I want to always have a beginners mind, a mind that is ready to see things in a new light. I need not already have arrived at all the conclusions, in fact if I have, then I'm no longer open to learning from grace. Our society stresses education, books, achievement, arriving somewhere only to look for the bigger and better. Information seems to rule the day. But I could read all the books in the universe, I could solve the most difficult equations without my heart being changed. I could achieve the highest degree in the land, and still not be happy.
In contrast to this, stands the beginners mind. The beginners mind is ready to learn, ready to integrate, ready to hold paradox. The beginners mind might take the form of a child, laughing, ready to let go of all for new life. If I stand before an infinite God, the only stance to take is that of a beginners mind. We need to be all ears, ready to take in, ready to be changed. This may look like a return to simplicity. I could study the Bible, go to seminary, learn Hebrew and Greek, but then only find life in returning to a simply joy, a simple faith, a simple experience of God.
A beginners mind does't need formal education to learn, it is ready to learn from each moment. We enter into the moment with arms open, ready to engage, ready to hold all the seeming contradictions, ready to laugh. The beginners mind doesn't take itself too seriously. Maybe it has in the past but then learned the stagnation in this. Maybe it learned the freedom in being able to laugh at itself and laugh with others. Maybe it learned that the laughing joined us more than defining what is right and wrong.
If the first 30 years of life were about learning, defining ourselves, paving our way, making our mark on the work, achieving, then the next 30 should be about letting go, unity, compassion, seeing God in everything, unlearning the places where we find our security in anything but radical grace. I believe that in our society, we are good at encouraging people in the tasks of the first half of life, not so much the tasks of the second half.
I believe that a beginners mind is important to return to for all people. If you were raised with an oppressive theology, one where God only chose a few, where some were created specifically for his wrath, where rule and duty spoke louder than new life, where defining what groups, beliefs or people we're against ruled out instead of learning what grace we are for, than learning about love can simultaneously be an unlearning of oppressive theology. I believe that returning to a beginners mind has a certain respect for the goodness in humanity. If I think I was born evil, ready and waiting to sin, that my flesh must be dispelled, or at least denied, than I will fear returning to simplicity or to what I am at my core. If I think in these ways, then I may construct beliefs and schemas to rule and dominate the body and mind, to try and control the evil passions I fear may be teeming under the surface. This is why our religious belief and theology can actually support living in an inauthentic way. If I was taught I am bad, spirituality needs to deal with these thoughts and core beliefs rather than erect constructs to deny, keep hidden, relativize, or not deal with our core assumptions.
If on the other hand I believe that we are at core image bearers of God, if I believe in the goodness created into everything that was present before the fall, than I will fear less a return to simplicity. Why? Because I will see that at the core of everything, a goodness is present. I will see that before sin entered the world God was present, and he was good, and a returning back to the truth is a return to this. Underlying all is a presence that can be trusted. From this presence we can trace our origin. In this presence, we can find our beginners mind, ready to accept life, at times laughing in joy and at times weeping over the tragedy in our world.
God grant me a beginners mind.
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