A lot of our troubles could be solved by one simple practice. A lot of joy could be found with the same practice. And it is simple: practicing seeing life with a beginner’s mind. I’m stealing this, of course, from Zen Buddhism’s shoshin and Shunryu Suzuki’s “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind,” and I’ve written about it numerous times. But it’s more fundamental than most people realize. It’s not just something you practice when you’re learning something—though dropping the “expert’s mind” and seeing the learning as a beginner is an important practice in learning. It’s something you can practice every single moment of the day (if you can remember to do so). What is beginner’s mind? It’s dropping our expectations and preconceived ideas about something, and seeing things with an open mind and fresh eyes, just like a beginner. If you’ve ever learned something new, you can remember what that’s like: You’re …
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