13/31 in the Blogging Challenge. Thank you for hanging out with me.
My very first Massage teacher, Dr. Barry Green told me a little Zen story and it has become one of my favorites. I want to share it with you here today. Please forgive me if I do not get every word exactly correct. This is from a oral tradition memory and not copied from a book. I did look up Nan-in and the Meiji era though.
A Cup of Tea
Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a very learned professor who came to inquire about Zen.
This professor told the master about all of his studies and accomplishments. He told him how he came to become committed to learning more about Zen and traveled very far to learn from Nan-in.
The master, Nan-in said “Please, let me make you a cup of tea.”
Nan-in began to make the tea. He got the water for the tea pot. He started the fire to heat the water in the tea pot. He chose the tea leaves, crushed them and measured them into the tea cups he had gotten out of the cabinet. Nan-in was being very respectful and diligent. He desired to make a nice cup of tea for his visitor.
All this while, the visitor continued to talk about himself. He went into great detail and lists of all the things he had already learned about Zen.
Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”
“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are too full. How can I teach you anything unless you first empty your cup?”
How often does this apply to us in our lives? We go to a class but, we think we know everything. We want to be a good listener and end up doing all the talking. We want to find time to do good things but, keep filling our lives up with other stuff. We want to take better care of ourselves but, we work too much and can’t find the time to even get a massage.
Have a cup of tea. Do not overfill it. Breathe. Enjoy it. Let us all empty our cups in order to fill them again.
Give me a call at 610-906-2322 if you would like to make the time to schedule a massage.