After winning several archery
contests, a young and rather boastful champion challenged a Zen master who was
renowned for his skill as an archer. The young man demonstrated remarkable
technical proficiency when he hit a distant bull's eye on his first try, and
then split that arrow with his second shot.
'There,' he said to the old
man, 'see if you can match that!'
Undisturbed, the master did not
draw his bow, but rather motioned for the young archer to follow him up the
mountain. Curious about the old fellow's intentions, the champion followed him
high into the mountain until they reached a deep chasm spanned by a rather
flimsy and shaky log.
Calmly stepping out onto the
middle of the unsteady and certainly perilous bridge, the old master picked a
far away tree as a target, drew his bow, and fired a clean, direct hit. 'Now it
is your turn,' he said as he gracefully stepped back onto safe ground.
Staring with terror into the
seemingly bottomless and beckoning abyss, the young man could not force himself
to step out onto the log, no less shoot at a target. 'You have much skill with
your bow,' the master said, sensing his challenger's predicament, 'but you have
little skill with the mind that lets loose the shot.'
~ Author Unknown
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“All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct
result of his own thoughts.”
~ James Allen
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