The Tipping List

The Zen of Getting Out of a Rut

Sometimes it takes a novice to help us open our minds and see the world in a new light

-Michele Woodward

Remember when all you could think about was getting your driver's license? Putting your hands on that steering wheel and going for a drive, and looking so cool, even if you were driving your mom's 1971 Grand Safari station wagon with a sucky AM radio. Man, wheels meant freedom. Driving meant adulthood. Nothing could stop you - you could drive.

I have a learning driver in my household these days - my 16-year-old son - and the nutty thing is that I'm learning a great deal about driving just through teaching him the basics.

Of course, teaching means I have to revisit the basics myself, after having driven a car for, oh, long enough for me to have driven a car known to explode in rear collisions...a Ford Pinto.

Yep, teaching my son to drive has put me smack-dab in what our Buddhist friends call "Beginner's Mind." Beginners know nothing because they've never had the experience before; therefore, they have no expectations and can see so many more possibilities - possibilities that may elude people who let their experience guide them. Beginners have wonderfully open minds.

So, where are you coasting on your experience in your life, far away from Beginner's Mind? Are you seeing all the possibilities available, or are you so limited by familiar experience that the chance of something new, something exciting, something joyful seems impossible? read more...