In a World of Experts, Be a Beginner

Last year, I read Shunryu Suzuki’s classic Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. When I say “last year,” I mean the whole entire year. I started the 136-page book in January of ’22 and didn’t make it to the last page until the end of December. It was deliberate pacing — If I tried more than 2 chapters at a time, which ranged from a few pages to half a page, my mind would tap out. When it comes to most philosophies, I need a slow drip, not a chug. By the end of the year, I would have still claimed that my interest in Zen was passing. Yet, as soon as I finished, I began to reread it. On the surface, Suzuki’s little book is a trove of Buddhist koans and one-liners. As a whole, it is a beautifully simple enunciation of how a spiritual body can practically exist in a material world. Suzuki was less interested in ascending to the clouds and more interested in how we simply sit on a cushion and endure ourselves. That apparent simplicity is explained as shoshin — or “beginner’s mind.” <a href="https://medium.com/runners-life/in-a-world-of-experts-be-a-beginner-516b723029cc">Read More</a>