To learn something new, we must let go of the old.
Picture in your mind a teacup. Imagine that is filled with tea, Earl Grey tea. Now imagine wanting to try another tea. This time, Dragon Pearl Jasmine. If the cup is full and we try to pour more tea into it, the cup will overflow. Even if it is not full, if we pour in the Jasmine and it mixes with the remaining Earl Grey, the mixture would not taste right.
Learning is like this. If we try to take in new teachings but our cup is already full, we’ll take in more than we can handle. Even if our cup is only partially filled, if we had different teachings we may become muddled—an intellectual version of conflicting tastes.
Sometimes, we need to clean the cup—let go of former ideas and notions—to fully and purely appreciate that which is new and different.