Beginner's Mind

In physical exercise, it is helpful to vary exercises because the body quickly adapts to any particular exercise reducing its effectiveness.  I think the mind is even quicker to adapt - to turn a new and exciting discovery into a routine thing that can be ignored, taken for granted.

Turning a complacent mind - one that thinks it knows and understands the world around it - into a beginner's mind - one that is seeing as if for the first time - is a wonderful thing.   The complacent mind is easily bored - the beginner's mind cannot possibly be bored.

I had aspirations to rise early on clear mornings and go look at the stars.  Yet when I woke this morning about 5, what I really wanted to do was to stay in bed.  It took a bit of mental effort, but soon I had my shoes and coat on and headed out the door, and what a fine morning it was.  Clear, with the temperature just above freezing, but no wind at all.

I brought binoculars with me, as I wanted to get a better look at the Orion Nebula and the Pleiades.  The Orion Nebula is considerably farther away, and don't reveal much at binocular magnification.  The Pleiades, on the other hand, just leapt out of the sky, turning from a faint blur into a pattern of distinct stars, like a setting of jewels.

I'm enjoying this slow exploration of the night sky immensely.  The moon was rising near a triangle of 3 stars I had noticed before in the east, about halfway between Orion overhead to the south, and Ursa Major to the North.  With the moon as a marker, and checking the Analemma Society's online star chart, I was able to clearly place the triangle of stars in the constellation Leo.

A little reading about the Pleiades and the Orion Nebula led to information about another star cluster - the Beehive cluster, which is in the constellation Cancer.  Now I have another thing to look for in the morning, as Cancer lies between Orion and Leo.

As I get more and more of this mapped in my mind, I want to keep beginner's mind, so that I am always seeing as if for the first time, and never becoming complacent to the wonders around and above me.