In the final analysis, the great meditation teachers suggest that the most beneficial attitude to adopt toward meditation is an open mind, totally free from all preconceptions and expectations. 

The aim of meditation is not to amass knowledge, learn something new, or accomplish some exceptional state of mind, but merely to sustain this fresh, uncluttered perspective.

“If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything,” Zen master Shunryu Suzuki writes in his book called Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind.  “In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind, there are few.” 

As the title of his book indicates, Suzuki teaches that beginner’s mind and Zen mind – the awake, clear, unshackled mind of the enlightened Zen master – are fundamentally the same.  Or, as a different teacher puts it, “The seeker is the sought; the looker is what he or she is looking for!”

Irrespective of which meditation technique you choose, try to practise it with the innocent, open, “don’t know” spirit of beginner’s mind.  In a way, beginner’s mind is the non-attitude inherent in all attitudes, the non-technique at the center of all successful techniques.

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