About
I'm not a teacher, a monk, or a scholar — just someone who started sitting three years ago and hasn't stopped. This site is the notebook I wish I'd had at the start: plain explanations of the ideas, and an honest record of what actually happens when you try to live by them.
I came to Buddhism through burnout, not curiosity — a friend suggested I try sitting still for five minutes a day before I did anything else with my mornings. That accident turned into a practice, and the practice turned into a habit of writing things down, mostly to hold myself accountable to actually doing it.
Somewhere along the way I realized the notes I kept for myself might be useful to someone else starting from zero — so I'm publishing them, unpolished, alongside plainer explanations of the teachings that make up the rest of this site.
Mostly Zen-influenced, mostly secular, without a formal teacher or lineage — closer to mindfulness-based practice than to any single school. I try to be upfront on the Learn page about where I'm simplifying, and where I'm genuinely unsure.
If you practice within a specific tradition and think I've gotten something wrong, I'd genuinely like to hear it.
Questions, corrections, or just to say the timer helped — I read everything that comes in.
hello@beginnersmind.example