March 23, 2004
Noble New Students...
there are many of you very excited about becoming WF Online Students. many of you are Practicing Patience very beautifully outside our humble Temple. Thank you. Quality Teachers are traditionally quite slippery to catch. At least you don't have to go to India, trek into Tibet, find your Teacher's cave somewhere and sit your butt out in the arctic cold and snow trying to become accepted as a Student! Mine is a humble Temple. I bow to your Patience.
A re-minder to new Online WF Students. WF is a Spiritual Path. It targets Transformation. Many of our teachings may appear odd and even at opposite ends of things you have thus learned about personal fitness. It will be very important for you to "empty your cup," as my Teachers instructed me to do for them. My most accomplished Master Students often began as the most skeptical and resistant to their first few months of training. I had to say time and again to them; "Empty your cup."
Only when we become empty of what we 'think' we know,
can we truly begin to know.
True knowledge is gained only by direct experience.
Here is the Zen Story that is the origination of the 'empty your cup,' phrase.
May your Practice be strong and sincere today...
love,
coach ilg
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A Cup of Tea
Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire 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 full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"