There are specific applicable scales to measure dry and liquid measures. But no such precision instruments are known to man for measuring intellectual, emotional and spiritual capacity. Consequently we have chosen the figurative “cup” to denote such individual capacity. Some may have a spoon or cup size, some pint size, others quart or gallon measure. But regardless of size, when this capacity is exceeded it overflows regardless of the contents.
Consider also how a cup that overflows will saturate its immediate surroundings with whatever it contains. The cup that overflows with honey will sweeten all about it, the cup of vinegar will make sour whatever it overflows upon while the cup of acid or other venom will poison what it saturates. The same theory applies to the psychological or emotional cup that overflows. This denotes the dire necessity of filling one’s cup with what will have the most positive effect upon our immediate surroundings, the pivotal point starting in the home with one’s individual family and inevitably spread throughout the family of man.
May we also seriously consider that the cup half filled with contaminated water and half filled the purest water would still be unfit for human consumption. Only when it is thoroughly emptied and cleansed of all impurities can it be fit for consumption. Neither can it then contaminate its surroundings with its overflow, as human capacities invariably will.
In today’s increasingly materialistic society and especially during this most material of all seasons, the mercenary cups of adults throughout the world are overflowing with the insatiable quest to out spend, out shine, and out do previous years and present friends and associates, saturating their entire environment with unrequited materialistic contaminants, poisoning not only their immediate surroundings but posterity as a whole. Such contaminants are detrimental to physical, mental, economic and spiritual well-being and impede spiritual and societal progress. Among them we find ignorance, which perpetuates fear, superstitions, selfishness and greed while overflow of the perpetual quest for knowledge and truth will inevitable saturate its surroundings with spiritual susceptibilities conducive to open mind and heart respect for self and the differences in others, to unity, peace and love – the primary reason for the season celebrated by diverse cultures, races and religions.
If we wish to saturate the earth and its people with life, liberty and justice for all we must empty our cups of all that runs counter to such harmonious cohabitation, then carefully and prayerfully fill each cup with those ingredients that would counteract the constant poisonous overflow of prejudice, hate, materialism and nationalism which continue to saturate successive generations of mankind.
How often do we repeat from the Baha’i Writings, “In the world of existence there is no greater force than the magnet of love. Pure, untarnished love however, seldom, emanates from man, but through man from his Creator, once the pith of self has been removed.
In the madding hustle and bustle of this holiday season, may we pause to reflect on the real “reason for the season” while observing how diametrically today’s world is going in the opposite direction.
When one considers the quantum leap in the advancement of science and technology within only the past 180 years (the Baha’i Era) of a planet purported to be millions of years old, we must face the obvious conclusion that, if we are on the right track at this critical juncture in the history of man’s evolution, we are definitely going the wrong way.
Envision then this special holiday season (by whatever name) what a wonderful world this will be when each “cup runneth over with love.”
