Leave No Trace

The Power of a Beginner’s Mind

➡ Takeaway: Petting the dog is petting the dog. Only ash remains.

➡ Next week: Other newsletters you should consider reading.

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The Illusion of Expertise and the Fear of Not Knowing

How do we become more mindful? Being “present” is a popular idea. One effective way to achieve this is with a Beginner’s Mind.

• Open to possibility, opportunity, and new perspective.

  • Versus:

• Closed off, knowing it all, afraid of defeat.

There’s always a fork in the road in what we do and how we approach it.

A Beginner’s Mind is often associated with a novice, an apprentice, or a young person. But I’ve seen both old and young (in terms of the number of years on this planet) have an expert’s mind. There’s the case of the spoiled ten-year-old, told they’re the best and can do no wrong. Then there’s the middle-aged man, too afraid to say, “I don’t know.”

Both are experts, prematurely shying away from future learning opportunities.

• Pride and insecurity take the day.

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What it means to Leave No Trace:

“In order not to leave any traces, when you do something, you should do it with your whole body and mind…You should do it completely, like a good bonfire. You should not be a smoky fire…with nothing remaining but ashes.”

- p.63, Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

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Two Levels of Beginner’s Mind

A Beginner’s Mind, on the other hand, is perenially curious. There are multiple levels to this thought.

The Thrill of New Experiences

1. First, there is the outer layer of the onion. Try something new, be the Apprentice, do something you haven’t done before. Remember when you did something for the first time and thought neither of the future nor past, but only the moment you were in? Skydiving? Sex? Summiting a mountain? A thrilling hunt? A victory in the boardroom? A challenging yoga class? A perfect presentation?

   • Eyes open, willing to learn, firing on all cylinders. This Beginniner’s Mind is relatively easy to achieve because you are a beginner. The plague of distraction and anxiety hasn’t taken over yet.

Finding Presence in the Mundane

2. Peel back that first layer and go deeper into the Beginner’s Mind. This is where we learn to approach the familiar with this mentality: open eyes, open mind, full commitment. This is where the true challenge is. Technically, we’re no longer beginners here; in fact, it’s quite the opposite.

Wake up, chores, work, etc.: The Groundhog Day of modernity. We’re experts in this realm, so it’s easy to be anywhere but here. It’s the autopilot mode of life.

“I’ve done this a million times, and it’s boring. What’s on the news? What am I up to this weekend? What do I need at the store? Should I have written something different in that email?”

The older and more advanced we become, the more likely we are to become experts who undoubtedly have expertise. But where does expertise end and pride begin?

Back to the ten-year-old know-it-all, cursed by his parent’s coaching to believe his capacity is superior and admitting ignorance openly is weakness. He’s been robbed of his Beginner’s Mind.

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How to Reignite a Beginner’s Mind in Everyday Life

The Question:

• How do we inject a Beginner’s Mind into our lives?

Approaching the mundane and everyday and familiar with a Beginner’s Mind forces us to be present and appreciate what we have and enables us to learn, even from the most basic mundane activities. Growth can occur because we realize what we know, don’t know, and what we want to know. And the most crucial aspect of having a Beginner’s Mind is acceptance that there is always more for you to learn. To put it another way:

You currently don’t, and never will, know everything.

That statement makes people uncomfortable because it threatens their identity. They’re the expert in this field or that, and to ever admit they’re wrong or curious is scary. Fear and pride are the enemies of a Beginner’s Mind.

“If people have difficulty without being aware of the difficulty, that is true difficulty. They may appear very confident, they may think they are making a big effort in the right direction, but without knowing it, what they do comes out of fear…But if your effort is in the right direction, then there is no fear of losing anything…There is nothing to lose.”

- p.61, Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

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Example

Have you shied away from a Beginner’s Mind? I have. A new interest, hobby, skill, subject area? I’m guilty of letting my ego get the best of me. Until I stepped back and became open to new information, my practice was stagnant; reaching the next level of success required a Beginner’s Mind. Maybe it’s a hobby (e.g., hunting, skiing) or something in the professional realm (e.g., public speaking).

There is an allure to attributing success at an activity to:

• our ability to grind away at it

• our hard work

• our willingness to put the hours in

—>But often, these are not enough.

Afraid to ask for advice, reach out to a mentor, or change a method. Is ego in the way? Unwilling to admit you’re doing something wrong?

A Shift in Mindset

When I accepted I didn’t know it all, I was allowed to seek out opportunities, ask for advice, and learn.

—> Goodbye, stagnation. Hello, opportunity.

Eyes fully open, ready to learn, adapt, and execute.

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The Mindfulness Connection: Being Fully Present

• Doing Level 1 Beginner’s Mind experiences are one way to become acquainted with this. Travel to new places, do new things. But over time, this scratch never reaches the deeper itch since we can only have a Beginner’s Mind when the pursuit at hand is new.

A Beginner’s Mind in the Everyday: Level 2

• This involves consuming each moment entirely, burning it completely so nothing remains. When I turn on my faucet to get a glass of water, I do it fully, not checking my phone at the same time. This is the mindfulness component. I feel calmer, in the moment, and less distracted.

• I’m doing what I’m doing.

• Learning and growth are allowed to occur. I don’t know everything. I’ll apply what I do know and be open to learning more, tossing pride aside.

  • I’m the perennial beginner.

Applying this Beginner’s Mind is a mindfulness trick. It’s a way to fully commit to your task. Otherwise, if you believe you know it all or have attached yourself to past events (i.e., achievements), you become those past events, and that is where your mind resides.

“If your practice is good, without being aware of it you will become proud of your practice. That pride is extra.”

- p.59, Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

You’ve shackled yourself to past ideas and identities that now dictate how you see the world and what you can learn.

Ashes are ashes; they do not belong to charcoal. They have their own past and future. They are an independent existence because they are flashing into the vast phenomenal world.”

- p.105, Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind

With a Beginner’s Mind, you detach yourself from those burdens. You are not your past accomplishments or failures; you are you, now.

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Tree→Wood→Smoke→Charcoal→Ash

You are each and need each; you couldn’t be ash without charcoal. But the ash doesn’t need to think about the charcoal as it smolders; its very existence is due to the charcoal’s existence; explicitly thinking about the charcoal accomplishes nothing for the ash.

It's not as if we’re always a beginner, but the Beginner’s Mind is always there for us to harness.

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Lately, I have found it to be a worthwhile challenge to apply this Beginner’s Mind to as much of the mundane as possible (after all, it’s easy to have a Beginner’s Mind with the new and novel):

—>Petting the dog is petting the dog.

• The thousands of coarse hairs on Maya’s back tickle my hand as I pet her. The soft hair on her ears. Her expressive eyes know my mood before I do. The millennia of co-evolution that has brought her and me together here in this wood-heated living room, where we’re sheltered from the snow and wind.

I feel better. I learn better. I do better.

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Burn the Fire Down Completely

We burn the fire down fully. No wood, charcoal, or smoke. Only ash remains.

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Further Reading

- Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki

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