Zen Mind, Beginner's mind is really a book about how to handle every day life. Although the ideas are very abstract, they can be applied to everything we do. Thorough out the book there are several repeated themes such as an emphasis on neutrality and not attaching; and the notion that we are already enlightened, we simply need to wake up to this fact. In addition, 'nether nor'/'either or' concepts dominate the book. The idea of small mind and big mind also play a key role. The book is a reflection of talks given by Shunryu Suzuki about Zazen zen practice. Other than the pre and post sections, the book is divided in to three major sections reflecting Buddhist philosophy: right practice, right attitude and right understanding.
             The introduction and prolog present key concepts to understanding the rest of the book. The Introduction expresses that the purpose of all Zen teaching is to make you go beyond yourself, to think beyond words and discover what your own mind and beings are. This is something I do not see enough people around me doing. Perhaps it is because "English is thoroughly dualistic in its basic assumptions and has not had the opportunity over centuries to develop a way of expressing non dualistic Buddhist ideas"(15). The prologue is less than two pages yet the author finds its subject so important that it is part of the title. "The Goal of practice is always to keep our beginner's mind"(21). A beginners mind is a mind that always looks at this like they are new. I understand the importance of the being mind to be that when we don't look at things as if they were new we fall into routines and loose the possibilities of a unlimited mind.
             Part one, Right Practice, starts off with several sections describing what one should actually do while practicing Zazen and why. The first section, Posture, explains that a person's outward appearance reflects their inward and vice versa. By taking a ...