Self Awareness: Empty Your Cup

As we get older and more experienced in life, we begin to feel more confident about our philosophy of life and more rooted in our beliefs. At the same time, we are often experiencing more stress, more responsibility and at times more anxiety about how are we going to get everything that we have dreamt of accomplished! Then someone older and wiser comes along, perhaps a parent, grandparent or a spiritual teacher who has a little morsel of wisdom to share and turn our noses up at it saying thinking that the idea is outdated or they just don’t understand. But is that really the case? Is it really the elder who doesn’t understand? Or is it our ego stepping in to sabotage our success.

 Sometimes we even repeat this process with our Creator. We might say a very heartfelt prayer asking for some particular change or healing in our life. But just as soon as the prayer is said our ego mind goes nuts trying to figure out how we are going to accomplish this task or gain this new insight or heal some situation or relationship issue that we have going on. Not a minute does our mind rest or let up. Do we really think that from our little human ego perspective we can come up with a better plan to accomplish our request than our Creator?

 There is a story told in Buddhist circles about a learned man who once went to a Zen Master to inquire about the practice of Zen. As the Zen Master explained about his practice the learned man would frequently interrupt him with remarks such as, “Oh yes, we have that too…” and so on. As the Zen Master continued he realized that the learned man was not really listening to what the Zen Master was trying to teach. Finally, the Zen Master offered the learned man some tea. As he poured his tea the cup began to overflow and the Zen Master continued pouring in spite of the fact the tea was spilling all over the table. “Enough” the learned man said, “No more can go into the cup!” Indeed, I see”, said the Zen Master, “If you do not first empty your cup, how can you taste my cup of tea?”

 We pray for miracles, we pray for change and we pray for healing. But then, thinking that we have all the answers, we get in our own way and stumble through life wondering why our prayers don’t get answered. So how can we best open to receive our miracles? Is it faith alone? Perhaps we need to redefine the way we think about the term faith. Does faith mean that we pray for something and then keep on praying for it as if the Creator didn’t hear us the first time? Does it mean that we pray for something and then try to manipulate and figure out how to get it from our little human ego mind? How we pray is in a state of gratitude for our prayer already being heard. We pray in gratitude for the wish already fulfilled. We pray in gratitude for the healing that is already manifesting in our lives. Then we live in a state of feeling as if we already have it. That is faith. We don’t question our Creator’s design, or timing or the person he sends to teach us what we need to learn in order to receive our miracle.  We trust.  We let go and most of all we empty our cup!

Tonya Elliott-Walker LMFT - Morningstar Couseling and Wellness Center