You Complete Heaven

If you love Chinse food, you must know a popular dish called “Dongopo Rou,” or “Dongpo Meat.” It’s a sweet, savory, flavorful, and delicious dish named after its inventor Su Dongpo. Su Dongpo was the Benjamin Franklin of 11^th Century China during Song Dynasty. Like Franklin, he was multitalented. He had many inventions and was a statesman, poet, chemist, and military strategist.

Due to his popularity as a statesman, Su Dongpo was exiled several times by the king, not because he committed any crime, but to protect him from getting sabotaged by other jealous politicians. He survived three kings, and all three queens loved him. Each time he was exiled, the queen of the time would beg the king to bring him back to the palace. You can imagine how handsome he was.

Unlike Franklin, however, Su Dongpo was not a womanizer. He survived four wives. Each of them died due to the hardship of the exiles or supporting him to fulfill his calling. They were all highly intelligent women who loved him to death, as he loved them the same way.

Like all of us, he had done mischievous things in his youthful years. His best childhood friend, Fo Yin, became a Zen monk. So he visited the monastery often to see his friend. One day, the monk taught him how to meditate. They sat face to face with their eyes slightly close.

Su Dongpo found it amusing to see his friend sitting in his brown robe and got the idea of pulling a prank. He asked, “Fo Yin, what do I look like?” The monk said, “You look like a saint.” Su Dongpo laughed and said, “Do you know what you look like in my partially close eyes.” “Tell me,” the monk asked. “Well, you look like a pile of bull dung. Ha, ha, ha!” The monk stayed quiet.

Su Dongpo went home gleefully, proud of his prank. His sister asked, “What makes you so happy today?” Su Dongpo replied with a big bragging smile, “Well, I got the monk,” and told her the story. His sister said, “Loser! You don’t even know you lost, and he won?” “Why?” Su Dong Po asked.

“Why? Don’t you know, spiritually speaking, you see who you are in others? He sees you as a saint because he is a saint in his heart. You see him as a pile of bull dung because your heart is full of bull dung.” (End of story.)

This story is an excellent parable for me to check my heart and spirit when I see bull dung in people. As an ESTJ, I see bull dung in people more often than I like to. Stories like this keep me in check.

How often do you see bull dung in people? I understand that even though we know enough not to judge people by the color of their skin, we think it’s okay to do so by the content of their character. This story warns us that our judgment could reflect the content of our own character.

We often read in the Bible how the Pharisees and scribes tended to see the tax collectors and many others as sinners and even judged Jesus as the Beelzebub, the head of the devil. That actually reveals their hearts. Jesus warned them bout their rotten hearts,

“For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander.” (Mt 15:19).

King David asked God to give him a clean heart and the right spirit. Without a clean heart, we keep heaven divided and perpetuate suffering in this fallen world. When you have a clean heart, you experience freedom, and you complete heaven.

In today’s scripture lesson, Jesus teaches us how to see people as God sees them. That is very important teaching because unless we see people the way God sees them, we will not see the kingdom at all. So, let’s begin!