One day, Confucius and his disciples were traveling through the State of Chu. While crossing a forest, they saw a hunchbacked old man standing under a tree, catching cicadas with a bamboo pole. With each deft stroke, he caught one, as easily as picking it up at will.
Intrigued, Confucius asked, "You are remarkably skillful. There must be a method to this."
"Indeed!" replied the old man. "Cicadas are alert insects; the slightest rustle of leaves will make them fly away. Therefore, the first step is to train your hand to hold the pole perfectly still. If you can balance two pellets on its tip without them falling, you gain some assurance in catching them. With three pellets steady, perhaps only one in ten cicadas escapes. When you can balance five pellets, catching cicadas becomes as effortless as gathering them by hand."
He continued, "But that alone is not enough. One must also master concealment. Here, I stand like half a tree stump, my outstretched arm resembling a withered twig. Finally, and most crucially, one must cultivate absolute focus. When I hunt, I think not of the vastness of the universe nor observe the myriad things around me. My world narrows to the cicada's wings. Nothing distracts my attention. By achieving all this, I attain such skill."
Hearing this, Confucius turned to his disciples and said, "In any endeavor, only through perseverance and single-minded devotion can one reach the acme of perfection. This is the truth the hunchbacked elder has shown us."