A monk's story about spilled coffee teaches that what comes out of us when life shakes us depends on what's inside. If you're carrying anger or fear, that's what spills. The speaker recommends a morning practice: close your eyes and choose what emotional contents you're bringing into the day.
Chapters
One day, a monk is teaching his students about enlightenment, and he says to them, if you're holding a cup of coffee and somebody bumps into you and you spill that coffee, why did you spill the coffee? The entire class answers, because somebody bumped into me. No, says the monk. You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup. That's what you were carrying. Had you been carrying tea in your cup, then you would have spilled tea. See, whatever you're carrying is what will spill out. Life is the same way. When life shakes you, which it will, whatever you're carrying inside of you will spill out of you. If you're carrying anger and fear and hatred and jealousy, that is what will spill out of you. But if you're carrying love and kindness and compassion and empathy, then that is what is going to spill out of you. So each morning it's important to stop and close your eyes and. And ask yourself, what am I carrying within me today?