Shoshin is a Nihonggo compound word roughly translated as “beginner’s mind”. Sho means {beginning, first} and shin means {mind, spirit, attitude} [1▼]. Shunryu Suzuki, author of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, said “This does not mean a closed mind, but actually an empty mind and a ready mind. 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..In the beginner’s mind there is no thought ‘I have attained something’” [2▼]. These attitudes are more often found in a complete beginner, sadly, even some beginners do not have this attitude.
Although shoshin requires an open, empty mind, it does not imply an ignorant, weak mind. On the contrary, it requires great strength and effort to suspend opinion, to stop that echo of opinion when we perceive [3▼]. F. Scotts Fitzgerald said “The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function”[4▼]. The mind is only empty and open in relation to possibilities, but could be full and brimming, like that of an expert. The expertise should not constrain and close off options.
The goal of shoshin is for the mind not to be driven by past perceptions and conceptions or even future expectations, but by fresh interpretation of what is going on in the present. This way, the individual is fully engaged with the here, now and this. No event is ever the same, so that in principle, no understanding or application of technique is ever the same [5▼]. Nothing is the same now as it was before, and thus nothing in what is now will be the same tomorrow [6▼]. In a similar vein, Heraclitus wrote “You cannot step into the same river twice”. This moment the individual is in will never come back.
Shoshin is an attitude marked by:
1. Openness to all possibilities, a lack of preconceptions, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner in that subject would [7▼]. This involves doing away with preconceptions, second guesses, biases, discriminations, assumptions and presumptions. One must also be unaffected by emotions (conceit, haughtiness, pride, fear, anger, wish, desires). There should be no judgment or emotion involved in this attitude. When hearing an opponent’s claim, there should be no defensiveness since we have not settled on any one possibility.
2. Sincerity achieved though cordial relations and pure intent, to mitigate against being misguided by someone who is the source of knowledge.
3. Lingering eagerness and wonder that you felt from the beginning [8▼], a curiosity of the unknown, a passion to be gratified.
4. Modesty arising from the possibility of being mistaken, so claims are modest (qualified and specific) as well, not exaggerated.
5. Endurance to continue towards mastery in spite of hardship and severity. This involves self-control (denial, sacrifice, devotion). It is impossible to master something without passing through rigorous training and testing personal limits for many years [9▼].
This attitude tends to wear off as we know more about a subject, believing that we already arrived at the truth. But we should cultivate this attitude always, otherwise falsehood and misconceptions will sneak into our beliefs. Shoshin is an attitude that we need to keep close to our mind, as we quest for the truth through many paths.
While in shoshin, there is no preferred way of grasping or interpreting what we are perceiving, but the mind must have a constantly broadening and varied understanding of what possibilities there are beforehand or outside of shoshin. This can be achieved by lateral “out-of-box” thinking, “six hats” thinking, contrarian thinking, perspectival thinking and others still to be discovered to supplement our conventional ways of thinking. Of course, the ways of discovering possibilities must remain open, in effect, applying shoshin in this area as well.
Sources:
[1▲] http://www.aikidoonline.com/archives/2001/mar/feat_0301_tkc.html
[2▲] http://users.libero.it/seza/insegnagb.html
[3▲] http://www.demetriusgonzalez.com/architecture/sga/sga.index1.html
[4▲] http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/f/f_scott_fitzgerald.html</span
[5▲] http://shitokai.com/newsletter/zen.php
[6▲] http://www.thebigview.com/greeks/heraclitus.html
[7▲] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshin
[8▲] http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/03/dont_forget_squ.html
Tahoŋ kadlagan чakoh (I am a man of the forest).
