"Sho Shin" is a beginner's mind in Zen Buddhism

Let us first of all, develop your observational and critical thinking skills. If you haven't learned to analyze in school then this will be difficult. (For example, You might have learned to analyze literature. Like, why did Hamlet affect insanity? Observe his behavior and connect his words to his actions). To further develop critical thinking, start asking "why?" Like a child. (See, here's the beginner's mind at the most basic level). Every time you observe something, ask "why?" Why did is that bird flying in circles? Why am I feeling nervous? (Those are probably unrelated questions unless you're in the desert and running out of water).

Next, admit you know nothing at all. This can be hard. You're not saying you're always wrong; you're just creating an open mindset. To do this you must abandon your ego and be willing to just take in information without judgment (here's where your objective observation skills become important). Understand : Statistically, you can't always be right. Therefore you should always be willing to consider that you're wrong. Make it a game - if it's fun then you don't get defensive about your opinions.

Then simply collect info (observe) and don't impose your beliefs on it. Then you can apply your critical thinking in order to gain knowledge from your observations. Try to dissect the info with an open mind. Never reject new info or opinions - always be willing to entertain the possibility that you don't have all the relevant info, or that your interpretation is skewed - or that there are "better" interpretations for the data.

A beginners mind is free of all conditioning - concepts, beliefs, and expectations. It’s like going to the zoo for the very first time and having no idea what to expect - without prejudice. When we see see a snake or a dolphin for the first time, our mind does not know what to do or what to compare anything to, so its only choice is to remain open, fully aware and take in everything it experiences. In this way, the beginners mind is like the aperture of a camera that is fully open to allow in the maximum amount of light.

So what is that gets in the way of our mind’s aperture? What gets us out of the beginners mind? It is our knowledge, concepts, beliefs, and expectations that narrow the aperture of our minds and prevents us from being fully open to what is unfolding before and within us, because we start comparing it to past experiences we’ve seen and experienced. As we experience something, our mind turns that into a memory from which beliefs and expectations are created for future encounters with something similar.

To practice a beginners mind, we must let the past be the past, to let old experiences die and be forgotten, to not cling to them for safety, certainty, and comfort. It is to relinquish our mental habit of analyzing, comparing, seeking, and resisting (which make up the majority of the average adults day) and stop anticipating what is always coming next. In other words, a beginners mind means fully surrendering yourself to the present moment, to living from the place before memory, belief, and expectation.

It is to experience something as if you didn't know anything about it, as if you were experiencing it for the very first time. Only this way does the mind remain always fresh, young, innocent, and full of vigour and passion. Beginner’s mind takes experiences literally, at the face value, instead of immediately jumping to some conclusions based on previously learned interpretations. There is no way you can cultivate beginner’s mind, because “cultivation” means adopting a culture, i.e. a specific set of concepts and interpretations. The more you cultivate it, the farther from it you get.

Instead, you’d need to un-cultivate your mind. You do that by identifying which parts of your experience come directly from senses and focus solely on them, ignoring everything added by thoughts interpreting that experience. For example, close your eyes and feel the body. Where are its boundaries? Focus on pure sensations. If you pay close attention you will be able to separate them from the work of imagination that projects an image of your body, painting imaginary boundaries where no sensations can be felt - e.g. in between your shoulder blades.

With the beginner’s mind, there are only actual, raw sensations. “Body”, “boundaries”, “inside”, “outside” can be seen as a learned culture - they are constructs of the mind that has mastered the concept of the “body” and applies it automatically. This is just one example. Beginner’s mind is what is left after such added mental constructs are deactivated. And you cannot unlearn them by force, just like you can’t unlearn riding a bicycle. The only way is to see their illusory nature, realize their lack of importance and drop the hard dependency on them. Utilize them only when convenient and leave them at rest otherwise. Cheers! to Sho Shin!