'Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind' Steve Jobs loved it.
スティーブ・ジョブズは生前、座禅を組み、禅の考えを好んでいたことが知られています。その為、アップルの製品には禅の精神が詰まっているといわれています。そんなジョブズが愛読していた禅に関する本が鈴木俊隆さんの「禅マインド ビギナーズ・マインド」です。今回の記事ではこの「禅マインド ビギナーズ・マインド」をご紹介します。(English) Steve Jobs is known to have practised Zen meditation and favoured Zen ideas throughout his life. As a result, Apple products are said to be imbued with the spirit of Zen. The book on Zen that Jobs liked to read is 'Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind' by Shunryu Suzuki. This article is an introduction to Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind.
'Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind' Steve Jobs loved it.
//Summary - Level-B2//
"Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" is a book that teaches Zen Buddhism and the practice of zazen, a form of meditation. The book emphasises the importance of correct posture, controlled breathing, and letting go of thoughts rather than trying to stop them. It also teaches that letting go of the need to control things and appreciate imperfection is essential. The book suggests that we can strive to improve by embracing imperfection. Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, was a fan of the book.
A) Posture.
1)
In the zazen posture, place the left foot on the right thigh and the right foot on the left thigh. By placing them in this way, the right and left feet to become one, representing the 'oneness' of 'duality' nature, which is neither two nor one.
It is essential teaching; for example, we say that mind and body are one, but mind and body are different. It is also different from saying that they are two. Mind and body are two and yet one.
2)
The practice aims to adopt a correct posture, with the back straight and the chin drawn back. When this posture is maintained, the mind is in the right state.
Correct posture is not only during zazen but also in everyday life. On the other hand, you can also try incorrect postures. You will see how important it is to maintain the correct posture.
b) Breathing
3)
In zazen, follow your breathing.
When you inhale, the air enters the world inside your body. When you exhale, it goes out to the outside world. But the two are one whole world, with only one revolving door called the throat.
4)
When the mind is pure and still, so that you are unaware of yourself and can only follow the movement of the breath, there is no I, no world, no mind. There is only the revolving door (throat).
We do what we need to do at that moment. In zazen, we observe the movement of the breath, become the revolving door, sit and concentrate on the breath. It is the practice of Zen.
c) Control.
5)
You cannot try to control the people around you.
It is best to let them do as they please. At this time, everyone is controlled in the broadest sense.
6)
The best way to control sheep and cattle is to let them loose on open, unprotected grassland. The same can be said of people: let them do as they please and then watch them.
The same method will help you control yourself.
7)
When you are doing zazen and want to achieve tranquillity, do not be disturbed by images that come into your mind. Ideas come and go; they come and go. See it as it is and let it be. Then you can control it.
But it is not easy, and it requires effort. The only step that will help you is to count your breath or to concentrate on your inhalation and exhalation.
d) Waves of the mind
8)
In zazen, do not try to stop your thoughts. Do not try to stop it, but let it stop.
When something happens in your mind, let it come in and let it go out. Nothing lingers for long.
9)
To try to stop a thought is to be disturbed by it.
Something seems to be happening outside the mind, but it is only a wave of the mind. If you are not disturbed by the waves of the mind, they will gradually subside.
e) Weeds of the mind
10)
When the alarm goes off, you all wake up. You are not in a good mood.
Doing morning zazen is complex, and you must cheer yourself up.
11)
These are just waves of the mind. As you sit, these waves gradually calm down, making your effort a subtle sensation.
It is said that the plants you pull out become fertilisers for the plants. For example, it becomes manure if you draw a weed and bury it near a plant.
12)
Whether in zazen or feeling the waves of the mind, they can help you. There is no need to worry about the waves of the mind. Instead, you should appreciate them as weeds of the mind.
F) The essence of Zen
13)
In a sutra, there are four kinds of horses. They are the excellent horse, the superb horse, the ordinary horse, and the inferior horse.
An excellent horse moves fast or parallel, left or right, according to the rider's will. A superb horse moves in the same way as an excellent horse before the whip reaches the skin. An ordinary horse will run when it feels the pain of the whip on its body. An inferior horse runs when the pain comes from the marrow of its bones.
14)
Hearing this story, everyone wants to be an excellent horse.
However, when you practise zazen with the mind of Buddha, you realise that the worst horse is the most important horse.
15)
You have a solid foundation for your mind to seek the way because you are imperfect. It takes time for those who sit in a perfectly correct posture to find the true path of Zen, the essence of Zen.
Zen Master Dogen said, "Shōsaku shūshaku" (将錯就錯). It means inheriting mistakes as mistakes or continuing to make mistakes.
16)
Zen practice is indeed Shōsaku-jūshū, which means to continue diligently for a long time, making a mistake after mistakes.
It is also said that "a good father is not a good father". It means those who think they are good fathers are not good fathers.
17)
You can be a good father even if you think you are the worst father if you make an effort to be a good father.
g) Praying together
18)
After zazen, you should prostrate yourself on the floor and make nine prostrations. By doing this gassho worship, we surrender ourselves. It means that we should abandon any dualistic thoughts we have.
When we worship, we bow to everything. For example, the master thanks the disciple, the disciple thanks the master, and the master thanks the dog or cat.
19)
Accept everything as it is and pay respect to everyone. It is true worship.
Worship is a worthwhile practice because it allows us to improve more from self-centred people.
h) Right effort.
20)
The important thing in practice is a reasonable effort. But we take a lot of wrong actions.
If we have preconceived or fixed ideas about our practice or the results of our course, we will not be able to get out of it.
21)
You get caught up in dualistic notions because your practice is not pure. Pure means just as it is. If you think you can gain something, you are practising impurely.
To practise without trying to gain anything, to do zazen, is an effort to remove the extra from your practice. When additional thoughts arise, you stop them. It is the direction in which you direct your steps.
I) God gives.
22)
The artistic work we create is given to us. But since everything is initially one, we are giving it all away.
Every moment we create something. When we sit in zazen, we do the most basic creation activity.
23)
When you are sitting, you are nothing. You are just sitting. But when you stand up, you appear. That is the first step of creation.
The second is when you try to make tea or food, and the third is when you create something within yourself. It could be education, culture or art.
Try to do something new every day. That is the way to create.
J) Mistakes in practice
24)
Many people, when practising zazen, pursue an ideal and set an ideal image or goal to be attained or achieved.
The ideal is always acquired in the future. So they sacrifice their present selves for the perfect. Zazen is simply sitting. It is repeated every day.
25)
Disrupted by our practice, we think about acquiring the ideal. But we should take it as a warning signal and be grateful.
At that time, you should abandon your mistakes and start your original practice again.
k) Always be empty.
26)
It is said that you must be patient if you want to understand Buddhism.
However, it is better to say 'ceaseless' rather than 'patient'. In other words, to be ceaseless is to be always here. What is there is the work of accepting things as they are.
For those who understand the state of emptiness, the possibility of accepting things as they are will always be open.
L) Emptiness
27)
We cannot be serious in the here and now if we are hopeful about the future. We often say things like, "Let's do it tomorrow. We think that what is today will be tomorrow. We expect what is promised to happen, even if we don't take it seriously."
But no sure path exists permanently; we must find our way every moment.
28)
To create your path, you must understand yourself. Proper understanding comes from the sky (Ku). Everything must be taken out of the mind and cleared away. You can put it back if necessary. If you put them back, put them back one by one and do not return what is unnecessary.
M) Believe in nothingness.
29)
Belief in nothing is necessary. It means that you must believe in the existence of things with no colour or form. Whatever God or doctrine you believe in, you will become very self-centred if you become attached to it.
If you are prepared to accept everything you see as appearing out of nothing and know that phenomena of a particular colour or shape appear that way for a reason, you will find complete tranquillity.
Add -info)
A modern translation of the 'Sandokai - participation agreement' - a sutra that teaches thoughtfulness that connects the same and the separate.
Sandokai is a Zen poem by the Chinese Tang Dynasty Zen monk Sekitou Xian.
https://www.zen-essay.com/entry/sandokai
Human beings have six gates to the outside world, called sense organs.
We see colours with our eyes, hear sounds with our ears, smell scents with our noses, taste with our tongues, touch things with our bodies and think with our minds.
In this way, we perceive the external world, understand the external world and feel experiential that the external world and ourselves are not separate.
Without such a sense of the interconnected world of nature and self, one can only be confined to the world of the separate 'individual'.
Objects are different and have different appearances and qualities.
Even a single voice can be high or low, pleasant or noisy.
There is no superiority or inferiority if you like them or don't like them.
They are all equal.
But by separating them and recognising them as different, people live in a world of distinctions.
The elements that make up an object are all attributed initially to nature, even though they are one with nature.
Like a child seeking its mother, nature and the self are the same, and man is a part of nature.
By nature, they should not be separated.
Add info No2)
From the books
a)
The aim of the practice is always to keep the beginner's mind.
b)
There are many possibilities in a beginner's mind but few in a practitioner's sense.
c)
The essential thing in the zazen posture is to keep the spine straight. It is the sitting posture that perfectly expresses one's Buddha nature.
The very act of sitting in this posture is the purpose of our practice.
d)
When we have no idea of achieving anything or no idea of ourselves, we can be a beginner. Then we can learn.
e)
We are told that our practice must be done without the idea of achieving anything, without expecting anything, even enlightenment.
"Nothing to gain, nothing to realise (Satori)."
It is the zazen of 'no gain, no place, no enlightenment', based on the Mahayana Buddhist idea of 'emptiness' (karma).
"No attainment"
f)
When you are idealistic, the idea of attaining something is in you. When you have achieved the ideal or goal, gaining something will give rise to another embodiment.
g)
Americans, especially young Americans, have an excellent opportunity to find an actual human way of life.
You all begin Zen practice with a pure mind; a beginner's mind is entirely free from material things.
You can understand the Buddha's teaching precisely as the Buddha intended.
But we must not be attached to America, Buddhism, or our practice. We must have a beginner's mind, free from possession, a sense that knows that everything flows and changes.
'Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind' Steve Jobs loved it.
Lecture by Fujita Issho Roshi: 'The Teachings of Suzuki Shunryu Roshi - Learning from 'Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind'' (1) / 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV6jJ7LfaBk&t=1679s
A brief talk on 'Zen Mind: Beginner's Mind', loved by Jobs.
https://reviews-q.com/archives/4626
Ingenious review: 'Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind'.
https://reviews-q.com/archives/2579
Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHNyCAJXUXE
How do you like zazen - how do you like brown rice?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZZXZRVvEd4
The teachings of the Japanese master who popularised Zen in America.
D.T. Suzuki, NHK Women's Time, interviewer Michiko Inuyo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AKxPpfQs54
ZEN MIND, BEGINNER'S MIND by Shunryu Suzuki
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjpXPECBi5o
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind is a book of teachings by the late Shunryu Suzuki, a compilation of talks given to his satellite Zen centre in Los Altos, California. Published in 1970 by Weatherhill, the book is not academic but contains frank and direct transcriptions of Suzuki's talks recorded by his student Marian Derby. According to some, it has become a spiritual classic, helping readers steer clear of intellectualism. Bodhin Kjolhede, Abbot of the Rochester Zen Center, writes that, together with Philip Kapleau's The Three Pillars of Zen (1965), it is one of the two most influential books on Zen in the west.
Prologue
0:0:02 Beginners Mind
Part I: Right Practice
4:16 Posture
13:35 Breathing
20:33 Control
Mind Waves*
27:27 Mind Weeds
31:14 The Marrow of Zen
No Dualism*
38:29 Bowing
46:45 Nothing Special
Part II: Right Attitude
53:04 Single-minded Way
58:52 Repetition
1:03:18 Zen and Excitement
1:07:13 Right Effort
1:14:13 No Trace
1:22:23 God Giving
1:30:52 Mistakes in Practice
1:38:26 Limiting Your Activity
1:42:08 Study Yourself
1:50:01 To Polish a Tile
Constancy*
Communication*
Negative and Positive*
1:59:39 Nirvana, the Waterfall
Part III: Right Understanding
2:06:22 Traditional Zen Spirit
2:14:15 Transiency
The Quality of Being*
Naturalness*
2:19:00 Emptiness
Readiness, Mindfulness*
2:26:02 Believing in Nothing
Attachment, Non-attachment*
Calmness*
Experience, Not Philosophy*
2:31:52 Original Buddhism
Beyond Consciousness*
2:37:24 Buddha's Enlightenment
Epilogue
2:41:58 Zen Mind
*These chapters are missing from this audiobook.