The Empty Cup
A full mind leaves no room for wisdom.
You cannot be smart all the time.
You cannot win all the time.
You cannot prove yourself all the time.
The world will humble you eventually.
We have all the devilish people, adversaries, and enemies in our lives to thank because they are the reason we pray to God.
Remember that the next time you want to punch someone in the face.
People will come and go throughout your life, but you are always going to be the one thing that remains constant.
Learn to distinguish your real self-your true being-over your physical form.
Understand the difference between the soul and the body.
There is a famous quote that has been attributed to the French Jesuit priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, that goes as such,
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
What does this mean at a deeper level?
It means we have been here before. This isn’t our first rodeo, and it won’t be our last. We keep coming back until we finally get it right.
Oh wait, that’s the concept of reincarnation. Whether or not you subscribe to the theory of reincarnation, it’s irrelevant if you grasp the meaning of a soul. Souls are transient beings, meaning they can transcend time and space. So when the physical body is no longer available, the soul departs and moves on to the spirit world.
Where it goes from there…heaven, hell, purgatory, the island in Lost, or simply reincarnated once again…if we can all agree on this on a spiritual level…we know not where we go in the end.
But the point is that we are spiritual beings having a physical experience rather than physical beings having a spiritual experience.
Where is the proof, though?
Have you ever walked through the bookstore, perusing the shelves, and seen the amount of books on how to be successful, how to lead with confidence, how to sell, how to be persuasive, how to be popular, how to convey your thoughts, how to be articulate, how to be assertive…you don’t need any of this in the spiritual world. On the other hand, this is all you will find in the material world. Turn on YouTube or doom scroll through TikTok, and you will be flooded with self-improvement, self-help, and self-growth videos. You will be bombarded with videos on how to be likable at work and lose the fear of saying “no”, how to traverse the corporate landscape, and how to win the rat race. But all that stoicism and managerial mindset won’t do you any good in gaining grace from the Divine.
That’s because the Divine isn’t interested in your ability to overcome small talk and carry on conversations like the words spewing out of your mouth came directly from Nora Ephron’s latest rom com. Nor does the Divine care that you are able to control the room’s attention like your speech was written by Aaron Sorkin. The Divine doesn’t care if you’re a genius. The Divine doesn’t care if you’re the inventor of a million patents. The Divine doesn’t care if you’re the richest man in the world. That’s great if you are those things, but it doesn’t get you a ticket in His Kingdom.
So then, what does The Divine want?
The Divine wants innocence and purity, that of a child trying to figure something out for the first time.
Essentially, the ability to admit that you don’t know everything; in fact, you know nothing when it comes to the spiritual world…not because you’re not a spiritual being…you are indeed…but you because you have been away from your home for such a long time you have forgotten the source. And all that is required is that you announce “I may know a few things about this world. I learned how to climb the corporate ladder. I learned how to win people over with my charisma. I have bought cars. I have bought houses. But I don’t know everything and I leave it to you to decide what I really need.”
The minute you understand that you are not in control and place your desires at the altar of God, you surrender.
That humbleness, that surrender, I believe is the key to His Kingdom.
Life isn’t about being a know-it-all. It is about humility.
A full mind leaves no room for wisdom. That is why every spiritual journey should begin with humility.
Be the empty cup.