Beginner mind surrenders expertise. How could I have missed that insight in martial arts films since I was a Kung Fu junkie as a kid? All too often we forget that even masters in other arts will join a new art. If they are true masters they will approach it as a beginner. If not they fall back, like every one else, on what they know. Of course when they catch this, they cut that out. Then watch them go.
Mastery
The mastery lesson is the point of every martial arts flick. It was there all the time. The master is portrayed as a bumbling or weak man. He makes a lot of errors and then out of nowhere we see him perform a series of skills at a high level with complete control.
Where did the skill come from?
It was the hidden iceberg that has been developing in the water the entire time. We only see that peak after so much work has already gone into making the ice.
I found myself thinking about this when I was working through today’s Nurturing Your Writing Calm practice. The thought was so powerful that I had to make a note for later to go further into this.
George Leonard spoke of this mindset when he talked of two kinds of masters in ‘Mastery’. Years ago Lenard had given an eight week certification program to two experienced black belts in other styles.
Each master had a different approach to learning.
The first master Lenard gave us was Russell. In Leonard’s words Russell “From the moment Russell stepped on the training mat, he revealed that he was a trained martial artist.” He was full of his old karate practice habits, so learning his new art of Aikido was impeded because he did not let himself make mistakes. In short Lenard had a problem with his beginner mind surrendering his expertise.
Mistakes become mastery
Mistakes are the process we must all go through with the new. We only learn when we make mistakes. A good habit is only limited to a specific set of circumstances. When we move into a new situation, we have to let go of our trusted habits to get to a new level of understanding based on that new set of parameters. The old situations will not apply till we fully understand the new. That starts with the same baby steps we took to gain the first set of habits in the first place.
Expertise steps off the path
Russell’s problem was, “…finding it hard to let go of his expertise, and because of this failing to get the most out of his aikido training.” It was only after he had fallen behind the students without prior training that he surrendered his experience and competence so that he could move along the mastery path.
Tony’s Beginner Mind Surrenders Expertise
Tony’s approach did not indicate any previous experience as a fourth degree karate black belt and owner of two karate schools. His interactions were respectful to the teachers and sincerely humble while remaining aware of everything about him. The only clues to his back ground lay in just his presence and the way he sat, stood and walked. He had no karate warm-ups for class and made no effort to step away from a beginner’s mind. He allowed himself to make the obvious mistakes to learn from them from the perspective of aikido instead of karate. That is to say he let the art teach him how to interact from it’s perspective instead of his own. He surrendered his previous habits for a new and better perspective to improve himself.
The Only time Tony allowed himself to display his full competence was when he was asked to show the class one of his forms. The demonstration took the breath away for a moment for most of the students and teachers present. His grace, power and skill was faster than a human eye could take in fully as he launched multiple attacks with incredible Kia. At the end he bowed and just humbly returned to his seat at the edge of the mat, again the same beginner focused student he had been before.
Mastery as the way
The way of the master of any art from karate to writing to marriage is, “…to cultivate the mind and heart of the beginning at every stage along the way. For the master, surrender means there are no experts. There are only learners.”
Writers have to take this to heart.
Constant learning is how writers work. Every new assignment. Each new book. Any work we begin is a new territory with its own rules that we must learn and craft our habits to meet their requirements.
Sure we do take our old tried and true habits with us, and for much of it we do profit. Though, we must still remain aware of the environment and the shifts we find. That is where a beginner’s approach that allows us to ignore the time tested rules we follow to fall to the way side for a brief time so that we can achieve our ends at a new level.
Professional mind learns for mastery
None other than Steven Pressfield is on record for this in his book ‘The Authentic Swing — Notes From the Writing of a First Novel’. For anyone looking for a writer’s perspective on the beginner’s mind for a writer in a new field, this is it.
Pressfield points out that just jumping in and swimming for the far shore is more of an “armature way” of writing a book than the planned process he learned as a madman and screenwriter. In those disciplines he learned to plan out the elements of the work and ask the right questions to cover the big structure bases. “What’s the theme? What is this story about?” He also looked for the elements. “Who’s the protagonist and what element of the theme does he represent? Who’s the villain? How do they clash? What are the crisis, climax and conclusion? The biggest one too…where do you focus the camera (perspective)?
For his first novel though, he let his instincts guide him.
A writer needs to listen to his instincts, Which often shows up when we need to learn something. Pressfield abandoned well honed and proven habits for his first published novel The Legend of Bagger Vance”. “I am not going to work that way on this book. I don’t know why. I am going to wing it. I am going to start on Page One and let her rip.” That is what a writer’s beginner’s mind looks like.
Every writer has his own take on mastery. Here is What I learned most from Isaac Asimov and Michael Crichton on getting words done.
Mastery is when the beginner mind surrenders expertise
No matter how much experience a writer may gain, every time we approach something new we are better off if we follow Pressfield to let the material dictate which habits stay and what new ones we need to learn. Remember that to learn the new your beginner’s mind needs to surrender the expertise you have built to grow.
Photo by Bibek Raj Shrestha on Unsplash