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Cup of Tea

A wise lesson poured out of a teacup.

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WHERNTO: heedism  notions 

image of Cup of Tea

A prominent western philosopher had come to Japan to study with a zen master through an exchange program. The two of them sat down for a traditional tea.

While waiting the philosopher thought he'd 'break the ice' by telling the zen master a bit about himself. Well, he started and a bit became more and more and more. He talked about his ideas of the history and development of philosophy and about the lack of consistency in different areas of thought and the problems associated with applying logic to situations considered unbroachable through logic.

By now, the tea had arrived.

As the zen master started pouring tea into his cup, the philosopher continued with the subjectivities of existentialisms and the attainabilities of the absurd and … then he noticed that the zen master hadn't stopped pouring the tea into his cup.

In fact, his cup had started to overflow!

Still the zen master kept pouring and tea was spilling all over the chabudai onto the floor and even onto our philosopher who suddenly had nothing more to say about philosophy and exclaimed:

"Stop! Stop! What are you doing?"

The zen master stopped pouring the tea and with a bit of a twinkle in his eye said:

"In a cup so full, it is not possible to pour anything more."