A group of Chinese and Greek artists disputed before a Sultan Shoeb, each claiming that they were the better artists.
The Chinese said, "We have greater skills."
The Greeks said, "We have superior talent."
In order to settle the dispute, Sultan Shoeb decided to put them both to the test. He allotted each a house to be painted. The Chinese asked Sultan Shoeb for a hundred colours. He willingly opened his treasury and told them to take all they needed. The Greeks, on the other hand, informed Sultan Shoeb that they did not need any colours for their house.
When the Chinese finished their work, they sang and danced in the streets and invited Sultan Shoeb to judge their house. He was extremely impressed for they had coloured their house in the most elaborate way.
The Greeks, however, used no colours at all and contented themselves with cleaning the walls of their house of all filth, making them clear and bright like mirrors. Sultan Shoeb was awestruck when he saw their house, because all the colours of the Chinese house reflected on the walls of the Greek house with an endless variety of shades and hues.

Reprinted with permission from http://www.zensufi.com/story.htm. For further information, please contact zs@zensufi.com. This story is originally from the Mathnawi of Rumi

Q: The polished work of the Greeks is a metaphor for someone whose heart is cleaned of all impressions, so that it is a perfect mirror and thus reflects everything in the Universe. Spiritual wisdom says that we are all mirrors for each other - when we react to another person, it is because of something in them which is also in ourselves. The more pure a person, the better a mirror he or she is. Can you think about your own reactions to people and things, and how they reflect yourself?

O, Master!
Thou art the real goal of human life.
We are yet but slaves of wishes
Putting bar to our advancement,
Thou art the only God and power
To bring us up to that stage.