Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: OMB session

Outline
Background
- The book
- Shunryu Suzuki
Flavours of, aspects of, beginner’s mind.
Closing

Outline

what’s on top? (your name, and what’s top of mind for you);
brief introduction and background on the book;
a series of ideas and observations from the book;
- more like an open house session, with some prompts from the book.
a closing meditation, where you might like to slosh around some of the ideas from the session;

Background

The book

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki.
Considered a modern classic, best first book on Zen.
First published in 1970. Still reads fresh.
It’s most famous line: “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”

Shunryu Suzuki

Where some teachers’ Zen is dramatic or loud, Shunryu Suzuki’s is ordinary. Nothing special.
Doesn’t mention enlightenment because, for him, it’s not the part that needs to be stressed.
Shunryu Suzuki (1904–1971) was a Sōtō Zen priest.
- We won’t go into the Zen family trees, but Sōtō is one of the big schools of Zen. They emphasise “just sitting.”
Considered a founder of Zen in America, known for founding the first Zen monastery outside Asia. And now I’ve said “found” too many times and it sounds weird.

Flavours of, aspects of, beginner’s mind.

The beginner’s mind is… open, empty, content.

Open

Open to all possibilities.
Open to things as they are. Before any “could” or “should”. Just “as it is”.
Open in the sense of non-discriminatory, inclusive, accepting. In that sense, it’s a very compassionate mind.
Open like an open hand, not a clenched fist.

Empty

Not quite like nothing or null.
Empty as in absence, the possibility of presence.
Like a garden before anything’s growing in it. Like a cup before you put your drink into it.
Empty as is before names and forms.
Empty as in free, free of the habits of the expert.
Empty like ready. Ready to observe. Ready to learn.

Content, Here/Now

No thoughts, or worries, about attainment or achievement or outcome.
No need or craving for a deep understanding of Zen or Buddhism or life.
Trying to attain something takes us away from the here and now, from the present moment.
Empty of intention.

Closing

The Sōtō school of Zen focuses on sitting.
Their take is sitting is the thing. The path. The goal.
Not to achieve something. Just sit. For the simple delight of sitting.
Open, receptive, alert, in the same you played when you were a child.
Being instead of doing.
Okay. Let’s sit.

Gathered Notes

Background: first published in 1970. Considered a modern Zen classic.
- The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but to study ourselves.
- “To study the self is to forget the self.” (Dogen)
- The purpose of Zen is to make you wonder about and investigate your true nature.
- Teachers uses the phrase “Zen mind” to help stir up your sense of inquiry.
- The practice of Zen mind is beginner’s mind.
  - In particular, the innocence of the first inquiry: what am I?
  - (One of those questions that seems to have an obvious answer. But the answer doesn’t hold up to inspection.)
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”
- The beginner is free of the habits of the expert.
- Free of preconceived ideas, subjective intentions, (the web of relations).
The beginner’s mind is empty.
- Empty as in ready to observe, open to everything.
- Open to things as they are, open to all the possibilities.
- Not empty like “no thoughts” but “no attachment to thoughts.” (Nothing is too sticky, it just arises, then passes away)
- Wisdom is not something to learn. Wisdom is something which will come out of your mindfulness.
We sit (zazen) to clear our minds, have them empty.
- To realise our true nature through a more intuitive, less analytical, answer to “what am I?”
In the beginner’s mind there is no thought of attainment. No hope for a future outcome.
- Such as “I have attained something.” Or “I know what Zen is.”
- When we try to attain something, our mind starts to wander.
  - We wander away from the here and now.
- When we have no thought of achievement, no thought of self, we are true beginners.
  - Then we can really learn something.
The beginner’s mind is the mind of compassion.
- When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless.
- There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen.
In the beginner’s mind, everything has the same value.
- If you discriminate too much, you limit yourself.
- All self-centred thoughts limit our vast mind.
- If you think, “I breathe,” the “I” is extra. There is no you to say “I.” What we call “I” is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no “I,” no world, no mind nor body; just a swinging door.
The beginner’s mind is simple.
- When we do something with a quiet, simple, clear mind, our activity is strong and straightforward.
- When we do something with a complicated mind, in relation to other things or people, or society, our activity becomes very complex.
The beginner doesn’t know what’s next.
- “Now it is raining, but we don’t know what will happen in the next moment. By the time we go out it may be a beautiful day, or a stormy day. Since we don’t know, let’s appreciate the sound of the rain now.”
- The best way towards perfect composure is to forget everything. Then your mind is calm, and it is wide and clear enough to see and feel things as they are without any effort.

Raw notes

In the forty years since its original publication, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind has become one of the great modern Zen classics, much beloved, much reread, and much recommended as the best first book to read on Zen.
Whereas Daisetz Suzuki’s Zen was dramatic, Shunryu Suzuki’s is ordinary.
In Shunryu Suzuki’s book the words satori and kensho, its near-equivalent, never appear.
“It’s not that satori is unimportant, but it’s not the part of Zen that needs to be stressed.”
Zen mind is one of those enigmatic phrases used by Zen teachers to make you notice yourself, to go beyond the words and wonder what your own mind and being are. This is the purpose of all Zen teaching —to make you wonder and to answer that wondering with the deepest expression of your own nature.
The practice of Zen mind is beginner’s mind. The innocence of the first inquiry—what am I?—is needed throughout Zen practice.
The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities. It is the kind of mind which can see things as they are, which step by step and in a flash can realize the original nature of everything.
Passages which seem obscure or obvious are often illuminating when they are read very carefully, wondering why this man would say such a thing.
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”
If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything.
In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.
If you discriminate too much, you limit yourself.
In the beginner’s mind there is no thought, “I have attained something.” All self-centered thoughts limit our vast mind.
When we have no thought of achievement, no thought of self, we are true beginners. Then we can really learn something.
The beginner’s mind is the mind of compassion. When our mind is compassionate, it is boundless. the most difficult thing is always to keep your beginner’s mind. There is no need to have a deep understanding of Zen.
Even though you read much Zen literature, you must read each sentence with a fresh mind. You should not say, “I know what Zen is,” or “I have attained enlightenment.”
When you try to attain something, your mind starts to wander about somewhere else. When you do not try to attain anything, you have your own body and mind right here.
If you think, “I breathe,” the “I” is extra. There is no you to say “I.” What we call “I” is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no “I,” no world, no mind nor body; just a swinging door.
with people: first let them do what they want, and watch them. This is the best policy. To ignore them is not good; that is the worst policy. The second worst is trying to control them. The best one is to watch them, just to watch them, without trying to control them.
The same way works for you yourself as well. If you want to obtain perfect calmness in your zazen, you should not be bothered by the various images you find in your mind. Let them come, and let them go. Then they will be under control. But this policy is not so easy. It sounds easy, but it requires some special effort.
your mind and body have great power to accept things as they are, whether agreeable or disagreeable.”
We say, “A good father is not a good father.” Do you understand? One who thinks he is a good father is not a good father; one who thinks he is a good husband is not a good husband. One who thinks he is one of the worst husbands may be a good one if he is always trying to be a good husband with a single-hearted effort.
At first you will have various problems, and it is necessary for you to make some effort to continue our practice. For the beginner, practice without effort is not true practice. For the beginner, the practice needs great effort.
In your big mind, everything has the same value.
In your practice you should accept everything as it is, giving to each thing the same respect given to a Buddha.
“If you continue this simple practice every day, you will obtain some wonderful power. Before you attain it, it is something wonderful, but after you attain it, it is nothing special.”
To be able to sit with you in zazen is very, very unusual.
Our human life is rare and wonderful;
we may find it not so interesting to cook the same thing over and over again every day. It is rather tedious, you may say. If you lose the spirit of repetition it will become quite difficult, but it will not be difficult if you are full of strength and vitality.
When we do something with a quite simple, clear mind, we have no notion or shadows, and our activity is strong and straightforward. But when we do something with a complicated mind, in relation to other things or people, or society, our activity becomes very complex.
The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but to study ourselves.
the purpose of studying Buddhism is to study ourselves and to forget ourselves.
Instead of gathering knowledge, you should clear your mind. If your mind is clear, true knowledge is already yours.
a Chinese poem says, “Rozan is famous for its misty, rainy days, and the great river Sekko for its tide, coming and going. That is all.” That is all, but it is splendid. This is how we appreciate things.
as a listener or a disciple, it is necessary to clear your mind of these various distortions. A mind full of preconceived ideas, subjective intentions, or habits is not open to things as they are. That is why we practice zazen: to clear our mind of what is related to something else.
As long as we have some definite idea about or some hope in the future, we cannot really be serious with the moment that exists right now.
To be independent in this true sense, we have to forget everything which we have in our mind and discover something quite new and different moment after moment.
In the sutra it says, “There are no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body or mind. . . .” This “no mind” is Zen mind, which includes everything.
Wisdom is not something to learn. Wisdom is something which will come out of your mindfulness. So the point is to be ready for observing things, and to be ready for thinking. This is called emptiness of your mind.
“Now it is raining, but we don’t know what will happen in the next moment. By the time we go out it may be a beautiful day, or a stormy day. Since we don’t know, let’s appreciate the sound of the rain now.”
we just practice zazen. That is all we do, and we are happy in this practice. For us there is no need to understand what Zen is. We are practicing zazen. So for us there is no need to know what Zen is intellectually.
The best way towards perfect composure is to forget everything. Then your mind is calm, and it is wide and clear enough to see and feel things as they are without any effort.
“I have to stop my mind in my practice, but I cannot. My practice is not so good.” This kind of idea is also the wrong way of practice.

From a reread of “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind” by Shunryu Suzuki.

In particular keeping soft eyes for things that explicitly talk about beginner’s mind. Or no-mind, or ordinary mind.

Added 2024-08-30, last updated 2024-09-21.