"in the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few." - shunryo suzuki-roshi
rob brezney's astrology report today for taurus suggests that we bulls look at the world with a zen mind, beginner's mind. this is the mind that is beyond mundane preconceptions and weary expectations. it is the mind stripped clean if you will--cleansed, with no doubts, no cynical worldliness, no prejudices or arch judgments. i love the notion of embracing each moment as a child does--with joy and hope and wide-eyed openness. i'm reminded of last saturday, when mary and i spent the afternoon in downtown naperville, following the path around the riverwalk and stopping to have a picnic by the water. we watched all the children as they came upon a little fountain near the entrance to the park where we were sitting. it was facinating to watch their reaction and see their absolute astonishment and facination with the bubbling water jets.
the beginner's mind. innocent and filled with curiosity and wonder and amazement. not the mind that is already made up. not the mind that is waiting and expecting, but simply open to what is unfolding. i long to be simply engaged in the "not knowing" and to be fully alive in accepting the flow of life and allowing the great mystery to breathe. i've been noticing my own prejudices of late, my doubts and critical judgments, particularly in my own relationships, and i've been trying to quietly piece through them--not categorizing them as right or wrong, good or bad--all that dualism--but merely noticing how i tend to observe and judge and then gently, deliberately, setting those notions aside. this takes tremendous practice, however i think cultivating this kind of consciousness can allow for a more authentic, more vital experience to emerge.
the beginner's mind in action is one that is able to be present and not say "well, it's always been this way, or it will always be that way . ." the beginner's mind in action suggests that there are many surprises and possibilities to experience in each moment, if we allow it. it's important here to try and avoid the fixed view. lose the pretense of being an expert. listen, be curious, wait for the potential to manifest and bloom. i'm thinking of that wonderful mary oliver poem called "when death comes" and that line, "when it's over, i want to say i have been a bride married to amazement, i've been a bridegroom taking the world into my arms."
i've been absent from my blog, and a bit absent from my own right mind as well. i've gone wandering and wading and it feels good to let everything freefall here. it feels like an "in between" time .. although i'm not sure exactly what that means, except i can feel this odd shifting inside of me, like threads pulling and everything slightly unraveling, in a bit of disrepair. woke up from a very lucid dream this morning--i was having an old argument with my mother about being feeling invisible to her and how she's always disapproving somehow of me--i woke up in a bit of a stunned state, (haven't i resolved that old wound?) then i got up from bed and kept chanting to myself: "take care of the artist, take care of the artist within."
listening to vienna teng--saw her on television singing "harbor" and fell in love with her voice. replaying her songs "gravity" and "between" especially. feeding my writing right now with pico iyer's travel stories and long walks in the woods. i look up at the trees in this strange weather and wonder, is it summer, is it autumn? what transition is occuring here? if i keep walking down this curving path where will i end up?
