The minister of The Tang Dynasty was known to be a great leader and statesman. However in spite of all this he considered himself humble and devout Buddhist. He would often spend the weekend visiting the Zen Master to study and learn from him and both seemed to get along well. The fact that he was minister did not affect his relationship with the Zen Master and they struck it off well like a diligent student and discerning master.
One weekend the minister asked the master "Sir, what is egotism according to you". The master's fumed an in a very insulting and reverberating tone he sad "What kind of stupid question is that"
This kind of reply shocked the minister and he was angry and annoyed. The Zen Master then smiled and said "This Your Excellency, is egotism"
The lesson for us is that experience is the father of explanation and you imbibe more by just experience rather than someone telling or showing. It was however possible that the minister would not have sensed what the master wanted him to experience and that's one key reason why learning fails. We put our own walls of egotism and scaling those walls is a huge task.
If you want to really achieve then you need to break those walls of egotism and keep the mind open to learning. This is similar to the "Empty Cup" phenomenon in the other story we discussed.
Leaders too have to shed their obsession of self importance and start thinking about how the others can grow, benefit, learn, improve and so on. Egotistic leaders are only concerned about their own position, how they will grow, how they will move up the pecking order.... without much worry about the larger team. You will find them organizing "durbars" or "mini courts" with participants singing praises in a sense.
Other Lessons from Stories
The Archers Lesson
Learning from Stories
One weekend the minister asked the master "Sir, what is egotism according to you". The master's fumed an in a very insulting and reverberating tone he sad "What kind of stupid question is that"
This kind of reply shocked the minister and he was angry and annoyed. The Zen Master then smiled and said "This Your Excellency, is egotism"
The lesson for us is that experience is the father of explanation and you imbibe more by just experience rather than someone telling or showing. It was however possible that the minister would not have sensed what the master wanted him to experience and that's one key reason why learning fails. We put our own walls of egotism and scaling those walls is a huge task.
If you want to really achieve then you need to break those walls of egotism and keep the mind open to learning. This is similar to the "Empty Cup" phenomenon in the other story we discussed.
Leaders too have to shed their obsession of self importance and start thinking about how the others can grow, benefit, learn, improve and so on. Egotistic leaders are only concerned about their own position, how they will grow, how they will move up the pecking order.... without much worry about the larger team. You will find them organizing "durbars" or "mini courts" with participants singing praises in a sense.
Other Lessons from Stories
The Archers Lesson
Learning from Stories
