To Light a Thousand Lamps - The Theosophical Society

176 / TO LIGHT A THOUSAND LAMPS
a vision of what is beyond and within. Many of us, however,
are so filled with our own ideas of what life is all about
that we are like the student who came to the Zen monk
seeking knowledge. ‘‘Teach me, Roshi, what Zen is.’’ The
Zen master invited him to tea. He started pouring tea into
the teacup, and he poured and poured and poured until the
student could stand it no longer and almost shouted: ‘‘But
the cup is full. Can’t you see?’’ The Roshi quietly said:
‘‘That is what your mind is like. You are so filled with
your own ideas and opinions that there is no room for even
one drop of wisdom. Empty yourself, empty your mind of
all your preconceptions, empty your heart and your soul
of all unbecoming thoughts and feelings, and you will be
filled to abundance.’’
All of us know what is unworthy of ourselves. Striving
to gentle the untamed propensities in our character is a type
of purgation, a purification we can go through every day.
This is what Paul meant when he said to the people of
Corinth, ‘‘I die daily’’ — day after day he sought to be
‘‘reborn’’ interiorly. This is the ‘‘daily initiation,’’ of which
W. Q. Judge spoke — life itself, with its manifold joys and
sorrows. Both have their temptations and trials, good fortune
so called being often more diªcult to handle than are
the day-by-day frustrations and disappointments. The constant
demand upon us to choose between the greater and
the less, the selfless and the self-centered, brings us face to
face with ourselves.
It is a matter of getting back to first principles: we start
from within, from our central self. What is our motive?
We tend to think of initiation as far removed from everyday