You must know this story: A student goes to the Teacher asking for guidance. The teacher pours a drink as the student goes on and on about previous studies and previous teachers. The drink overflows and the student yells. The Teacher smiles and says something along the lines of “First you have to empty your cup.”
Over the years, I’ve heard it told as Zen, Talmudic and Sufi. Same story, same point. You’d think by now I’d get it.
We don’t notice how incrementally and insidiously our cups fill up, maybe because we don’t choose what we put in them. I didn’t put that Rihanna song in my head, pretty as she is; I see that same video every day in the gym.
Tedium and repetition aren’t the bulk of the mental cup-fillers. Stresses, annoyances and irritations are. In today’s climate, it’s easy to build up a tolerance for stress. If we didn’t, we’d be in trouble every time we fired up our computers or answered our cell-phones. Anxiety is both unavoidable and inevitable. A life without any conflict would be as dull as reading the encyclopedia. That said, enough is enough.
Why doesn’t matter. My cup is overflowing and I’ll be taking a few days off to go empty it. Au revoir, darlings. Behave yourselves, I’ll back soon.
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