The Ginger Mumbly

So I went to yoga on Wednesday evening and the yoga teacher - who's normally very on the ball - told a story.

I think he got the story wrong, so I'm going to write down what I think the story should be.

A seeker for truth, a young man, came to the palace of a great king. He asked the king to teach him enlightenment. The king gave him a small wooden bowl and told him to walk around the palace, along a carefully prescribed route and to not spill a single drop of the water. The young man inched his way carefully around the palace and after several exhausting hours returned to the king with his bowl still full of water. The king could see that the young man was thirsty after his efforts and advised him that he should drink from the water in the bowl. After an afternoon spent in the hot sun, the water was warm and slightly stale.

Then the king asked the young man a lot of detailed questions about the decorations of the palace, about the paintings that hung on the walls, the carpets that covered the floors, about the statues and the flowers in the garden and about the fish in the ponds. The young man couldn't answer any of the king's questions. So the king handed him a bigger bowl and again ordered it be filled it with water and again asked the young man to walk around the palace, but this time, as well as not spilling the water, to play close attention to all the beautiful things in the king's palace. When the young man got back this time - having taken much longer - despite all his efforts his bowl was empty, every time he had noticed something in the palace and taken his attention off of the bowl, he had spilled just a little.

He was very worried that he'd failed, that the king would be annoyed, but the king smiled, took the bowl from the young man and ordered for his servants to refill the bowl. And told the young man to drink from it. The water was fresh from the well and was cool and refreshing. The king explained to young the man that you can only become enlightened if you let go of what is precious to you and give all of your attention to the world.

You have to empty your bowl, so that it can be refilled.