Overflowing cup
We have learned to give before we have gathered ourselves. The child pours out his heart at the command of others, believing that love and favor can be won by a readiness to give as much as he can. But this is the error of the youth.
The soul, just like earth, must first be enriched with sun and rain before it can bear a fruit. Giving while hollow is to sow in air- the seed falls on the rock.
It is the law of life that one must possess before one can give. The river does not flow without rain, nor the tree bears fruits without roots. We are called into the abundance by nature. The man who would love well must first lean to fill his own cup. The man who would teach must first see clearly. Only then can his overflow be genuine and not a debt unpaid or a shadow.
We go wrong when we measure the return of our giving. Nature asks for our fullness but rather we hand over our calculations. The sun does not withhold its light because the moon cannot shine in return. The good man does not fear that his neighbor will return nothing, for his light is already in him.
Thus it is that life’s exchange (giving and taking) is first internal. We must take care of our own fires, gather our own resources, before we can truly help others. Once we have learned this, giving no longer remains as an act of anxiety but of joy and receiving is no longer a claim, but a recognition of the abundance that already lives in all.
The hollow man seeks the world for completion, but the full man seeks the world only to overflow. And in this lies the simple law: fill yourself, and all true equations with others will balance themselves.