Is Your Cup Full?

Dear lovely people,

Jena, a young Anthropologist went to a custodian of tradition in a small village to study some cultural truths. After making the forma introductions, she asked him to teach her some cultural truths about his village. Then, Jena began to talk about her extensive background in cultural Anthropology and rambled on and on about the many cultures she had studied.

The old man listened patiently and then began to make a herbal concoction. When it was ready, he poured the drink into Jena's cup until it began to overflow and run all over the floor. Jena saw what was happening and shouted in all surprise, "Stop, stop! The cup is full; you can't get any more of the drink in."

The old custodian with all smile stopped pouring and said: "Jena, this is precisely the point. You are like this cup; you are full of ideas about society and culture. You come and ask for teaching, but your cup is full; I can't put anything in. Before I can teach you, you'll have to empty your cup."

Imagine the number of Jenas out there in the world with this same story playing continuously in their lives day-by-day. People have become so bewitched of their own ideas and opinions and so trapped by their conditioning that they fill themselves up to the brim and nothing can get in. Think of the millions of people with beautiful dreams and who want to succeed in life, some even read books upon books, success articles and yet no headway. If only such people can empty themselves out, let go, and cease to hold on to their views, the truth will come to them.

Just look around you, lots of people cherish only their opinions. Such people find this difficult, they have been brought up to value the rational thought processes above all else; this attitude is deeply embedded in them forming the basis for much of their way of life, it’s even part of the educational system.

The point is made: empty yourself of opinions and truth will come to you. Insight and understanding comes to they that empty themselves of beliefs. If not, you go forth into the world with your own ideas and opinions and you see the world through this filter.

Jena really had a lot in her cup when she met the old custodian. Before getting to the point where she struggled to understand society and its cultural dynamics, she grew up with in a home with a mother who repeatedly told her never to trust men because they are only out to use women. Jena never understood that her mother’s perception was based on her bad experiences with men. Later on in life, it became difficult for Jena to approach a man openly, with an empty cup. As fate will have it, she got used by a man with time thus, she further reinforced her mother’s opinion. To say the list, things since then became very difficult for her.

The deepest secretes to success can come to us through any person or circumstance. If we are open to it, if our cups are empty, the water of success will fill them; if not, the water will flow onto the floor and be lost while we remain in agony.