In the ancient times, there was a man in the kingdom of Song who thought the seedlings were growing too slowly, so he plucked them up a little one by one. He went home and proudly said, "I'm exhausted today, I've helped the seedlings grow taller!" His son went to the ground and saw that the seedlings were all dead.
- Mencius, Gongsun Chou
The moral of the parable is that the development of objective things has its own laws, we should work according to the laws of nature, rather than rushing to achieve. Doing things simply by good intentions and enthusiasm is not enough, it is likely to be counterproductive
We can learn from this parable three attitudes of mindfulness: patience, non-striving and acceptance.
"Aware and accept that many things can only unfold at their own pace."
Our lives are made up of countless present moments. When we are impatient, we are losing the opportunity to feel the moments, that is losing our lives as well. So, even if you feel nervous or scared at this moment, don't worry, don't lose patience with yourself.
Mindfulness encourages us to be patient. Because many things in life need time to complete, just like dough waiting to ferment and butterfly larva waiting to metamorphose. This requires us to consciously remind ourselves when we are nervous and anxious and give ourselves more time and space to allow things to happen.
"Let go of those obsessive pursuits, listen to yourself deeply instead of acting immediately."
Many people strive hard to become what they should be. But while pursuing vigorously, we are also telling ourselves, "We are not good enough at this moment", and therefore feel anxious.
In order to escape the state of anxiety, we may manipulate ourselves or others, or force certain things to happen in order to achieve specific results. Eventually, we may feel tired-out physically and mentally, and become extremely exhausted.
"See and acknowledge the way things are at this moment."
Many people try to force things into certain states (which they obviously are not) such as: expecting parents to love us the way we want, or expecting lovers to become our ideals, and so on.
Only by accepting, we can see the true appearances of people and things and get more adequate and correct information.
Mindfulness encourages us to see and acknowledge the appearances of things as they are, instead of spending more effort to resist its existence. When you can clearly see the development of things, you can respond more wisely.
To learn more about mindfulness attitude: