Loving God with Beginner’s Mind

“Imagine rediscovering your beloved for the first time every day–not trying to make anything special, amazing or perfect, but simply being totally present, as if you were newly experiencing each other and bringing your full nature to your relationship. To be free to meet in such an open, clear way requires a mind free of expectation thoughts and images.”

That mental and emotional freedom from the constraints of conditioned thought is what Buddhists refer to as Beginner’s Mind. The Charlotte Kasl’s wonderful 2001 book, If the Buddha Married, is  written for people looking to enrich their relationships by setting them on a spiritual path. As I am loving the book for those reasons, I am also finding it directly transferable to my relationship with God.

Using our Beginner’s Mind seems to me a wonderful way to approach our relationship with God. Why not? An expert’s mind is too full to hold any new knowledge. A child — a true beginner — is curious for discovery, is not hindered by conclusions, conditions, qualifications, or the constraints of what he will be taught. The Beginner’s Mind is open, receptive, excited by the mere possibility of what is new.

Why not actively plan to rediscover God as if for the first time every day? Free yourself for 10 minutes every morning. Sit quietly and allow your heart–the heart that fills your being with love and eagerness–to receive God’s peace with no specific expectations. Allow your mind to let go of memories you have for what you’ve thought God is or does. Without thinking that your previous ideas of God are wrong, enjoy relaxing to the awareness that God is more than you ever imagined, no matter how much you have imagined.

The Unity Church knows God as the Supreme Power and Presence in our lives, the complete Good. Contemplate that principle every day for several days. Encourage yourself to receive that truth as a new and different — still true — experience each day.

Approaching our source and subject of Love with no attitude other than It is Love creates a constantly fulfilling, exciting, and enriching awareness of the truth and the triumph of that Love. Receiving Love from God in no expectation of what it will mean or require or entail allows us to discover that love as new and with new meaning every day.

Kasl quotes Rumi: “Beyond ideas, there is a field, will you meet me there?” Then she writes: “Being free of images and perceptions and expectations is the path to being in full relationship with another person.”

I offer that such freedom is the path to a full and ever-fuller relationship with God.

Join us this Sunday, 7/29, when we discuss The Gift Received from Giving.

Love and blessings!