A monk was walking through a wealthy city during a pilgrimage. As was customary during the time he held his bowl out for food. This practice allowed others to do a good deed by feeding a holy person. However, on this day a rich merchant riding in a rickshaw saw the monk and began to make fun of him. "You look like a pig! Dirty, shuffling along on your paws and waiting for someone to feed you!" The monk looked at him, smiled then bowed. "And you, good sir, look like a magnificent Buddha to me." The merchant laughed more loudly and rudely. "How pathetic you are! I say you look like a pig, and you tell me I look like a Buddha! Do you think I'm so easily swayed that I'll give you food or money for saying such things?" Despite continuing to mock the monk, the merchant looked very pleased with himself - especially as a small crowd was starting to form. "Giving food is to gain merit! Of course such a spiritually accomplished person as you does not need additional merit!" The monk replied. At this the merchant swelled with pride and lounged further into his seat. The monk continued. "I see your wonderful clothing, the colorful silk scarfs you carry. Beautiful! Please, sir, could you hold that red one up, I would like to admire it." The merchant chuckled and held it for all to see. "It is so perfectly thin, I can see you through it like a window! Except you are red! Please, can you show us whether the blue scarf is as high a quality?" The merchant immediately held the blue scarf aloft to prove all of his belongings were of the same caliber. "Amazing," said the monk. "When you hold the red one up, I see the world is red. When you hold the blue one up, I see the world is blue. We are all like this, we all see through our own veils. Someone holding red sees red. Someone holding blue sees blue, and someone who sees through the eyes of a Buddha sees Buddha." With this last statement, the Monk bowed to the merchant, and the crowd, and continued on his way while the merchant processed the meaning of the monks words. The merchant, while full of ego, was no fool. He understood the unsaid meaning of the monk's words. The monk saw the merchant as a Buddha because he perceived the world through the eyes of compassion and recognized the Buddha-nature that existed within the merchant, while the merchant saw the monk as a pig because he allowed his own greed and contempt to control how he perceived the world and blind him to people's true nature.

Grandmaster once shared this philosophy with the class. I was probably 9 or 10 at the time, and it has always stayed with me. It was shared at the time in regards to racism and sexism due to, if I recall, events in the news around that time. He brought animal crackers for us. He laid them out and asked which ones people liked. Some liked the lion, some bear, some gorilla, giraffe, etc. Then he asked which ones people didn't like. Different animals were chosen by various people. He then broke them up so they were pretty small and asked us to figure out which was which. We, of course, could not. He told us that people are like this. We may present as lions, or monkeys, or rhinos, but fundamentally we are all made of the same dough, cooked at the same temperatures - we are all the same ingredients, have the same needs, the same desires. As we express preference for a certain cookie, we are ignoring the truth. This is absolutely applicable to racism and sexism, but it also extends to more fundamental preference and aversion. When we allow ourselves to embrace surface likes and dislikes, we move ourselves further out from our connection to fundamental reality, to truth. Some aversions are healthy, of course. Some likes are healthy, but when we begin to justify our likes and dislikes, to hold them even when they separate us from truth, we are stepping away from wisdom and embracing delusion.