Melanie Spiller and Coloratura Consulting
Copyright 2020 Melanie Spiller. All rights reserved.
Broken Glass
Melanie Spiller and Coloratura Consulting
About a month or so ago, my dear friend Mindy came over for dinner. I served the meal in some heavy
ceramic bowls that she admired and she asked where I’d gotten them. When I told her that I’d had them for
many years, she said “the glass is already broken.”
I was mystified. She explained that in her household, dishes and such tended to break because so many
people came trooping through, so she was always on patrol for replacements. She went on to talk about the
Buddhist koan “the glass is already broken.” She and I agreed that it seemed to mean that no matter how
much sentiment, nostalgia, or monetary value we attribute to things, one day, they will break or otherwise
no longer be ours. In the spirit of Buddhist non-ownership and impermanence, it is wise to think of the
glass/bowl/cup as already broken.
I did a little thinking about it in the next few days (Mindy is very wise, and she is always saying things that
make me think for a few days), and then I forgot about it.
Then, I went to this little meditation group that meets in my neighborhood, and the evening’s koan was “the
glass is already broken.” I’d already gone down this path a little ways, so I was delighted to meet my old
friend in this way.
Again, I let it resonate for a day or two (I ate out of one of those bowls, too), and then it slipped out of my
head.
Last Monday, I sat next to a stranger on a plane. We talked about our jobs, traveling, being vegetarians, his
wife’s religious belief in the Great Spaghetti Monster, and had a nice little conversation. And then, out of the
blue, he said “the glass is already broken.”
The plane could have dropped out of the sky in that moment and I wouldn’t have noticed.
I had thought that the koan was about the intemperance of things, about falsely associating things with
meaning. I had thought that I’d understood what it was supposed to teach me.
Apparently not.
In the last week or four, I’ve been feeling general dissatisfaction about some social commitments, some
musical endeavors, and about my job. Oh, none of it was new dissatisfaction; it just seemed all to be boiling
unpleasantly at the same moment. And in truth, none of those things are incredibly unsatisfying. They’re just
going through a cycle of unpleasantness on their ways to being pleasant again.
But this expression, the koan “the glass is already broken” coming out of this unexpected mouth, made me
realize that I’d been thinking in terms of physical things themselves, and not really about my own attitude
toward them. For me, now anyway, this koan is about false expectations.
I expect to always enjoy my musical endeavors, my social engagements, and because it has been true in the
past, I even expect to enjoy my job. But really, life is about change, not about stasis. We grow up, we grow
old, pets, people, and plants die, people move away, move up, move on. There is no way to stop any of that,
and there’s really no excuse for wanting to stop it.
My job, my social commitments, my musical endeavors—all of these add color to my life. It’s really not
reasonable of me to expect them to add meaning. Sometimes they do, and for those times, I am grateful.
When they don’t, though, there’s no sense griping about it. Change seems to be the only permanent thing,
after all.
Someday, whether I own them or not, those bowls will break.