Love this Katie, such a great reminder! I bought my copy of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind at the bookstore in Seattle when you were on your Running Home tour. I’m gonna pull it out again!
I love this! I always find when I slow down become purposeful the world starts to open up again. This reminds me to also reread Zen mind. Running always comes back to me when I keep it simple and follow the feel. Yoga helps as well. What an insightful article. 🙏🏼 Thank you
Haha, yes that's what I tell myself everyday in front of a class of 9th graders--their blank looks signal my great wisdom. Let me know when you read "Mom of Bold Action" and I'll share my (probably not as wacky as I think) wacky theory about it. I'll bump Time Being up on my to-read list!
I read ZMBM for the first time a little over a year ago, reading it with a philosophy professor friend of mine with whom I have a weekly reading group made up of just the two of us (we read just about anything and everything, but I've pulled us pretty strongly toward Buddhism, whether that means George Saunders short stories or heavy East Asian philosophy like Jay Garfield's work, and much in between). We absolutely eviscerated the text with our rational, order-seeking minds and realized after a few pages that this text would never yield up its wisdom to that kind of treatment. I've since revisited the work, and the idea of beginner's mind, with a different type of attention, more intuitive and open, less meaning-seeking, realizing that seeking meaning is precisely NOT the point of beginner's mind, or Zen for that matter. Letting the need for meaning go, letting purpose itself go, is my practice these days, both in meditation and more recently, in a kind of radical personal experiment, in parenting. Thanks for sharing your own path with us! I can't wait to read the book (pre-ordered today!) (BTW, I admire the way you are reinventing yourself as a runner, and though I've never run more than a half marathon, I recognize your description of squealing joints and the octogenarian shuffle walk.)
Adam, thanks for reading & sharing this comment! Yes ZMBM is so cryptic when you read it with your brain. I think because i read it with runner's mind, i understood it in a weird, embodied immediate way. Beginner's luck Or mind? :) An all time favorite though, and I LOVE george saunders' writing. have you read ruth ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being? Thanks for preordering Brief Flashings! Be well!
I have Ozeki's novels on my long, long list of must-reads (including The Book of Form and Emptiness, which so tantalizingly alludes to the Heart Sutra in its title). Saunders is my favorite living writer--I can't read his work without finding Buddhism all over it (I have a quirky theory about the Buddhist undertones of his short story "The Mom of Bold Action" that I'll share with you if you're interested. I'm weirdly proud of it, though I have a feeling that, like dreams, once I share it with people they'll just stare at me blankly with indifference or irritation.)
i have not read that story by Saunders but now I am curious to, and I'd like to hear your theory! I'd recommend starting with A Tale for the Time Being...I liked Form and Emptiness a lot but I loved Time Being most of all. blank looks are a sure sign of higher Zen wisdom :)
Love this Katie, such a great reminder! I bought my copy of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind at the bookstore in Seattle when you were on your Running Home tour. I’m gonna pull it out again!
Yay roz! Thanks so much for reading and commenting! Hope you are well! Sending hugs!
I love this! I always find when I slow down become purposeful the world starts to open up again. This reminds me to also reread Zen mind. Running always comes back to me when I keep it simple and follow the feel. Yoga helps as well. What an insightful article. 🙏🏼 Thank you
Haha, yes that's what I tell myself everyday in front of a class of 9th graders--their blank looks signal my great wisdom. Let me know when you read "Mom of Bold Action" and I'll share my (probably not as wacky as I think) wacky theory about it. I'll bump Time Being up on my to-read list!
I read ZMBM for the first time a little over a year ago, reading it with a philosophy professor friend of mine with whom I have a weekly reading group made up of just the two of us (we read just about anything and everything, but I've pulled us pretty strongly toward Buddhism, whether that means George Saunders short stories or heavy East Asian philosophy like Jay Garfield's work, and much in between). We absolutely eviscerated the text with our rational, order-seeking minds and realized after a few pages that this text would never yield up its wisdom to that kind of treatment. I've since revisited the work, and the idea of beginner's mind, with a different type of attention, more intuitive and open, less meaning-seeking, realizing that seeking meaning is precisely NOT the point of beginner's mind, or Zen for that matter. Letting the need for meaning go, letting purpose itself go, is my practice these days, both in meditation and more recently, in a kind of radical personal experiment, in parenting. Thanks for sharing your own path with us! I can't wait to read the book (pre-ordered today!) (BTW, I admire the way you are reinventing yourself as a runner, and though I've never run more than a half marathon, I recognize your description of squealing joints and the octogenarian shuffle walk.)
Adam, thanks for reading & sharing this comment! Yes ZMBM is so cryptic when you read it with your brain. I think because i read it with runner's mind, i understood it in a weird, embodied immediate way. Beginner's luck Or mind? :) An all time favorite though, and I LOVE george saunders' writing. have you read ruth ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being? Thanks for preordering Brief Flashings! Be well!
I have Ozeki's novels on my long, long list of must-reads (including The Book of Form and Emptiness, which so tantalizingly alludes to the Heart Sutra in its title). Saunders is my favorite living writer--I can't read his work without finding Buddhism all over it (I have a quirky theory about the Buddhist undertones of his short story "The Mom of Bold Action" that I'll share with you if you're interested. I'm weirdly proud of it, though I have a feeling that, like dreams, once I share it with people they'll just stare at me blankly with indifference or irritation.)
i have not read that story by Saunders but now I am curious to, and I'd like to hear your theory! I'd recommend starting with A Tale for the Time Being...I liked Form and Emptiness a lot but I loved Time Being most of all. blank looks are a sure sign of higher Zen wisdom :)