Every couple of weeks I receive a little gem in my inbox. It’s an e-mail titled “Warrior of The Light” written by the Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. He tells wonderful stories in his mails. In the last one I found the following story, that I would like to share with you:
Here where I stand
After having won many archery competitions, the town champion sought out the Zen master.
“I am the best of all,” he said. “I did not learn religion, I did not look for help from the monks, and I have been considered the best archer in the whole region. I heard that some time ago you were the best archer in the area, so I ask you: did you have to become a monk to learn to shoot arrows?
“No,” answered the Zen master.
But the champion was not satisfied: he took out an arrow, placed it in his bow, fired, and hit a cherry at a considerable distance. He smiled, as if to say: “You could have saved your time and just dedicated yourself to technique.” And he said: “I doubt if you can do the same.”
Without demonstrating the least concern, the master took his bow and began to walk towards a nearby mountain. On the way there was an abyss that could only be crossed by an old rotting rope bridge that was almost falling down: with the utmost calm, the Zen master went to the middle of the bridge, took his bow, placed an arrow, aimed at a tree on the other side of the gulch, and hit the target.
“Now it’s your turn,” he said gently to the young man as he walked back to safe ground. In trepidation, looking at the abyss below him, the young man went to the indicated spot and fired an arrow, but it landed very far from the target.
“That’s what one gets from discipline and practicing meditation,” concluded the master when the young man re-appeared at his side. “You can be very skilled with the instrument you have chosen to earn a living, but it’s all useless if you can’t manage to master the mind that uses the instrument.”
Paulo Coelho makes me think. He gives me another perspective that I use to put things in perspective. He writes about spirituality in a down-to-earth way about everyday people in unusual situations. If you like this story, visit his site and read the archives. You can subscribe to his mailinglist (he has an RSS feed as well, but somehow it shows up empty in Google Reader). He has written a great number of books as well, amongst others The Alchemist, The Fifth Mountain, The Zahir and The Pilgrimage.
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I love Paul Coelho too. I’m in the middle of The Alchemist and I saw his “new” book looks good too, “The Witch of Portobello.”
I read the description of “The Witch” and it looks pretty good. It feels like it has that enigmatic touch again. It’s on my wish list currently (I have so many books I still plan to read).