Wednesday, March 23, 2011

When excellence becomes an attitude

Here, I bring you guys again a story which no one knows who wrote it. Its root is untraceable. But as usual, I thought, it would at least make you guys think about something very important aspect of things we do in life.
A man once paid a visit to a temple. The temple was not fully built; it had its statues, and altars all under construction. There was a sculptor outside the temple making a statue of a God. The site took him by a surprise when he saw a similar statue lying beside the sculptor.
 "Do you need two statues of the same GOD?" He couldn’t hold his curiosity.
"No," said the sculptor without looking up, "We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage."
The gentleman looked at the idol and found no apparent damages. "Where is the damage?"  
"There is a scratch on the nose of the idol," said the sculptor, still busy with his work.
"Where are you going to install the idol?"
The sculptor replied that it would be installed on a pillar twenty feet high.
 "If the idol is that far, who is going to know that there is scratch on the nose?" the gentleman asked.
The sculptor stopped his work, looked up at the gentleman, smiled and said, "I will know it."
Don’t you think, “Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.” Ralph Marston, this quote is what’s the story is all about, that excellence is something that should come from within and reach at the end of the hands. It should begin with the pure heart and honest soul, and then we can reach at the skillful hands. But question is how many of us are really sincere and truthful? How many of us just do things for the sake of doing? Do we care about the happiness one gets doing something sincerely, well some may care, but how many? We don’t lower our heads if there is nothing that is worth down there on floor to pick up. Aren’t we too much concerned about getting something to sweeten one’s mouth at the end of everything we are asked to do or supposed to do?

14 comments:

  1. Yes, if we want to excel in life, we should always carry the attitude of a perfectionist. Great advice from the sculptor. Thanks for the post Sogyal.

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  2. You are welcome Lingchen.....yeah if we can cultivate the attitude like that of a sculptor, something so good can always be there with us..:)

    thanx for visitng..:)

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  3. It reminded me of my mentor who quoted 99.99% is still not 100% . Part of Excellence has nothing to do with the skill, But it is what we do with that skill matters...I have heard the story... before but enjoyed reading it ...keep posting more stories . :) :)

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  4. this is a good story about how we should not be ignorant to such small details just because we might not notice it from a far.... like the sculptor, one needs to be a perfectionist :)

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  5. Good one, as usual!

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  6. @Anu..absolutely...9 is still not 10...thanx for visiting my blog

    @Maigyal..thanx...perfection should start from heart and end in detail...

    @Karma..thanx..for visiting my blog

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  7. Very good. Good quote. Good story. Thought provoking.

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  8. wow... finally someone understood how it works for artists... one cannot settle for anything less... very true sogyel... my art and music teacher would always tell me that... we cannot fool people how much more ourselves...

    great story ;)

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  9. I don't disagree with this blog.

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  10. This post is of a way long time before my arrival in the blogging sphere. It's a really nice story bro. and a good reminder because I read it somewhere once. Meaning laden! Loved going through again. :)

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  11. Sogyel,

    Nice piece of story and holds lots meaning.

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  12. @Langa Tenzin such stories are what we need today to change ourselves..to enhance our lives..thank you for your comment

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  13. @lekeyindeed sir......we should enrich our lives with such wisdom

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