A couple months ago, a Zen teacher and Aikido sensei in Los Angeles died. Reverend Kensho Furuya was the instructor of an Aikido school in California and the author of one of my favorite martial arts books, "Kodo: Ancient Ways". The book is full of great philosophical and martial arts stories and teachings.

I don't remember exactly how I found this book originally, but ever since I read it many years ago, I would check in occasionally at Rev. Furuya's web site for more lessons. Just last month I went to his web site to catch up on his postings, only to find that he had died in March. This was quite a shock to me, and I'm going to miss his wisdom. I find that the general philosphies he taught to be very inspirational for both my martial arts and cooking. Many people denigrated his teachings and his art as too academic and not practical or realistic, but I suppose the value is in what you take from it.

One of my favorite lessons he wrote in his book was the concept of the beginner's mind. I've also recently seen this idea encapsulated in the statment: "Knowledge is the greastest barrier to learning." And this is really what the beginner's mind is all about. The beginner knows that he or she doesn't know anything, so is open to everything. The educated or trained person begins to think they know things and hence their knowledge blocks them from learning more, because they think they already know everything they need to know. I try to remind myself of this concept as often as possible.