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The Zen Abbess Zenkei Blanche Hartman, in "Beginner's Mind," advises: Be willing to not be an expert. Be willing to not know. Not knowing is nearest. Not knowing is most intimate" (www.intrex.net).
Here with beginner's mind, Zen Buddhism and contemplative Christianity share a common interest: negative knowing ~ or, knowing by unknowing. Christian tradition mentions this not-knowing as apophasis.
In the Jesus story of the sower sowing seed in four different types of ground, recorded in three gospels, the first seed was sown on ground beaten hard, for it was a passageway between two fields.
3Now listen! A farmer went out to scatter seed in a field. 4While the farmer was scattering the seed, some of it fell along the road and was eaten by birds.
*Mark 4.3-4, CEV
Later, Jesus explains the story and this first ground.
15The seeds that fell along the road are the people who hear the message. But Satan soon comes and snatches it away from them.
*Mark 4.15, CEV
What is Jesus referring to? He refers to the hardened heart, the closed mind. Our capacity or willingness to receive the Presence and Its meaning for us can be deadened by hardness, and the Wisdom cannot penetrate. Then, Wisdom, the seed, never takes root; the seed is eaten by birds, taken by the Satan ~ actually, has no effect on the hearer.
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