Asking For Help & Reality -- "Meditations For People Who..."

This reading from "Meditations For People Who Do Too Much" (Aug. 16th) uses the Zen tale of a college professor seeking wisdom from a Zen master. The Zen master uses her pot of tea and tea cup to illustrate for the professor the importance of understanding our emotional and mental capacity. Asking for help is a beautiful way to empty our full cup so that we are able to take on all the world has to offer us.

Transcript

Meditations for women who do too much.

Asking for help and reality.

However,

One cannot put a quart in a pint cup.

From Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

There is a Zen story about a college professor who came to a Zen master seeking knowledge.

The old Zen master looked over at the professor carefully and then asked a student to go fetch her a pot of tea and two cups.

She then placed a cup in front of the professor and began to pour.

The tea filled the cup and spilled out over the table.

Seeing this,

The professor shouted,

Stop!

Can't you see the cup is full?

It can hold no more.

The old Zen master smiled and said,

And so it is with you.

Your mind,

Too,

Is full of too many things.

Only when you empty it will there be room for more knowledge to come in.

Asking for help is a way of emptying our lives.

Stopping and seeing that our lives have become too full may well be the beginning of a process that can empty us and make way for new ways of being.

My cup runneth over may,

In some contexts,

Be a declaration of disaster.

Emptying is fully as important as filling.

Reviews

Great reminder! Thanks.