Beginners Mind

A co-worker and I were having a chat on the 'significance' of spirituality. The conversation initially started because of my Maharaj book. He had brought up this perplexity that some East Indian people could attain such profound states of enlightenment, yet a close and intimate look into the communities of India exposes much abhorrence, abuse, betrayal and sadness (a simple reminder that we are all individuals put him back on track). This led to a discussion surrounding spirituality and a need to label onself as 'this' or 'that' or to indulge in ritual in order to achieve 'something'. We discussed the aspects of attachment and what love really was (through examining what it wasn't) and our relationships with other people and exactly what enlightenment is, or isn’t and whether one really need to be defined as ‘this’ or ‘that’ in order to achieve this state of nirvana. Here is someone who refuses to brand himself as anything other than human, refuses to be caught in ritual. Considers attachment to be absolutely ludicrous. Here is a man so un-spiritual, yet I think he is closer to enlightenment than most of the spiritual people I know. When we’re so busy talking, we can’t really listen can we? We can’t go into situations, conversations, even today with a fresh mind if we think we already know the answer(s). It’s true, isn’t it? How can we start today, free from yesterday or tomorrow if we don’t have a beginners’ mind? I realized this when I had a conversation with someone a week or so ago, talking about life. He refuted almost everything I said. As if he already had all the answers. Funny enough, he was the one who wrote about maintaining a beginners’ mind.