Stories | Fiction

On Building a Strong Mindset

Stories I heard and read on the web.

Story #1

Once upon a time, a Zen master was visited by a Scholar. The scholar had come to the master to learn about Zen. He had a long list of questions and a mind full of preconceived ideas. The Zen master offered the scholar tea and began to pour in his cup, but he didn’t stop pouring until the cup was full. Of course, the tea spilt on the scholar’s lap, and the scholar became inflamed.

He exclaimed, “Why did you do that? Can’t you see the cup is full?” The master replied, “Exactly, your mind is like this cup, already filled with ideas and opinions. To truly learn something new, you must empty your cup first or everything else will spill out”.

This story illustrates the Zen Buddhism concept of approaching life with a beginner’s mindset, open to new experiences and possibilities.

Story #2

From Art & Fear by David Bayles

Once upon a time, there was a teacher called Brian. One day, Brian divided his students into two equal groups of five. He asked one group to make a pot every single day for the next 30 days, meaning 30 pots in total. He asked the other group to work on a single pot for 30 days. After a month, Brian checked the results, and the highest quality pots came from the quantity group, which had to make 30 pots for 30 days. On the contrary, not a single one came from the quality group, who worked on a single pot for 30 days. Here’s an important lesson here which is:

That when we’re learning something, the easiest path to quality is quantity. In other words, if we do something over and over again and again, we will get rid of the fear of imperfection. But if we focus solely on quality from the start, we won’t get the expected results. It’s the same as practicing again and again makes a person perfect.

Story #3

Once upon a time, there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away. The local villagers came to his house and consoled him, “We’re so sorry, your horse has run away.” The farmer replied, “Maybe.” The next day, the horse came back with another 5–6 horses. The local villagers said to him, “Wow! What a change in fate. Now you have 7 horses!” The farmer again just said, “Maybe.” On the third day, the farmer’s son was trying to ride one of the new horses but fell off and broke his leg. The villagers said, “We’re so sorry for your son.” The farmer, just said, “Maybe.” After a few days, some army officials came to the village to conscript boys for the army, but they didn’t take the farmer’s son because he had a broken leg. The local villagers appeared to him and said, “Isn’t that great? The officials didn’t take your son?”. And again, the farmer said, “Maybe”.

This story reminds us that we can’t categorise what happens to us as bad luck or good luck. Sometimes bad (breaking a leg) can lead you to good (avoiding death in battle). We should not get fully attached to what happens to ourselves in life and instead, focus on enjoying the journey.

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