June 6, 2023
What is Beginner’s Mind?
By Amba Gale
Beginner’s Mind….
An entrance into the Extraordinary.
What is it? “How do I access that?” you might ask.
This was the case in our last public Heart of Leadership, where Amanda, a vibrant and committed participant, was leaning into that question.
An important question.
An extraordinary question.
A question which, if you were not on board for a breakthrough in your life, you would never be asking.
Beginner’s Mind.
The Mind that is Present, in Presence, with Nothing Going On.
No analyzing, no judging, no trying to understand, no figuring it out, no comparing what is being said to what I have known before, no voting, no preparing what I am going to say before the other stops talking, no agreeing or disagreeing.
For that would be based in what you already know. Not in Beginner’s Mind.
Just
A Full Stop. Being there with nothing going on.
Laying it all aside. Surrendering it. Detaching from it.
Just
Beginner’s mind.
The Mind of Emptiness.
The Starting Mind. The Mind of First Sight.
“But” you may ask,
“How do I empty my mind?”
You surrender.
“What do I surrender?” you may ask.
You surrender what you already think, what you already know, for the Present.
You surrender your expectations, your demands, your resistance, to whatever is.
You come into the Present, where Nothing exists but NOW.
There, everything is enough.
“Be content with what you have,” Lao Tzu says.
Here.
Come with Me.
Walk with Me.
Let me take you to a new Land.
Take My Hand
By Amba Gale
Here.
Take my hand.
Let me lead
you to a new land
where childhood Innocence sees
with new eyes
all things new.
Sight and insight
are woven together
like a double
helix.
The breath of awe and wonder
reveals the extraordinary
(here—and there–and everywhere)
that lies dormant
underneath
the ordinary
until
Awakened
by Beginner’s Mind.
There,
the Spirit that lives in all things
can be felt, seen, and listened.
There, we are
never
alone.
