A Mason's Work

At the systemic level, the Entered Apprentice teaches that the true foundation of wisdom is wonder. To see as a beginner is to live in curiosity — to acknowledge that every person, at every stage of life, is still learning. This episode invites reflection on how the beginner’s mind reveals unity within diversity, and how awareness of our shared uncertainty opens the door to compassion and renewal.

🔑 Key Takeaways
  • The Entered Apprentice mindset is universally accessible — all are learners, always.
  • Wonder is not naivety; it is the recognition of life’s endless depth.
  • Systemic wisdom arises when curiosity replaces certainty.
💬 Featured Quotes
  • 0:00:09 — “At a systemic level, the Entered Apprentice mindset is the cultivation of wonder.”
  • 0:00:24 — “Everyone is constantly in this state of not knowing.”
  • 0:00:39 — “If the Entered Apprentice mind is like that of a child, then all of us are operating in that capacity somewhere in our lives.”
  • 0:00:51 — “Because that state is perpetually available, it connects all people at any given time.”

Creators and Guests

Host
Brian Mattocks
Host and Founder of A Mason's Work - a podcast designed to help you use symbolism to grow. He's been working in the craft for over a decade and served as WM, trustee, and sat in every appointed chair in a lodge - at least once :D

What is A Mason's Work?

In this show we discuss the practical applications of masonic symbolism and how the working tools can be used to better yourself, your family, your lodge, and your community. We help good freemasons become better men through honest self development. We talk quite a bit about mental health and men's issues related to emotional and intellectual growth as well.

At a systemic level, the enter apprentice apron or model or mindset or beginner's mind,

if you will, is the cultivation of wonder.

When you look across the times in your life at a systemic level or you look across our

society at a systemic level, you'll find that everybody is constantly in this state of

not knowing.

If the enter apprentice mind is very similar to that of a child, then everyone is kind

of operating in that capacity in various parts of their sort of experience at any given

time.

And because of that, because that is a perpetually available and something that is being

embraced socially amongst all of the people of the world at any given time, you have

this sort of profound opportunity to be the edge of wonder when it comes to just experiencing

your consciousness.

When you take that hoodwink off and you put on that enter apprentice matins apron, everything

is big and new and amazing.

And the journey from that place of wonder to a place of knowing becomes a cycle that

you can repeat as many times as you want.

And so much so that you really get this strong sense that for as much as the mastery is

its own type of satisfaction, the discovery and the process of embracing the world from

that perspective of wonder is just profound grace to have as an opportunity that you can

walk into that and surrender to the not knowing and allow everything to come to you and through

you in this profound experience that is life as an enter apprentice, you really get this

just profound settling where you're not having to evaluate.

You're not having to look at things to see how effective you are or judge or evaluate,

you just get to do.

This is the do or don't do kind of model from Yoda, there is no try.

You're just there for the ride, enjoying the newness of it all.

And if you can flip into that perspective at will whenever you want, you really can take

the edge off of a lot of attention you might be experiencing on an everyday life.

You know, the enter to apprentice mindset has time and space to learn all of the things.

The enter to apprentice mindset gives everything its time to mature so that you can grow however

long it takes.

If you've ever studied something like math, for example, there's no amount of looking at

the math problem that makes it that moves your understanding forward.

With the insights that come from math are often they come in flashes of, oh, I didn't

understand that a second ago and I can't tell you why I didn't understand it but now

I do.

That place of not understanding is the birthplace of understanding and so it shouldn't be scary

or upsetting.

It should be childlike and wonderful.

And as we work on cultivating that enter to apprentice perspective in ourselves and being

able to move into it whenever we need to, we really move to this non-judgmental space

that is free of a lot of attention that we might experience on our everyday lives.

And I encourage you to look at your world and find the places where you can do that easily

and then move to the places that you can do that with a little bit more difficulty.

That kind of not knowing surrender becomes a very productive place to start moving towards

your next project or next understanding or next growth cycle.