Reflection

Sharing with you an old Japanese folk tale I stumbled upon recently –

Long ago, in a small, far away village, there was a place known as the House of 1000 Mirrors.

A small, happy little dog learned of this place and decided to visit. When he arrived he bounced happily up the stairs to the doorway of the house. He looked through the doorway with his ears lifted high and his tail wagging as fast as it could.

To his great surprise, he found himself staring at 1000 other happy little dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile, and was answered with 1000 great smiles just as warm and friendly. As he left the House, he thought to himself, “this is a wonderful place. I will come back and visit it often.”

In this same village, another little dog, who was not quite as happy as the first one, decided to visit the house. He slowly climb the stairs and hung his head low as he looked into the door. When he saw the 1000 unfriendly looking dog staring back at him, he growled at them and was horrified to see 1000 little dogs growling back at him. As he left, he thought to himself, “That is a horrible place. I will never go back there again.”

We see what we seek. When we understand that the world is our mirror, we focus our camera lens inward rather than outward – and observe. Our environment is a perfect reflection of our habitual thinking. Thought rules the world. We see in others that which we hide from ourselves.