StoryPeople Forum - StoryPeople Forum

Scarlett651 · Messages: 2266 Location: the porch

just found this story/lesson the other day
and wanted to share it with people who would understand/appreciate it.

finding so many old ideas that are new to me!
kinda like Kandy's yard sale!
not that appreciation is a new idea!
but this simple story was a good reminder for me....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You see this goblet?" asks Achaan Chaa,
the Thai meditation master.
"For me this glass is already broken.
I enjoy it; I drink out of it. It holds my water admirably,
sometimes even reflecting the sun in beautiful patterns.
If I should tap it, it has a lovely ring to it.

But when I put this glass on the shelf
and the wind knocks it over
or my elbow brushes it off the table
and it falls to the ground and shatters,
I say, 'Of course.'

When I understand that the glass is already broken,
every moment with it is precious."

We are not human beings making a spiritual journey...we are spiritual beings making a human journey.
~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
*******
"He lived happily ever after."
Willie Wonka

mousemaid · Messages: 320 Location: by woods on a snowy evening

Wow - if it were only so easy. I guess I understand that everything I have is already broken, but I have a hard time coming to terms with it. Especially when it is something I love so dearly.

Like a stubborn child I think - I don't want it to be broken. I will hold it close and keep it from harm. Though I know I can't keep everything safe - or anything for that matter.

It is a bit sad to think of everything in our lives shattering before our eyes. One by one.

I see the beauty in this story, but it is scary too.

accept who you are then let her be. happiness follows.
- ms scarlett

sassyangelac · Messages: 1108

I completely get it that this is an illustration of practicing non-attachment, but my knee jerk reaction was still one of, "Well, I don't want to see the world that way!" I find the concept supremely depressing, as in well, we are all already dead, too...ugh.

andvari · Messages: 920 Location: a cave in a foggy clear

I am broke right now... got my stimulus check, and guess what, just like that glass it is gone now too. So I guess I am broke too... tend to stay broke, but that don't mean I am not lovable...
Andvari

Do you know what happened to the man who got everything he ever wanted? Willie Wonka

The child is in me still... and sometimes not so still --Fred Rogers--

Nothing-- Nothing's better than when two Completely Empowered people come together with Love on their minds.

Scarlett651 · Messages: 2266 Location: the porch

sorry!
i didn't mean to stir the pot in the gratitude journal!

hmmm...this is like that blind men describing the elephant thing!

see...i took this more as a lesson on appreciation than a lesson of loss.
(that's why i put it here! lol)

i understand the concept of non-attachment, too, tho i'll certainly never be there!
i'm also pretty sure i'll never achieve that 'nothingness' in Zen meditation, either! lol

there's a whole...big, big...lotta things changing and about to change in my life and those around me.
some really, really good! some not so....
but, right now, my 'little girl' will never, ever, ever be 18...and a half!....years old again (yikes)!
so i'm learning to appreciate the individual moments rather than just waiting around for time to carry me to the next moment.

~~~~
and you're not broke, andvari...
just a little....warped...?!

We are not human beings making a spiritual journey...we are spiritual beings making a human journey.
~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
*******
"He lived happily ever after."
Willie Wonka

sassyangelac · Messages: 1108

Nah, don't apologize for stirring...one man's wooden spoon is another man's bug swatter. I certainly appreciate the application of the moments with the glass being precious (stir, stir, stir), but I am just resistant to the predetermination of loss part (smack! ewww...bug guts).

andvari · Messages: 920 Location: a cave in a foggy clear

was the glass half full or half empty when it broke? it matters... I think...
and what was in the glass? Cause like a half full glass of Crown is like really a full glass, so how does one guage the importance of that? but I get what Scarlett is saying, cause imagine me holding a half full glass of Crown... it is already gone.... lol
A

Do you know what happened to the man who got everything he ever wanted? Willie Wonka

The child is in me still... and sometimes not so still --Fred Rogers--

Nothing-- Nothing's better than when two Completely Empowered people come together with Love on their minds.

andvari · Messages: 920 Location: a cave in a foggy clear

and then there is the odd possibility that the glass will not break in his lifetime, and the lifetime that he has shared with the glass, absolutely cherishing its voluptuous volumeness will be so good...perhaps even when he dies a toast will be made to his honor, about what a glass lover he was, those glass lovers are good hearted people... I knew a guy once absolutely loved glass... but that is another story...

There are a few, very few sacred things that I cherish, knowing that I have been blessed to have them in my life, and I cherish them, I do not possess them, and will never possess them, they stay with me and that makes me whole and warm and fuzzy inside. I am aware that nothing can be owned, nothing is certain, but the moments are what we take with us... the moments are what count

Andvari

Do you know what happened to the man who got everything he ever wanted? Willie Wonka

The child is in me still... and sometimes not so still --Fred Rogers--

Nothing-- Nothing's better than when two Completely Empowered people come together with Love on their minds.

mish · Messages: 1033 Location: Southern California

hmmmm....

yep.
get it all.
see all sides.

but i'm attached to that glass, and all that's in it.
i don't want it to go,
and won't let it go without a fight.
unless that choice is taken from me,
and then,
well
i still fight for it.
it's mine dammit!!

i wish sometimes i could see the cracks,
i like the idea of detachment, in theory.
but don't think i could live my life like that, in reality.

definitely thought provoking,
and loved sassy's image of stirring that pot.

peace, michele

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us....E.M.Forster

anntinasia · 12/08/2008 19:49:52 Subject: Re: already broken

Scarlett651 wrote:

sorry!
i didn't mean to stir the pot in the gratitude journal!

hmmm...this is like that blind men describing the elephant thing!

see...i took this more as a lesson on appreciation than a lesson of loss.
(that's why i put it here! lol)

i understand the concept of non-attachment, too, tho i'll certainly never be there!
i'm also pretty sure i'll never achieve that 'nothingness' in Zen meditation, either! lol

there's a whole...big, big...lotta things changing and about to change in my life and those around me.
some really, really good! some not so....
but, right now, my 'little girl' will never, ever, ever be 18...and a half!....years old again (yikes)!
so i'm learning to appreciate the individual moments rather than just waiting around for time to carry me to the next moment.

~~~~
and you're not broke, andvari...
just a little....warped...?!

[b]I, too have an (almost) 18 year old, and I look at it the way you do.......It would be very hard for me to see everything as "already broken" esp. the people in my life. I, myself, have been "broken" many times and I still put myself back together and become "whole" again.
The story is a sad analogy of life and death. I like the half full glass myself.

Anntinasia

"Sometimes life calls for an unexpected hat!"

"Everything you can imagine is real."
~Pablo Picasso~

Scarlett651 · Messages: 2266 Location: the porch

see....
i still don't see this as a story of loss

to me, it's a story of appreciating the moment
because THIS moment will never...ever...come again.

knowing that everything changes...
nothing lasts forever...
helps me slow down and cherish the
now and everything in it.

We are not human beings making a spiritual journey...we are spiritual beings making a human journey.
~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
*******
"He lived happily ever after."
Willie Wonka

Krista · Messages: 491

I don't think it's a matter so much of seeing it as already broken as it is being able to recognize how easily it can break. When we understand that all that we have in our lives is not forever, we learn to appreciate it more. If the glass were made of super hard thick plastic stuff, we'd throw it around and not care for it at all, and then where would we be?

The biggest example I can think of, related to this, has to do with my mother. She told us all she wouldn't live to see age 60. We all said "yeah, right, ma, okay whatever you say". Granted, I am happy to say that the last time I saw her, I gave her a huge hug and told her how much I loved her. But the summer before she passed...we went for a car ride. I was driving because she never learned. We ended up stopped in the parking lot of an empty KMart building. I don't know how we got there. But she turned to me and said "So...tell me something about your life" and I was like "what do you want to know?" and she said "I don't know...anything". That would have been an amazing opportunity for ma and I to bond over stories about life and love and friends and school, but instead I was stubborn. In my 19 year old defiance, I wasn't in the mood. There would be plenty of other chances. I was such an idiot. Mom started sobbing and yelling and demanded that we turn the car around and go home. She went out later that night and had a few too many brewskies. She came home later, granted, but her esteem took a hit and it was (in part) my fault.

I try not to beat myself up too much for that incident...but I do think about it on occasion. I don't want to take the people that are most important to me for granted. You never know what can happen.

rich · Messages: 583 Location: Longmont, CO

I don't want to take the people that are most important to me for granted. You never know what can happen.

Please, everybody...KNOW this.

At the memorial service, one was inconsolable, crippled by grief. We learned it was not just because of the loss, but because he had left many things unsaid and undone between them and now that could not be remedied in this life.

Have you not told someone you love them? Are you carrying anger or resentment that you think you may let go of SOME day? Have you "always meant" to tell someone something? Are you about to say something ugly that could be the last thing they hear (or the last thing you will have to remember saying to them)? There is NOT always a tomorrow to "fix things." There is only now.

Fix things NOW. This minute. Today. Everyday.

With love,

rich

andvari · Messages: 920 Location: a cave in a foggy clear

wise words rich

I think this is a story on unconditional love though. The glass being broken from the day it was first collected in a scoop of sand. The glass was broken while it was being fired, the glass has always had a destination. As have we all. It is about both the people left behind, but also a lesson on being the glass, accepting our fate, and appreciating the moments that we have here whole with the person that owns us as the glass. appreciation and unconditional love, accepting that while love is forever, fates will cease our physical form, giving us cause to love all the deeper while we hold the glass in our hand.

Andvari

Do you know what happened to the man who got everything he ever wanted? Willie Wonka

The child is in me still... and sometimes not so still --Fred Rogers--

Nothing-- Nothing's better than when two Completely Empowered people come together with Love on their minds.

Mallory · Messages: 1051

rich thoughtfulness in this thread.

You Are Love And It Is Everywhere.

The only thing I could think of to say to Jane Goodall when I met her,

and one of those things I never stop believing.

You Are Love And It Is Everywhere.

Now. This Moment. Today. Every Day.

Peace in your hearts,
With the love of my soul
~Mallory

~*Music is the vernacular of the human soul*~