Beginner's Mind

When we sit to meditate it's very tempting to remember previous meditations, hoping that an enjoyable one will be repeated or perhaps fearing that a more challenging one will reappear. The trouble is these ideas, our hopes and our fears can really get in the way of a direct experience of the breath, of this moment, because rather than observing the mind as it is, allowing it to naturally unfold, we're busy trying to create an idea of what we would like it to look like instead. That's why it's helpful to approach meditation with what's known as beginner's mind. It means sitting down without any preconceptions or assumptions, with no idea of what we'll find or what the outcome will be. So it's a very innocent mind. It's a bit like the way young children interact with the world with a sense of curiosity and wonder and there's a certain amount of delight inherent in that interest in the world. Kids aren't thinking about the outcome necessarily. They simply enjoy exploring for its own sake. So in beginner's mind, we're going into each meditation recognizing that the experience is new. The mind is different, the conditions are different. And so rather than comparing our current experience to our expectation, we're actually present, interested in the body and mind as it is in this moment....