Back to the Beginning

 

02.11.2022 BACK TO THE BEGINNING Anyone who has spent time with children can tell you how marvelous it is to witness a child experience things for the first time. The major events are so significant, like taking their first steps, or saying their first words. But for me, witnessing the small, mundane moments carry such magic — like tasting ice cream for the first time, their first sight of a butterfly, or pushing a ball downhill and watching it roll by itself. There is a type of magic that happens when you observe a child experience these things we take for granted — things that we barely notice anymore. Their excitement and awe is so contagious, it’s as if you’re experiencing them for the first time as well. When I think about the Buddhist concept of “beginner’s mind,” I think of this child-like mind — a mind full of possibilities, without preconceptions. As seasoned practitioners, we might find ourselves at a point where our practice feels stale. Over the years, we may lose perspective and find that our practice has become a habit — a chore even. With the excitement of discovering something new long faded, practice becomes just another thing we fit into our busy day. We fail to see how our practice is relevant to this very moment, forgetting to look at what’s going on right now. As Shunryu Suzuki Roshi famously said, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” A beginner’s mind approach can be a practice that allows us to come back to square one. Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned practitioner, coming back to square one can help us keep our practice relevant and fresh. What would it be like to experience the mundane as new again? How would it feel to sit on the cushion for the first time? I invite you to find out. —Mariana Restrepo, Associate Editor, Lion’s Roar

One Thing At a Time Professor, Zen teacher, and yoga instructor Donna Quesada addresses our all-too-common need to get it done, whatever it is, right now. She offers a perspective to remedy that need: that there is “no beginning and no end.” We go through life forever trying to get to ten. We look to the clock with great expectations, forever asking, even as grown-ups, if we’re there yet. We humor the children when they ask, but we ask too, in our own rushed ways, in all the days of our lives, and in everything we do, forever rushing to the end. The end of what? If this continues throughout every activity, throughout the rest of our lives, the only end in sight is death. As an experiment, catch yourself the next time you find yourself thinking in terms of quantity.

Everyday Life Is the Practice Geshe Tenzin Wangyal tells us how to turn our daily challenges into meditation practice. In daily life, there are many times when we unexpectedly encounter problems, and we don’t always greet these encounters joyfully or with strength. Sitting on our meditation cushion is a good time to bring these situations to mind, and then to look directly at those encounters, with the support of our refuge in the Buddha as open awareness. In order to bring the fruit of practice into the realities of everyday life, it is important to look deeply and directly at yourself, to examine your actions of body, speech, and mind. The teachings and practices give you ways to overcome and transform negative emotions, so you can examine yourself with confidence. It is not the case that the closer you look the scarier it gets.

The Lamp of Zazen The point of zazen, says Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, is to live each moment in complete combustion, like a clean-burning kerosene lamp. Here he explains Dogen’s teaching on practicing within imperfection and warns against the arrogance of the false self. Practice is something you do consciously, something you do with effort. There! There is enlightenment! Most Zen masters missed the point. They didn’t know how important this point is — they were striving to attain perfect zazen. That is Dogen’s teaching, and that is how everything actually exists in this world. Things that exist are imperfect. Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in that imperfection is perfect reality. This is true intellectual understanding. Intellectually it is true, and in the realm of practice it is also true. It is true on paper, and it is also true with our body. We can realize how true it is through our physical practice and emotional problems. So according to Dogen Zenji, our practice should be established in delusion. We are all deluded people, and before we attain enlightenment, we should establish our true practice in our delusion.

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