A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university lecturer. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the lecturer went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said: "If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones."
"While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress."
What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups." "Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change."
Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it." So don't let the cups drive you...enjoy the coffee instead :)
7 comments:
....a very beautiful analogy indeed. thanks for sharing Dear Hoopoe...
The type of coffee I miss most is the one that you pour onto a saucer, blow gently to cool it and sip from the saucer itself!
I enjoyed it most when it was with my late grandfather.
Such joy in a simple cup/saucer of coffee...
So, coffee...shall we? ;p
Beautiful. Yup. Its not the cup. Sometimes its not even what's in the cup. The best kopi ever is on Annapurna in winter. Sometimes... it's the surrounding and the company. :-)
Your 'dosages' is heavier than the coffee served here.:)
Haven't heard from you for so long and all of a sudden,we need to read so many at one go.
Welcome back everybody ...
I am ... back :)
hmmm light hearted reminder indeed.... what interest me the most is how similar the entry before with this one n yet different....
the difference is the intention of the students...
in this coffee incident the alumnite intention of choosing happiness in beaut & pricey stuffs(worldly bondage) eludes the reality which trap them with insatiable desire...
while in the previous entry the students, i guess having learn some way of the sufi,the intention must have been more related to nothingness for choosing the poor holy man (hint of reality).....also eludes reality but at least have a guide to the right path.....
with the knowledge learn... they chose what they see.....
what burden lies ahead...maestro
....And within Your Embrace I seek Love, Protection, Mercy and Compassion.....
A friend lost her job as an economist one day and she thought she lost her whole life. Many times, we associate ourselves with our occupation and not to who we really are. Take the namecard away, and you take away a person's identity.
So my strategy to make sure i dont get sucked in - I don't carry a namecard.
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