I received this in my email inbox just recently. It was from a person called Amish Shah to whose newsletters I subscribe. It relates his wife's interaction with their daughter and it explains VERY WELL how so often in life, we listen to respond \ react rather than listen to hear............Do you agree?
Enjoy the read!!
"My wife Puja is really into Buddhist and Zen philosophy and I recently overheard her telling our daughter a story that was told by a Zen master.
She said, "Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era, received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in served his guest tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then just kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in! Stop!”
“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”
Like this story depicts, we often approach life situations with our own views and ideas, without taking off our opinionated lens. How then can we truly live life if we don’t release judgments?......"
She said, "Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era, received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in served his guest tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then just kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in! Stop!”
“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”
Like this story depicts, we often approach life situations with our own views and ideas, without taking off our opinionated lens. How then can we truly live life if we don’t release judgments?......"
When we judge something as either only positive or only negative, we are blocking ourselves from understanding the complete picture. No situation or circumstance is ever only positive or negative - however, each individual may have a PERCEPTION that it is.
Your perception then is KEY in understanding that every negative has an equal and opposite positive and every positive has an equal and opposite negative.
An intellectual understanding of this concept is one thing; applying it to your life is another!
Where are you seeing something ONLY as positive or ONLY as negative?
Who are you seeing as ONLY positive or ONLY negative?
To living life fully,
Lilly
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