A story told by Viktor Frankl…
He was a desperate seeker and he banged on the door of the master. “I want to be enlightened,” he gasped, “If I stay as your disciple, how long will it take?”
The master surveyed the young man. He had a strong physique and the inner restlessness that drove him was almost palpable. A good candidate. “Ten years,” said the master.
The youth wilted as if struck with an ax. For a few minutes he stood with head bowed, then he looked up. “If I work night and day,” he asked fiercely, “If I do without sleep and do twice what your other disciples do, then how long will it take for me to become enlightened?” “Twenty years,” said the master calmly.
So perplexed was the youth and so earnest his demeanor that the sage relented and explained,
“When you have one eye so firmly fixed on the goal, you have but one eye left to find the way.”
“Don’t aim at success – the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it.
For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue…as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a course greater than oneself.”
~ Viktor Frankl
Very true. Thank you.
Ha Ha Ha, exactly! It takes longer without the needed revelation and spiritual guidance. I know, I was like the young disciple– In a human hurry. Yet, as the saying goes,”the hurrier i got, the behinder i became.” It is best to focus on the spiritual rather than the material ways. G
That was just what I needed today, thanks Evan.
It reminded me of something MBE said in S&H (p.426). “The discoverer of [CS] finds the path less difficult when she has the high goal always before her thoughts, than when she counts her footsteps in endeavoring to reach it.”