I was speaking in London, and I given analogy of practice. And there was a little Chinese story that I came across when I was in china. And there was an archer, he came to town and he was exhibiting his talents. He was showing off and it was wonderful. He was riving incredible marksman right one arrow after one right on the dot. And there was a guy standing in the back of the crowd instead of cheering him, kept saying, it is just a matter of practice. But certain this archer thought a lot of himself and did not like this comment. He was expecting praise and he did not like the comment, just primarily a matter of practice, just a matter of practice.
He got fairly turned off and went over to the guy and said what do you mean? Really upset, what do you mean it is a matter of practice? Can you do what I can do? He goes what, no. but let me show you something. And so he took, because this guys use to sell oil, he took a bottle which had a very narrow opening, long tube and then a bowl at the bottom. And he was able to take this big container of oil and pour the oil where it went right though that little opening right through that bottle and not a drop spill. And he looked at the archer and said can you do that? And the archer realized that no he could not do that, he had not had any practice doing that and he goes you know I cannot shoot the arrows like you but you cannot pour the oil like me, it is a matter of practice.
Now, what is the point of telling that story? The next question is what do you practice? Because invariably, whatever you practice, you are going to get good at it. And this is not a question of good or bad. If you practice cheating the saint, you are going to get good at cheating the saint. If you practice complaining, you are going to get very good a complaining. I mean you will be able to complain about everything. Without batting an eye or having the second thought, it will be a flow.
Mean all your friends are standing there looking at the big harvest moon, beautiful night, and everybody in all those tears and in all of this beautiful, beautiful evening, you will be able to pull out of your hat without a second thought something to complain about. It is so dark.
So what do you practice in your life? Because if you practice peace in your life, you are going to get good at it. You are going to get very good at it. If you practice joy in your life, you are going to get very good at it. If you practice happiness in your life, you are going to get very very good at it. If you practice knowing yourself, then you are going to get very very good at it. And you will know who you are.
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