Why Not?

I have often found myself trying break down cliches and look for some sort of alternate answer. When I say cliches, I mean all things contrived of by mankind. We are convinced everything we believe is in some way truth. Forget about group think and focus hard on individual. This is highly important to conceptualize the following:

I have been asked this question, as each of us has, many times in life. Do you see the water glass as half full or half empty? Most of you will have already seen the answer to this question in your head as you read the question. This is the answer that you accept as your truth. Like it or not. So there is the choice, one or the other, please choose.

In my non-linear mind I always answered this question with a question. Can I choose a smaller glass in which to put my water? That way I do not have to worry about the answer. I simply have enough water in the new glass. In fact, I can even have too much water, so that the rim is overflowed. The glass could become so small that I would no longer need water to fulfill me. Simply having knowledge of the glass would be having. Soon I would no longer need the concept of the glass, for it exists only for a purpose. A purpose that I would no longer be enslaved by.

The notion of choosing either of the given choices, half full or half empty, implies a need to be fulfilled. In other words, you must have a want. You must want in order to choose either of the options given. Choosing the perceived negative of the two is simply expressing the want for more water, to have the half empty glass added to with more of the same, no matter how negative the outlook of the chooser may be. The final result is wanting more water, just being mean about it.

For those of you that feel the more positive choice suits you, you are misguided in your thought process. For by adding a positive spin to the choices given, you have simply expressed your desire for more water in a perceptually nicer manner. You have asked for nothing different, only asked in a different way. In the end, you proclaim the glass as half full, thus implying something missing. When something is missing, want fills the void. This is a conundrum.

In order to better understand, please consider the question as follows: Do you choose the glass half full or half empty of urine? Let us assume the urine is that of someone unknown to you and must be consumed by you. You are presented with the same two options to choose from. Do you pick half full or half empty? It becomes rather obvious that those choices have no bearing on the outcome, for you still have a glass of foreign urine to drink. So your choice will simply indicate whether or not you will be enjoying the forced result. You do not change the outcome by being nice about it. Nor do you accomplish anything with negativity. It can be said that you lose either way...kinda like Vegas.

For those of you who accept that the glass is fine as it is, for this is an option as well, nothing will be different about your choice. Accepting the glass as neither half of anything, but an acceptable whole, is simply allowing the desire for the water to remain as is. You still possess a want for the water you have in your possession. The decision to shrink the glass is but one path toward the complete removal of the need for the glass and in such, the need for the water. Remove the want and the need will follow.

So we are back to the seemingly wrong choice that I made in answering the question. The limit in choices is only perceived, it is not real. There are an infinite number of choices, I have only selected one in a long chain of understanding. I have chosen a smaller glass in order to reduce my wanting. This is step one of many that will eventually lead to a level of understanding that frees me completely from a desire to possess. I have all that I need within me and you can always go home with that knowledge.

Now, I no longer ask if I may have a smaller glass, but accept that I have already chosen and now must move forward on this path. When I asked for the smaller glass, I received it. And once you realize you are able to ask for things outside of the rulebook we are instructed to follow, you can begin to see the light. Not the light we want to be there, but the light that is there.