Progress with Patience

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Covid times may sometimes be frustrating but it is teaching the best lesson of practicing  "Patience". Here is one short Zen story.


A rich man, fond of felines, asked a famous Zen ink painter to draw him a cat. The master agreed and asked the man to come back in three months. When the man returned, he was put off, again and again, until a year had passed. Finally, at the man’s request, the master drew out a brush, and, with grace and ease, in a single fluid motion, drew a picture of a cat—the most marvelous image the man had ever seen. He was astonished; then he grew angry. “That drawing took you only thirty seconds! Why did you make me wait a year?” he demanded. Without a word, the master opened up a cabinet, and out fell thousands of drawings—of cats.


My learning from this - Excellence is a function of time and practice. Don’t rush: Those of us who are always pushing hard, running up the mountain, may reach the top first only to realize we forgot to enjoy the climb.

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