Empty

No barrel can hold two different drinks. If it is to contain wine, then the water must be poured out so that the barrel is quite empty. Therefore, if you wish to be filled with God and divine joy, then you must pour the creatures out of yourself. St Augustine says: ‘Pour out, so that you may be filled. Learn not to love in order that you may learn to love. turn away, so that you may be turned towards.’ In short, if anything is to be receptive and to receive, it must be empty.

Meister Eckhart, The Book of Divine Consolation, 2