In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities,
but in the expert's mind
there are few.
― Shunryu Suzuki* [1904-1971]Dear Most Enlightened Teacher, please help me to recapture my beginner's mind, the one that was insatiably curious, hungry for spiritual experience, searching for enlightenment, eager to sit at Your feet and be filled with the pearls and diamonds of Your wisdom and teaching. I want to recapture the energy and the mystery and set aside much of what I now "know" through academic and intellectual study. I want to learn in new ways with a fresh unfinished mind that is wide with wonder like those who have only just begun their first encounters with You. Take me out of my self, encourage me through monkey-mind, and teach me to work inside and reach deeply for the silent illumination that calls me back time and again, to practice and to practice and to practice, now and forever, until I apprehend the beginning. amen.
*Shunyru Suzuki, a Sōtō Zen monk, born and trained in Japan, opened the first Buddhist monastery outside of Asia. He is widely known for his book, Zen Mind, Beginniner's Mind which was the onset of the popularization of Zen Buddhism in the West. He founded the San Francisco Zen Center and affiliate temples.
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