3 Lessons from a Delicate Teacup (and only you know the fourth)

Awareness that it breaks is the beginning of a better life

A student asked the Zen Buddhist priest Suzuki Roshi why the Japanese make their teacups so thin and delicate that they break easily.

“It’s not that they’re too delicate,” he answered, “but that you don’t know how to handle them. You must adjust yourself to the environment, and not vice versa.”

Awareness is the first step. It takes only a second to become aware of what a thing is.

Not what you want it to be.

Not what you think it should be.

A person without awareness blunders clumsily through life like a bull. The bull injures himself. Things get broken.

Many things in the world are delicate but much needed. Here are some things that come to mind:

• kindness
• meaningful connections to other people
• cooperation at the personal and civic level

What comes to mind for you? And what are you going to do about it?

The delicate teacup, the object itself, teaches something. What would happen if you were to start looking for lessons in the world around you?

The teacup story contains many lessons. The most important lessons are the ones that only you can find. Why not take a look?

(FYI, the teacup story is found in Zen Is Right Here: Teaching Stories and Anecdotes of Shunryu Suzuki.)

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Personal stories, articles that shift your thinking in important ways, things that will make your life better.

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