What are common mistakes that beginners make?

[JKhedrup]

Feeling the need to declare their Buddhist faith, lineage affiliation and guru to even the most passing acquaintances.

[duckfiasco]

Here are just a few of the things I've run into and continue to deal with


Getting constantly sidetracked in search of new and interesting Buddhist tidbits.

Feeling like you understand a teaching right away.

Giving up too easily.

Viewing frustration and impatience as impediments.

Using Dharma as a kind of war plan for battling yourself and your habits.

Missing the constant opportunities there are for practice. If something seems mundane, you aren't paying attention


I'm sure there are many other ways we make things hard for ourselves

Peace

[Silent Bob]

Always chasing the carrot of the next, better empowerment. On second thought, this isn't just limited to beginners.

[seeker242]

1: Thinking that your mind is supposed to go completely blank in meditation and if it doesn't, then you are "failing" at meditation practice.

2: Not doing any meditation but thinking that everything can be resolved just by thinking about stuff.

[Quiet Heart]

You can tell the beginners because they are so deadly serious about their new-found "Buddhisim".
(joke)

A lot of the things mentioned already come ....in my opinion....from one source.
That is the "I am" ego attitude they show.
Like "I am":
+ meditating a whole (insert number here) hours every week.
+ spending (insert number here) hours a week studying the writings/teachings of (insert name here)
+ and "I am" a "follower" of (insert name here) who is my personal teacher.

and so on.

But the most important thing the new comers have to learn...and to be fair most eventually do learn....is that their experience in finding "Buddhisim" is not a unique experience. They need to unlearn that "I am" ego attitude regarding being a "Buddhist".
They need to understand they are not the first people to go there, others have been there before them.
Usually, they do....but sometimes not before they make a fool of themselves in their new found enthusiasim.
I think we've all been there before ourselves....at least I was.

[Dechen Norbu]

Beginners make beginner's mistakes. That's why they are beginners. These are natural and are corrected as one gains more experience.

Do all the mistakes you're entitled to do when you are a beginner. Don't worry too much about them, because they are easy to correct. Just keep on going.

Much more problematic, in my sincere opinion, are the "seasoned mistakes". Those are much harder to correct. Those are the ones one needs to be careful about.

(but there's some good advice in this thread that may help beginners avoiding a few mistakes)

[Seishin]

Well said

[duckfiasco]

Viewing samsara and suffering "here" versus nirvana and liberation "somewhere else," "when I get there someday..."

This may be cultural to the West, but viewing our nature as inherently flawed and trying to mold it into our idea of the Buddha nature.

Being oblivious to the omnipresence of samsara in our lives as deluded beings. This means being ignorant of when we apply samsaric responses to samsaric needs and keep the whole cycle going.

Possibly admitting the insubstantiality of negative thoughts or those of other people, but strongly leaning on ideas of realization or suchness. I try to remind myself very often that all views are wrong views. It's not an easy thing to accept


Good luck to anyone else who is also feeling their way along this strange and wonderful path!
Peace

[seeker242]

Viewing samsara and suffering "here" versus nirvana and liberation "somewhere else," "when I get there someday..."

A teacher once said "Nirvana is simply the correct understanding of Samsara." I found that quite profound, and still do!

[lucidaromulus]

the mistake(This mistake not only occur among beginners):
thinking "practice" is merely the activity of making offerings, doing prostrations, reciting mantras, doing sadahanas, going for retreats, attending pujas, reading dharma books.


I believe that is a part of practice. only a part though.
However, the real practice is to incorporate into your everyday life the 10 virtues, 6 paramitas, emptiness, renunciation and boddhicitta.
Real practice is to transform your mind, every single second from the moment you learn the teachings until you die. and to do so in the next life and the lives after that until you attain enlightenment

[simhamuka]

1 - Judging other people's practice, or thinking they know how well/poorly others are doing spiritually.

2 - Not staying a beginner. Being a beginner is great.