What do you see?
Conventional wisdom urges us to focus on the full half. After much contemplation, I am arriving at a slightly different viewpoint:
To not gloss over the empty half.
To fully acknowledge it,
but not let the mind linger too long.
Then, take a step back
and challenge oneself to also see
the other half, no matter how hard
it may be. Because there is always
a full half. Two halves, and a dance
to be held with complete awareness.
Conventional wisdom urges us to focus on the full half. After much contemplation, I am arriving at a slightly different viewpoint:
To not gloss over the empty half.
To fully acknowledge it,
but not let the mind linger too long.
Then, take a step back
and challenge oneself to also see
the other half, no matter how hard
it may be. Because there is always
a full half. Two halves, and a dance
to be held with complete awareness.
Posts
A helpful viewpoint. I think seeing only the good can make us ignore suffering and even turn our backs on it. We can embrace both the joyful and the painful without having to be cheerful all the time :)
ReplyDeleteZen teaches us to see beyond the dualism of our frameworks of analysis. The halfs, the vessel, the observer, the situation, are interdependent, they inter-are. Perceiving half full and half empty as us, and us as them is not only a correct understanding of the nature of things as they are, but the dooway to the appreciation of flux, diversity, challenges, bounty, and the greatness of our momentary existence. Peace.
ReplyDeleteThe challenge can sometimes be to remember that negative space is still space.
ReplyDeleteSo half is full. But full is still half. All right? It isn't logic. It is philosophy.
ReplyDelete