mocked the Master 藱 but tense, and my relaxedness was gone. Perhaps it was chance, perhaps it was deliberately arranged by the Master, that we one day found ourselves together over a cup of tea. I seized on this opportunity for a discussion and poured my heart out. " I understand well enough ", I said, " that the hand mustn be opened with a jerk if the shot is not to be spoiled. But however I set about it, it always goes wrong. If I clench my hand as tightly as possible, I can stop it shaking when I open my fingers. If, on the other hand, I try to keep it relaxed, the bowstring is torn from my grasp before the full stretch is reached藱unexpectedly, it is true, but still too early. I am caught between these two kinds of failure and see no way of escape. " " You must hold the drawn bowstring ", answered the Master," like a little child holding the proffered finger. It grips it so firmly that one marvels at the strength of the tiny fist. And when it lets the finger go, there is not the slightest jerk. Do you know why Because a child doesn think: " I will now let go of the finger in order to grasp this other thing." Completely un抯elfconsciously, without purpose, it turns from one to the other, and we would say that it was playing with the things, were it not equally true that the things are playing with the child." " Maybe I understand what you are hinting at with this comparison, " I remarked. " But am I not in an entirely different situation When I have drawn the bow, the moment comes when I feel: unless the shot comes at once I shan be able to endure the tension. And what happens then Merely that I get out of breath. So I must loose the shot whether I want to or not, because I can wait for it any longer. " " You have described only too well " , replied the Master, " where the difficulty lies. Do you know why you cannot wait for the shot and why you get out of breath before it has come The right shot at the right moment does not come because you do not let go of yourself. You do not wait for fulfilment, but brace yourself for failure. So long as that is so, you have no choice but to call forth some thing yourself that ought to happen independently of you, and so long as you call it forth your hand will not open in the right way 藱 like the hand of a child: it does
