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What is Beginner’s Mind?

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.

Additional Posts

September 26, 2023

Trusting Life

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September 12, 2023

When the Ceiling Falls

“We will only understand the miracle of life fully when  we allow the unexpected to happen.” PAULO COELHO Last week, the ceiling fell in my lower family room, where I house all my books, papers, and quite a bit of work. Really. This really happened. Like a rip in the fabric of the force. A steady drip, drip, drip, from the kitchen above had been falling on the sheetrock for who knows how long, and finally, it all came crashing down. We had been out to eat the night before and did not hear the sound. All my Crossing Thresholds…

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