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Never mind that 2012, the Alan Turing Year may be our Armageddon. The latest science fiction disaster film in town, 2012 which stars John Cusack as a writer and part-time limousine driver has this scene: A young Tibetan monk is talking to another elderly Tibetan monk who then pours tea into a cup until it overflows. That reeks of an old Zen tale about emptying one's cup. In this popular tale, an enthusiastic Zen student cannot contain his zeal and goes on and on, talking about Zen to his famous Zen master. The latter who is quietly serving tea, pours the man's cup to the brim, and keeps on pouring and pouring until it overflows. On seeing this, the student cautions the master, saying that no more tea will go in now that the cup is full. The master retorts that he can't teach the man Zen either unless he empties his cup. Closer to home, I heard of this zeny tale from the horse's own mouth. Someone I know used to frequent a temple. He helped around with menial tasks, often without any prompting. Once when the kitchen got too dirty, he couldn't help but scrubbed it clean. When the resident monk saw the sparkling as new as pin kitchen, he had said, You cannot see it, you cannot live with it. We can see it, we can live with it. The man stopped going to the temple after that. He told me it would suffice if the monk had said, Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!
Never mind that 2012, the Alan Turing Year may be our Armageddon. The latest science fiction disaster film in town, 2012 which stars John Cusack as a writer and part-time limousine driver has this scene: A young Tibetan monk is talking to another elderly Tibetan monk who then pours tea into a cup until it overflows. That reeks of an old Zen tale about emptying one's cup. In this popular tale, an enthusiastic Zen student cannot contain his zeal and goes on and on, talking about Zen to his famous Zen master. The latter who is quietly serving tea, pours the man's cup to the brim, and keeps on pouring and pouring until it overflows. On seeing this, the student cautions the master, saying that no more tea will go in now that the cup is full. The master retorts that he can't teach the man Zen either unless he empties his cup. Closer to home, I heard of this zeny tale from the horse's own mouth. Someone I know used to frequent a temple. He helped around with menial tasks, often without any prompting. Once when the kitchen got too dirty, he couldn't help but scrubbed it clean. When the resident monk saw the sparkling as new as pin kitchen, he had said, You cannot see it, you cannot live with it. We can see it, we can live with it. The man stopped going to the temple after that. He told me it would suffice if the monk had said, Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!
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