How to be an Expert with a Beginner's Mind

Soshin is a concept of Zen Budhism, meaning the ‘Beginner’s Mind’ . The goal of this practice is that even when you are an expert, you always keep a beginner’s mind. – Always be a beginner.

So, Soshin refers to approaching subjects as a beginner even if you are already an expert. This will help you stay humble and opens your mind to new opportunities to grow.

Having a Beginner’s Mind is a great way to develop our spirituality. It doesn’t matter whether we have been working on our spiritual development for five days, five years or our whole life; it doesn’t matter whether we have five or fifty qualifications in our chosen subjects, there is always something new to learn. “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” (Shunryu Suzuki). What this means is we should never think we know it all. We should always have our minds open for new information, new experiences and new ways of looking at our subjects and interests.

When we start learning something new, we feel excited and motivated. There are so many questions to be answered: Why, What, When, How, Where? As we learn, our mind gets cluttered with information. We receive information, facts, gain experiences which turns our beginner’s mind into an expert’s mind but in this process, we might tend to dismiss new information, moving on to other topics because we’ve already ‘been there’ and covered that area. We are shutting our mind to new possibilities.

It isn’t how much knowledge you have, or how expert you are, that keeps you successful. There is always new knowledge and information. No one can ‘know it all’ and being open to new information also helps keep you humble. A wise person knows that the more they know, the more they know how much they don’t know.

The concept of Soshin is reflected in this Buddhist story:

A professor was explaining to a Zen Mater how much he knew about Zen. While he was talking the Master started to pour a cup of tea. The cup was full but he kept on pouring. When the professor saw the tea was spilling everywhere, he got irritated and asked, “Why keep pouring when the cup is full?” The Zen Master replied: “Your mind is like this cup. You’re trying to understand Zen when your mind is full already. Empty your mind before attempting to understand.”

Another way to understand this is through this quotation by Stephen Hawking: “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”

Is your mind cup full? Do you rely more on opinions and old information than your curiosity. Do you have all the answers and have stopped asking questions or listening to other people who may have new information and experiences you can learn from?

Keeping an open mind rather than assuming how things will be helps add to our learning and leaves room, too, for intuition.