On Cultivating a Beginner’s Mind for Teaching and Learning in Religious Education

Abstract

This statement by the Japanese Zen master Shunryu Suzuki shows up frequently in contemporary educational literature across multiple contexts, from medicine and dance, to engineering and, yes, theological and religious education (see for example O’Hare 1992; Lelwica 2009; Weisse 2019). In such diverse educational appropriations, the Zen concept of the “beginner’s mind” often equates to openness and a hunger to learn, while also gesturing toward the presence of an originary wisdom that preexists teaching, striving for knowledge, and the specializations of expertise. The contemplative education movement, which stresses mind/body connections and the educational efficacy of bringing mindfulness practices into classrooms, also invokes the idea of the beginner’s mind as a way of being fully present to one’s experience in the here-and-now. It is a non-defensive posture for learning in which participants open themselves to the experiencing (a classroom encounter, a text, an idea, or a practice) as if for the first time. To experience phenomena as if for the first time can be a wonderful thing indeed. Any parent or grandparent knows the truth of this from watching a child’s delight in their first snowfall or their joy at discovering the creation of sound by banging on an upside-down cooking pot, situations that draw the observing adults themselves into experiencing these marvels anew! But such examples belie a different side of being a beginner, namely the inherent vulnerability of a novice’s position. Think of an initial effort to navigate a meal as a visitor in a totally new cultural context, one’s earliest experiences of teaching, or a first professional paper presentation at an academic guild meeting. Along with the potential for wonder, excitement, and exhilaration, first time experiences may also make one vulnerable to fear, embarrassment, or anxiety. Thus, although the idea of bringing a beginner’s mind to educational experiences sounds relatively straightforward, taking up a novice’s stance may be a much more layered phenomenon than it appears at first glance because it is not only about the content of knowing. It is also about the affective and embodied experience of knowers. Perhaps that is where the spiritual concept of beginner’s mind can be a helpful posture for teaching: maybe I can only invite students to bring a beginner’s mind to the classroom if I teach with a beginner’s mind, including a sense of what I will call “beginner’s vulnerability” rooted in the bodily memory of being a new teacher. Let me put myself in the position of being a new teacher for a moment. Stripping away the protective armor of many years’ experience and the self-confidence of previous successes, my hands may shake, my heart pound, and my voice sound with a tremor right along with the joy and pleasure I also encounter with teaching. Religious education that cultivates a beginner’s mind requires teachers to be open to each group and each learner as if experiencing this educational reality for the first time, no matter how often one has taught a particular course or received the same question, with empathy for students’ multivalent experience of being a beginner that