Life is a Cup of Coffee
Chinese Poetry
A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.
Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.
Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.
Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.
Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. Savor the coffee, not the cups! The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.
Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.
Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.
Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.
Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. Savor the coffee, not the cups! The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.
The story of this spiritual parable that keeps on pinching and punching me all the years of my existence, has once a again made me realize that indeed, LIFE IS A CUP OF COFFEE.
Living the life of Ryan Jancinal is not as simple as others thought it to be (well, all lives are surprisingly unpredictable). My fate never cease to surprise me with many things that I never could comprehend, how or why did it occur. They say that "we all weave our own fabrics of lives, we seldom notice and see some easily-torn parts, that will eventually ruin the production, but; still it is still the same fabric that we wear on," it simply means that everything we do in life, is the production on how we live to be, it is not others work or output, but; it is ours. No matter how tragic or lucky we got ourselves into, it is still our own responsibility to make it bountiful and maintain the living formation that comprises the whole.
At this age, I have made quite a list of dreams or things to achieve. Things that solely be my possession in order to be happy, selfish dreams such as acquiring things with no consideration at all, nor thinking to help my parents in the near future. It was really awful, knowing that I have grown up this selfish, not realizing that my parents were the ones who nurtured and helped me through the way of my life. Oftentimes, I think only for my future, and it saddened me now that I was nearly giving up the thought of helping them someday. I immediately focused on my own cup, without even thinking that I have a coffee inside which I need to savor and smell the aroma. The coffee that comprises my existence: my family. After all, it is not the cup that will soothe my feeling while sipping the coffee but the coffee itself.
On the story, we are being taught that sometimes, we misled ourselves into the real thing. Sometimes, we ought to focus particularly on the cups that we have, realizing that it is not the coffee anymore. We prioritize the things around us, getting things that could never really make us happy. Things that may eventually pass and will never grant genuine joy.
The authentic happiness that we long and search for is the contentment we feel in a particular situation or in a particular setting. The same contentment that will bring about permanent happiness and joy and will turn out to be the inspiration towards brighter tomorrow. It is never seen in the concrete formations of temporary happiness, but always you find it in some small and meager things. Always think that LIFE is never about how will you get successful in the future or how will live your life in the future, but it is on how you make it everyday to achieve a good future.
I seldom see that. The reality that I should be accustomed for are far from me. I cloud myself with grandiose thoughts, even though I know deep inside I know my happiness, and I never search for the inner happiness, I always go for the fame. Pity I grew like this realizing that I patronize worthless thoughts and dreams. I am so certain that it is still not the end of my journey. I, too is certain about how lucrative this life will be if I know how to prioritize things and will achieve the goals I set. I am certain that I could do it.
It might be a steeply climb, who cares?
