The Monk’s Compass

 The Monk’s Compass

A young man wanted to understand success and failure. He was told that a monk in the nearby monastery threw light on various aspects of life, and that people who met him came away with clarity. The young man decided to meet him.

On meeting the monk, the young man said, "I am really confused about success and failure. In this fast-growing, competitive world, I come across many schools of thought and definitions. I want to get a clear picture."

The monk asked, "What is success according to you?"

The young man replied, "Achieving goals."

The monk asked, "What is failure?"

"Not achieving goals, losing opportunities, making mistakes, losing money, and being stressed," the young man answered.

The monk said, "According to you, you are right in your own way. Each one of us has a definition based on our purpose. If we are able to fulfil it, we might feel successful; otherwise, we might feel like a failure and walk with a tag in our heart.

Let me give you a perspective that goes beyond success and failure. Let us understand how people handle it.

If people call a person successful, and he attributes his success to those who trusted him, helped him, and cooperated with him, and if he also adds that there are miles to go before he sleeps and that he does not want to carry the label of success with him, he will see the result as a means and not an end. He will remain what he is and keep moving in life. These are the people who attract others and opportunities, and the net result is what the world perceives as success.

On the other hand, if a person feels that his own brilliance made him successful and walks with pride, he displays ego. That will stop people from approaching him, and opportunities will stop knocking on his door.

When it comes to failure, if someone believes that others' mistakes, lack of cooperation, or lack of trust in him caused his failure, he will never look inward to correct himself. He will remain a failure until he stops blaming others. However, if a person attributes his failure to his own lack of knowledge, carelessness, ego, or lack of preparedness, he is bound to bounce back and start tasting success in his life."

The monk said, "In life, success and failure are a cycle; one follows the other. Whenever we venture into something new, failure may be the first step we encounter, but it is not the only step. We need to keep doing what we should do, with dedication, and accept success with humility and failure with an attitude to learn."

The young man said, "I understand that both are part of the process, and we should keep progressing without attaching ourselves to success or failure."

The monk said, "The essence of life is in detachment, not in attachment."

M.L. Narendra Kumar