Once upon a time, a young man came to a fencing master and asked him to teach him how to fight with swords. The master agreed and, drawing a large square in the yard with white paint, said:
- Walk along this square.
The student took up the task with Asian tenacity and walked around this square for eight hours every day. But after six months, his patience began to wear thin. He approached the mentor again and said:
- Master, I came to learn sword fighting, but I’m still mindlessly trampling around this square...
- Haven’t you figured out how to fence yet?! - exclaimed the mentor. - Then continue to walk around this square and further. And again the young man walked in the yard for six months until his patience came to an end.
- That's it, teacher. “I’m leaving,” he said.
- But why? - the mentor was surprised. - You're making progress.
“I came to fence, not to march around this square.”
- Haven’t you figured out how to fence yet? - asked the teacher.
“No,” answered the student.
“Okay, now we’ll see,” said the mentor.
With these words, he took two swords from the wall - but not wooden training ones, but two steel and razor-sharp blades. He handed one to the young man, and took the other himself. The student clumsily grabbed the handle.
“Now,” said the master, “remember your inner state that you had when you walked along this square.”
At the same moment, the student’s gaze stopped and stopped expressing anything. The teacher raised his sword and struck at the young man, but he instantly reacted and parried it with his blade. Again and again the teacher struck, but again and again his sword met the student’s blade on the way. Then the master lowered his weapon and asked again:
- Well, now do you understand how to fencing with swords?
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru