Chosim초심: Beginner’s Mind

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.”

Shunryu Suzuki

Chosim is literally translated from Korean to English as ‘Beginner.’

There is an eagerness and openness to all possibilities. Nothing is forbidden, and there are no preconceptions!

This mindset stems from Zen Buddhism. Harbouring a beginner’s mindset allows us not to miss anything as we grow! We are always on the lookout for new information and new ideas.

One man who took this mindset to the ultimate extreme. He was none other than the founder of Judo!

Upon his death, the founder of the Judo, Jigoro Kano, insisted that he be buried in his white belt instead of his advanced and highly-decorated black belt. In the ultimate act of humility, the most advanced master in the field wanted to spend eternity with a beginner’s mind, open to learning rather than being defined by his previous accomplishments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshin

Another story, which was referenced in the Forbidden Kingdom movie featuring Jackie Chan!

Once, a long time ago, there was a wise Zen master. People from far and near would seek his counsel and ask for his wisdom. Many would come and ask him to teach them, enlighten them in the way of Zen. He seldom turned any away. One day an important man, a man used to command and obedience came to visit the master. “I have come today to ask you to teach me about Zen. Open my mind to enlightenment.” The tone of the important man’s voice was one used to getting his own way.

The Zen master smiled and said that they should discuss the matter over a cup of tea. When the tea was served the master poured his visitor a cup. He poured and he poured and the tea rose to the rim and began to spill over the table and finally onto the robes of the wealthy man. Finally the visitor shouted, “Enough. You are spilling the tea all over. Can’t you see the cup is full?”

The master stopped pouring and smiled at his guest. “You are like this tea cup, so full that nothing more can be added. Come back to me when the cup is empty. Come back to me with an empty mind.”

The beginner class is actually one of my favourite classes to teach, because they are such open mind’s. They don’t have an pre-conceived notions of what Taekwondo SHOULD be-so we can teach them what it COULD be!

White belts actually have it the best… they have so much to learn, and every training session on the mats the results are palpable! Once you’ve been training for many years, it takes so much more effort to improve even just a tiny bit.

The white belt mindset is important in training, as much at the beginning as it is when we are masters.

If we believe we have mastered something, we will become oblivious to small and minute details that could help us improve! We miss out on growth that even small, is still growth.

If we aren’t growing, we are dying. There is some truth to this, I hope to STILL be learning something about Taegeuk 1 Jang (the most basic poomsae pattern) at the ripe age of 102! (Hopefully)

Train hard, stay humble, see you on the mats.👊