初心 - Shoshin, the initial enthusiasm

There is a saying in Japanese

初心忘るべからず　Shosin wasururu bekarazu

It means,
do not lose your initial enthusiasm,
do not forget the ideal with which you started out,
remember the time when you were a novice, when everything you learned and did were great challenges.

"Shoshin" is written as 'first heart' in Japanese characters.

The phrase is often used when you have become an intermediate learner of some kind of hobby (like martial arts, Sado tea ceremony, flower arrangement) to warn you that experience and familiarity can sometimes bring careless mistakes.

I practice Aikido, Sado tea ceremony and Noh, and recently, I see new meaning to the word "Shoshin". I used to see it as "the mind or heart of a novice", but now I think it is more like "the mind you have at the first meeting".

The first meeting - nothing is the same, things change every moment by the moment. When you practice Aikido, even when you are doing the technique you know by heart, your physical and mental condition, your partner, the environment are different, and it is "the first meeting" of these conditions.

Every time you do something, every person you work with, every scene you experience is a miraculous combination of conditions chosen by chance from milliards of factors.

"The first meeting" is everywhere, every moment, so don't forget that.

Tomorrow is another day.

The Beginning

The Beginning.

My first post on my blog.

I wish to write about and organize things that goes on in my head.

My interests are:

Language, sounds, meanings, literature and what lies behind its output.

Thoughts, KI（気）, invisible but perceptual energy that circulates among people and matters.

Aikido, Sado tea-ceremony, things Japanese.

Curiosity won't kill the cat.

I am a wanderer of the Wonderland in my mind.