.

Have fun!

The Phrase Beginner’s mind  is a phrase coined by Shunryu Suzuki or as most call him Suzuki-Roshi, a Zen master who ran a Zen temple in San Francisco in the 1960’s among other things.  But what exactly is beginner’s mind? I wrote about this in my first post on this blog but I want to explore it a bit more. Beginner’s mind is a mind free of judgments, free of preconceptions. The mind of a child so to speak, open to anything. With a beginner’s mind we can see what truly is, not only what we expect.

This is key in just about anything we do. Only by letting go of our preconceptions can we see what is out there. 

Preconceptions are everywhere. We expect things to happen a certain way and eventually we get stuck in this. Not stuck in the way I wrote about in my last post, but really stuck. Th kind of stuck you have when you’re dragging along, waiting for relief (the end of a shift perhaps). I know it’s hard to be surprised when you grab your mouse and the cursor moves on the screen. But what would a child do? Look with amazement at the cursor and perhaps try and grab it. That’s beginner’s mind at work right there. We “non-beginners” only act amazed if the mouse is not working. We have the preconception that the cursor should move, but it doesn’t. Amazement (and perhaps irritation) step in as something new unfolds before our very eyes.

We take a lot of things for granted in our daily lives and because of this we get bored or depressed. Drop the judgement and the preconceptions and look again. Life is fantastic! If only you let it and truly see what is in front of you. I promise you: you’ll never be bored again. 

I would like to close with these two quotes from Susuki-Roshi, give them some thought.

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”

“As soon as you see something, you already start to intellectualize it. As soon as you intellectualize something, it is no longer what you saw.”

Got that coffee? Great, and welcome to my new blog! On this blog I’m going to investigate what it takes to begin, where to start, anything and everything on starting anything and everything. Finding new ways to do things.

There are allot of things I haven’t done yet, that I really would like to do. I’m not alone in this I figure. Everyone on this planet surely has dreams of doing things, learning certain skills, seeing places, changing their life….

..and as always there is that one question in all its forms…

“How do I begin” ” “Where do I begin”

The simple things as learning to ride a bike, as complex as learning a new language, or even setting up a new business. I want to explore it all. Eventually I want to become somewhat of an expert on beginning. You see, every thing you do in life is a beginning. Every sip you take of your coffee while reading this is the first sip you take actually. You’ve never drank this cup before and you never will again. 

A few of you will instantly recognize this as a train of thought belonging to Zen. Everything you do, you do for the first time. You’re always the beginner. (Beginner’s mind) In this state of mind your first cup of coffee is as exiting as your first kiss. You see, this way you can never be bored. Now how does your coffee taste, after reading this? Go on, take another sip.

…

Every day is filled with beginnings and I want to explore them. I want to experience them. I want to write about them. As a personal touch to this all I also want to find out new ways of doing things. Question how I do things now and see if there is a better way out there. I hope you – my readers – will help me with this. Together we know a lot of ways of doing things. A joint venture in beginning. Mind you, some things might be a bit confronting. Exploring the way you do things and finding out it’s not the best way (even for you). Only by questioning self you can grow. Keep questioning, keep growing and mind the beginner in it all. The first thing I’m exploring with this first blog post is how do I build a blog. How do I write a proper article. 

In the following weeks I’ll be setting up a list of things I’d really like to learn to do. I hope to be hearing from you.