00:03some of us who have lived for a very long time like to say to ourselves we already know about
00:09something even if it happens to be a bit new to us been there done that is the the popular
00:15saying
00:15it's sometimes called bias reinforcement and it makes us rigid in our thinking as we move from
00:21our 50s into our 60s and onto our 70s and on reflection I think I have to admit that it
00:27has
00:27sometimes applied to me too what we sometimes consider confident certainty might actually be
00:33a limiting factor so how do we compensate for that when we want to be open to something new
00:40I've got a story for you a Zen master was receiving a university professor who'd come to inquire about
00:53the way the master served tea and he filled his visitors cup and continued pouring even as the
01:00cup overflowed the professor exclaimed the cup is full it can hold no more the master replied like
01:09this cup you are full of your own opinions and speculations how can I show you anything if you
01:13do not first empty your cup this story speaks of the prerequisite for any transformation as long as we
01:20are full nothing new can enter as long as our life overflows no grace has room to slip in to
01:29simplify
01:29is to empty the cup to create space for what is not yet here for what we cannot foresee for
01:38what
01:38perhaps awaits us beyond what we have planned and yet this empty space frightens many of us we fill it
01:46it compulsively as if emptiness were a problem to solve rather than an opening to welcome we have a free
01:53moment and immediately seek to occupy it we have an empty closet and immediately think about what could
01:58fill it we have silence and immediately turn something on to cover it but emptiness is not truly empty it's
02:08full of
02:09presence full of possibility full of what can only emerge when we stop saturating it silence is not the
02:16absence of sound but the presence of listening space is not the absence of objects but the presence of
02:23availability free time is not the absence of activity but the presence of life to itself when we simplify we
02:33do not
02:33create nothingness we create the conditions for something else to appear the practical way to
02:40emptying the cup is learning to say no no to what does not correspond to our deep values no to
02:49what takes us
02:50away from the essential this is not a rejection it's a protection it protects our yes it gives our yes
02:59its strength
03:00and meaning one who says yes to everything truly says yes to nothing the yes becomes diluted weakened
03:07deprived of substance by its very profusion one who learns to say no discovers that the yes becomes more
03:16whole more committed more present they can give more to fewer things and this concentration produces a
03:24quality of experience that dispersion never allows but here's the paradox we accumulate to have more
03:32experience more pleasure more life but accumulation itself makes us incapable of tasting what we have
03:40accumulated we own a hundred books but have no time to read we have a thousand entertainment options but
03:47are too tired to enjoy them we run from one activity to another without ever stopping long enough for
03:53anything to truly touch us profusion creates superficiality simplification reverses this movement with fewer
04:03books we truly read the ones we have with fewer options we truly savor those we choose with fewer
04:10activities we are truly present to those we do quality replaces quantity intensity replaces extent presence
04:20replaces dispersion to simplify is not to impoverish experience it is to intensify it to make it perceptible
04:30again to stop skimming the surface of a life too full and instead dive into the depth of a life
04:37that has been freed
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