"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few."
I'd been thinking about rereading Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki for a while. I was first introduced to it in a weeklong class with Jaki Svaren, author of Written Letters, at the Innovations Calligraphy Conference in Philadelphia in 1982. It was a a new way of thinking that had a major impact on me. As with so many things, parts of the book became part of me but much was forgotten. I knew it was a slow read and thought about where to fit it in my reading schedule. I decided to take it very slowly and read and copy out a paragraph a day. I'm copying it into a simple marbled school notebook. I didn't want to use anything that would make me feel precious or pressured about the writing.
More about Jaki's workshop and my experiences at calligraphy conferences
2 comments:
Your opening quote, about the beginner's and expert's minds, affirms what i have found: the more i know, the less i know. Perhaps you are speaking to a different phase of creation, but i find more possibilities as i learn more about the world and art.
I suspect that's because you are able to keep your beginner's mind!
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