More Beginners Mind

Wow!! What a January...more beginner’s mind testing I am sure!! I have just hung up the phone from the vet, settling my mind about our beloved Sami-dog. He had a paralysis tick, particularly virulent this year and particularly so on this lovely east coast of Australia. Luckily for us and Sami, we caught it early on its deadly array of symptom causing. I believe we will be able to collect him later today fingers crossed. Poor little thing!

This month has raced along like an Olympic sprinter come high jumper! It’s been full of the odd curve ball and surprises. Life defining moments have come and gone, decisions have been made, often by necessity whilst on the run. It’s amazing how often we make the big decisions when there is the least prep time...I think that is why it’s important to view each defining moment as an entirety unto itself, hence beginner’s mind.....

We had a very real fire in the home moment, our bbq caught alight and was billowing black smoke over the verandah and into the street.....quick thinking on behalf of my daughter’s partner saw the gas bottle disconnected and moved far away in a flash, and then unable to think of a better solution I rushed across the road to borrow a fire extinguisher from the corner shop where a lady looking out the smoke wafting across the balcony of my home loudly proclaimed, forget the extinguisher, call the fire brigade NOW!!!!!! I hurriedly explained that I could deal with it thanks and lugged the rather heavy extinguisher quickly out of the store......needless to say that this is all we required and apart from the sad demise of said bbq all else is well!

As I have mentioned in previous blogs, we have been reeling under the worry of my brother in-law’s nasty post Christmas accident, and various family relationship dilemmas...all are healing slowly but yes...moving in forward motion ...and this is wonderful news!! Still the toll is taken and moments of this month have seemed more than full.

Hubby has had some intrinsic moments at work and is making some decisions here too, all requiring some soul searching and goal setting of one kind and another.

We are slinking off the energy of that crucial lunar eclipse....and stepping into new territory one way or another.

The whole of NSW it seems has been under water at some time or another this month too and it has been distressing watching the images of this on TV....our neighbouring Grafton and Maclean have also been flooded and as a result we have been totally cut off from anywhere but here! The ocean is a dirty grime of all that has washed down with nowhere else to go but our little river leading into the vaster sea...the beaches are smelly and filled with the broken bits of tree and rubbish that accompany the muddy water. The supermarket shelves are bare, literally and fresh produce is difficult to find but genuinely treasured...beginner’s mind...it seems we are all learning to value the abundance we do have!! A genuine silver lining!!

To top it all off I have been rather unwell with yet another chest infection...indicating some work still to be done here, physically and spiritually! It’s amazing how my past experiences with Asthma cloud my thoughts when I get sick now...I feel myself responding to each cough with trepidation as if each one will catapult me back into the life threatening moments of full blown asthma....beginners mind struggles to surface!

Ahh, a beginner’s mind; open, unfettered by rules, conventions, or ideas about the order of things, unfettered by preconceptions or old experiences. The concept is based upon the observation that beginners approach things differently from those who see themselves as experts. Where beginners are receptive to new ideas, try to think of different options for how to proceed and are open to learning, experts tend to skip those important processes and base their actions on a preconceived view of how the world works. I am an expert on the not so niceties of Asthma I guess and I carry this stagnant baggage, yet I am also an expert on visualization and affirmation, I am knowledgeable on the breath and breath control. So why does one not cancel out the other, why do I not replace trepidation with positive determination? I am not in beginners mind is my conclusion. I assume prior knowledge will rise above prior fear……but both come with baggage….

In his book “ Zen mind Beginners mind” Shunryu Suzuki Roshi says that our “original mind” includes everything within itself. It is always rich and sufficient within itself…. ‘In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.’

If I allowed an innocent viewing of each cough I might be unmoved by it…should the cough become a more determined asthma moment I might get less tense and so be able to focus on the breath more, I might be able to listen to my body and give it what it needs….not force it into a preconceived breathing exercise that may or not be this moments need….that’s why one learns a karate move over and over again, so that when it is needed the body will automatically recall it for use…no complex thought pattern has to go into it, just openness or beginners mind, a true connection with the moment and a willingness to trust oneself.

Gary Klein (Sources of Power – How people make decisions – MIT Press) has analysed how people with different levels of expertise make decisions. Klein’s work has recognized a number of distinct thinking processes that enable decision making.
Klein found that beginners rely most heavily on a form of decision making called “Mental Simulation”. In mental simulation the brain makes observations of our surroundings, generates ideas for how to respond and envisages (simulates) how a given course of action will turn out. Based on different options the brain can generate and the simulation of their possible outcomes, the brain selects the best option. As our level of expertise grows, Klein found that our decision making naturally changes to a method he calls “Recognition Primed Decision making” (RPD). In RPD decision making we no longer bother with the observation and simulation steps and instead rely on stored patterns of past experiences to enable us to make decisions more rapidly.
RPD decision making may be somewhat faster than the Mental Simulation technique, but when we slip into RPD mode, we lose the observation and internal processes that are a significant part of making decisions about complex things. Only by slowing down our decision making just a little, being in the moment and maintaining the open mind needed to enquire and observe our environments are we able to make effective decisions.

Perhaps that is why the Universe has given us all so many quick decision moments this month, to be sure that we make good ones!!!

Albert Einstein said, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. His eyes are closed.”