Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: 50th Anniversary Edition

Also to gain strength in your posture, press your diaphragm down towards your hara, or lower abdomen.

Cultivate your own spirit.” It means not to go seeking for something outside of yourself.

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.

“In calmness there should be activity; in activity there should be calmness.”

That everything changes is the basic truth for each existence.

Your ears and your shoulders should be on one line. Relax your shoulders, and push up towards the ceiling with the back of your head. And you should pull your chin in.

That everything is included within your mind is the essence of mind.

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.

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.