A Calm And Settled Mind

Empty Mind

The Value of an Empty Mind

“Leave thinking to the one who gave intelligence. In Silence there is eloquence. Stop weaving, and watch how the pattern improves.” – Rumi

Let’s start with this story – Once upon a time, a student traveled far and wide in order to expand his knowledge of the path. Much to his delight, one day he was granted an audience with a noted Zen master. When they sat down together, he shared the many things he’d been studying on his journey.

After listening politely for nearly an hour, the master called for tea. As always, the tea was prepared according to an elaborate set of rituals. When it came time to pour, the master himself performed the honors.

However, to the student’s dismay, the master didn’t stop pouring when the tea-cup was full. He continued to pour the golden liquid until it began spilling over the sides of the cup and onto the saucer. The student didn’t want to be so presumptuous as to correct the master, but when the tea began to pour over the edges of the saucer and puddle on the floor, he felt he had no choice.

‘Excuse me, oh venerable one,’ he said, careful to observe the forms of respect, ‘but you must stop pouring. The cup is full – it can take on no more tea.’

‘Ah,’ said the master with a twinkle in his eye. ‘Like this cup, your mind is full of your own ideas and accumulated learning. If you want to learn something new, first you must empty your cup!’

I used the story as a way of encouraging people to put their old thinking to one side and ‘get stupid’ so that they could approach learning new things with a ‘beginner’s mind.’ But it was only when I began studying the inside-out understanding that I caught a glimpse into a far more powerful meaning to the story. Rather than trying to make room for a new philosophy to be poured in by an ‘expert’ in this field or that, the point of emptying our mind is so that it can be filled with insight from the natural intelligence that exists beyond our personal thinking.

While I intuitively recognized the value of ‘getting stupid,’ I was also fiercely resistant to it. Our family valued intellect, and I was damned if I was going to put that to one side. After all, I reasoned to myself, my intellect is what’s gotten me where I am today.

In the lingering silence, I saw two things quite clearly. The first was that this sense of peace was something I recognized as having been present in several of my most life-changing moments. The second was that even if I’d never experienced it before, I would gladly have traded a thousand intellectual victories for even five extra minutes spent resting in that world of deeper feeling.