In Zen in the Martial Arts, Joe Hyams recounts meeting Bruce Lee for a training lesson. Hyams, who had an extensive martial arts background at the time, describes the story Lee told of a Zen master having tea with a university professor who wanted to learn more about Zen. As the Zen master poured the tea, he kept pouring even as the cup overflowed. The professor panicked. Seeing the reaction, the Zen master said, “Like this cup, you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”

The story serves to explain that Hyams would have to let go of his expectations and preconceptions of martial arts if he were to learn from Bruce Lee. Yet, this can apply to any form of learning. Ever be the student, a phrase I love, means being willing to learn at any time, from anyone. It also means being willing to empty your cup.

In the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu writes that the hole in the center of the wheel is what allows the wheel to function, just as the space inside a pot allows it to be used. He suggests that “we fashion wood for a house, but it is the emptiness inside that makes it liveable. We work with the substantial, but the emptiness is what we use.”

In speaking of the Tao and Lao Tzu, Alan Watts notes that the core of both deal with “getting out of one’s own way, learning how to act without forcing conclusions, and living in skillful harmony with the processes of nature instead of trying to push them around.”

This is the essence of Bruce Lee telling Hyams to empty his cup. He is imploring Hyams to empty himself so his learning capacity can be useful again, to get out of his own way and not force conclusions onto what Bruce was going to teach.

The story of the Zen master and the professor is a lesson we can all benefit from. Letting go isn’t erasure. It just means that we aren’t close-minded and foolishly attached to whatever it is we are holding onto. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” Empty your cup; be flexible, like water; and be ready to learn.

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