BALANCING EFFORT AND PATIENCE

There is a story about a young
man in Japan who wanted to be
the greatest martial artist of the
land. He thought that to reach
this goal, he must study with the
best instructor, who lived many
miles away.
One day he left home to go
study with this great Zen
teacher. After travelling for
several days, he arrived at the
school and was given an
audience with the teacher. What
do you wish to learn from me?
the master asked.
I want you to teach me your art
and help me become one of the
best martial artists in the
country, the young man replied.
How long must I study?
Ten years at least, the master
answered.
The guy thought, ten years is a
lot of time. I want to get his done
sooner than that. I don't have
that much time. Certainly if I try
harder I can complete this task
quicker. So he asked the master,
What if I studied twice as hard
as everyone else? How long
would it take then?
Then it would take twenty
years, replied the master.
The guy thought, 'That's even
longer! I don't want to spend
twenty years learning
something. I've got other things
to do with my life. Certainly if I
tried really hard I could learn it
much quicker'.
So the student asked again,
What if I practised day and
night with all my effort, then
how long would it take?
Thirty years, was the master's
response.
The young student became
confused and wondered why
the master kept telling him it
would take longer.
He asked the master How is it
that each time I say I will work
harder, you tell me that it will
take longer?
The answer is simple. With one
eye focused on your destination,
there is only one eye left with
which to find the way, the
master said.
(Another way of saying this is,
With half your attention on
your goal, you only have the
other half to focus on the work.
Any endeavor takes effort, but it
also takes patience. If we have
one without the other, we get
off balance. with only effort, we
try and try but get frustrated
when we do not see results as
fast as we would like. Or we get
burned out and tired very
quickly. With only patience and
no effort, we never really put
our full attention to a task. We
never give it the commitment we
need. This is as true with school
work as it is with a meditation
practice as it is with sports. in
the story, the master knew that
the student had enough effort;
what he needed was to balance
that effort with patience.)
Just say Om!....Vicc