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By Root 964 0

that’s not “right”; I should only have one. Then another thought emerged: it’s no problem—a beginner’s mind allows whatever seems to flow. So just read the story and see what happens inside you.

Several years ago, my friend Carol and I attended a healing workshop on the power of thought, presented by Harold McCoy, director of the Ozark Research Institute. (I’ll tell you more about him in the final section.) Carol, who has suffered from fibromyalgia for over ten years, volunteered to have Harold demonstrate his healing abilities on her in front of the class. At one point during the healing she said she felt something like a pleasant electrical current going all the way down her arms to her hands and through her body to her feet. It was as if something got re-wired inside. At the end of the healing she burst into tears of relief and was held by a close friend.

Within three months, the knots up and down her legs, neck, and shoulders literally unravelled, and she was no longer sensitive to touch. Her joint and muscle aches disappeared and her energy expanded tremendously to the point where she was able to do a ten-mile hike in Glacier Park. Three years later she is still completely well.

Notice what happened in your mind as you read this. Is there disbelief, skepticism, a desire to dismiss it as a chance happening, or is there interest, curiosity, and do you want Harold’s phone number? It is fascinating to watch the reactions when Carol tells this story to the many people who ask about her fibromyalgia (she was bedridden and unable to move without intense pain at one point). People’s eyes glaze over, or there’s an “um-hmm” that precedes changing the subject. Rarely has anyone ever asked her to say more about her experience, and no one has ever asked how to contact Harold McCoy. Yet on the surface you’d think others would be eager to have such information. That’s how powerful our mindset is in preventing new information from penetrating our being.

I summarize the case for a beginner’s mind:

It’s fun, playful, creative, and dynamic. You can play with ideas and creative solutions without getting defensive about them.

Fascination and curiosity displace guilt, shame, rigidity, platitudes, and a narrow perspective.

It’s far more interesting than a preconditioned mind because it has room for subtleties, nuance, and fresh ideas. Your whole be-ing becomes your language.

You become receptive and interested in other people rather than defensive, rigid, and afraid.

Your mind quiets down and you experience greater ease and calm.

A beginner’s mind frees the heart and body to truly love.

Soak all your prejudices in oil—

I would consider it a favor.

Bring and sing to me your darkest thoughts, For my whole body is a blazing emerald wick I am a pure flame

Who needs and loves to burn your trash.

—HAFIZ, THE GIFT

STEP FOUR

Live in Reality,

Listen to Your Truths

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love

will have the final word in reality.

—MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.,WHY WE CAN’T WAIT

24. Come into Reality So Something New Can Happen

I must be capable of looking at you,

not through barriers, screens of my prejudices and conditioning.

I must be in communion with you,

which means I must love you.

—J. KRISHNAMURTI, THE BOOK OF LIFE

Seeing clearly in reality helps us make wise choices. We’re right here in present time, seeing people and situations as they are without superimposing past images, expectations, or interpretations. Reality includes seeing a situation from many sides so you can make reasoned decisions based on the whole picture, not just a fragment of reality. It’s like walking out of a very limited, murky space into a clear sunny day and looking in all directions.

Building on all that has come before—an awareness of our stuck places, an ability to deeply attune to ourselves and the world around us, showing up as we are—we become better able to shed our illusions, images, and expectations, and stand right here in present time. To live