“Too late already!
The arrow left the bow!”

I find it a fascinating image. I see the archer poised for the final twang in the vertical bow strained by self-assured hands. I see the Master who has tried to come in at the last moment with an urgent but belated correction. I see the arrow, frozen an instant ago in tense expectation, unleashed already in linear flight against the remote target. And I hear the exclamation which sums up the frustration of the lost effort in the exacting training. Too late already! The arrow left the bow!

The reaction has to be instantaneous if it is to be pointed. A second too late, and the arrow is gone. A doubt, and the opportunity is lost. A delay, and the freshness of the moment disappears for ever. The arrow does not wait. Life does not wait. Chances are flying birds. All the cells of our brain and all the fibres of our body have to be on maximum alert to jump at the moment and grasp the occasion. The challenge has to be met when it comes. Delay means death.

Why are we so slow in our reactions? Why do the best chances slip out from between our fingers? Why do we think of the witty answer only when the conversation is over; why do we see the clear solution only after the crisis has passed? If we see it so clearly now, why did we not see it then? If we have the capacity to think of it now, why did it not occur to us when we would have shone so brightly by saying it? Why is it we find spontaneity so hard, while we know it to be so attractive? Why does the arrow always escape our grip?

Because we are blocked up inside. We all have it in us to be able to see and feel and react and daze everybody with a witty repartee on the spur of the moment. But we are all walled up inside with a thousand walls that hinder our response and delay its effect. Shyness and fear and anxiety and need to do the right thing and doubts about ourselves and complexes before others and compulsive perfectionism before our own eyes. And we rethink and polish and brood and wait… and the arrow flies before we can put in our personal remark. And the Master laughs. The arrow has left the bow!

I sometimes feel as though I were all tied up in knots on the inside. I want to strike the right note, not to hurt anybody, satisfy all, be up to the mark, hit the nail on its head. All those are knotty knots. And so long as these knots are there, I know very well that I’ll not be able to do the right thing at the right time in full justice to myself and to others. And I also know very well that the moment those knots go, I will suddenly wake up from my stupor, will feel at ease, will think of clever things to say, will say them at the right moment and in the right mood, and will give satisfaction to myself, and all others with me.