A king of Persia had a very precious stone in a ring. On a certain occasion he went out with some of his favorite courtiers to the mosque near Shiraz, called Musalla, to amuse himself. The king commanded his men to suspend the ring over the dome of Azad, and said that the ring will become the property of the man who can send an arrow through it.
The four hundred archers who served the king shot at the ring. All of them missed. A youth at play was shooting arrows at random from a monastery, when the morning breeze carried his shaft through the circle of the ring. The king gave him the ring, and his men presented the youth with several gifts. After receiving the gifts, the youth burned his bow and arrows.
The king asked him why he did so, and he replied, "So that my first glory may remain unchanged."

Couplet:

The sage whose bright mind mirrors truth,
May sometimes wander wide of it:
While by mistake, the simple youth,
Will, with his shaft, the target hit.

Reprinted with permission from http://www.zensufi.com/ring.htm. Story originally narrated by the poet Sadi, found in "Sadi: The Rose Garden", and adapted in http://www.zensufi.com/ring.htm. For further information, please contact zs@zensufi.com.

Q: What do you think is the significance of the fact that the youth at play was able to succeed when all the trained archers could not?

Q: This story shows us, among other things, that the solution will not always come from the most obvious source. That the unexpected can be the right way, the unskilled can succeed where the skilled cannot, and the wise do not always know best. It shows us that we must see divinity in everyone and everything. How does this principle affect the way you see people in your day-to-day life?

Q: Can you relate the principles of this story to the following maxims of Sahaj Marg:
Maxim Four: "Be plain and simple to be identical with Nature."
Maxim Six: "Know all people as thy brethren and treat them as such"?

O, Master!
Thou art the real goal of human life.
We are yet but slaves of wishes
Putting bar to our advancement,
Thou art the only God and power
To bring us up to that stage.