Shoshin
初心
“Beginner's mind”: openness and willingness to learn that a practitioner should keep even as a master. The concept comes from Zen.
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Definition
Shoshin (初心) consists of the characters 初, beginning, and 心, mind. It means “beginner's mind”, that is, the openness, curiosity and lack of preconception with which a person approaches something new. The concept comes from Zen Buddhism. Outside Japan it was made famous by the monk Shunryu Suzuki with his 1970 book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, in which he writes that in the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind few. The Japanese proverb shoshin wasuru bekarazu, “do not forget the beginner's mind”, comes from the playwright Zeami in 1424 and is quoted in the dojo to this day. In budo shoshin is given as the first state of mind, followed by mushin, fudoshin and zanshin.