It was a beautiful day
and the sun was shining. Miranda was
sitting on
the outdoor table in front of the hut in the forest that was
Benjamin's favorite place to hang out. Her crystal ball was placed in
the middle of the table and there was also a teapot with steaming tea
and two cups. Benjamin was walking towards her, happy that she was
indeed present upon his arrival just like she had promised. He really
needed a little break from studying. He had been working very hard all
week."Would you like some tea, Benjamin?" Miranda asked.
"Yes, that would be very nice," he said. She poured some green tea into his cup and actually stopped before it was overflowing. Benjamin felt relieved that she did not make his tea cup overflow like what happened to the guy in the last story. "Well, of course not; I am here to learn," he thought.
"How have you been doing, Benjamin?" asked Miranda. "What is on your mind today?"
"Oh, I was just thinking," he said, "how I have been working very hard in all my subjects. I studied a lot and worked very hard, yet it seems that in the subject I work the hardest, I don't seem to progress very much."
"And which subject is that?" she asked.
"It's my violin playing," he said. "My friend, the one who stole my girl-friend, seems to be better than me now. We used to be about the same. Gosh, I really want to beat him and that's why I work so hard. I don't think that he works as hard as I do, but he makes hardly any mistakes when he plays, he produces a better sound than me, and he has just turned into an overall better player. Can you help me to beat him? He already has my girl-friend; now I wish that I could at least be the better violin player. It doesn't seem fair, if one person has everything."
"I understand your feelings," she said. "Let's ask the crystal ball about it, shall we? I don't think your friend has ever seen one of those!" she remarked, smiling, while pointing to her ball. He looked at her and nodded.
There it was again,
that
magic sight when the
crystal ball lit up. Surely, Benjamin's friend did not have that kind
of experience! Benjamin saw two martial arts practitioners fighting
(see picture).
Both of them seemed extremely skilled and it was amazing to watch them
perform. After a while, the image in the crystal ball changed. It now
showed a young martial artist with a white belt talking to another man,
middle aged, who wore a black belt. They were the only two persons
visible now and they were talking to each other. The younger one,
probably the student, asked the other one, who was presumably his
master, "How long will it take me to master the martial arts and be as
good as you are?" "At least ten years," replied the master. "Yeah, but
I am
willing to work really hard, because I want to learn it as soon as
possible. Do you think I could do it in five years?" asked the student
impatiently." "Well, in this case, it should take at least twenty
years,"
responded the master. After that
the crystal ball went black
again."How did you like the story?" asked Miranda.
"Do you mean that I should not try so hard to become a good violinist?" Benjamin asked, a bit disillusioned.
"No, I don't mean that you shouldn't try hard, but sometimes we can lose touch with what we are doing, if all that matters is to achieve a certain goal. Of course, you live in a time when there is a lot of emphasis on producing results, and while it is alright to have some goals, some may actually hinder us. That means that you must be careful to not let the goal take over what you are doing. The goal to be better than someone else is the kind of goal that only hinders us in the long run. It robs you of energy and focus which you need to play well. Rather than focusing on being successful in mastering a skill, on learning something fast or better than someone else, you must be content with learning the skill, and unconcerned about the time and effort needed for its mastery. Do you understand? - Benjamin looked like he was thinking about it. - You know that you are doing it right when you develop the ability to get 'lost' in what you are doing. At this point, you forget about any goal you had when starting to learn something and also at this point, you have the ability to become really masterful. Determination can do wonders for many things in life, but some things can't be mastered without your willingness to completely let go. You must forget about the goal to be perfect so all your energy, your whole person can work on the skill. Paradoxically, only then can you become your best at it, and right when you have given up the goal to beat someone, then it actually will happen. Of course, it will no longer be important for you at this point. Does that make sense?"
"I have never thought of it that way," said Benjamin. "I have probably been investing too much energy in beating my friend and that distracted me from playing well myself. - How can I relax when it means so much to me to show that I am better than he is? - You are right, I will try to forget about competing and just play. I may not always succeed, but at least I understand now that this hinders me more than it helps me. I am not a bad player, so I think that I could actually 'get lost' in playing when I give up trying to compete with him. Maybe it explains why my friend has suddenly become the better player. I have been too distracted by trying too hard to beat him. You are right, I shouldn't play for his sake, but rather for myself."
"Let me know next time how things are progressing," Miranda said. "I am very curious if you will notice a change. Say, would you like to play for me next time? I would love to listen, because I am actually quite fond of the violin."
"Sure, I'd love to. I'll bring my violin, if I don't forget. Thanks for the story for today. I have to go now, but I hope to see you next time!?"
"Good bye, Benjamin. You know where to find me!"
"Yes, I do. I will think about all that you are teaching me. Good bye, Miranda!"
Author's note:
I did not change the original story, but embedded it into a frame story so people could relate to it better. This story is very good to help people to better understand Zen. The aims of this philosophy are at times not congruent with those of our society where results are all important. With Zen, it is more important for the person to experience something than to achieve something. Actually, the goal of achievement is not only not essential for Zen, but it is rather a hindrance. In the above story, the martial arts student is preoccupied with the goal to learn something quickly and that's why his master told him that it would take much longer for him. He had the wrong focus.
When we think about people who are really masterful in an art, then we will usually find that those people love what they are doing. Their goal is not to outdo someone. Often those people don't even think that they are so special. Writing this I think for example about Yo-Yo Ma. He is an amazing cello player, but he is completely down to earth and very nice. I just looked Yo-Yo Ma up on YouTube and here is what he said: "All you have to do is just to be yourself." How nice! This could be called the moral of the above story in a nutshell. Then Yo-Yo Ma continued while I was typing, "It's never about proving something, but about sharing something." There is nothing for me to add to these beautiful words.