haikaiTALKS: Japanese aesthetics - shoshin - a saturday gathering_under the banyan tree
host: Kala Ramesh
18th November 2023
Japanese aesthetics: Shoshin - beginners' mind
Shoshin (初心) is a word from Zen Buddhism meaning "beginners' mind." It refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner would. The term is especially used in the study of Zen Buddhism and Japanese martial arts.
As adults our prior knowledge blocks us from seeing things anew. To quote zen master Shunryo Suzuki, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.”
How much more appropriate can it be in haikai writing? Another exciting week ahead!!
Useful link
From Keiko's post:
Dear haikaiTALKS friends,
These definitions quoted from various sites are the most prevailing ideas of shoshin:
⚫︎beginner’s resolution with humility
⚫︎first thought
⚫︎initial ambition
⚫︎original intention/ purpose
⚫︎naïve feeling when first conceived
In the Japanese people’s conversations it’s often said “don’t forget your shoshin(beginner’s mind with humility)” or “reconnect with your shoshin(original purpose), since shoshin is forgotten or lost as we grow older.
Hope this could further your understanding of shoshin…
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First post: optional You search and find a haiku that has shoshin - beginners' mind.
You'll give your reason/s why you think it has this aesthetic nuance. Second post: This will be your first haiku with shoshin
Third post:
This will be your second haiku with shoshin
Please give your feedback on others' commentary and poems too. _()_
Have fun! Keep writing and commenting!
how did
that ship get inside it?
sea glass bottle
Linda Papanicolaou, US
#2 11/24/23
Interesting discussion between Keiko and Kala, though I have still not internalized it. May we do Shoshsin for one more week?
SHOSHIN - the beginner's mind
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few."
Shunryu Suzuki
So begins this most beloved of all American Zen books. Seldom has such a small handful of words provided a teaching as rich as this famous opening line. In a single stroke, the simple sentence cuts through the pervasive tendency students have to get so close to Zen as to completely miss what it's all about. An instant teaching on the first page. And that's just the beginning.
In the forty years since its original publication, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind has become one of the great modern spiritual classics, much beloved, much reread, and much recommended as the…
#3
full moon rise . . .
i hurriedly pick up the shells
before the bigger wave
Lakshmi Iyer, India
feedback please
22/11/2023 #3
jumping rope
the view
from my dad’s shoulders
Bonnie J Scherer
USA
feedback welcome 🙂