Four Monk

Four monks decided to meditate silently without speaking for two weeks. By nightfall

on the first day, the candle began to flicker and then went out.

The first monk said, “Oh, no! The candle is out.” 

The second monk said, “Aren’t we not suppose to talk?”

The third monk said, “Why must you two break the silence?” 

The fourth monk laughed and said, “Ha! I’m the only one who didn’t speak.”

Be Quick

The monk has revealed that even though they were meditating physically they were not meditating. They were not with themself. They were with what is happening outside and not becoming sensitive regarding what is happening inside of them.

We are unconscious towards ourselves. What is required? Self-alertness.

Have you watched yourself when you are sitting with anyone, may be friends, family members or in a business meeting, the out come of being with others need to bring growth, fulfillment, joy etc. But most of the time the outcome is totally different than what is expected. Why?

Because we are not self-alert and we are not even willing to be self-alert. If in that moment you become self-alert immediately you will calm down and the end result will be totally different. Circumstances and people will be the same but the end result will be different.

Simply look around you will find many people with same qualification and degree but because of their approach towards life and self-alertness changes their success story. Our determination, our success depends on our self-alert-ness. If you are self-alert you will find freedom in your action. Freedom to act or not to act. How to act. You will not be in a hurry or hyper. You will find that on the contrary you will be quick but not in a hurry. There is a difference between in hurry and in quickness. Quickness needs lot of practice and patience.

All of us are watching many sports. When players are on the ground and enter into match they will be so quick but they cannot effort to be in a hurry. They don’t have any time to think but only they can respond to the opponent.

Now from the story you can find that all the four monks were while doing the mediation their whole attention was not towards themselves but what is happening outside. So one by one started reacting to the circumstances. All of them were in hurry and wanted to show that one is better than another.

If we try to be better than other we may win, we may lose but one thing is sure that we lose ourselves. If we put all our education and training on one side and put on the other side ourselves we will find that even if we achieve everything in life at the cost of ourselves but we will never be peaceful. All the time we feel that we have lost something which is much more valuable in our lives than our achievement.

Be quick to catch yourself. Be self-alert towards yourself. Quickness requires to turn towards yourself.

Learning from the story Four Monk: Be Quick

Experience Learning

Quick but steady wins the race.

“Two are better than one, ruling without partner has no fun. Quick is best in nature, but with steady its rather better.”

Gone are the days when people used to say-“slow and steady wins the race”. In this fast moving world, no one wants to be left behind by being slow. Whatever inventions were done in past and the researches going on in present, the most common aim of these is to kill the time and reduce the distance, in whatever way possible.

This challenging situation and mindset of people have given rise to a new concept of “quick but steady wins the race”.

Usain Bolt is the fastest man on Earth, a marathon runner is a legendary sports person in his own standards due to his extreme endurance, but a five thousand meter runner is better than both of the persons discussed above. Because he is at the junction of stamina and speed. Having speed along with endurance and steadiness. No manufacturer would like to have a machine which would produce 200 articles in one hour and 20 articles in remaining working hours, rather he would prefer a machine which would be producing 80 articles each hour.

Speed with steadiness is equivalent to beauty with brain. A person with combination of these two qualities, would not only impress the colleagues and authorities but would also inculcate a sense of security among them, that this person would work monotonously in every adverse condition till the task is completed.

We can also take the example of Japan. Japan in 1945, was completely destroyed by the atomic bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War. But due to quick and steady development policies adopted by the country throughout these years, it has become a super power and is very well ahead of our own country India.

So we should always adopt quick and steady policies because they are successful I short term as well as in long term. Our nation had always lacked such kind of thinking because we are of the thought that slow and long term progression is better. But the time had changed and we have to cope up with the fast pacing world. To do so, we have to inculcate the thought of quick but steady wins the race, in the minds of the young citizens of our country, right from their school days. And in addition to this we also have to put light on the demerits of quick progression without being steady throughout the process. Because many a times, people give all of their energy at the very first go and they have nothing left for the remaining part of the work. And finally the whole task goes into vain without extracting any sort of advantage from it. Also irregularisation in the working of a project ultimately leads unsatisfactory work. Therefore, always while using the word quick, we also have to remember another word associated with it that is steady. Both these two when combined together, always guarantee success.