The Way To Success
When people cannot succeed in doing things, they usually like to blame others and do not just say, ‘It is not yet the right time or place for me to find success.’ In fact, success does not depend on time and place. It really depends on one’s own effort. The one factor that actually defeats people is that they like to compare themselves with others. Comparison does not really matter. Success really depends on our effort to learn and practice. There is a Zen story which illustrates this well. Here is the story:
There once lived a Zen Monk who was very diligent in learning Dhamma and praticing meditation. Yet still he did not achieve awakening from ignorance. He was upset that he could not live up to his own expectations. According to the amount of learning and practice he had done he should have been calm, concentrated and mindful . However, he still could not find the gate to the Dhamma. He thought to himself that he might have been living too easy a way of life, so he planned to go on pilgrimage to make his life harder. He thus approached his Master to take his farewell. "Master, I feel humbled by you as you have been so very kind to me in many ways: teaching me Dhamma, training me in how to meditate, taking care of me and teaching me so many other things. For years, I have not been able to advance myself and make progress. I am not fit to be your student. Today I come to say goodbye to you. I will go on pilgrimage to find somewhere else to train. Maybe some hardship will allow me to understand the Dhamma of the Buddha." The Zen Master asked his student, "Do you really believe that some other place will offer you a better opportunity to make progress in learning and practising the Dhamma?" The student replied, "Sir, I doubt it. However, I have learned the Dhamma and practised meditation here for years, but still I do not make any progress in the Dhamma and meditation like the other monks do. I am fed up with myself and bored with this place. I had better go somewhere else and lead a harder life in order to learn and practice more." The Master said to him with loving-kindness and compassion, "Look! To progress in learning and practice, or to know Dhamma, is not limited to a certain time or place". He continued, "To learn Dhamma and practise meditation, you cannot compare yourself with others. If you cannot understand the Dhamma yet, you cannot just speed up the process of your learning and practice. Each individual achieves understanding in his own time and in his own way. You should not rubbish what you have done so far. An eagle can fly above other small birds, but it cannot fly above itself." When he listened to his Master’s advice, he understood and decided not to go anywhere. He just put effort into learning Dhamma and practising meditation and did not compare himself with other fellow monks.
The story reminds us that we should make effort to focus on our own task, for our own success and should not compare ourselves to others. To be successful is really an individual matter. Comparision will only bring us down. Succeeding has nothing to do with comparing. The way to success really depends on our effort to learn and practice, it is not dependant on a certain time scale or place and it is not for comparison. What is do you think about this?
