If Excellence Is Your Ideal Everything Else Will Fall Into Place

A young man went to Gautama Buddha and sought the Master’s guidance on how to achieve Enlightenment.

Young Man (YM): Master, how long will it take for me to achieve enlightenment?

Gautama Buddha (GB): It all depends on you.

YM: If I put in ten hours of meditation every day, how long will it take?

GB: Maybe ten years.

YM: What if I put in fifteen hours meditation?

GB: Maybe fifteen years.

YM: (getting irritated) What if I meditate for twenty hours?

GB: Maybe twenty five years.

YM: I cannot understand your logic! The more effort I put in the more time it will take ….this is ridiculous! Please explain.

GB: As long as you are fixated and obsessed about your goal you will not achieve it. Just do spiritual practice without one eye on the goal. Let events take their shape.

 

The things we desire most: money, power, status etc are best left to shape themselves. What we must keep as our main goal, is best exemplified by a person who told his young sons, “It does not matter what you do in life. I request you to aspire to be the very best in terms of excellence in whatever you do. If you choose to be a janitor, try and become the best janitor in town.”

In other words, excellence ought to be our ideal and everything else ought to be a side effect.

Keep Smiling :)