A Zen master pours tea into an arrogant intellectual's cup until it overflows, then explains: to learn, you must first empty your cup. The parable teaches that ego and certainty block knowledge, and humility opens the door to growth.
Long, long, long time ago, there was this Zen master. He was very wise, and people from across the world used to come to visit him and get learnings from him, get the life lessons, get salvation. And, and he was very famous. And there was this intellectual person who was so full of himself, and he got to know about this Zen master. So he reached out and he attended one of his sessions, and he thought, I want to do what he's doing, let me ask him. So he went to Zen master and said, you know, Zen master, I want to be like you, tell me what to do. Zen master understood his intention, so he said, no problem, attend the session. The time of the preaching came, all the crowd gathered, and this intellectual person was sitting in the crowd. And the Zen master, he started speaking and sharing, and this intellectual person was always interrupting him, always sharing his stories, always sharing his insight, and was not letting him proceed. The Zen master was a very wonderful human being, so he didn't say anything during the session. But once the session was over, he called that intellectual and said, would you like to have a cup of tea? Now the intellectual person was on cloud nine. Now, now at least the Zen master understands how intelligent I am, how much do I know. He's asking me to come to his camp for having a tea. Wow! And he said, sure, master, I would love to have a tea with you. The Zen master took him to the camp. It was a very very simple camp, and there was this wooden table. He put the two cups, and in the cup in front of the intellectual person, he started pouring the tea. The tea was half full, and then three-quarter full, and it became full. But he kept on pouring, and the tea came out of the cup and out of the saucer and onto his clothes. And then the intellectual said, What are you doing? Can't you see it is already full? It is coming on my clothes. And then the intellectual person said, so what should I do if I need to fill this cup? You should first empty your cup. And then the Zen master said, if you want to learn from a master, you also need to empty your cup. How many times do we reach out for a session, for a course, for a program, but we are so much into ourselves that we are not paying attention? I would also advise you to empty your cup.
