A Bird on the Wing汇总.doc

A Bird on the Wing Talks on Zen Talks given from 10/06/74 am to 20/06/74 am English Discourse series 11 Chapters Year published: 6/74 Original tape and book title was Roots and Wings. A Bird on the Wing Chapter #1 Chapter title: Empty Your Cup 10 June 1974 am in Buddha Hall Archive code: 7406100 ShortTitle: WING01 Audio: Yes Video: No Length: 99 mins BELOVED MASTER, THE JAPANESE MASTER NAN-IN GAVE AUDIENCE TO A PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY. SERVING TEA, NAN-IN FILLED HIS VISITORS CUP, AND KEPT POURING. THE PROFESSOR WATCHED THE OVERFLOW UNTIL HE COULD RESTRAIN HIMSELF NO LONGER: STOP! THE CUP IS OVERFULL, NO MORE WILL GO IN. NAN-IN SAID: LIKE THIS CUP, YOU ARE FULL OF YOUR OWN OPINIONS AND SPECULATIONS. HOW CAN I SHOW YOU ZEN UNLESS YOU FIRST EMPTY YOUR CUP? You have come to an even more dangerous person than Nan-in, because an empty cup wont do; the cup has to be broken completely. Even empty, if you are there, then you are full. Even emptiness fills you. If you feel that you are empty you are not empty at all, you are there. Only the name has changed: now you call yourself emptiness. The cup wont do at all; it has to be broken completely. Only when you are not can the tea be poured into you. Only when you are not is there no need really to pour the tea into you. When you are not the whole existence begins pouring, the whole existence becomes a shower from every dimension, from every direction. When you are not, the divine is. The story is beautiful. It was bound to happen to a professor of philosophy. The story says a professor of philosophy came to Nan-in. He must have come for the wrong reasons because a professor of philosophy, as such, is always wrong. Philosophy means intellect, reasoning, thinking, argumentativeness. And this is the way to be wrong, because you cannot be in love with existence if you are argumentative. Argument is the barrier. If you argue, you are closed; the whole existence closes to you. Then you are not open and existence is not op