Beginner's Mind ~ Denotation / Connotation

There are numerous meanings throughout Asian philosophical history for the term “Beginners Mind”. That said, I will repeat one of my favorite stories illuminating the term in support of this blog post.

There was once known a famous Zen monk who advised numerous younger monks on the path to enlightenment. One day a younger monk came to sit with him, have some tea, and profess all the great deeds that the young monk had been participating in. The wise old monk was serving the two of them some tea as he sat and absorbed the boasts of the young monk.  While the old monk was pouring the younger monk’s tea, the young monk was startled to find that the older monk would not stop pouring tea into his cup. The tea filled it up and ran over the top onto the table and into the lap of the younger monk. The surprised young monk asked the old wise monk what was this purpose?  The older monk quietly stopped pouring the tea and said, “Your mind is like this cup – it is already full and I cannot help you with your quest. You must always remember to have the beginner’s mind to perfect your wisdom.”  

In the mathematical visual poem entitled “beginners mind” two forms of perfection are expressed. The first one is the Buddhist calligraphic circle called Enso in practiced in Japan or Ilwonsang practiced in Korea. The painting of this circle is created over and over as the monks practice the meditation of staying in the present moment. While in the present moment the “emptiness of self” can be experienced, thus substantiating this image as a symbol of emptiness.  To us it is a perfect example of circular perfection expressed as connotation … and layered on top of that, we have a perfect example of circular perfection expressed as denotation in none other than the analytic geometrical equation for a circle:

x^2 + y^2 = r^2

While using this equation to plot points creating a circle on a two-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system one becomes aware of the awe-inspiring infinite precision of not only this equation but by conceptual extension into all mathematical equations.

The 49 Chinese characters in the background are the calligraphic Chinese expression of “Beginner’s mind”

Link to Enso: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ens%C5%8D
Link to the equation of a circle: (my example h and k are valued at zero) http://www.analyzemath.com/CircleEq/Tutorials.html 

 A moment of silence for John Lennon ...