EMPTY YOURSELF!🔗

EMPTY YOURSELF! PREPARING TO RECEIVE LIFE

A popular Zen story goes like this:

One day, a famous professor approached the great Zen master Nansen to seek clarification on some philosophical matters. The master lived in a cottage in the forest, and the professor had to walk a long way to meet him.

When he reached the cottage, the master was boiling water for making tea.

The professor's head was full of questions for Nansen, and he started asking them right away.

Wait, said the master, let us have tea first.

But the professor was impatient. Not only did he want his questions answered, he also wanted to show off his knowledge to Nansen. So while Nansen brewed the tea, he continued to talk about this theory and that philosophy, asking Nansen's opinion and giving his own.

Finally Nansen finished making the tea. He brought the teapot and two empty cups, and set down one cup before the professor.

When will you answer my questions, master? There is so much I have to learn from you! exclaimed the professor politely.

In reply, Nansen started silently pouring the tea into the professor's cup. He poured and poured, till the cup was overflowing. Still he continued to pour.

Zen masters are known to be a bit crazy, but this was too much!

What are you doing? Can't you see that this cup can't hold any more tea? It is already full! cried the professor in amazement.

Nansen smiled and asked, Is that so? Then how come you haven't emptied your cup?

Zen masters usually talk in riddles, but the professor was an intelligent man, and he understood.

He himself was the cup that Nansen was talking about! He was already so full of ideas, of his borrowed philosophies and acquired knowledge, that there was no way Nansen could have taught him anything. He had no space left for learning anything new!

Before you can learn anything new, you need to first empty your cup. What did the master mean by emptying your cup?

We all go through life carrying a whole lot of baggage. Physical baggage we can see and understand - all the articles we possess, our homes, our money, our certificates.

If I tell you, Empty your life of all this baggage, at least you would know what I am talking about.

But what about all the baggage that you don't even realize you're carrying inside?

All of us are brimming over with our ideas and philosophies of life.

We have our preconceived notions on every subject under the sun. We have already come to a conclusion as to what will work for us, and what won't.

We have solutions for every problem in the world - except our own, though we will never admit that!

In addition to that, we all have our share of fears and memories that influence how we think, how we learn, how we live, how we act.

In other words, we have all managed to become so full of ourselves that there is NO MORE SPACE for anything new!

When you read this, it naturally means you are looking to learn something new. Of course, if you are reading it out of mere curiosity, if you are certain that you already know all that you need to know, that's perfectly alright. You can go ahead and read it, just as you are.

But if you are looking to learn something, gain something from the time you spend with me, I suggest to you:

Empty your cup.

Another small story. It tells you about the attitude of the true learner!

A brilliant mathematician called Ouspensky once approached the philosopher Gurdjieff to learn from him. Just like with the professor and the Zen master, Ouspensky wanted to clear some doubts from Gurdjieff.

Always, only the most intelligent and successful people have all these doubts! Naturally, when a man is starving, he has no time or inclination to think about spirituality. Only when you have already filled your cup with wealth, with knowledge, with success, do you realise that something is still missing, some flavour is missing. Only then do you take the step towards spirituality.

When Ouspensky approached Gurdjieff, he was already a well-known mathematician. He had done path breaking work in mathematics. Naturally, he had the pride of knowledge. At that time, Gurdjieff was hardly known to the public.

Still, Ouspensky was intelligent enough to realize that there was something in Gurdjieff, something that he might learn from him.

So he approached Gurdjieff and told him, Master, I think that there is a lot that I can learn from you in many areas. Will you teach me?

Certainly, said Gurdjieff. He had a different way of tackling the learner; not like the Zen master!

He simply said, Before I start, why don't you first make a list of all the subjects which you already know about? Then we need not waste time discussing those subjects, and I can concentrate on the other subjects which you need to learn.

So Ouspensky went into the next room with a paper and pencil, and sat down to make the list.

Ouspensky writes later in his memoirs:

Sitting there, for the first time, I realized that I couldn't put a single thing on my list! Unless I was completely sure of a subject, I could not write down that name on the list. There was no way to get past Gurdjieff, he was too wise. If I mentioned a subject and he questioned me about it, I may not be able to answer.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I knew no subject totally, deeply, truly! For the first time in my life, I realized that I knew nothing.

After forty-five minutes, Ouspensky returned to Gurdjieff. Without a word, he placed the blank paper at Gurdjieff's feet.

Gurdjieff embraced Ouspensky with a smile, saying, At last, it seems that you have begun knowing…!

To know that you don't know is the beginning of wisdom!

When you know that you don't know, you at least know that you don't know. You at least know that much.

When you don't know that you don't know, you don't even know that you don't know! That's where all the trouble lies.

• *

When I say empty, emptiness itself is of two kinds:

One is negative, passive emptiness - emptiness that you experience, but cannot control; emptiness that leaves you feeling depleted in some way, the feeling of something lacking. Then there is positive, happy, active emptiness. It is the emptiness that results when you've thrown out everything from your life which is not absolutely essential.

It is something like the difference between loneliness and aloneness!

The first kind of emptiness, you have all experienced at some point in time. In fact, for many people, this is a permanent state of affairs.

This kind of emptiness is precisely what society, what the media strikes at. It is the easiest way to penetrate into you, because it is your weakest spot. Practically every brand in the market works on this principle: making you feel that your life is in some way less rich, in some way incomplete and empty, if you don't own their product!

In marketing terminology, there is a phrase called creating a need. Imagine! Their job is to first create a need that you don't feel right now, and then plug in their product to fill that need.

What professionals do in a formal manner, society does informally. You are made to feel empty if you don't possess the right kind of husband or wife, if you don't have the required number of children, if you don't have a certain kind of job.

In the Shiva Purana, there is the story of Shiva and the Brahma Kapala. The Brahma Kapala was a skull that Shiva used as a begging bowl, when he was wandering in the guise of a mendicant. The strange thing about the Brahma Kapala was, whatever alms people put into it would promptly be swallowed by the bowl itself! No matter how hard Shiva tried to fill it, the bowl always remained empty.

This Brahma Kapala is inside all of us.

All our lives we keep trying to fill the emptiness inside us. We try to fill it with wealth, with knowledge, with relationships.

Like a black hole, it swallows all that we throw into it. And foolishly, we keep on throwing more and more in, we invest more and more in filling our emptiness.

But finally, even when we are overflowing with success, we feel that something is missing.

When I was a wandering monk in Bengal, I once came across a peanut seller on the roadside. She used a small wicker basket as her measure. When a customer came, she would heap peanuts high in the basket and spill it out into the customer's bag. But strangely, when the peanuts fell into the bag, the quantity seemed to magically decrease! It took me a while to figure out her trick - the basket she used had a false bottom! So even though the basket looked full from the outside, it was actually half empty inside.

I wonder how many customers she played this trick on, before getting caught!

If you notice, Nansen and Gurdjieff used two radically opposite techniques with their disciples. Nansen showed the professor that he was already too full inside. Gurdjieff put Ouspensky in touch with the emptiness inside himself.

But essentially, both of them were saying the same thing, because the fullness and emptiness are essentially the same! Like the peanut-seller, we only create a false sense of fullness to cover up for the emptiness inside.

That's why the master has a dual task.

First, I have to remove all the garbage you have collected inside you, over the years.

Then, I have to create the right kind of emptiness inside you, a positive emptiness.

I have to make you ready to receive.

It is not easy to become empty!

To become empty is the most frightening thing in the world.

Your ego thrives on your fullness. It will continue to cling to everything that gives you the feeling of being somebody. How can you become nobody? Your ego simply cannot tolerate it!

To be empty of the self is the greatest of miracles.

When I say, empty your cup, I am not asking you to throw out all the knowledge you have accumulated. I am not putting down the value of all that you have learnt. Certainly, knowledge has a role in your life. For the kind of life you have been leading, knowledge is essential.

But now you are entering a different zone.

What I am asking you to do, is to put aside your habits, your prejudices, your preconceived ideas.

I am asking you to become sensitive, to become receptive.

I don't ask you to believe or disbelieve.

Just be completely open, just see with open eyes.

Every moment will be transformed into an opportunity for learning.

THE SUN IN A JAR

EXPLORE YOUR TRUE POTENTIAL