{"id":98190,"date":"2017-09-18T12:00:33","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T11:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=98190"},"modified":"2017-09-09T15:12:33","modified_gmt":"2017-09-09T14:12:33","slug":"true-skill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/09\/true-skill\/","title":{"rendered":"True Skill"},"content":{"rendered":"

The yogi Raman was a true master of the art of archery. One morning, he invited his favorite disciple to watch a display of his skill. The disciple had seen this more than a hundred times before, but he nevertheless obeyed his teacher.<\/p>\n

They went into the wood beside the monastery and when they reached a magnificent oak tree, Raman took a flower which he had tucked in his collar and placed it on one of the branches. He then opened his bag and took out three objects: his splendid bow made of precious wood, an arrow and a white handkerchief embroidered with lilacs. The yogi positioned himself one hundred paces from the spot where he had placed the flower. Facing his target, he asked his disciple to blindfold him with the embroidered handkerchief. The disciple did as his teacher requested.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow often have you seen me practice the noble and ancient sport of archery?\u201d Raman asked him.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day,\u201d replied his disciple. \u201cAnd you have always managed to hit the rose from three hundred paces away.\u201d<\/p>\n

With his eyes covered by the handkerchief, the yogi Raman placed his feet firmly on the ground, drew back the bowstring with all his might \u2011 aiming at the rose placed on one of the branches of the oak tree \u2011 and then released the arrow. It whistled through the air, but it did not even hit the tree, missing the target by an embarrassingly wide margin.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid I hit it?\u201d asked Raman, removing the handkerchief from his eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, you missed completely,\u201d replied the disciple. \u201cI thought you were going to demonstrate to me the power of thought and your ability to perform magic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have just taught you the most important lesson about the power of thought,\u201d replied Raman. \u201cWhen you want something, concentrate only on that: no one will ever hit a target they cannot see.\u201d<\/p>\n

_____________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dietrich Fischer (1941-2015) from M\u00fcnsingen, Switzerland, got a Licentiate in Mathematics from the University of Bern 1968 and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from New York University 1976. 1986-88 he was a MacArthur Fellow in International Peace and Security at Princeton University. He has taught mathematics, computer science, economics and peace studies at various universities and been a consultant to the United Nations. He was co-founder, with Johan Galtung, of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment<\/a> in 1993<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Excerpted from Dietrich Fischer’s <\/em>Stories to Inspire You<\/a> – TRANSCEND University Press-TUP<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The yogi Raman was a true master of the art of archery. One morning, he invited his favorite disciple to watch a display of his skill. The disciple had seen this more than a hundred times before, but he nevertheless obeyed his teacher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspirational"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}