First empty your cup.

Nan-in, a Japanese Zen Master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor, a philosopher, who came to inquire about Zen.

Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring.

The professor watched the overflow, until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!"

"Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"

This famous Zen teaching, A Cup of Tea, clearly points us to the simple truth that we must create space within, in order to discover our spiritual self. 

Right now, most of us are so full to overflowing with our small self. The selfish one, the one overflowing with thoughts of past and future. When we empty our cup of this one, all becomes possible.