Awakening The Don't Know Mind

In his book Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind, Suzuki Roshi writes, “In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind, there are few. The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habit of the expert. Ready to accept and open to all the possibilities.” This is don’t know mind. This is really important for us.

Transcript

So following Zenki's beautiful talk last week on spring and opening like a flower,

I feel inspired to explore with you the cultivation of the don't know mind.

In his book Zen Mind Beginner's Mind,

Suzuki Roshi writes in the beginner's mind,

There are many possibilities.

In the expert's mind,

There are few.

The mind of the beginner is empty,

Free of the habit of the expert,

Ready to accept and open to all the possibilities.

So this is the don't know mind.

The don't know mind is the beginner's mind,

Empty,

Free of the habit of the expert.

And this is really important for us as practitioners,

This cultivation.

We get lost in our thinking and we believe what we think.

And most of the time we think that we're right.

We ongoingly create as much of a sense of certainty as we can.

And we're so caught in our storyline.

And what this entire path really offers us,

And it's really simple,

And it's really easy to forget,

Is that we can practice and cultivate a mind that is empty and free of the habit of the expert.

It's possible that in the middle of our busy lives,

We can pause and we can enter the senses like we did in our meditation.

If something in us can pause and enter the senses,

Then who knows what's true?

Sometimes when people do mindfulness practice,

They understand the instruction,

But they're interpreting the instruction through the filter of themselves.

They're sort of asserting themselves into the practice or taking charge of the practice to make something happen.

Kind of like,

Okay,

I know how to,

Or I figured out how I can make myself more relaxed and calm.

So there's this doing that's happening.

But waking up,

Waking up is more about making room for things.

So the path of the Dharma is to see what we're doing.

And in that seeing,

To discover how awareness can make room for everything.

So when we follow the instructions to relax,

Follow the senses,

Follow the breath,

We're making room for and giving space,

Like really it's breathing room for what's happening just here and now.

Breathing room.

We've used this phrase in many areas of our life.

When we give something breathing room,

It's the space where something,

Whatever it may be,

Has a chance to grow and to evolve and to unfold.

And that,

That is the don't know mind.

And sometimes what happens is that someone comes into our realm,

Into our life,

And maybe they're angry with us.

And maybe it's in a way that feels really inappropriate.

And perhaps the habit response is to be angry back or resort to some other survival strategy that you may have adopted over these many years of conditioning.

But the awakened approach is to make room,

Make room for that energy,

That anger that's coming at you.

So in a sense,

You're helping the anger of the other person feel okay,

Feel safe.

In my role as a Buddhist teacher,

I try to be someone who it's safe to be angry.

I think that really anytime you're in a central role,

Like a spiritual teacher or something,

There's a lot of projection and a lot of needs and lots of things are going on.

So sooner or later,

People will be angry.

And to make room for that.

Making room and the don't know mind are really closely linked.

They're like siblings.

So to get outside of the certainty that is where our mind likes to rest,

The obsessiveness and the knowing,

What it requires is we must pause.

That's why we practice to pause,

To learn to pause.

And this mindfulness practice that we do,

It has really two basic pieces.

You know,

We're sitting and the first piece is,

You know,

After the mind goes and drifts off and plans the day or remembers your history and how it used to be,

The first piece is coming back,

Coming back.

And the second piece is how to be here,

How to be here.

So coming back is noticing all the thoughts that are going on and just putting them down,

Dropping them and noticing,

Well,

What's going on right here?

What's coming back?

Like just stating what you're actually doing in the moment.

And it could be happening throughout your day.

So you could be washing dishes in the moment or walking the dog or taking a shower.

So coming back is anchoring yourself fully in what's happening right here,

Anchoring in reality right here.

Is there anything insufficient right now,

Like asking that question?

Not from the perspective of what the mind is doing,

But what the body is doing,

What the senses are experiencing,

Coming back and being here,

Being here.

You know,

Sometimes we check out because of unpleasantness.

Being here sometimes means being with unpleasant sensations.

How do we be with pain,

Mental and physical?

So the tool that has been most useful for me to be here is this guidance that I offered you in meditation,

Which is dropping into the senses.

Staying with the sense experience,

Noticing the changing experiences.

So sometimes unpleasantness feels like a twisting or a burning.

There is pressure,

It is squeezing,

There is heat.

That's the sense experience of unpleasantness.

When I can stay with the sense experience of unpleasantness without the story,

Then it's just what's happening here.

I'm being here with what's happening,

Just on the level of the senses.

So try this.

Close your eyes right now and feel the body from the inside out.

And you might first sense,

Is it pleasant?

Is it unpleasant?

Is it neutral?

Just refining your attention to whatever is predominant.

Maybe there's pain,

Discomfort,

Heat,

Pressure.

So our practice is to contact the sensations and notice what's predominant.

And can you breathe in and actually contact the squeeze?

And as you breathe out,

Can you give it space?

Notice that it's not so dense,

The felt experience.

There's space inside of it.

So the don't know mind,

Can we put down our ideas that we know what's going on and just enter the moment?

Just opening,

Just paying attention.

When we enter the senses,

We're cultivating this ability to be comfortable with what is uncomfortable.

All of us can be comfortable with anger being projected onto us or even our own anger.

We can be comfortable with it and not react from it.

We can become comfortable with pain,

With sadness,

With whatever might be happening.

When we cultivate sense awareness and not cling to the story that's happening in the mind,

We're just giving space,

The space of awareness to whatever's happening.

And that allows us to get curious about it,

To not know.

We might just have one moment of not knowing,

To enter wonder even for just a moment.

I wonder what this is about.

Not always so.

My projections,

My thoughts,

Not always so.

And to learn to do this and appreciate this is really learned in meditation.

I think when we don't trust that there's something that can evolve and unfold and deepen,

It's pretty natural to want to think our way into solving our life's problems.

The don't know mind is trusting that evolution is unfolding,

The deeper movement.

So some people spend a lot of time in meditation thinking because that's where they think the solution is going to be.

But when we can start to trust that there's some deeper process available to us that doesn't involve thinking,

But involves giving room and giving space,

Then the confidence that thinking is the solution,

That begins to fall away.

So the practice,

Our practice of the don't know mind,

It starts with this pause.

And the pause is cultivated in the meditation practice.

And just to say that the don't know mind,

The cultivation of the don't know mind,

It takes courage because we have a lot of old patterning that's at play.

So we have to be willing to challenge our beliefs.

We have to stop and contact what's here and ask ourselves,

You know,

Is there any sign that what's here is imperfect in some way?

So I invite you to check this out,

To practice with it,

And I appreciate your consideration.

Thank you.

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