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Previous Volume 340:396-397 February 4, 1999 Number 5 Next

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By Mark Epstein. 200 pp. New York, Broadway Books, 1998. $23. ISBN 0-7679-0234-3.

In the introduction to his book, psychiatrist Mark Epstein recounts the story of a smart and eager professor who sought wisdom from an old Zen master. The master offered him tea and, on the professor's acceptance, poured the tea into a cup. To the professor's dismay, however, the master kept pouring the tea into an overflowing cup, even as the tea spread across the floor.

"A mind that is full cannot take in anything new," the master explained. "Like this cup, you are full of opinions and preconceptions." Wisdom and happiness are to be found only by emptying one's cup.

. . . [Full Text of this Article]

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