CASTRATING THE EGO

As we approach the new year, it’s time to purge.  I find it’s a good time to take stock and empty myself in preparation for the unknowns to come. You may have heard the story of the zen master who tells the student who is full of knowledge and opinions to empty his cup so he can learn something.  Here’s what Hafiz has to say about this: 

 A GIGANTIC EGO by Hafiz (translated by Daniel Landinsky)

The only problem with not castrating
A gigantic ego is

That it will surely become amorous
And father
A hundred screaming ideas and kids

Who will then all quickly grow up
And skillfully proceed

To run up every imaginable debt
And complication of which your brain
Can conceive.

This would concern normal parents
And any seekers of freedom
And the local merchants nearby
As well.

They could very easily become forced
To disturb your peace;

All those worries and bills could turn to
Wailing ghosts.

The only problem with not lassoing
A runaway ego is

You won’t have much time to sing
In this sweet world.

Angelus Silesius, a seventeenth-century Catholic poet put it this way:

God, whose love and joy  are present everywhere, Can’t come and visit you  unless you aren’t there. (translated by Frederick Franck) HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!