Skill with the mind . . .
Here I go again. Another zen blog today. Why do I publish zen stories here? When I read some of these zen stories, what I want to do is to broadcast this story to every single person I know. In fact, I want to tell these stories to everyone personally so we can then have that little interesting discussion what these mean to each of us. By the way, in case you’re in doubt, this is a ’secular’ blog (we’re all secular because elections are around). All I do is just publish the zen stories because they are short, sweet and pack a punch.
Here are couple of very simple, uncomplicated truths.
This is the story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbours came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically. “May be,” the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbours exclaimed. “May be,” replied the old man.
The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbours again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. “May be,” answered the farmer. The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbours congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. “May be,” said the farmer.
Great story. The old man never wants to call those as events of good fortune or misfortune. Why classify them into this or that? He does not reject them. He accepts them, but without a preference. For all those things that happen to the old man, it is his neighbours who are happy or unhappy. He doesn’t care how they feel and in fact he only has a ‘may be’ feeling.
After winning several archery contests, the 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 the 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.”
Oh how I love this one! How true the master’s words are. ‘Skill with the mind’. In normal circumstances, archery was a matter of routine for the champion. It was a matter or practice and routine that it became a reflexive skill. A matter of dexterity and hand-eye co-ordination. When he was put in unfamiliar grounds, he had to control his mind, its fear and its doubts, but he could not even concentrate. Thus, he had less skill with his mind though he had much skill with the bow.
Come up with your views and comments.
I live these stories! Of the two, I like the farmer story the best. Why should we attach interpretations to events? We never know how it will all come out.
Vjy,
Normally the Zen stories provides us the real perspective of how the life has to be taken ot have a look at thru.
In the farmers story :- Need to take the outcome the way it is and possible add a spice in the form of effort in making it to be relevant for you.
In relation to Archers story – it is completely relevant for anyone who does try for anything, either cooking, making a movie, batting in a cricket match, giving a seminar …. so on anythin you take if you have the fear in mind that ” you may loose”, then defently it balnkets your skill and cannot really get the sucess.
Thats where Skill with Mind comes in to place for Sachin today as he made 62 runs and no skill with mind of Yuvraj thats why he has not made any contribution
Hi V.J.!
Great minds think alike…I wrote a post about the farmer story but have not published it yet. I was planning on publishing it next week but now I will wait.
Anyway…isn’t that a great story…there is no good and no bad…there just is!
You have a beautiful blog!
Hey Nadia!
Yes indeed, it’s a fantastic story! What I also realise is that it is not very difficult to think like that farmer. Never too happy, never too sad, never too angry, never too mad. The farmer of this story will never be ruffled by anything in life. He will always be peaceful.
Vijay…
I like the 2nd one & learnt a lesson because it has the content to realize and a good lesson to excel in what you are doing. To me, it concludes one has to work on “How to make our subconcious mind work more & powerful irrespective of changes around”
And, the 1st one you might be correct to some extent (peaceful life) but life without emotions is not exiting. If you keep telling “May be” for everything, everone knows the answer before expressing something.? and how can one laugh, express joy, fun or enjoy life if your mind is stick to idle quote? One has to keep his mind calm and peaceful and not his actions. If we keep stick to the word “may be” there won’t be any inventions in this world. “May be” word might be correct for the people celebrating diamond jubilee.
MKP – The thing about zen stories is that, they are not a lesson or preaching or expectation. It’s upto you to get what you want to get from these stories. In fact, what we are left with are only stories. There are no ‘official’ explanation or interpretation of these stories as such.
In the first story, they way I saw it, the essence is not that we should keep telling ‘may be’. That’s simplifying so much that you do injustice to the story and yourself. I can tell you that the farmer in the story could be the happiest person in the world and that’s very possible. Just because he kept saying ‘may be’ does not mean he lacked emotions. I’d say he was wise. The story just tells you about what we perceive as good and bad. Link this to the earlier blog I had written about my school experience titled Single cell is one cell . . .
You said something about inventions in this world and that a ‘may be’ attitude would mean that there won’t be any inventions. I’d say ’so be it’. Who said we need to keep inventing things? What’s the big deal about inventions. Of course, inventions have been made and I’m a beneficiary myself of many. So what?
May be….
Skill with the mind – Why Skill with mind & why not ” mind with a skill “?
I was trying to understand the story with – “Mind with the skill” …
When you say ” Mind with the skill ” – It gives importance to mind, & then focuses on skill.
Well, just a rational priorisation.
Nice stories. Both stories are certainly interlinked with each other!
Infact the first story is so close to Tamil saying “Idhuvum kadandhu pogum (This will also pass by)”! Time is an excellent healer of many problems! It is good to be happy and excited but it is also important to not get mesmerized by the excitement! It is good to cry and breakdown but it is also important to wipe your face and think what next?
Second story says, In life we might come across problems that are so mean, problems that might sweep you completely off your feet and heart breaking as well! It is good to cry and breakdown. As MKP rightly pointed out emotions are so very important. That’s what differentiates humans from animals, but it is also important to wipe your face and think what next?
Control of mind in toughest situations as demanded in story 2 will be highly challenging if we don’t understand the essence of story 1! These are my interpretations of these stories by experience! With God’s blessings and mercy Zen mind made me successful in my toughest situations! I know I got way to go!
“When you are surrounded feel happy that you can attack from all corners” is also my favourite quote! Not related to this story, just thought of sharing though
Vj,
The little boy looks so cute! I never knew you had the same hair cut as a kid as well
Santy – Why do you think emotions differentiate humans and animals? Animals do have emotions. I never knew about your zen mind
Btw, I had an even better haircut as a kid. Someday, I’ll publish my childhood photo in this blog.
Prithvi – It is skill with the mind and not mind with the skill. I’ll let you think why
Prithivi,
Oh come on! Not again! You always have the habit of juggling the words
Naughty fellow! But you are surprisingly different in your thought process every time!
I am loving it
Mind with skill? I do have a mind! But skill @#!$%#@……Hmmmmm not interested 
Vj,
You are right by saying that you never knew my Zen mind! I myself knew that I never had one! (I mean Zen mind)
I never said ‘MY’ Zen mind helped me. I only said, “Zen mind helped me!” My dearest friend took charge of all my toughest decisions! What did I do? Well I believed him, rather his Zen mind
P.S: I surrender! Animals do have emotions, a government, a country and also an election as well
Santy – You led us to believe that you were talking about yourselves. Thanks for the clarification. Otherwise I thought of asking you on what you meant by that. Conceptually, there is no such thing called ‘zen mind’. That’s a different and longer discussion. So, let’s park it aside for now.
P.S:
I like the archer story!! Mind over matter!
Vijay,
Do you still stick to your words if you are living with the farmer.? To me, seeing/listening to one’s life is different than living with him. As said life will be happy & peaceful but if the farmer is living with a family and we are one among them will you still say “May be” will work & still you see life is interesting with him living? Unless one shows the emotions, discuss the happenings around, express his views on the moments how can he enjoy or give the joy, laugh, fun, love, happiness and what’s the purpose of living together when you already know the answer for every moment. One should keep his mind calm but not in expressing.
I accept life will still go on with out any investions but that’s not living is meant for. “A Ship is fine and safe at seashore but its not build for that purpose” same as life.
Mind – Mind gives energy, controls direction, balances conditions so on & so forth . . .Mind is the source of any life/objects in space & time.
Skill – In my view, a skill is defined as the repetitive process of performing any activity.Like we say generic or specialised skill.
Now the stories mentioned above carried 2 aspects :
a) Having a balanced approach towards one’s life
b) Power of mind is always important than any skill
Hence, it’s logical to say “Mind with a skill” . . .
Great stories VJKrishna!
The first story of the “may be” mentality shows that you do not have to “react” or “judge” right away but learn to stay calm and accept the situation at hand. Once you have accepted it, then you respond accordingly. Nowadays, we are at times so caught up with the rat race and hectic lifestyle. Therefore, we forget to sometimes relax and step back to exercise the “may be” mentality. This approach can sometimes be helpful for individuals, families and even big companies.
If anyone has seen “The Last Samurai”, then you would remember the part in the movie when Tom Cruise was dueling with the Master Swordsman and kept loosing until his friend jumped in and whispered in his ear, “No Mind”
Which is quite pertinent to your second story VJKrishna
@MKP – “A Ship is fine and safe at seashore but its not build for that purpose” same as life.
I believe in this adage strongly. Goes well with this discussion.
I understand the essence of the stories mentioned. It is upto us what we take from this. We can’t go by the letter & spirit
@Santy – ‘You always have the habit of juggling the words”
It’s not juggling – It is sequencing, comparing & analyzing
It’s not with words – It’s with causes,interpretations & effects
Hope you agree
Prithivi,
I agree, is there a moment we disagreed with each other (I know it is dangerous to run business this way)
It is sequencing, comparing & analyzing. But not always sequencing and analyzing is required. The meaning and the way you look at it completely differs if you analyse it without sequencing!
I completely agree “Power of mind is always important than any skill”, I never disagreed. In other way “It is also important for a skillful person to hold his ground and control his mind”. Skill with mind
There are people who are like match stick. Too much skill on head and no mind to get burnt That’s the way I looked at it! 
I also agree that it is with causes, interpretations & effects but without sequencing
MKP
With moral stories, the one thing we should not do is to take things by the letter. You should understand the lesson and move on. When we’re told Ramayana and Mahabharata, we don’t apply logic. We just try to understand the morals. It’s something like that. For some reason, in your eyes, the farmer looks like a boring man devoid of emotions. That need not be the case. Just because someone is level-headed does not mean they don’t give the joy, fun, love, happiness etc. All that he does is not to get overwhelmed by the circumstances – be it good or bad. A better living example is Sachin Tendulkar. You call him a God or a liability, he’s not influenced. He simply goes on unperturbed.
Finally, in such stories, if you look for the logic, you’ll miss the truth. Don’t miss the truth. The truth is “this too shall pass”.
You said “ships are safe and sound in shores but they’re not built for that purpose”. Very fine indeed. So easy to find the purpose for a man-made object. You can find a purpose for every man-made lifeless object. What would be the purpose of man or his life?
Vj,
I do understand your thought to say, ” Conceptually, there is no such thing called ‘zen mind’ “. You are right according to you. I know you would also understand my thoughts and beliefs of saying there is ‘Zen mind’. I am right according to me. At any point of time there can be two people who are right and opposite! May be! Why not
I believe you same as you believe me or not 
Santy – Zen is all about no mind. Let’s not go further.
Hey,
I love those two stories, How true! and the idea of not attaching good or bad to an event and accepting it just as another day or night. Cool man, please keep writing