(08-30-2021, 02:52 AM)Margan Wrote: The Daily Q'uote for August 30:
"There is a function of your spiritual evolution which it is impossible to fulfill unless you are to a significant extent empty instead of full, and doing nothing instead of keeping all the balls in the air. Have you ever wondered why there are so many of your people who have turned to solitude, fasting and silence as means of spiritual growth? They are attempting to empty themselves, that there may be room in their lives for the fulfillment of the spiritual function of polarizing by turning the attention to the search for the perception of the infinite Creator."
https://www.llresearch.org/transcripts/i..._0928.aspx
This might have to do with what Jesus said " you cannot serve God and mammon" - mammon meaning the material goods. When you start the return journey to the source, you try to get rid of the "mammon stuff" - emptying yourself out of everything that is not needed
Like Ramana Maharshi, when he was drawn to Arunachala mountain, he had a little money that he used for his train ride, and when he arrived he threw away everything he still owned....
maybe it starts with paying less attention to the material goods. And then emptying out the inner clutter, the thoughts and opinions and preconceptions that are in the way - the emptier we get the more the god self can enter and occupy the space.
Like in this little zen story:
"Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”
“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”
Thanks as always
An for a modern uptake of the tea cup scene.. '2012' end of the world movie has that scene except done by Tibetan monks Hmm perhaps not a smiley face given the epic dramatic tone of the movie!