Teacups of the Mind

An old Asian fable tells the story of a young man who was learning Zen. After a great deal of practice, he went to visit his Master to show the man how he was progressing and to seep further guidance. He arrived at the man's house with a grin from ear to ear, thinking about how amazed his teacher would be with his new found wisdom. When the master came to the door and saw his student, he greeted him tenderly and insisted the young man come inside.

The pair had been talking for a brief time when the Teacher asked his student to go get him a pot of tea and two cups. The student agreed, and returned a few minutes later, setting these things on the table.

The Teacher listened intently as his student bragged about everything he had recently learned. As the student continued speaking, the wise master started to carefully pour tea for his young apprentice. The cup was filled to the top, yet the master continued pouring, even as the tea began to spill over the top and run all over the table.

"Stop!" the student shouted. "Can't you see that the cup is full? It can hold no more!" To which the old Zen Master smiled and replied, "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."

The problem in the metaphorical story is not knowledge itself. Rather it's meant as a warning about how our current beliefs and assumptions can limit our ability to see the world more clearly. A head that is too full of its own wisdom does not allow new knowledge to come in, especially if that knowledge might displace the ideas we've already formed. When our mind is packed with rigid assumptions, it's as if this tea cup of our has been filled to the brim with cement.

When your mind is full of it's own ideas . . .

Anytime we allow our minds to become too full, stubbornly clinging to what we think we know, the consequences extended well beyond rendering someone woefully deficient in wisdom. A puffed up inflexible mind will lead to a lot of problems in our day to day lives. For example . . .

A) Flexible thinking comes up over and over again as one of the more crucial character traits which help people work through difficult experiences in life. Having the ability to adopt new beliefs and view the world in a different light allows up to weather any storm. A nimble mind is akin to a sapling tree that easily moves and sways in the wind, whereas a mind that is closed is more like a rigid branch that is unable to bend, and therefore easily snaps under pressure.

B) A lot of the stress and mental anguish we endure in life is born into existence through our rigid assumptions which lead us to interpret things in a narrow self-defeating way.

Certain experiences are inherently painful. None of us like to feel helpless or suffer a lack of control, and we all get upset over violence, conflict, ridicule, and other negative actions directed toward us. Yet most of the lingering pain we endure come about because our mind is too full of negative assumptions about WHAT CERTAIN EXPERIENCES SHOULD MEAN. Clearing our mind of this extra baggage will give us a more flexible cup that is better equipped to tolerate the stresses of life.

C) Maintaining a flexible mind that makes room for other perspectives will also help your social life. This is because most conflicts arise from stubborn thinking. We're too busy clinging to our repertoire of current knowledge about 'how things should be' that we're unwilling to open our mind to new ways of looking at things.

The more rigid someone is in their thinking, the more conflict a person will experience with the outside world. Not only will they be more prone to disagreements with others, but they'll experience more inner turmoil whenever the outside world fails to adhere to the rigid politics inside their head.

Is your cup flexible?

Realizing that the knowledge we possess WILL ALWAYS BE INCOMPLETE is the psychological equivalent of advancing to a larger cup. To that end, please remember this story and take its lesson with you as you go about your own life. It's a lovely thing to possess a mind that is continually churning . . . turning over the old to make a place for the new.

Remember that it's those ideas we've clung to the longest that have typically grown the most stale, and it's often when we're most sure of ourselves that we could benefit the most from a fresh cup of tea.

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