After winning several archery contests, a 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 motioned to the young archer to follow him up the mountain.
Curious about the old man’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 on to the middle of the unsteady and certainly perilous bridge, the old master picked a faraway 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 on to the safe ground.
Staring with terror into the seemingly bottomless and beckoning abyss, the young man could not force himself to step out on to 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.”
Image: A postage stamp issued by Thailand on National Children’s Day 1996 has a drawing depicting Makha Bucha (Magha Puja) festival, commemorating the 1,250 enlightened monks who, without prior notice or call, simultaneously came to the Buddha to hear him preach.