Years ago, I lived in a building in a large city. The building next door was only a few feet away from mine. There was a woman who lived there, whom I had never met, yet I could often see her sit by her window, sewing or reading.

    After several months, I began to notice that her window was dirty. Everything was unclear through the dirty window. I would say to myself, “I wonder why that woman doesn't clean her window. It really looks terrible.”

    One bright morning I decided to clean my flat, including the windows.

    Late in the afternoon when I finished the cleaning, I sat down by the window with a cup of coffee for a rest. What a surprise! The woman sitting by her window was clearly visible. Her window was clean!

    Then it dawned on me. I had been criticizing (批评) her dirty window, but all the time I was watching hers through my own dirty window.

    That was quite an important lesson for me. How often had I looked at and criticized others through the dirty window of my heart, through my own shortcomings?

    Since then, whenever I wanted to judge (评判) someone, I asked myself first, “Am I looking at him through my own dirty window?”

    Then I try to clean the window of my own world so that I may see the world about me more clearly.