The Barbarian Blog

A young Samurai swordsman entered the house of a famous Zen master. He looked at the master, bowed and said, “Master! I have reached a deep level of Zen, both in theory and practice. I have heard you are great so I come here to bow to you and hope you can teach me something.” The Zen master looked at this proud young man. Without a word, he went into the back room and brought out a teapot and a teacup. He placed the cup in front of the young man and started to pour the tea into the cup. The tea filled the cup quickly and soon began to overflow. The young man looked at the old man with a confused expression. He said, “Stop, master! The teacup is overflowing”. The old Zen master put the teapot down and smiled at him. He said, “This is you. You are too full already. I cannot teach you. If you wish to learn, you must first empty your cup.”

I love this story and try to live by it. I don’t claim to be an expert or anything. I’m just a guy who loves to learn and read. I take a little of this, a little of that, and try put it into something that works for me. If it also works for you, awesome! If I’m way out in left field on something, I hope you’ll excuse my ignorance and help me learn something new. Learning is a two-way street, and I hope this blog will be one more tool for me to expand my universe.