Shoshin

That was the moment he let go of being the expert.

There's a concept in Zen Buddhism called Shoshin or beginner's mind.

The teacher Shunryu Suzuki wrote, quote, in the beginner's mind, there are many possibilities, but in the experts, there are few, end quote.

And Jaime had become an expert.

Ah, yes.

The Zen Buddhist principle of Shoshin.

Shoshin, which translates to beginner's mind.

There is a seminal observation by the Zen master Shunryo Suzuki that perfectly encapsulates the neurological trap of mastery.

Yes, the quote about possibilities.

They're essentially wearing neurological blinders.

Precisely.

And the historical examples of individuals who avoided this trap by employing Shoshin are just staggering.

Very good question, Joe.

Coming back to Thay's teaching of applied Buddhism, I think our best discernment is always using our direct experience, but also activating our beginner's mind, our mind of exploring, our, our mind of investigation, our, our curiosity.

Um, I think if we don't have curiosity and openness, then we are, we could become very poor as a, as a, as a seeker.

In- spirituality is about seeking in a way, but seeking here is not about intellectual knowledge or power or fame or pleasure, but seeking is, is the path to liberation.

And I, and I think that was one of the core teachings of Thay, that actually we all have the Buddha seed, and it's a question of how we water it.

So I wanna come back to you.

You mentioned earlier about beginner's mind, which, you know, for me is very much about touching the Buddha seed.

Because the, the beginner's mind is so important because it's all about sort of shedding our knowledge, shedding our expectancies, shedding our habits, and actually coming back almost like a newborn baby, where we're just saying, "Actually, we're just open to experience life again," rather than constantly sort of trying to navigate according to our set of beliefs.

This is revitalizing leadership.

Which brings me back to where Peter and I ended our conversation, the importance of the beginner's mindset, Shoshin, and leading with humility.

Go see, ask why, show respect.

Help by going to see.

Just notice the experience within of not knowing and being okay surrendering to that not knowing.

In Zen Buddhism, this is called beginner's mind.

This ability to just sit back in awareness with open mind in this space of beginner's mind of not knowing of curiosity.

Even when [clears throat] I fall back to that swimming pool of thought, of narrative, of opinions, just simply learn to recognize that it's part of being human.

Remembering what we're trying here, simply increasing the volume to the wordlessness, to this context where everything is arising.

To this place that doesn't need words, where life has no narrative to explain it.

Learning to pay attention to the space between one word and the next.

What is this space? What's here when there are no words? I invite you to stay here in this not knowing, in this beginner's mind and enjoy this

It was really a healthy reframe for me.

There's this idea in Japanese culture, ancient Japanese culture, of shoshin, which is this idea of the beginner's mind.

It's like that concept of being an embarrassing beginner again, embracing that feeling of feeling that beginner's embarrassment.

I have found as a common thread of the most impressive, successful people I've been around is that they seem to lean into that feeling of embarrassment of being a beginner.