Beginner’s Mind

3 Marbles
An infant who has just learned to hold his head up has a frank and forthright way of gazing about him in bewilderment. He hasn’t the faintest clue where he is, and he aims to learn. In a couple of years, what he will have learned instead is how to fake it: he’ll have the cocksure air of a squatter who has come to feel he owns the place. Some unwonted, taught pride diverts us from our original intent, which is to explore the neighborhood, view the landscape, to discover at least where it is that we have been so startingly set down, if we can’t learn why.
Annie Dillard, “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek”

     I recently read an article about Joshua Bell’s stint in a Washington subway station. This famous violinist busked in the rush-hour DC metro station for pocket change on his $3.5 million violin. During his impromptu recital, barely a soul stopped to listen to the same music that he played to a sold-out crowd only a two nights before.  A few children stopped but were scurried along by their parents. As I read the article to a friend, I barely made it to the end through the tears in my eyes. I’ll admit I was premenstrual, but the underlying questions still lingered, “Is this what we’ve become?” “How can we frivolously pass by magic and beauty and take no heed?” “Do we have no time for beginner’s mind when we’re late for work?” (Check out: http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/bell.asp, and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnOPu0_YWhw)
     I’ve been that parent that has needed to hurry a toddler along who was captivated by a creeping caterpillar or engrossed in the sensations of slowly melting ice cream. I’ve also had moments of surrender when I remembered to see the magic of the world through their eyes, then my own eyes. In those moments I managed to throw the word patience out the door in lieu of being present.
     Beginner’s mind is a Zen Buddhist term that describes having openness, willingness, and lack of judgments when approaching a subject. It is a spirit of inquisitiveness expressed by Einstein when he said, “It is not that I'm so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer.”  It is the ability to break out of our routines, see things with fresh eyes, smell things with new noses, touch things with virgin fingers, and hear things (such as Joshua Bell in a metro station) with eager ears.  It is, as Annie Dillard exemplifies, showing up as pilgrims in our world.

What would it take to wake up in the morning with beginner’s mind? What would it take to commit to not missing the wonder of the day? What would it take to appreciate the magic of the moment?