As I walk along..

Once there was a poet and a monk. One fine beautiful day, they both sat cross-legged and relaxing in a mountain clearing next to a stream. The poet suddenly had a thought and asked the monk how he now looked like. The monk looked at the poet and thought that at that sitting posture, sitting upright and cross legged, the poet would resemble a Buddha in a sitting position. So the monk replied the poet that he look like a Buddha. The poet was very happy. The monk then asked the poet the same question about how he looked like. At this point, the poet was naughty and told the monk that at that sitting position, he looked a heap of cow dung, as the monk was rather plum at the bottom and taper up in the triangular shape. One hearing this, the monk was rather happy and told the poet that it was a good reply.
That day, the poet went back very happy and told his sister that he had played a trick on the monk and yet the monk was happy rather than angry. On hearing this, the sister laughed and told her brother. “ My, dear brother, you have lost to the monk. The monk has a sincere heart and a pure mind, so he only saw your good posture and thought that you looked like a Buddha. As for you, you have a wicked heart and a crooked mind, so you saw the monk as a heap of cow dung, because you could not see other better images.” On hearing this, the poet then realised that he was actually inferior to the monk. That was why the monk was laughing instead of being annoyed being called cow dung.
One sees things with one’s heart and mind. If our hearts are not sincere, and our minds not pure, we cannot see beautiful things.