A Chinese man once went to the court of the emperor of Iran and said, "I have come from China, and I am a very great artist. I can make paintings such as you have never seen before." The emperor said, "Then make them here. But remember, there is no shortage of painters in our court, and I have seen very wonderful pictures." The Chinese painter said, "I am ready to meet any challenge." The best among the court painters was selected to compete. Then the emperor warned his painter, "Use all your talent, do your very best. This is now a question of the prestige of the empire. See that you are not defeated by this foreigner."
They were given six months to complete their work. The Iranian painter began his work very seriously. With the help of ten to twenty co-workers, he covered his whole wall with beautiful pictures.
News of his paintings reached distant regions, and people came from afar to see his work. But a greater miracle than this was happening. The Chinese artist said, "I need no implements or materials for my work, nor any paints either. I insist on one condition only -- that the curtain covering my wall not be removed till the picture is finished."
Each morning he would go behind his curtain, and reappear in the evening quite exhausted, with drops of perspiration on his forehead. But it was a matter of great perplexity, mystery and wonder that he did not carry any brush or paints with him when he disappeared behind the curtain. Neither were there ever any traces of colour on his hands, nor any spots of paint on his clothes, and he carried no brush in his hands.
The emperor began to wonder whether he was crazy. How could there be any competition under such circumstances? But it was necessary to wait for six months to fulfil the condition. With great impatience, everyone waited for the six months to pass.
The news about the pictures of the Iranian painter reached far and wide, and along with this news, the word also spread about his crazy competitor who had entered the competition without any paints.
You can't imagine how eagerly the people waited for those six months to pass. After six months the emperor went to see the pictures. He was spellbound upon seeing the pictures of the Iranian painter. He had seen many paintings in his life, but he had never seen paintings of such unsparing skill.
Then he requested the Chinese painter to show his work. He removed the curtain covering his wall. On seeing it the emperor was very much puzzled. It was the same picture. The Chinese painter had created the same picture as the Iranian, but with one additional feature: it was not painted on the wall but emerged from twenty feet deep inside the wall.
The emperor asked, "How have you done this? What is this magic?"
He replied, "I have done no magic. But I am an expert in making mirrors, so I turned the wall into a mirror by rubbing it continuously for six months. The picture which you are looking at is that of the Iranian painters’ on the opposite wall. I simply turned the wall into a mirror." He won the competition because shimmering in the mirror the Iranian painting became infinitely more profound than its original. The Iranian painting acquired great depth when seen in the mirror. It became a three-dimensional picture. The Iranian one was two-dimensional; it had no depth. The Chinese painter's picture gained a three-dimensional depth.
The emperor asked him, "Why did you not tell us in the beginning that you only know how to make mirrors?"
The Chinese painter replied, "I am not a painter, I am a sadhu, a monk."
The emperor said, "This becomes more and more interesting. First, you didn't tell us that you make mirrors, and now you tell us you are a sadhu. Why should a sadhu make mirrors?"
The Chinese painter replied, "I have been making only mirrors since I made myself a mirror and saw the world in it. Just as I turned this wall into a clean mirror by continuously rubbing and cleaning it, so I made myself a mirror, pure as crystal, by keeping a constant watch on myself. And such a beautiful image of this world as I have seen within was never seen without. The day on which I saw and realized the world within me, I became like a mirror. All the animate and inanimate objects of the world have penetrated within me."
OSHO
The Heartbeat of the Absolute
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