12

FOUR CUPS

IT WAS SAID by the Buddha that to receive the teachings you should be like an empty cup. This is a well-known metaphor to Buddhists in the West. It is Shunryu Suzuki’s teaching in his book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. The beginner’s mind is the empty cup, open to possibilities, free from preconceptions. This was, for Suzuki, the Zen mind in the West. When he came from Japan to California in 1959, he saw the empty cup, the beginner’s mind in Western students of Zen who were unencumbered by the long tradition of Zen and Chan in the East and the ways it had worked itself, often to the detriment of the vitality of practice, into the societies of China and Japan.

In Chan, although we also place importance on the empty cup and the beginner’s mind, we use the metaphor of the cup in other ways as well.

In Chan, we should not only be empty, we should also avoid being like a cup that is contaminated with poison and dirt or a cup that is inverted or cracked.

Four cups.

 

LET US EXAMINE the first cup first.

What happens when a cup is full? Nothing new can be added. So if you are already full of your own ideas, you are not ready to learn. Empty your mind.

Chinese people have a saying: If three people go on a journey, one of them will be your teacher. There is always someone you can learn from.

Learning brings us joy. It is essential to our lives that we learn and grow, that we keep expanding ourselves.

You cannot approach Chan if your mind is like a full cup.

First cup, empty cup.

Cup number two is the soiled cup. If a cup is soiled with dirt or poison it will contaminate whatever good things you put into it. What are some types of dirt or poison? In Chan, we strive to keep our minds free from skepticism, suspicion, or assumptions. We strive to keep ourselves free from prejudices that stop us from seeing the goodness in others, which can lead to arrogance and pride.

The person who drinks from the soiled cup sees evil all around him. He feels persecuted, paranoid, and pessimistic.

Clean the cup of the mind.

Carefully wash and dry it well.

Third cup. This cup is inverted. Can you put anything inside it? No. If you invert the cup, nothing goes in.

That is the case when your motivation and purpose in life is impractical. When you are too naïve or idealistic. There is a Chinese saying for this: Tou nao jian dan (literally, “simple brained”). We have to be realistic about what we want in life and not be absorbed in illusions and fantasies. Get real! The inverted cup is an upside-down view—a view that is askew.

The fourth cup is cracked. You can still pour milk or water inside it, but whatever you put in will eventually leak out. We have to live wholeheartedly or what matters in our lives won’t stay with us, whether it is learning or a relationship. In order to live wholeheartedly, we must find our own purpose, our own direction, apart from the expectations of our parents, husbands, wives, or friends. Our cup must be whole, not cracked.

If your cup is cracked, you will find that you’re forgetful, unaware, and can’t pay attention. Things will leak away and come and go. You have trouble with commitments. You will feel fractured, fragmented, and scattered.

How do we empty the cup, clean it, and make sure it’s not inverted or cracked? By coming back to the present moment. By loving our breath. By practicing compassion. Slowly, slowly we clear our minds.

Empty the cup. And after you empty it, fill it with good things. Fill it with meal or honey. Then when we drink, we will truly be able to taste what we are drinking. Then we will get the taste of Chan.