Saturday, August 30, 2008

Empty your Cup !!

I watched the Movie Forbidden Kingdom today.,. In a scene,the boy asks Jackie Chan to teach him KungFu. The boy asks if he is gonna teach him the 'One fist' technique or the other fight technique in KungFu.,. During this time, Jackie Chan who is preparing tea offers him the tea and pours tea in the cup. Even after the cup gets filled, he keeps on pouring the tea until the tea begans to overfill and drop down.,. Jackie asks the boy how can you learn KungFu until you are ready to receive it. Your cup is already full, there is no place for new information.,.Unless the cup is emptied whatever is put in will overflow.,. Such a profound thought !!


I had heard of a similar story about 'emptying your cup' before, yet what struck me now was its true realization of what it meant and how much had i taken it for granted.,. In every sphere of life,as we grow along we accumulate some knowledge and learnings.,. Yet what eventually decides our true learning/wisdom is the fact how long can we keep learning.. How long do we empty our cups so to accept the new knowledge.,.

Sometimes we do not realize that before. With the things which we had learnt, we think that we know so many things and even when a new thing is up for the learning, our normal instinct would be to equate the new one with what we already knew. Yet it doesn't work that way.,. To accept the new knowledge,we have to let go of my opinions of what we know and dedicate ourself in process of learning the new knowledge..


Its not only in knowledge.,. Take any sphere of your life, may it be your relationship, career, goals, health.,. Every dimension of human life is determined by how much are we able to give our best in it. And as long as we hold on to our old beliefs/views about our relationship, career,goals etc, we will be dictated by our prejudiced thoughts,which in turn will not allow us to develop.,. Once we decide to embrace the new knowledge, the fresh knowledge will enter your life as a fresh rose and its aroma will beautify every aspect of your life.,. :)

38 comments:

Rajesh said...

wow!!! very true and u have portrayed it really well...great dude...loved reading...keep writing...these soirta write-ups interest me a lot :)

Priya Joyce said...

very true prashant
well said and I feel the same thing applies to people when they are not open to certain truths
like for instance ppl and ghosts.
no one knows whether there r ghosts or not still some say there r ghosts and others say there r no ghosts.
shouldn't we be open to things.

this was just an example the truth is we have to be open to things ultimately to gain only.

Anonymous said...

Yes, you have to learn to empty your cup now and then... Very good post, one never actually thinks about this often

Tech Shankar said...



your narration style is good yaar.

I enjoyed it.

Prashant Sree said...

@ rajesh: Rajesh, Glad to hear you found it interesting !!Yet learning to portray it clearly.,. :)

Prashant Sree said...

@priya : Wow, you came up with an illustration to illustrate the point !! Thats impressive !! :)

As you said we have to unlearn before we began to learn anything !!

P.S: Well, the ghost thing made me a bit scarier.,. I dont get to appreciate ghost as much as i appreciate people ;)

Prashant Sree said...

@Srikanth: Yes Srikanth.,. It was a sudden realization.,. Very often we forgot to realize how much our cup is full and wonder why isnt anything new happening in our life.

Iam glad that you enjoyed the post... :)

Prashant Sree said...

@tamil nenjam: Thanks friend for the appreciation.,. I appreciate that ;)

Ravi Kumar said...

hey I liked the thought :)

Prashant Sree said...

@ravi: Yipeee.,. I have a company.,. :)

Rushabhh Gandhi said...

I too have watched the movie... Its good!!
I had a thought of it in the back of my mind about what you wrote. Thanks for bringin it in front again.. :P

Si_Lee said...

Yep that scene struck a chord with me as well .. sorry for the late response ... but i missed out this blog the last time i checked the other 3 :P ... :)

Dawn said...

Cool! I will try to watch this one.

Thanks for the review....
Cheers

Sara's World said...

Very true and the narration is really good.. Good going.. :)

Prashant Sree said...

@rushabhh: Great hearing that friend. Its a mystery what all we can learn from simple sources !!
Welcome here and would to love to have u aboard my ship forever ;)

Prashant Sree said...

@descrying the shadows: Great friend.,. Now that you have visited ,Iam glad you thought along the same lines !! :)

Welcome here !!

Prashant Sree said...

@Dawn: Thanks for visiting my site,friend. Though, i would like to caution, i havent done much justice as a movie review., I was more concerned with the learnings in the movie :)

But yes, the movie will be quite interesting to watch.,. After all the 2 J's are in., ;)

Prashant Sree said...

@saranya: Thanks Saranya !! iam glad you found it useful. Would love to hear your feedbacks on upcoming articles.

Bharath (Pops) said...

great post prashant... and soo very true.

Prashant Sree said...

@Bharath: Yes Bharath.,. A simple truth :)

Anonymous said...

Thnx for dropping by my blog Prashant ;-)

I hugely admire Robin Sharma and I guess u feel the same..

This post is thought provoking..I guess v all hold on to our many preconceived notions tht v develop ovr a period of time..v need to b more open n receptive to 'change'and let go of our fixed mindsets ;-)

Cess said...

hey, see i m here ;) I guess it s not always easy to empty the cup specially when it s something that goes against the way u have been raised or educated. I can say that I m able sometimes to empty my cup, but i also have a strong character, so it is not always easy ;)

Unknown said...

Well Well Well....What a thought provoking post, I must agree....
But I have a queestion....what is the use of gaining knowledge if we will have to let go of it in the near future....why, instead of letting go of the previous contents of our cups, can we not simply change the cup and get a glass....which might hold a larger capacity of thoughts and knowledge????
Nevertheless, the post, and the way you wrote it....is mindblowing....hats off!!!!

P.S: Am blogrolling you....will come back for more!!!!
Cheers!

alok said...

Ah! that’s a wonderful thought provoking post. Hey, even I did watch the movie and liked it.

I know, It’s not impossible to relate and find the unanswered questions that brings the knowledge, truth and above all the time together on the same plane. But again, life has its own varying meaning for different people. And finally, life’s meanings are not only unfolded by ‘how they approached it’ but also ‘with what they approached it’. So I guess, it’s also important to learn when to ‘empty the cup’ or I can say to find out ‘do you need another cup’?

Reflections said...

"And as long as we hold on to our old beliefs/views about our relationship, career,goals etc, we will be dictated by our prejudiced thoughts,which in turn will not allow us to develop.,. "

So very true. This reminds me of the mountaineer who froze to death, hanging onto a rope when the ground was just a few feet away....
Excellent Post!!!!!!

Prashant Sree said...

@swats: I couldnt put that better ;) Just out of curiosity asking this,

how did u say iam a fan of Robin Sharma ??

Prashant Sree said...

@cess: Welcome aboard !! :) Hmmm, what you say is rite.,. To put in other words, i feel that Emptying your cup has to do with flexibility.,.

And ofcourse when things are something which is very different from what you have seen/learnt, its hard to accept tat.,. But being flexible ensures we have a happy going in our life !!

Prashant Sree said...

@gagan: Hi Buddy.,. Well, here's a "BOW" for you !! And in return you get to host your blog name in my blog page... ;) Hmm,i too had the same question about knowledge.,. how do we ensure that we keep the old knowledge and yet receive the new one.

I asked a very special Knowledgable friend this question and his answer was: "Does a dancer forgets the previous steps of dance, when he learns a new dance".,.

I realized it about your openess to the learning rather than the self-prejudiced thought that you know everything.,. Hope tat helps :)-

Prashant Sree said...

@alok: Well said Alok.,. Its the "Why and with what we approach" things, then only a clear understanding of the situation evolves.,.

Sometimes we are so unaware of the present that we dont know when to empty the cup,.. Nice and wise words from you ;)

And thanks for visiting my blog.,. Have blogrolled you., ;)

Prashant Sree said...

@reflections:Thank you reflection !! the story of the mountaineer has a true moral too.,.

Though the end was pathetic !! Anyhow the message was powerful.:)

Anonymous said...

ur blogroll quite suggests it ;-)

Unknown said...

@Prashant Sree: That sure does!!!!

Prashant Sree said...

@Swats: Hmmm.,. i thought so.,.Must appreciate your observation.,. I admire Robin Sharma's learnings more than him :)

Prashant Sree said...

@Gagan: Very Glad, my friend !! :)

Kartz said...

Greetings Prashant Sree!

Nice blog heading. C'est la vie... Parlez-vous Français?

Anyway, I guess this is my first stop at your blog. And I fancied this post.

I have watched 'Forbidden Kingdom' too. And I refer to the scene which you have mentioned in the first paragraph. It is indeed a profound thought.

Occidental thought has always confounded the west. They say it is too 'mysterious'. No wonder the boy literally emptied his cup. By paying attention to the slightest of details, there are so many things one can observe.

Peace, and have a nice day.

Prashant Sree said...

@Kartz: Greeting my friend and Welcome to my blog !! :) Yup in the movie though the scene intends to end on a lighter note, its meanings are indeed profound...

Would love to hear your continuous readership :) and Thanks for visiting !!

Peace !!

Anjuli said...

this was a very interesting post. A mind expander for sure.

Prashant Sree said...

@Anjuli: Thanks for the liking :).,. Glad to hear that your mind grew by a few ounces ;) !!

Just kidding !! Thanks for coming up. Hope to have your continued valuable thoughts :)