Beginner’s Mind Zen Center is a neighborhood zendo in a quiet residential area near California State University at Northridge. It offers lay practitioners and interested individuals a daily program of meditation in the Soto Zen Buddhist tradition as transmitted by Shunryu Suzuki-roshi.
The name comes from the Zen Buddhist term “beginner’s mind,” which describes an openness, eagerness and lack of preconception in living one’s life.
All are welcome to practice zen meditation at Beginner’s Mind. No membership is required to participate.
Activities include daily zazen and services, reading and discussion of key Buddhist texts, intensive pactice periods (sesshins) led by experienced teachers of Soto Zen Buddhism. The center also offers public talks by visiting Buddhist scholars and teachers from other Soto Zen centers.
Zen Mind, Beginners Mind by Shunryu Suzuki is a book of instruction about how to practice Zen, about Zen life, and about the attitudes and understanding that make Zen practice possible. For any reader, the book will be an encouragement to realize his own nature, his own Zen mind. “The practice of Zen mind is beginner’s mind. The innocence of the first inquiry—what am I?—is needed throughout Zen practice. The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities. At the time Suzuki-roshi wrote this calligraphy— using for a brush the frayed end of one of the large swordlike leaves of the yucca plants that grow in the mountains around Zen Mountain Center—he said: 'This means that Tathagata is the body of the whole earth.' The practice of Zen mind is beginner's mind.
The center was started in 2003 by Zen Priests Peter and Jane Schneider, long time students of Shunryu Suzuki.
Beginner’s Mind Zen Center is affiliated with the San Francisco Zen Center through Branching Streams, a federation of smaller zen practice groups in the Suzuki-roshi lineage.
Zen Mind Beginner's Mind Pdf
“The practice of Zen mind is beginner’s mind. The innocence of the first inquiry—what am I?—is needed throughout Zen practice. The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities. It is the kind of mind which can see things as they are, which step by step and in a flash can realize the original nature of everything.”
“If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.”
“This is also the real secret of the arts: always be a beginner. Be very very careful about this point. If you start to practice zazen, you will begin to appreciate your beginner’s mind. It is the secret of Zen practice.”
“Doing something is expressing our own nature. We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves.”
Zen Mind Beginner's Mind Youtube
“The state of mind that exists when you sit in the right posture is, itself, enlightenment. If you cannot be satisfied with the state of mind you have in zazen, it means your mind is still wandering about. Our body and mind should not be wobbling or wandering about. In this posture there is no need to talk about the right state of mind. You already have it. This is the conclusion of Buddhism.”
“So when you practice zazen, your mind should be concentrated on your breathing. This kind of activity is the fundamental activity of the universal being. Without this experience, this practice, it is impossible to attain absolute freedom.”
Zen Mind Beginner's Mind Pdf
“CONTROL “To give your sheep or cow a large, spacious meadow is the way to control him.””