Deep inside the forest, there lies a shiny mirror, floating in the air. No one knows its origin, and no one knows what power it possesses that has made it floating. Its mystery lies unexplored for thousands of years.

However, such a mysterious phenomenon brings rumour and stories. One of the famous stories told that it could reflect the most charming appearance you wish to see. Some even said that its reflection shows mankind’s most disgraceful side. These stories brought hundreds of people into exploring its magic. Some of these explorers are people who think that they’re the most beautiful, gorgeous princes and princesses. Not to mention the royals.

One day, a group of people went into the forest. The knights that are leading the way smashed and chopped off the grass and woods that were blocking their way. The forest turned bald where ever they go.

When they arrived in front of the magical mirror, a beautiful princess embarked from a grand carriage. Despite being beautifully dressed up, she has such glowing fair skin, and her silky golden hair glides smoothly across her shoulder. “Oh gosh!!” the princess yelled as she looked down at the mud that she was stepping on. Her gorgeous face turned angry and revolted all of a sudden. “What on earth is this ugly place? Look! My shoe is dirty now!” This, is Princess Sophina.

The servants were afraid that the princess might blame them on that, and so they quickly kneel down. Slowly, she walks towards the magical mirror. She looks into the mirror as she sways her hair. There’s a fair lady that shines in the mirror. She’s delighted. Then, she turned around with an ego tone she says “I want this mirror, back in the palace!”

“My dear princess, how gorgeous you are.” The princess is shocked by a sudden voice. It was the mirror that talked. She’s stunned for a moment, and then proudly she replies “Well of course.”
“But! You are too proud.”
“What?! How dare you!” the princess turned furious.
“Didn’t you know what they call me? ‘The mirror that never lie’. This is what they call me. I might present you your fair and lovely appearance, and I may also expose the most horrendous self in you.”
“Nonsense!”
“You! Are the most hideous princess in the world! You may look lovely on the outside, but you, a person like you, a person who takes everything for granted, a person who misused her own power, is the most unacceptable person.”
“How dare you! People, I want this mirror taken down! Now!”
The servants may agree to what the mirror had said, but still, they could never disobey their royal princess. As the servants are reaching the mirror, it vanished into thin air without a single notice. But when the servants backed off, it reappears again!

Without any choice or ways of approaching the mirror, the annoyed princess marched herself back into the carriage. “This is such a dreadful mirror! I shouldn’t have come all the way here!” yelled the princess. Soon, they left the forest disappointedly.

The mirror sighted and said “These people only care about their appearance. They never learn to accept the reality of these ugly truths.”

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Princess Sophina was not the only princess that came all the way into the forest to see how beautiful they are. Yet, everyone of them went back with despair.

“What a useless mirror! I shouldn’t have come here!” all of them said the similar thing before they left. Well it’s not only the princesses came all the way to the mirror, the princes do the same too.

The very next day, a handsome prince rides his white horse and came forth to the magical mirror. As he looks into the mirror, he could see himself smiling charmingly with a sense of royalty.
The mirror says “Your highness, you will be the superb successor for the Kingdom of Caputo.”
Being delighted, the prince asks “Really? How could it be?”
“You’re intelligent, you have skills and will. If you shall rule the Kingdom of Caputo, it will definitely be at its peak of advancement.”
The prince smiled and says “You knew me too well.”
“However….”
“However what?” said the prince with a puzzled expression.
“You are a cruel prince. You started those unnecessary wars and made thousands of people homeless! This selfish action and attitude, will ruin you!”
“Rubbish! I’m not cruel!”
“Oh, is it so? You just couldn’t accept who you are, could you? You think whatever you do is right, but you never listen to other people.” said the mirror.
The prince is mad after hearing what the mirror had said. “What nonsense are you talking about?” The prince turns around, hops on his horse and prepares to leave. But before he left, he said “When I become the king, I shall eradicate this stupid forest and shatter you in a million pieces!”
As he leaves, the mirror sighted and said “There goes another one.”

Every single day, there are numerous people who come for the mirror, but they ended up the same. Thousands of princesses and princes, not to mention queens and royal servants too that found it a nuisance to look for the mirror. Some of the princesses couldn’t take the fact that they weren’t outstanding enough when it comes to appearance. They blamed the mirror “Tell me! Am I really ugly!?” Whereas some of the royal servants blamed the mirror for telling them that they’re not good enough.

The magical mirror felt truly annoyed, but still, it’s helpless. Sooner or later, the mirror talks lesser and lesser. The mirror thinks that all the people are the same, that they only wanted to hear what’s nice and exclude the rest.
One day, it encounters a blind person…
The blind man wishes to get across the forest, and on his way, he came across to the mirror too. As he heard the mirror sighing, he asked “Why are you sighing?”
“What? Aren’t you blind? And… and how could you hear me sighing? I… I was just… sighing in my thoughts…”
The blind man smiled and replies “Yes, yes I’m blind, but my ears could tell me the most truthful emotion in your heart.”
“This is magnificent! You can hear what’s in my heart!”
Then, the mirror quickly tells its encounters to the blind man.
“No wonder you’re sighing, this is indeed dreadful.”
“That is why I began to lose faith in the people… But at least I found a little hope as I met you. Your eyes may be blind, but your heart isn’t.”
“I know that I’m blind, but what’s the use of not accepting the true facts? I still couldn’t see. I know that blaming things couldn’t make anything better. And so, I began to face the problems courageously and find out that confident self in me! Then, I started training my ears, to hear the hindrance on the road, to hear the truth out of people’s heart. Without the sense of sight, I’ve been using my ‘sixth sense’ to feel the surrounding. That is how I can hear you sigh! To me, the world is fair. I may lose something on the outside, but deep within me, I have a great spirit as my life force. My eyes may not be working well, but my heart is!”

As the mirror listens to the blind man’s story, the blind man is surrounded by a glowing light that shines from within his heart.

That, is the true beauty that shines from the heart. And this isn’t the kind of beauty that those princesses or princes could have….


Postscript:

When will you use your mirror? When you had pimples? Or when you were checking on your outfit? We all need mirrors in our daily lives. Mirrors never lie. They tell us whether we have pimples, or whether we dressed ourselves well.

But what do we need if we wish to see what’s inside of us? It comes back to the people around us, our friends and family. When they said something good, we often enjoyed it; but when they remind us of our weakness, we turned unhappy. But as we think carefully, we might find out that perhaps, we truly need to reflect ourselves and improve ourselves. Just like the princess in the story. She likes to hear what’s good about her, but when she heard something negative, she get mad and began to blame the rest.

Our lives are like mirrors. The Daishonin teaches “a tarnished mirror will shine like a jewel when polished. A mind now clouded by the illusions of the innate darkness of life is like a tarnished mirror, but when polished, it is sure to become like a clear mirror, reflecting the essential nature of phenomena and the true aspect of reality.” But how do we polish our mirror? It is nothing better than to chant. Through chanting the Daimoku, we polish the mirror of our lives, and in the end, we’ll get to see our weakness and carry out human revolution.

When we realize that we have to change and improve ourselves, everyone will have the power to change the surrounding. Those who never liked you may start to like the “new” you as you change. If only the prince in the story would listen to the mirror, then he may be a truly successful king that loves his people, and the kingdom would stay in peace.

Our mentor once said “When our faith grows, we can see ourselves clearer. When we began to overcome our weakness as we see it, we could become humble and explore the goodness of the others." Let’s chant, and improve ourselves. More importantly, let’s polish our mirror together!

Labels: n. Story palace