( 2 ) "BEGINNER'S MIND" is the Way to approach Meditation / What is VIPASSANA Mindfulness Meditation ?

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q(~?~)p
THE LAUGHING BUDDHA SANGHA
nourishing an iconoclast intelligence
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♦ The Purpose of Vipassana Insight 
Mindfulness Meditation Practice
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Veh.pos.ana - in the Pali-language of the original Buddha's teachings, 
is the simple and direct practice of ‘moment-to-moment’ mindfulness.
Through careful 'sustained observation', we experience directly 
for our selves the ever-changing flow of the mind/body process. 
This keen awareness leads us to accept more fully the pleasure 
and pain, fear and joy, sadness and happiness that life inevitably 
brings to all our ‘experiences’. As Insight-Awareness deepens, 
we develop greater equanimity and peace ~ in the face of Change. 
Wisdom and Compassion increasingly become the major 
Dharma guiding-principles ‘informing’ our lives.    ~ Joseph Goldstein
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"In the 'Beginner's Mind' 
there are many possibilities,
but in the Expert's mind
there are few."
~ Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
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"Beginner's Mind" as we call it in Buddhism, 
is the Way we approach meditation practice. 
t refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack 
of preconceptions when studying a subject - even when studying it 
at an advanced level - yet just as a beginner in that subject would.
Beginner's Mind is Buddhist practice in action. It is the mind that 
is innocent of preconceptions and expectations, judgments and prejudices. 
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Beginner's Mind is just being present to explore and observe and see 
a "thing-as-it-is." I think of Beginner's Mind as the mind that faces life 
like a small child, full of curiosity and wonder and amazement. 
"I wonder what this is? I wonder what that is?  I wonder what this means?" 
Without approaching things with a fixed point of view or a prior judgement, 
just simply asking "what is it?"
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Earlier this week I was having lunch with Indigo, our small child 
at the Meditation Center. He saw an object on the table and got 
very interested in it. He picked it up and started fooling with it: 
looking at it, putting it in his mouth, and banging on the table with it —
just engaging with it without any previous idea of what it was. 
For Indigo, it was just an interesting 'thing', and it was a delight to him 
to see what he could do with this 'thing'. You and I would see it and 
right away say, "It's a spoon. It sits there and you use it for soup." 
It doesn't have all the possibilities that he finds in it. Watching Indigo, 
you can see the innocence of "What is it?", the innocence of "The What Is"....
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Can we look at our lives in such a way ? Can we look at all of the aspects 
of our lives with this mind - just open to see what there is to see? 
I don't know about you, but I have a hard time doing that. I have a lot of 
habits of mind — I think most of us do. Children begin to lose that 
innocent quality after a while, and soon they want to be "the one who knows." 
We all want to be the one who knows. But if we decide we "know" something, 
we are not open to other possibilities anymore. And that's a shame. We lose 
something very vital in our life when it's 'more important' to us to be 
"the one who knows" than it is to be Awake to what's happening. We get 
disappointed because we expect one thing, and it doesn't happen quite like that. 
Or we think something ought to be like this, and it turns out different. 
Instead of saying, "Oh, isn't that interesting," we say, "Yuck, that's not 
what I thought it would be." Pity.
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The very nature of Beginner's Mind is not knowing in a certain way, 
not being an expert - developing "A Don't-Know Mind". As Suzuki Roshi 
said in the prologue to 'Zen Mind Beginner's Mind', "In the Beginner's Mind 
there are many possibilities, in the Expert's there are few." As an expert, 
you've already got it figured out, so you really don't need to pay attention to 
what's happening. Pity.
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HOW can we cultivate this mind that is free to Just Be Awake ? How ? Sit down. 
Sit in meditation. In 'just sitting' - in sitting and noticing the busyness of our mind 
and all of the fixed views that we carry. Once we notice the 'fixed-views' that we 
are carrying around with us, the preconceptions that we are carrying around with us, 
then it is possible for us to let them go and say, "Well, maybe so, maybe not so."  
Roshi once said, "The essence of Zen is 'Not Always So'." — "Not always so." 
It's a good little phrase to carry around when you're too sure. It gives you an 
opportunity to look again more carefully - and see what other possibilities 
there might be in the situation.
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Can you live your life with that kind of wholeheartedness, 
with that kind of thoroughness ? 
This is the Beginner's Mind that Roshi is pointing to, is encouraging us to cultivate. 
He is encouraging us to see where we are stuck in fixed views, and see if we can, 
as Roshi says: 
"Open the hand of thought" 
and let the fixed views of thought go. 
This is our effort.  This is our work.  
Just to be Here, ready to meet whatever is next 
without expectation or prejudice or preconceptions. 
"What is this ?" - "What is that ?" - 
Maybe simply, "Just What Is" ...I wonder ?
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So please, cultivate your Beginner's Mind: 
Be willing to not be an expert. Be willing to not know. 
Not knowing is the most intimate. 
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The monk Fayan was going on a pilgrimage. 
The monk Dizang said, "Where are you going?" 
Fayan said, "Around on pilgrimage." 
Dizang said, "What is the purpose of pilgrimage?" 
Fayan said: "I don't know." 
Dizang said, "Not knowing is the most intimate."
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~ Zenkei Blanche Hartman



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q(~?~)p
The LAUGHING BUDDHA SANGHA ~ Weekly MEDITATION CLASSES
Vipassana Mindfulness with Akasa Levi ~ TUESDAYS 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm 
AkasaLeviZZ@msn.com ~ best phone-time to catch somone 'live' 
Noon to 6 pm ~ 310-450-2268 
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