The House of 1000 Mirrors
Brian
Just got this from a friend:
The House of 1000 Mirrors (Japanese folktale)
Long ago in a small, far away village, there was 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 climbed the stairs and hung his head low as he looked into the door. When he saw the 1000 unfriendly looking dogs 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, and I will never go back there again."
All the faces in the world are mirrors. What kind of reflections do you see in the faces of the people you meet?
Access: Public
zaadz
August 2008 
Great story. Thanks for sharing.
It reminds me of the Chinese folktale where heaven and hell are each a sumptuous banquet with lots of wonderful food and and people around a table. At the hell version the people are unable to eat the food because their chopsticks are too long for their arms and everyone is suffering and hungry. In the heaven version the people have the same long chopsticks but they have figured out that if they feed each other no one will be hungry.
I love how storytelling can express a concept in way that makes it available to the psyche going beyond the rational mind.
WOOF
The power of folk tales as metaphors for how life can be lived has always been a source of great fascination for me. I love learning of the different metaphors used by different cultures and I find that I can always find space in my own life's tapestry to weave in these wonderful stories.
Thank you, Brian, and your friend(!) for sharing this story with me/us. And thank you, Jw, for adding another folk tale to the tapestry. I wonder if people from other cultures have similar tales to share? It would be wonderful to see 1000 happy dogs right here (or a bunch of people feeding each other with our chopsticks!)
Namaste!
JW: beautiful story!
LB: Woof!
Nishtha: (first, beautiful name!) and deep bow right back :)
Which reminds me of Wallace Stevens':
“Twenty men crossing a bridge
into a village,
are twenty men crossing twenty bridges ,
into twenty villages”
Nice story, especially around the ”take-your-dog-to-work-day” !
seeing ONESELF …in all the reflections. Happy depend dance day!