Today's
Meditation:
It's hard for me to decide whether Shunryu is
speaking positively about being a beginner or about being
an expert. I can see both sides of the coin--
beginners bring a fresh perspective and new ideas,
for they haven't yet learned what won't work, and they're
willing to try new and different things and perhaps come
up with something else. Experts, on the other hand,
"know" almost everything there is to know about
a topic, and it's much more difficult for them to think
outside the envelope and see new and different
possibilities.
There's
a freshness to being a beginner, a newness that allows us
to approach things in ways that aren't hindered by our
thoughts of hopelessness of positive results.
Sometimes I think that the more expert we become at
something, the more entrenched we become at seeing things
in the "established" way. Expert teachers
of fifty years ago, for example, are now regarded as
dinosaurs because of the new research into thinking and
learning that has taken place over the last few
decades. It's become clear that practices and
methods from half a century ago simply were ineffective
with the majority of students.
I
hope to keep a fresh perspective towards life. I
like to remind myself of how much I don't know
about life and living-- this humility allows me to keep
learning and growing because I know that I still have much
to learn.
It's
good to become experts in fields in which we need
expertise, but it's also important to keep our minds
fresh, always open to new ideas. Only in that way
will we avoid the end of our growth. A goldfish will
grow to the size of its bowl, but no further-- we will grow
to the size of the bowl we choose to be in, but no
further. It's our choice.
|