Beginner's Mind?

[qi-tah]

Hi all;

this question has been kicking around in my head for a while, so i thought i'd get it out there to find out what others think:

How do you maintain the beginner's mind once you have been training for a while?

By that, i guess i mean the sense of freshness, of creative uncertainty. The sense of excitement when you know nothing and there is so much to learn. Not getting bogged down in the doctrine of "this is the way it's done", but always coming up with new ways to see old exercises and forms etc. Of course, "beginners mind" might mean something entirely different to you and i'd like to know about that as well! :asian:

Many thanks,

qi-tah

 

[Kacey]

First, this is a great topic!

Next, I guess I've never had the problem you describe - there's always something else to learn, something else to understand better, something else to perform more correctly - and before you say "well, she hasn't been in MA for very long, then", I've been in TKD for 20 years. I think it helps that all of my seniors have continued to learn and grow as well, so that the people I model from have never stagnated, have never reached a point where they stop learning, or say "well, that's it, I'm done, I know it all" - so that's the example I have to work from.

 

[Hawke]

Greetings =)

A beginner's mind?....hhhmmmmm

When practicing with friends who studies different styles, sometimes sheds a new light on an old technique. For example playing around with friends and you notice you can do a short cut (tigher circle) to get some powerful results. Notice how TKD, JKD, FMA, and the other arts move, strike, defend.

Reading martial art books also helps to see things in a new light. When you discover that blocks can be strikes as well...light bulb moment for me.

Asking questions about the moves you practice, such as what is the counter for that move? and the counter for that one?

Playing with the techniques you learned by practicing them from a different height, angle, or position. Doing the technique on the floor, sitting, standing, and in reverse.

Great topic. Looking forward to reading how others keep a begginer's mind or what they think it means.

Cheers!

 

[Shaderon]

That's a difficult or easy question for me because I have an very inquisitive nature and like to take everything apart to see how it ticks, including Martial Arts, so the answer to that one for me is "I never loose it". But how I never loose it is another thing, whether it's just plain nosiness and not wanting to be left out of anything, or my desire to make sure I know all parts of something in order to make it work to it's full advantage I am not sure, I think it's the second option though.

I have never been a person to blindly do something just becasue "that's the way it's done", I would have been a nightmare for the old instructors of the arts who never answered questions, because if they don't get answered I go elsewhere for my answers.

 

[Steel Tiger]

Hi all;

this question has been kicking around in my head for a while, so i thought i'd get it out there to find out what others think:

How do you maintain the beginner's mind once you have been training for a while?

By that, i guess i mean the sense of freshness, of creative uncertainty. The sense of excitement when you know nothing and there is so much to learn. Not getting bogged down in the doctrine of "this is the way it's done", but always coming up with new ways to see old exercises and forms etc. Of course, "beginners mind" might mean something entirely different to you and i'd like to know about that as well! :asian:

Many thanks,

qi-tah

I think it is very difficult to maintain that sense of excitement and wonder once you have some knowledge. I think you are right you need to constantly examine what you learn and find new ways to look at it or apply it. It important to not let your knowledge stagnate or become ossified.

I like to look at other MAs. Books, DVDs ,videos, it doesn't matter. I look for similarities and then how those things differ from what I know. It is a constant path of discovery.

 

[qi-tah]

First, this is a great topic!

Ta!

Next, I guess I've never had the problem you describe - there's always something else to learn, something else to understand better, something else to perform more correctly - and before you say "well, she hasn't been in MA for very long, then", I've been in TKD for 20 years. I think it helps that all of my seniors have continued to learn and grow as well, so that the people I model from have never stagnated, have never reached a point where they stop learning, or say "well, that's it, I'm done, I know it all" - so that's the example I have to work from.

I'm not sure that this is quite what i mean... i find this kinda hard to describe, so pls bear with me. If i can make an analogy, then i guess it is like a painter facing a blank canvas - once they start to make marks, they have to build on that - the marks direct them, the work itself "teaches them how to do it". Being excited about following that trail and always seeing new branches to diverge from is not, or perhaps, maybe only part of what i'm trying to convey when i think of "beginner's mind"... If i go back to the blank canvas, i have nothing to build on, no style to correct or refine, my possibilities are endless until the moment i start making marks on the surface. I reckon ST is right, it's very hard to maintain the mind of being in this condition... perhaps even impossible? (nearly?) The actual conditions, what you know in your body and mind will change, but is it possible to maintain the openess of attitude (although is it attitude, or something else again?) that you started with?

I remember starting Zi Ran Men 5 years ago and appreciated very quickly the benfits of being in this very open state... it helped that my teacher also recognised and pointed out to us new beginners the ways in which our bodies naturally interpreted the drills and forms, making us feel as though he was learning from us as well as we from him. Sometimes in sparring one of us would do something stupid or unexpected and he would pounce on it, pointing out the benifits and drawbacks of our "mistakes", sometimes getting us to repeat each others mistakes so we could learn to counter them, or adapting the applications etc. I guess i've always tried to carry that philosophy through my subsiquent training.
At the moment though, i feel like the edge of that feeling of openness is starting to get dulled a little and i'm wondering why this is so. Maybe i'm not sparring with enough people, maybe it's because i've been focusing in a very deep and narrow way on several key forms - hey, perhaps this is meant to happen? Perhaps not all training is compatible with beginner's mind? Am i just grieving something that is naturally changing, or is it something that will always be there, just covered up by a bit of experience like clouds cover the blue sky?

One thing i have recently found interesting - a couple of weeks ago i picked up a "Chinese for dummys" book and have been trying out a little more than "Ni hao" (hi) and "Xie xie" (thanks) on my teacher and some of the students... and there is that mind again! I feel really exposed, like i know nothing but that's ok, for that reason i can get away with anything! It feels really... flexible.

Any thoughts?