Hi Richard,
No matter how hard we try to be objective, our view on things is, more or less, influenced by our thought and feeling. You probably had this experience. When you are happy, everything seems to work smoothly and beautifully. However, when you feel bad, nothing seems to go right.
Su Shi (Ĭ¸ý) was a famous scholar in Song (§º) dynasty. He had a good friend who was a monk called Fo Yin (¦ò¦L). Su Shi and Fo Yin were fond of Buddhism. They frequently got together to study Buddhism.
One day, Su Shi asked Fo Yin, "Fo Yin, what do you think I look like?"
"I saw a Buddha in front of me." Fo Yin said. "Well, what do you think I look like then?" Fo Yin asked Su Shi.
Su Shi looked at Fo Yin. Fo Yin was fat, dark and dressed in black. He was sitting there exactly like a pile of cow dung. "I saw a pile of cow dung." Su Shi laughed. Fo Yin didn't get angry but returned a smile to Su Shi instead.
After Su Shi back home, he thought that he had won Fo Yin and happily repeated the happening to his little sister. To his surprise, his sister didn't agree with him and told Su Shi that he was totally defeated by Fo Yin this time. She teased Su Shi, "Fo Yin's mind is full of Buddha. As a result, he saw you as a Buddha in his eye. My brother, what is inside your mind when you saw him as a pile of cow dung?"
With love, Patrick