Zen Mind 

Maya looked around herself again.  She found the squeaky toy and she held it up high. It was a little rubber Buddha.  “I meant to do that,” she said.  This time she squeezed the toy on purpose, and the sound rang out loud; again the room was filled with laughter.  Some faces were tinged with criticism that too much of this funny-biz was going on. But Pigmet made a little joy-hop off of his zafu, because he loved to hear laughter in a quiet room.

“Yes this is a Dharma talk,” she said. “What is the difference in this sound and the sound of this loud, expensive bowl we just rang?  This one here, does it with overt joy, and what is the matter with that?  They both clear our minds and say ‘Wake up!’ but this one might take us back to a time before we studied Zen.  And that’s the big deal.  We all hear ‘beginner’s mind, beginner’s mind,’ until it loses its meaning, and now once again we are no longer beginners.  Let’s begin again.”

‘’’

“Shunryu Suzuki say in his book—‘Beginner’s Mind,’” she said the last in a low and threatening tone, “That Zen is no big deal!  We devote ourselves to it and it is no big deal?”

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11:12:53 AM