Beginner’s Mind

Today’s idea comes from a Zen teacher named Shunryu Suzuki, who brought Zen practice from Japan to America in the nineteen sixties. In his book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, he wrote a line that people have been quoting ever since. In the mind of a beginner, there are many possibilities. In the mind of an expert, there are very few. Maybe you have become an expert in your own children, and it has made you a worse dad. Give it a few years, and you have opinions about everything. You know what she is going to say before she says it, because she said it last Tuesday. You are so busy being right about your kids that you have stopped actually meeting them. The beginner’s mind is not ignorance. It is curiosity on purpose. It is deciding, on purpose, to not know yet. Today, ask one of your kids a real question, and then do the hard part. Listen to the whole answer without fixing anything. You will be amazed how much you have been missing. They have been new people this whole time. You were just too expert to notice. Listen to the five minute episode below. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theusefulempty.substack.com