Oriental parables about an enlightened person. Oriental parables
Once upon a time there was a rich man who never thought about God. He was always busy with his worldly business - collecting money. He made his living by lending money, and took such a great interest in it that he became very rich without doing anything.
One day he went with his account books to a neighboring village to visit his debtors. After completing his business, he found that it was getting dark and to get home, he had to walk 3-4 miles. He asked if there...
Once Khoja Nasreddin went to the bazaar and walked back and forth along the stalls for a long time, asking the price, but not buying anything. The market guard watched from a distance for some time, but, in the end, turned to him with admonition:
Dear, I see that you have no money, you are only in vain tugging at the merchant people. Give you this and that, change the style and size, weigh and cut, and the benefits to the merchant are not a penny. If I didn’t know that you were Khoja Nasreddin, I would have thought that a thief was wound up in the market: he was waiting for the merchant ...
Gui Zi always speaks in riddles, one of the courtiers once complained to Prince Liang. - Lord, if you forbid him to use allegories, believe me, he will not be able to sensibly formulate a single thought.
The prince agreed with the petitioner. The next day he met Guy Tzu.
From now on, please leave your parables and speak directly, - said the prince.
In response, he heard:
- Imagine a person who does not know what a catapult is. He asks what it is, and you...
One man named Ali worked hard and hard. He mined salt and took it to the city to sell it. But from childhood he had a dream - Ali wanted to save up money and buy a white Arabian horse for them in order to travel on horseback to Samarkand. And then one day, having accumulated a sufficient amount of money, Ali went with a passing caravan to a large camel market, where the best camels and horses were sold. Early in the morning, at dawn, he arrived at the place. Ali's eyes widened at the sight of so many choicest...
Chuang Tzu was born into a poor family, and there was often not enough food in the house. And then one day his parents sent him to borrow some rice from a rich man. He replied:
Of course I can help. Soon I will collect taxes from my village and then I can lend you three hundred pieces of silver. Is that enough?
Chuang Tzu looked at him angrily and said:
Yesterday I was walking along the road and suddenly someone called me. I looked around and saw a gudgeon in a roadside ditch. “I am the lord of the waters of the Eastern Ocean,” said the gudgeon. - Not...
at Nasreddin at Khoja's
there were two buckets:
in one - everything was "brilliance and chic"
in the other - there was a hole
He walked with them on the water
To the nearest stream
one thing - he brought full,
another - no fuck
And first, being proud of yourself,
laughed at the second...
the second wept, ashamed
your stupid hole...
And here, a bucket with a hole
Hodge said:
"Well, what are you running around with me
which year already?
you better throw me away
away, I pray
I will only shame you
and pour water for nothing!
Vedru answered...
The old father, before a long journey, gave his last instructions to his young son:
Fear, like rust, slowly and constantly corrodes the soul and turns a man into a jackal!
Therefore, be sinless! Sinless in everything! And then - no one will ever disgrace you.
And then there will be no vile fear in you. Then natural nobility will sprout in you, and you will become worthy of your name and Family.
Be prudent to become rich. Puffy people lose their dignity, and with it their wealth ...
One day a caravan was going through the desert.
Night fell, and the caravan stopped for the night.
The boy looking after the camels asked the caravan guide:
There are twenty camels, but only nineteen ropes, what to do?
He replied:
- A camel is a stupid animal, go up to the last one and pretend that you are tying it, it will believe and behave calmly.
The boy did as the guide told him to, and the camel did indeed stand still.
The next morning the boy counted...
Short wise parables about life: Eastern wisdom
A parable is a short story, story, fable, with or without a moral.
The parable does not always teach life, but always gives a wise hint with a deep meaning.
Hidden in stories life meaning- a lesson for people, but not everyone can see this meaning.
A parable is not a fictional story, it is a story from life about real events. From generation to generation, parables were passed from mouth to mouth, but at the same time they did not lose their wisdom and simplicity.
Many parables describe stories that take place in everyday life, many events described in parables are very similar to ours. The parable teaches us to look at things from different angles and act wisely and prudently.
If the parable seemed incomprehensible or meaningless, this does not mean that the parable is bad. We are simply not prepared enough to understand it. Rereading parables, each time you can find something new and wise in them.
So, we read Eastern parables, think and grow wiser!
Three important questions
The ruler of one country strove for all wisdom. Rumors reached him once that there was a certain hermit who knew the answers to all questions. The ruler came to him and sees: a decrepit old man, digging a garden bed. He jumped off his horse and bowed to the old man.
- I came to get an answer to three questions: who is the most main man on earth, what is the most important thing in life, what day is more important than all the others.
The hermit did not answer and continued to dig. The ruler undertook to help him.
Suddenly he sees: a man is walking along the road - his whole face is covered with blood. The ruler stopped him, comforted him with a kind word, brought water from the stream, washed and bandaged the traveler's wounds. Then he took him to the hermit's hut, put him to bed.
The next morning he looks - the hermit is sowing the garden.
“Hermit,” the ruler pleaded, “won’t you answer my questions?”
“You already answered them yourself,” he said.
- As? - the ruler was amazed.
“Seeing my old age and weakness, you took pity on me and volunteered to help,” said the hermit. - While you were digging the garden, I was the most important person for you, and helping me was the most important thing for you. A wounded man appeared - his need was more acute than mine. And he became the most important person for you, and helping him became the most important thing. It turns out that the most important person is the one who needs your help. And the most important thing is the good that you do to him.
“Now I can answer my third question: what day in a person’s life is more important than the rest,” the ruler said. “The most important day is today.
Most valuable
One person in childhood was very friendly with an old neighbor.
But time passed, school and hobbies appeared, then work and personal life. Every minute the young man was busy, and he did not have time to remember the past, or even to be with loved ones.
Once he learned that a neighbor had died - and suddenly remembered: the old man taught him a lot, trying to replace the boy's deceased father. Feeling guilty, he came to the funeral.
In the evening, after the burial, the man entered the empty house of the deceased. Everything was the same as many years ago ...
Here are just a small golden box, in which, according to the old man, was kept the most valuable thing for him, disappeared from the table. Thinking that one of her few relatives had taken her, the man left the house.
However, two weeks later he received the package. Seeing the neighbor's name on it, the man shuddered and opened the package.
Inside was the same golden box. It contained a gold pocket watch engraved with "Thank you for the time you spent with me."
And he realized that the most valuable thing for the old man was the time spent with his little friend.
Since then, the man tried to devote as much time as possible to his wife and son.
Life is not measured by the number of breaths. It is measured by the number of moments that make us hold our breath.
Time is slipping away from us every second. And it needs to be spent right now.
Life as it is
I will tell you a parable: in ancient times, a heartbroken woman came to Gautam Buddha who had lost her son. And she began to pray to the Almighty to return her child. And Buddha ordered the woman to return to the village and collect a mustard seed from each family, in which at least one of its members would not be burned on a funeral pyre. And going around her village and many others, the poor fellow did not find a single such family. And the woman understood that death is a natural and inevitable outcome for all living. And the woman accepted her life as it is, with its inevitable departure into oblivion, with the eternal circulation of lives.
Butterflies and fire
Three butterflies, flying up to a burning candle, began to talk about the nature of fire. One flew up to the flame, returned and said:
- The fire is shining.
Another flew closer and scorched the wing. Arriving back, she said:
- He's stinging!
The third, flying very close, disappeared in the fire and did not return. She learned what she wanted to know, but was no longer able to tell the rest about it.
The one who has received knowledge is deprived of the opportunity to speak about it, therefore the one who knows is silent, and the one who speaks does not know.
understand fate
Chuang Tzu's wife died, and Hui Tzu came to mourn her. Chuang Tzu squatted down and sang songs, hitting his pelvis. Hui Tzu said:
“To not mourn the deceased, who lived with you to old age and raised your children, is too much. But singing songs while hitting the pelvis is simply no good!
“You are wrong,” Chuang Tzu replied. “When she died, could I not be sad at first? Grieving, I began to think about what she was in the beginning, when she was not yet born. And not only was she not born, but she was not yet a body. And not only was it not a body, but it was not even a breath. I realized that she was scattered in the void of boundless chaos.
Chaos turned - and she became breath. The breath changed and she became the body. The body changed and she was born. Now a new transformation has come - and she is dead. All this changed each other, as the four seasons alternate. Man is buried in the abyss of transformations, as if in the chambers of a huge house.
Money can not buy happiness
The student asked the Master:
- How true are the words that happiness is not in money?
He replied that they were completely correct. And it's easy to prove it.
For money can buy a bed, but not sleep; food, but no appetite; medicines, but not health; servants, but not friends; women, but not love; dwelling, but not the hearth; entertainment, but not joy; education, but not the mind.
And what is mentioned does not exhaust the list.
Walk straight!
There was once a woodcutter who was in a very distressed situation. He subsisted on the paltry amounts of money earned from firewood, which he brought to the city on himself from the nearest forest.
One day a sannyasin passing along the road saw him at work and advised him to go further into the forest, saying:
- Go ahead, go ahead!
The woodcutter heeded the advice, went into the forest and went on until he came to a sandalwood tree. He was very pleased with this find, cut down the tree and, taking with him as many pieces of it as he could carry, he sold them in the market for a good price. Then he began to wonder why the good sannyasin did not tell him that there was sandalwood in the forest, but simply advised him to go ahead.
The next day, reaching a felled tree, he went further and found copper deposits. He took with him as much copper as he could carry, and by selling it in the bazaar he made even more money.
The next day he found gold, then diamonds, and finally acquired great wealth.
This is precisely the position of a person who strives for true knowledge: if he does not stop in his movement after he reaches some paranormal powers, then, in the end, he will find the wealth of eternal Knowledge and Truth.
two snowflakes
It was snowing. The weather was calm, and large fluffy snowflakes slowly circled in a bizarre dance, slowly approaching the ground.
Two snowflakes flying side by side decided to start a conversation. Afraid of losing each other, they joined hands, and one of them cheerfully says:
- How good it is to fly, enjoy the flight!
“We don’t fly, we just fall,” the second answered sadly.
- Soon we will meet the ground and turn into a white fluffy blanket!
- No, we are flying towards death, and on the ground they will simply trample us.
We will become streams and rush to the sea. We will live forever! said the first.
“No, we will melt and disappear forever,” the second objected to her.
Finally they got tired of arguing. They unclenched their hands, and each flew towards the fate that she herself chose.
great good
A rich man asked a Zen master to write something good and encouraging, something that would bring great benefit to his whole family. “It must be something that every member of our family thinks about in relation to others,” said the rich man.
He gave a large piece of snow-white expensive paper, on which the master wrote: “The father will die, the son will die, the grandson will die. And all in one day."
The rich man was furious when he read what the master wrote to him: “I asked you to write something good for my family so that it would bring joy and prosperity to my family. Why did you write something that upsets me?
“If your son dies before you,” the master replied, “it will be an irreparable loss for your entire family. If the grandson dies before your son dies, it will be a great sorrow for everyone. But if your entire family, generation after generation, dies on the same day, it will be a real gift of fate. This will be a great happiness and benefit for your entire family.”
Heaven and Hell
There lived one person. And he spent most of his life trying to figure out the difference between hell and heaven. He pondered this subject day and night.
Then one day he had a strange dream. He went to hell. And he sees people there who are sitting in front of cauldrons of food. And everyone has a big spoon with a very long handle in their hand. But these people look hungry, thin and emaciated. They can scoop from the boiler, but they won’t get into the mouth. And they swear, fight, beat each other with spoons.
Suddenly, another person runs up to him and shouts:
- Hey, let's go faster, I'll show you the road leading to paradise.
They arrived in paradise. And they see people there who are sitting in front of the boilers with food. And everyone has a big spoon with a very long handle in their hand. But they look full, satisfied and happy. When we looked closely, we saw that they were feeding each other. Man should go to man with kindness - that's paradise.
The Secret of Happiness
One merchant sent his son to seek the secret of happiness from the wisest of all people. The young man walked through the desert for forty days and finally came to a beautiful castle that stood on the top of a mountain. There lived the sage he was looking for.
However, instead of the expected meeting with a holy man, our hero entered the hall, where everything was seething: merchants came in and out, people chatted in the corner, a small orchestra played sweet melodies and there was a table laden with the most delicious dishes of the area. The sage talked to different people, and the young man had to wait for his turn for about two hours.
The sage listened attentively to the young man's explanations about the purpose of his visit, but said in response that he did not have time to reveal to him the secret of happiness. And he invited him to take a walk around the palace and come back in two hours.
“However, I want to ask for one favor,” added the sage, holding out a small spoon to the young man, into which he dropped two drops of oil:
- While walking, hold this spoon in your hand so that the oil does not spill out.
The young man began to go up and down the palace stairs, keeping his eyes on the spoon. Two hours later he again came to the sage.
- Well, how? he asked. Have you seen the Persian carpets that are in my dining room? Have you seen the park that the head gardener has been creating for ten years? Have you noticed the beautiful parchments in my library?
The young man, embarrassed, had to confess that he had not seen anything. His only concern was not to spill the drops of oil that the Sage had entrusted to him.
“Well, come back and get acquainted with the wonders of my universe,” the Sage told him. “You can't trust a man if you don't know the house he lives in.
Reassured, the young man took the spoon and again went for a walk around the palace, this time paying attention to all the works of art hung on the walls and ceilings of the palace. He saw gardens surrounded by mountains, the most delicate flowers, the delicacy with which each piece of art was placed exactly where it needed to be. Returning to the sage, he described in detail everything he saw.
“Where are those two drops of oil that I entrusted to you?” the sage asked.
And the young man, looking at the spoon, found that the oil had spilled out.
“That is the only advice I can give you: the secret of happiness is to look at all the wonders of the world, never forgetting two drops of oil in a spoon.
Sermon
One day the mullah decided to address the believers. But a young groom came to listen to him. Mulla thought to himself, "Should I speak or not?" And he decided to ask the groom:
"There's no one here besides you, do you think I should speak or not?"
The groom replied:
“Sir, I am a simple man, I don’t understand anything about this. But when I come to the stable and see that all the horses have fled, and only one is left, I still give her food.
Mulla, taking these words to heart, began his sermon. He talked for more than two hours, and when he finished, he felt relieved in his soul. He wanted to hear confirmation of how good his speech was. He asked:
How did you like my sermon?
I have already said that I am a simple person and do not really understand all this. But if I come to the stable and see that all the horses have fled, and only one is left, I will feed her anyway. But I will not give her all the food that is intended for all horses.
Parable about positive thinking
Once an old Chinese teacher said to his student:
“Please take a good look around this room and try to notice everything in it that has a brown color.
The young man looked around. There were a lot of brown things in the room: wooden picture frames, a sofa, a curtain rod, desks, book bindings, and a host of other little things.
“Now close your eyes and list all the objects ... blue,” the teacher asked.
The young man was confused:
But I didn't notice anything!
Then the teacher said:
- Open your eyes. Just look how many blue things are here.
It was true: the blue vase, the blue photo frames, the blue carpet, the old teacher's blue shirt.
And the teacher said:
“Look at all those missing items!”
The student replied:
"But it's a trick!" After all, at your direction, I was looking for brown, not blue objects.
Master sighed softly and then smiled, “That's exactly what I wanted to show you. You searched and found only brown. The same thing happens to you in life. You seek and find only the bad and miss the good.
I have always been taught to expect the worst and you will never be disappointed. And if the worst doesn't happen, then I'm in for a pleasant surprise. And if I always hope for the best, then I will only expose myself to the risk of disappointment.
We should not lose sight of all the good things that happen in our lives. If you expect the worst, then you will definitely get it. And vice versa.
One can find a point of view from which each experience will have a positive meaning. From now on, you will look for something positive in everything and everyone.
How to reach the goal?
A great archery master named Drona taught his students. He hung a target on a tree and asked each of the students what they saw.
One said:
— I see a tree and a target on it.
Another said:
“I see a tree, a rising sun, birds in the sky…
All the rest answered in much the same way.
Then Drona approached his best student Arjuna and asked:
— And what do you see?
He replied:
— I can't see anything but the target.
And Drona said:
Only such a person can hit the target.
hidden treasures
In ancient India, there lived a poor man called Ali Hafed.
Once a Buddhist priest came to him and told him how the world was created: “Once upon a time, the earth was a continuous fog. And then the Almighty extended his fingers to the fog, and it turned into a ball of fire. And this ball rushed through the universe until the rain fell on the earth and cooled its surface. Then the fire, breaking the earth's surface, burst out. So mountains and valleys, hills and prairies arose.
When the molten mass flowing down the surface of the earth cooled quickly, it turned into granite. If it cooled slowly, it became copper, silver or gold. And after gold, diamonds were created.”
“Diamond,” said the sage Ali Hafedu, “is a frozen drop of sunlight. If you had a diamond the size of your thumb, continued the priest, you could buy the whole district. But if you owned diamond deposits, you could put all your children on the throne, and all this thanks to huge wealth.
Ali Hafed learned everything there was to know about diamonds that evening. But he went to bed, as always, a poor man. He lost nothing, but he was poor because he was not satisfied, and he was not satisfied because he was afraid that he was poor.
Ali Hafed did not close his eyes all night. He only thought about diamond deposits.
Early in the morning, he woke up an old Buddhist priest and begged him to tell him where to find the diamonds. The priest at first disagreed. But Ali Hafed was so insistent that the old man finally said:
- OK then. You must find a river that flows in white sands among high mountains. There, in these white sands, you will find diamonds.
And then Ali Hafed sold his farm, left his family to a neighbor and went to look for diamonds. He went further and further, but could not find the treasure. In desperation, he committed suicide by throwing himself into the sea.
One day, the man who bought Ali Hafed's farm decided to water a camel in the garden. And when the camel poked its nose into the stream, this man suddenly noticed a strange sparkle coming from the white sand from the bottom of the stream. He put his hands into the water and pulled out a stone from which this fiery radiance emanated. He brought this unusual stone home, put it on the shelf.
Once the same old Buddhist priest came to visit the new owner. Opening the door, he immediately saw a glow over the fireplace. Rushing towards him, he exclaimed:
- It's a diamond! Ali Hafed is back?
"No," replied Ali Hafed's successor. Ali Hafed didn't come back. And this is a simple stone that I found in my stream.
- You're wrong! exclaimed the priest. “I recognize a diamond from a thousand other gems. I swear on all saints, it's a diamond!
And then they went into the garden and dug up all the white sand in the stream. And in it they found gems, even more amazing and more valuable than the first. The most valuable is always there.
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V. A. Chastnikova
Parables of the East. branch of wisdom
The madman is comforted by the past,
weak-minded - the future,
smart - real.
Eastern wisdom.
Since ancient times, people in Rus' have loved parables, interpreted Biblical ones and composed their own. True, sometimes they were confused with fables. And already in the 18th century, the writer A.P. Sumarokov called the book of his fables “Proverbs”. Parables are really like fables. However, a fable is different from a parable.
A parable is a small moralizing story, like a fable, but without morality, without direct instruction.
The parable does not teach, but gives a hint of teaching, it is a delicate creation of the people.
In parables, in an ordinary, everyday case, a universal meaning is hidden - a lesson for all people, but not everyone, but very few, is given to see this meaning.
Parables immerse us in a fictional world where everything is possible, but, as a rule, this world is just a moralizing reflection of reality.
A parable is not a fictional story, it is primarily a story about real events that have taken place at all times. From generation to generation, parables, like oral folk art, were passed from mouth to mouth, supplemented by details, some details, but at the same time they did not lose their wisdom and simplicity. At different times, in different countries, many people, when making responsible decisions, looked for the answer in parables and instructive stories that have come down to our days.
Parables describe stories that happen to us in everyday life every day. If you pay attention, you will surely notice that many of the events described in the parables are very similar to our everyday situations. And the question is how to respond to it. The parable teaches to look at things soberly and act wisely, without excessive emotionality.
At first glance, it may seem that the parable does not carry any useful information, but this is only at first glance. If you didn't like the parable, it seemed incomprehensible, stupid or meaningless - this does not mean that the parable is bad. It's just that you may not be prepared enough to understand this parable. Rereading parables, each time you can find something new in them.
The parables collected in this book came to us from the East - there people gathered in tea rooms and listened to the storytellers over a cup of coffee or tea.
The truth of life
Three important questions
The ruler of one country strove for all wisdom. Rumors reached him once that there was a certain hermit who knew the answers to all questions. The ruler came to him and sees: a decrepit old man, digging a garden bed. He jumped off his horse and bowed to the old man.
- I came to get an answer to three questions: who is the most important person on earth, what is the most important thing in life, what day is more important than all the others.
The hermit did not answer and continued to dig. The ruler undertook to help him.
Suddenly he sees: a man is walking along the road - his whole face is covered with blood. The ruler stopped him, comforted him with a kind word, brought water from the stream, washed and bandaged the traveler's wounds. Then he took him to the hermit's hut, put him to bed.
The next morning he looks - the hermit is sowing the garden.
“Hermit,” the ruler pleaded, “won’t you answer my questions?”
“You already answered them yourself,” he said.
- As? - the ruler was amazed.
“Seeing my old age and weakness, you took pity on me and volunteered to help,” said the hermit. - While you were digging the garden, I was the most important person for you, and helping me was the most important thing for you. A wounded man appeared - his need was more acute than mine. And he became the most important person for you, and helping him became the most important thing. It turns out that the most important person is the one who needs your help. And the most important thing is the good that you do to him.
“Now I can answer my third question: what day in a person’s life is more important than the rest,” the ruler said. “The most important day is today.
Most valuable
One person in childhood was very friendly with an old neighbor.
But time passed, school and hobbies appeared, then work and personal life. Every minute the young man was busy, and he did not have time to remember the past, or even to be with loved ones.
Once he learned that a neighbor had died - and suddenly remembered: the old man taught him a lot, trying to replace the boy's deceased father. Feeling guilty, he came to the funeral.
In the evening, after the burial, the man entered the empty house of the deceased. Everything was the same as many years ago ...
Here are just a small golden box, in which, according to the old man, was kept the most valuable thing for him, disappeared from the table. Thinking that one of her few relatives had taken her, the man left the house.
However, two weeks later he received the package. Seeing the neighbor's name on it, the man shuddered and opened the package.
Inside was the same golden box. It contained a gold pocket watch engraved with "Thank you for the time you spent with me."
And he realized that the most valuable thing for the old man was the time spent with his little friend.
Since then, the man tried to devote as much time as possible to his wife and son.
Life is not measured by the number of breaths. It is measured by the number of moments that make us hold our breath.
Time is slipping away from us every second. And it needs to be spent right now.
Life as it is
I will tell you a parable: in ancient times, a heartbroken woman came to Gautam Buddha who had lost her son. And she began to pray to the Almighty to return her child. And Buddha ordered the woman to return to the village and collect a mustard seed from each family, in which at least one of its members would not be burned on a funeral pyre. And going around her village and many others, the poor fellow did not find a single such family. And the woman understood that death is a natural and inevitable outcome for all living. And the woman accepted her life as it is, with its inevitable departure into oblivion, with the eternal circulation of lives.
Butterflies and fire
Three butterflies, flying up to a burning candle, began to talk about the nature of fire. One flew up to the flame, returned and said:
- The fire is shining.
Another flew closer and scorched the wing. Arriving back, she said:
- He's stinging!
The third, flying very close, disappeared in the fire and did not return. She learned what she wanted to know, but was no longer able to tell the rest about it.
The one who has received knowledge is deprived of the opportunity to speak about it, therefore the one who knows is silent, and the one who speaks does not know.
understand fate
Chuang Tzu's wife died, and Hui Tzu came to mourn her. Chuang Tzu squatted down and sang songs, hitting his pelvis. Hui Tzu said:
“Not mourning the deceased, who lived with you to old age and raised your children, is too much. But singing songs while hitting the pelvis is simply no good!
“You are wrong,” Chuang Tzu replied. “When she died, could I not be sad at first? Grieving, I began to think about what she was in the beginning, when she was not yet born. And not only was she not born, but she was not yet a body. And not only was it not a body, but it was not even a breath. I realized that she was scattered in the void of boundless chaos.
Chaos turned - and she became breath. The breath changed and she became the body. The body changed and she was born. Now a new transformation has come - and she is dead. All this changed each other, as the four seasons alternate. Man is buried in the abyss of transformations, as if in the chambers of a huge house.
Money can not buy happiness
The student asked the Master:
- How true are the words that happiness is not in money?
He replied that they were completely correct. And it's easy to prove it.
For money can buy a bed, but not sleep; food, but no appetite; medicines, but not health; servants, but not friends; women, but not love; dwelling, but not the hearth; entertainment, but not joy; education, but not the mind.
And what is mentioned does not exhaust the list.
Walk straight!
There was once a woodcutter who was in a very distressed situation. He subsisted on the paltry amounts of money earned from firewood, which he brought to the city on himself from the nearest forest.
One day a sannyasin passing along the road saw him at work and advised him to go further into the forest, saying:
- Go ahead, go ahead!
The woodcutter heeded the advice, went into the forest and went on until he came to a sandalwood tree. He was very pleased with this find, cut down the tree and, taking with him as many pieces of it as he could carry, he sold them in the market for a good price. Then he began to wonder why the good sannyasin did not tell him that there was sandalwood in the forest, but simply advised him to go ahead.
The next day, reaching a felled tree, he went further and found copper deposits. He took with him as much copper as he could carry, and by selling it in the bazaar he made even more money.
The next day he found gold, then diamonds, and finally acquired great wealth.
This is precisely the position of a person who strives for true knowledge: if he does not stop in his movement after he reaches some paranormal powers, then, in the end, he will find the wealth of eternal Knowledge and Truth.
two snowflakes
It was snowing. The weather was calm, and large fluffy snowflakes slowly circled in a bizarre dance, slowly approaching the ground.
Two snowflakes flying side by side decided to start a conversation. Afraid of losing each other, they joined hands, and one of them cheerfully says:
- How good it is to fly, enjoy the flight!
“We don’t fly, we just fall,” the second answered sadly.
- Soon we will meet the ground and turn into a white fluffy blanket!
- No, we are flying towards death, and on the ground they will simply trample us.
We will become streams and rush to the sea. We will live forever! said the first.
“No, we will melt and disappear forever,” the second objected to her.
Finally they got tired of arguing. They unclenched their hands, and each flew towards the fate that she herself chose.
great good
A rich man asked a Zen master to write something good and encouraging, something that would bring great benefit to his whole family. “It must be something that every member of our family thinks about in relation to others,” said the rich man.
He gave a large piece of snow-white expensive paper, on which the master wrote: “The father will die, the son will die, the grandson will die. And all in one day."
The rich man was furious when he read what the master wrote to him: “I asked you to write something good for my family so that it would bring joy and prosperity to my family. Why did you write something that upsets me?
“If your son dies before you,” the master replied, “it will be an irreparable loss for your entire family. If the grandson dies before your son dies, it will be a great sorrow for everyone. But if your entire family, generation after generation, dies on the same day, it will be a real gift of fate. This will be a great happiness and benefit for your entire family.”
Heaven and Hell
There lived one person. And he spent most of his life trying to figure out the difference between hell and heaven. He pondered this subject day and night.
Then one day he had a strange dream. He went to hell. And he sees people there who are sitting in front of cauldrons of food. And everyone has a big spoon with a very long handle in their hand. But these people look hungry, thin and emaciated. They can scoop from the boiler, but they won’t get into the mouth. And they swear, fight, beat each other with spoons.
Suddenly, another person runs up to him and shouts:
- Hey, let's go faster, I'll show you the road leading to paradise.
They arrived in paradise. And they see people there who are sitting in front of the boilers with food. And everyone has a big spoon with a very long handle in their hand. But they look full, satisfied and happy. When we looked closely, we saw that they were feeding each other. Man should go to man with kindness - that's paradise.
The Secret of Happiness
One merchant sent his son to seek the secret of happiness from the wisest of all people. The young man walked through the desert for forty days and finally came to a beautiful castle that stood on the top of a mountain. There lived the sage he was looking for.
However, instead of the expected meeting with a holy man, our hero entered the hall, where everything was seething: merchants came in and out, people chatted in the corner, a small orchestra played sweet melodies and there was a table laden with the most delicious dishes of the area. The sage talked to different people, and the young man had to wait for his turn for about two hours.
The sage listened attentively to the young man's explanations about the purpose of his visit, but said in response that he did not have time to reveal to him the secret of happiness. And he invited him to take a walk around the palace and come back in two hours.
“However, I want to ask for one favor,” added the sage, holding out a small spoon to the young man, into which he dropped two drops of oil:
- While walking, hold this spoon in your hand so that the oil does not spill out.
The young man began to go up and down the palace stairs, keeping his eyes on the spoon. Two hours later he again came to the sage
- Well, how? he asked. Have you seen the Persian carpets that are in my dining room? Have you seen the park that the head gardener has been creating for ten years? Have you noticed the beautiful parchments in my library?
The young man, embarrassed, had to confess that he had not seen anything. His only concern was not to spill the drops of oil that the Sage had entrusted to him.
“Well, come back and get acquainted with the wonders of my universe,” the Sage told him. “You can't trust a man if you don't know the house he lives in.
Reassured, the young man took the spoon and again went for a walk around the palace, this time paying attention to all the works of art hung on the walls and ceilings of the palace. He saw gardens surrounded by mountains, the most delicate flowers, the delicacy with which each piece of art was placed exactly where it needed to be. Returning to the sage, he described in detail everything he saw.
“Where are those two drops of oil that I entrusted you with?” the sage asked.
And the young man, looking at the spoon, found that the oil had spilled out.
“That is the only advice I can give you: the secret of happiness is to look at all the wonders of the world, never forgetting two drops of oil in a spoon.
Sermon
One day the mullah decided to address the believers. But a young groom came to listen to him. Mulla thought to himself, "Should I speak or not?" And he decided to ask the groom:
“There is no one here but you, do you think I should speak or not?”
The groom replied:
“Sir, I am a simple man, I don’t understand anything about this. But when I come to the stable and see that all the horses have fled, and only one is left, I still give her food.
Mulla, taking these words to heart, began his sermon. He talked for more than two hours, and when he finished, he felt relieved in his soul. He wanted to hear confirmation of how good his speech was. He asked:
How did you like my sermon?
- I have already said that I am a simple person and do not really understand all this. But if I come to the stable and see that all the horses have fled, and only one is left, I will feed her anyway. But I will not give her all the food that is intended for all horses.
Parable about positive thinking
Once an old Chinese teacher said to his student:
“Please take a good look around this room and try to notice everything in it that has a brown color.
The young man looked around. There were a lot of brown things in the room: wooden picture frames, a sofa, a curtain rod, desks, book bindings, and a host of other little things.
“Now close your eyes and list all the objects ... blue,” the teacher asked.
The young man was confused:
But I didn't notice anything!
Then the teacher said:
- Open your eyes. Just look how many blue things are here.
It was true: the blue vase, the blue photo frames, the blue carpet, the old teacher's blue shirt.
And the teacher said:
“Look at all those missing items!”
The student replied:
"But it's a trick!" After all, at your direction, I was looking for brown, not blue objects.
Master sighed softly and then smiled, “That's exactly what I wanted to show you. You searched and found only brown. The same thing happens to you in life. You seek and find only the bad and miss the good.
I have always been taught to expect the worst and you will never be disappointed. And if the worst doesn't happen, then I'm in for a pleasant surprise. And if I always hope for the best, then I will only expose myself to the risk of disappointment.
We should not lose sight of all the good things that happen in our lives. If you expect the worst, then you will definitely get it. And vice versa.
One can find a point of view from which each experience will have a positive meaning. From now on, you will look for something positive in everything and everyone.
How to reach the goal?
A great archery master named Drona taught his students. He hung a target on a tree and asked each of the students what they saw.
One said:
I see a tree and a target on it.
Another said:
“I see a tree, a rising sun, birds in the sky…
All the rest answered in much the same way.
Then Drona approached his best student Arjuna and asked:
– What do you see?
He replied:
I can't see anything but the target.
And Drona said:
Only such a person can hit the target.
hidden treasures
In ancient India, there lived a poor man called Ali Hafed.
Once a Buddhist priest came to him and told him how the world was created: “Once upon a time, the earth was a continuous fog. And then the Almighty extended his fingers to the fog, and it turned into a ball of fire. And this ball rushed through the universe until the rain fell on the earth and cooled its surface. Then the fire, breaking the earth's surface, burst out. So mountains and valleys, hills and prairies arose.
When the molten mass flowing down the surface of the earth cooled quickly, it turned into granite. If it cooled slowly, it became copper, silver or gold. And after gold, diamonds were created.
“A diamond,” said the sage Ali Hafedu, “is a frozen drop of sunlight. If you had a diamond the size of thumb hands,” continued the priest, “then you could buy the whole district. But if you owned diamond deposits, you could put all your children on the throne, and all this thanks to huge wealth.
Ali Hafed learned everything there was to know about diamonds that evening. But he went to bed, as always, a poor man. He lost nothing, but he was poor because he was not satisfied, and he was not satisfied because he was afraid that he was poor.
Ali Hafed did not close his eyes all night. He only thought about diamond deposits.
Early in the morning, he woke up an old Buddhist priest and begged him to tell him where to find the diamonds. The priest at first disagreed. But Ali Hafed was so insistent that the old man finally said:
- OK then. You must find a river that flows in white sands among high mountains. There, in these white sands, you will find diamonds.
And then Ali Hafed sold his farm, left his family to a neighbor and went to look for diamonds. He went further and further, but could not find the treasure. In desperation, he committed suicide by throwing himself into the sea.
One day, the man who bought Ali Hafed's farm decided to water a camel in the garden. And when the camel poked its nose into the stream, this man suddenly noticed a strange sparkle coming from the white sand from the bottom of the stream. He put his hands into the water and pulled out a stone from which this fiery radiance emanated. He brought this unusual stone home, put it on the shelf.
Once the same old Buddhist priest came to visit the new owner. Opening the door, he immediately saw a glow over the fireplace. Rushing towards him, he exclaimed:
- It's a diamond! Ali Hafed is back?
“No,” replied Ali Hafed's successor. Ali Hafed hasn't returned. And this is a simple stone that I found in my stream.
- You're wrong! the priest exclaimed. “I recognize a diamond from a thousand other gems. I swear on all saints, it's a diamond!
And then they went into the garden and dug up all the white sand in the stream. And in it they found gems even more amazing and more valuable than the first. The most valuable is always there.
And they saw god
One day it happened that three saints were walking together through the forest. All their lives they worked selflessly: one was a follower of the path of devotion, love and prayer. The other is the paths of knowledge, wisdom and intelligence. The third is action, service, duty.
Despite the fact that they were selfless seekers, they did not achieve the desired results, they did not know God.
But that day a miracle happened!
Suddenly it began to rain, they ran to a small chapel, squeezed inside and pressed against each other. And the moment they touched each other, they felt that they were no longer three. Startled in surprise, they looked at each other.
A higher presence was clearly felt. Gradually it became more and more visible and radiant. It was such an ecstasy to see the divine light!
They fell to their knees and prayed:
“God, why did you suddenly come? We have worked all our lives, but we have not been honored with such an honor - to see You, why did this suddenly happen today?
And God said:
“Because today you are all here together. Touching each other, you became one and therefore saw me. I have always been with each of you, but you could not manifest me because you were only fragments. In unity comes a miracle.
Parables are short and entertaining stories that express the experience of many generations of lives. Parables about love have always been especially popular. And no wonder - these stories filled with meaning can teach a lot. And the right relationship with a partner, too.
After all, love is a great power. She is able to create and destroy, inspire and deprive of strength, give insight and deprive of reason, believe and be jealous, perform feats and push for betrayal, give and take, forgive and avenge, idolize and hate. So love needs to be handled. And instructive parables about love will help with this.
Where else to draw wisdom, if not in the stories proven over the years. We hope that short stories about love will answer many of your questions and teach harmony. After all, we are all born to love and be loved.
Parable about love, wealth and health
Parable about love and happiness
- Where does love go? - the little happiness asked his father. “She is dying,” said the father. People, son, do not cherish what they have. They just don't know how to love!
Little happiness thought: I'll grow up big and start helping people! Years passed. Happiness grew and became greater.
It remembered its promise and tried its best to help the people, but the people did not hear it.
And gradually Happiness began to turn from a big one into a small and stunted one. It was very afraid that it would not disappear at all, and set off on a long journey to find a cure for its illness.
How long did Happiness go for a short time, not meeting anyone on its way, it only became very bad for him.
And it stopped to rest. I chose a sprawling tree and lay down. I had just dozed off when I heard footsteps approaching.
He opened his eyes and sees: a decrepit old woman is walking through the forest, all in rags, barefoot and with a staff. Happiness rushed to her: - Sit down. You must be tired. You need to rest and refresh.
The old woman's legs buckled, and she literally collapsed into the grass. After a short rest, the wanderer told Happiness her story:
- It's a shame when you are considered so decrepit, but I'm still young, and my name is Love!
- So this is you Love?! Happiness struck. But I was told that love is the most beautiful thing in the world!
Love looked at him attentively and asked:
- And what's your name?
- Happiness.
- That's how? I was also told that happiness should be beautiful. And with these words she took out a mirror from her rags.
Happiness, looking at her reflection, wept loudly. Love sat down to him and gently hugged her hand. What have these people done to us? evil people and fate? - Happiness sobbed.
- Nothing, - said Love, - If we are together and take care of each other, we will quickly become young and beautiful.
And under that sprawling tree, Love and Happiness made their union never to be separated.
Since then, if Love leaves someone's life, Happiness leaves with it, they do not exist separately.
And people still don't get it...
The parable of the best wife
One day, two sailors set off on a journey around the world to find their destiny. They sailed to the island, where the leader of one of the tribes had two daughters. The eldest is beautiful, and the youngest is not very.
One of the sailors said to his friend:
- That's it, I found my happiness, I stay here and marry the leader's daughter.
- Yes, you are right, the eldest daughter of the leader is beautiful, smart. You made the right choice - get married.
You don't understand me, friend! I am marrying the chief's youngest daughter.
- Are you crazy? She's like... not so much.
This is my decision and I will do it.
The friend sailed on in search of his happiness, and the groom went to woo. I must say that in the tribe it was customary to give cows for the bride. A good bride cost ten cows.
He drove ten cows and approached the leader.
- Chief, I want to marry your daughter and give ten cows for her!
- It's a good choice. My eldest daughter is beautiful, smart, and she is worth ten cows. I agree.
No, sir, you don't understand. I want to marry your youngest daughter.
- Are you joking? Can't you see, she's just so... not so good.
- I want to marry her.
- Okay, but as an honest person, I can't take ten cows, she's not worth it. I'll take three cows for her, no more.
- No, I want to pay exactly ten cows.
They merried.
Several years passed, and the wandering friend, already on his ship, decided to visit the remaining comrade and find out how his life is. Sailed, walks along the shore, and towards the woman of unearthly beauty.
He asked her how to find his friend. She showed. He comes and sees: his friend is sitting, the kids are running around.
- How are you?
- I'm happy.
This is where the beautiful woman comes in.
- Here, meet me. This is my wife.
- As? Are you married again?
No, it's the same woman.
But how did it happen that she changed so much?
- And you ask her yourself.
A friend approached the woman and asked:
- Sorry for the faux pas, but I remember what you were ... not very much. What happened to make you so beautiful?
- It's just, one day I realized that I was worth ten cows.
The Parable of the Best Husband
One day a woman came to the priest and said:
- You married my husband two years ago. Now separate us. I don't want to live with him anymore.
- What is the reason for your desire to get a divorce? - asked the priest.
The woman explained:
- All husbands return home on time, but my husband is constantly delayed. There are scandals every day because of this house.
The priest, surprised, asks:
- Is this the only reason?
“Yes, I don’t want to live with a person who has such a defect,” the woman replied.
- I'll divorce you, but on one condition. Come back home, bake a big tasty bread and bring it to me. But when you bake bread, do not take anything from the house, and ask your neighbors for salt, water, and flour. And be sure to explain to them the reason for your request,” said the priest.
This woman went home and, without delay, set to work.
She went to a neighbor and said:
- Oh, Maria, lend me a glass of water.
- Have you run out of water? Isn't there a well dug in the yard?
“There is water, but I went to the priest to complain about my husband and asked to divorce us,” that woman explained, and as soon as she finished, the neighbor sighed:
- Oh, if you knew what kind of husband I have! - and began to complain about her husband. After that, the woman went to her neighbor Asya to ask for salt.
- You have run out of salt, are you asking for just one spoon?
“There is salt, but I complained to the priest about my husband, asked for a divorce,” that woman says, and before she had time to finish, the neighbor exclaimed:
- Oh, if you knew what kind of husband I have! - and began to complain about her husband.
So, to whom this woman did not go to ask, from everyone she heard complaints about her husbands.
Finally, she baked a large tasty bread, brought it to the priest and gave it away with the words:
- Thank you, taste my work with your family. Just don't think of divorcing me and my husband.
- Why, what happened, daughter? the priest asked.
- My husband, it turns out, is the best, - the woman answered him.
Parable about true love
Once the teacher asked his students:
Why do people scream when they fight?
“Because they lose their calm,” said one.
- But why shout if the other person is next to you? the Teacher asked. Can't you talk to him quietly? Why scream if you're angry?
The students offered their answers, but none of them satisfied the Teacher.
Finally he explained: - When people are dissatisfied with each other and quarrel, their hearts move away. In order to cover this distance and hear each other, they have to shout. The more angry they are, the farther they move away and the louder they shout.
- What happens when people fall in love? They do not shout, on the contrary, they speak softly. Because their hearts are very close, and the distance between them is very small. And when they fall in love even more, what happens? continued the Teacher. – They do not speak, but only whisper and become even closer in their love. - In the end, even whispering becomes unnecessary for them. They just look at each other and understand everything without words.
A story about a happy family
Two families live next door in a small town. Some spouses constantly quarrel, blaming each other for all troubles and finding out which of them is right. And others live together, they have no quarrels, no scandals.
The obstinate hostess marvels at the happiness of her neighbor and, of course, envies her. Says to her husband:
- Go and see how they do it so that everything is smooth and quiet.
He came to a neighbor's house, hid under an open window and listens.
And the hostess just puts things in order in the house. He wipes an expensive vase from dust. Suddenly the phone rang, the woman was distracted, and put the vase on the edge of the table, so much so that it was about to fall. But then her husband needed something in the room. He caught a vase, it fell and broke.
- Oh, what will happen now! the neighbor thinks. He immediately imagined what a scandal would be in his family.
The wife came up, sighed with regret, and said to her husband:
- Sorry honey.
- What are you, honey? This is my fault. I was in a hurry and did not notice the vase.
- It's my fault. So inaccurately put the vase.
- No, it's my fault. Anyway. We would not have had greater misfortune.
The neighbor's heart hurt. He came home upset. Wife to him:
- Something you quickly. Well, what did you see?
- Yes!
- Well, how are they?
- It's all their fault. That's why they don't fight. But we are always right...
A beautiful legend about the importance of love in life
It so happened that different feelings lived on the same island: Happiness, Sadness, Skill ... And Love was among them.
Once Premonition informed everyone that the island would soon disappear under water. Haste and Haste were the first to leave the island in boats. Soon everyone left, only Love remained. She wanted to stay until the last second. When the island was about to go under water, Love decided to call for help.
Wealth sailed on a magnificent ship. Love says to him: "Wealth, can you take me away?" "No, I have a lot of money and gold on my ship. I don't have room for you!"
Happiness floated past the island, but it was so happy that it did not even hear how Love was calling it.
… and yet Love was saved. After her rescue, she asked Knowledge who it was.
- Time. Because only Time can understand how important Love is!
True love story
In one aul there lived a girl of incomparable beauty, but none of the young men wooed her, no one sought her hand. The fact is that once a wise man who lived in the neighborhood predicted:
- Whoever dares to kiss a beauty will die!
Everyone knew that this wise man was never wrong, so dozens of brave horsemen looked at the girl from afar, not even daring to approach her. But then one fine day a young man appeared in the village, who at first sight, like everyone else, fell in love with the beauty. Without a moment's hesitation, he climbed over the fence, came up and kissed the girl.
- Ah! - shouted the inhabitants of the village. - Now he's going to die!
But the young man kissed the girl again, and again. And she immediately agreed to marry him. The rest of the horsemen turned to the sage in bewilderment:
- How so? You, sage, predicted that the one who kissed the beauty would die!
- I don't go back on my words. - answered the sage. But I didn't say exactly when that would happen. He will die sometime later - after many years of a happy life.
A story about a long family life
An elderly couple who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary were asked how they managed to live together for so long.
After all, there was everything - and difficult times, and quarrels, and misunderstanding.
Perhaps their marriage was on the verge of collapse more than once.
"It's just that in our time, broken things were repaired, not thrown away," the old man smiled in response.
Parable about the fragility of love
Once a wise old man came to a village and stayed to live. He loved children and spent a lot of time with them. He also liked to give them gifts, but he gave only fragile things.
No matter how hard the children tried to be neat, their new toys often broke. The children were upset and wept bitterly. Some time passed, the sage again gave them toys, but even more fragile ones.
One day, the parents could not stand it and came to him:
“You are wise and wish only the best for our children. But why do you give them such gifts? They try their best, but the toys still break and the children cry. But the toys are so beautiful that it is impossible not to play with them.
- Quite a few years will pass, - the old man smiled, - and someone will give them his heart. Maybe this will teach them to handle this priceless gift a little more carefully?
And the moral of all these parables is very simple: love and appreciate each other.
The madman is comforted by the past,
weak-minded - the future,
smart - real.
Eastern wisdom.
Since ancient times, people in Rus' have loved parables, interpreted Biblical ones and composed their own. True, sometimes they were confused with fables. And already in the 18th century, the writer A.P. Sumarokov called the book of his fables “Proverbs”. Parables are really like fables. However, a fable is different from a parable.
A parable is a small moralizing story, like a fable, but without morality, without direct instruction.
The parable does not teach, but gives a hint of teaching, it is a delicate creation of the people.
In parables, in an ordinary, everyday case, a universal meaning is hidden - a lesson for all people, but not everyone, but very few, is given to see this meaning.
Parables immerse us in a fictional world where everything is possible, but, as a rule, this world is just a moralizing reflection of reality.
A parable is not a fictional story, it is primarily a story about real events that have taken place at all times. From generation to generation, parables, like oral folk art, were passed from mouth to mouth, supplemented by details, some details, but at the same time they did not lose their wisdom and simplicity. At different times, in different countries, many people, when making responsible decisions, looked for the answer in parables and instructive stories that have come down to our days.
Parables describe stories that happen to us in everyday life every day. If you pay attention, you will surely notice that many of the events described in the parables are very similar to our everyday situations. And the question is how to respond to it. The parable teaches to look at things soberly and act wisely, without excessive emotionality.
At first glance, it may seem that the parable does not carry any useful information, but this is only at first glance. If you didn't like the parable, it seemed incomprehensible, stupid or meaningless - this does not mean that the parable is bad. It's just that you may not be prepared enough to understand this parable. Rereading parables, each time you can find something new in them.
The parables collected in this book came to us from the East - there people gathered in tea rooms and listened to the storytellers over a cup of coffee or tea.
The truth of life
Three important questions
The ruler of one country strove for all wisdom. Rumors reached him once that there was a certain hermit who knew the answers to all questions. The ruler came to him and sees: a decrepit old man, digging a garden bed. He jumped off his horse and bowed to the old man.
- I came to get an answer to three questions: who is the most important person on earth, what is the most important thing in life, what day is more important than all the others.
The hermit did not answer and continued to dig. The ruler undertook to help him.
Suddenly he sees: a man is walking along the road - his whole face is covered with blood.
The ruler stopped him, comforted him with a kind word, brought water from the stream, washed and bandaged the traveler's wounds. Then he took him to the hermit's hut, put him to bed.
The next morning he looks - the hermit is sowing the garden.
“Hermit,” the ruler pleaded, “won’t you answer my questions?”
“You already answered them yourself,” he said.
- As? - the ruler was amazed.
“Seeing my old age and weakness, you took pity on me and volunteered to help,” said the hermit. - While you were digging the garden, I was the most important person for you, and helping me was the most important thing for you. A wounded man appeared - his need was more acute than mine. And he became the most important person for you, and helping him became the most important thing. It turns out that the most important person is the one who needs your help. And the most important thing is the good that you do to him.
“Now I can answer my third question: what day in a person’s life is more important than the rest,” the ruler said. “The most important day is today.
Most valuable
One person in childhood was very friendly with an old neighbor.
But time passed, school and hobbies appeared, then work and personal life. Every minute the young man was busy, and he did not have time to remember the past, or even to be with loved ones.
Once he learned that a neighbor had died - and suddenly remembered: the old man taught him a lot, trying to replace the boy's deceased father. Feeling guilty, he came to the funeral.
In the evening, after the burial, the man entered the empty house of the deceased. Everything was the same as many years ago ...
Here are just a small golden box, in which, according to the old man, was kept the most valuable thing for him, disappeared from the table. Thinking that one of her few relatives had taken her, the man left the house.
However, two weeks later he received the package. Seeing the neighbor's name on it, the man shuddered and opened the package.
Inside was the same golden box. It contained a gold pocket watch engraved with "Thank you for the time you spent with me."
And he realized that the most valuable thing for the old man was the time spent with his little friend.
Since then, the man tried to devote as much time as possible to his wife and son.
Life is not measured by the number of breaths. It is measured by the number of moments that make us hold our breath.
Time is slipping away from us every second. And it needs to be spent right now.
Life as it is
I will tell you a parable: in ancient times, a heartbroken woman came to Gautam Buddha who had lost her son. And she began to pray to the Almighty to return her child. And Buddha ordered the woman to return to the village and collect a mustard seed from each family, in which at least one of its members would not be burned on a funeral pyre. And going around her village and many others, the poor fellow did not find a single such family. And the woman understood that death is a natural and inevitable outcome for all living. And the woman accepted her life as it is, with its inevitable departure into oblivion, with the eternal circulation of lives.
Butterflies and fire
Three butterflies, flying up to a burning candle, began to talk about the nature of fire. One flew up to the flame, returned and said:
- The fire is shining.
Another flew closer and scorched the wing. Arriving back, she said:
- He's stinging!
The third, flying very close, disappeared in the fire and did not return. She learned what she wanted to know, but was no longer able to tell the rest about it.
The one who has received knowledge is deprived of the opportunity to speak about it, therefore the one who knows is silent, and the one who speaks does not know.
understand fate
Chuang Tzu's wife died, and Hui Tzu came to mourn her. Chuang Tzu squatted down and sang songs, hitting his pelvis. Hui Tzu said:
“Not mourning the deceased, who lived with you to old age and raised your children, is too much. But singing songs while hitting the pelvis is simply no good!
“You are wrong,” Chuang Tzu replied. “When she died, could I not be sad at first? Grieving, I began to think about what she was in the beginning, when she was not yet born. And not only was she not born, but she was not yet a body. And not only was it not a body, but it was not even a breath. I realized that she was scattered in the void of boundless chaos.
Chaos turned - and she became breath. The breath changed and she became the body. The body changed and she was born. Now a new transformation has come - and she is dead. All this changed each other, as the four seasons alternate. Man is buried in the abyss of transformations, as if in the chambers of a huge house.
Money can not buy happiness
The student asked the Master:
- How true are the words that happiness is not in money?
He replied that they were completely correct. And it's easy to prove it.
For money can buy a bed, but not sleep; food, but no appetite; medicines, but not health; servants, but not friends; women, but not love; dwelling, but not the hearth; entertainment, but not joy; education, but not the mind.
And what is mentioned does not exhaust the list.
Walk straight!
There was once a woodcutter who was in a very distressed situation. He subsisted on the paltry amounts of money earned from firewood, which he brought to the city on himself from the nearest forest.
One day a sannyasin passing along the road saw him at work and advised him to go further into the forest, saying:
- Go ahead, go ahead!
The woodcutter heeded the advice, went into the forest and went on until he came to a sandalwood tree. He was very pleased with this find, cut down the tree and, taking with him as many pieces of it as he could carry, he sold them in the market for a good price. Then he began to wonder why the good sannyasin did not tell him that there was sandalwood in the forest, but simply advised him to go ahead.
The next day, reaching a felled tree, he went further and found copper deposits. He took with him as much copper as he could carry, and by selling it in the bazaar he made even more money.
The next day he found gold, then diamonds, and finally acquired great wealth.
This is precisely the position of a person who strives for true knowledge: if he does not stop in his movement after he reaches some paranormal powers, then, in the end, he will find the wealth of eternal Knowledge and Truth.
two snowflakes
It was snowing. The weather was calm, and large fluffy snowflakes slowly circled in a bizarre dance, slowly approaching the ground.
Two snowflakes flying side by side decided to start a conversation. Afraid of losing each other, they joined hands, and one of them cheerfully says:
- How good it is to fly, enjoy the flight!
“We don’t fly, we just fall,” the second answered sadly.
- Soon we will meet the ground and turn into a white fluffy blanket!
- No, we are flying towards death, and on the ground they will simply trample us.
We will become streams and rush to the sea. We will live forever! said the first.
“No, we will melt and disappear forever,” the second objected to her.
Finally they got tired of arguing. They unclenched their hands, and each flew towards the fate that she herself chose.
great good
A rich man asked a Zen master to write something good and encouraging, something that would bring great benefit to his whole family. “It must be something that every member of our family thinks about in relation to others,” said the rich man.
He gave a large piece of snow-white expensive paper, on which the master wrote: “The father will die, the son will die, the grandson will die. And all in one day."
The rich man was furious when he read what the master wrote to him: “I asked you to write something good for my family so that it would bring joy and prosperity to my family. Why did you write something that upsets me?
“If your son dies before you,” the master replied, “it will be an irreparable loss for your entire family. If the grandson dies before your son dies, it will be a great sorrow for everyone. But if your entire family, generation after generation, dies on the same day, it will be a real gift of fate. This will be a great happiness and benefit for your entire family.”
Heaven and Hell
There lived one person. And he spent most of his life trying to figure out the difference between hell and heaven. He pondered this subject day and night.
Then one day he had a strange dream. He went to hell. And he sees people there who are sitting in front of cauldrons of food. And everyone has a big spoon with a very long handle in their hand. But these people look hungry, thin and emaciated. They can scoop from the boiler, but they won’t get into the mouth. And they swear, fight, beat each other with spoons.
Suddenly, another person runs up to him and shouts:
- Hey, let's go faster, I'll show you the road leading to paradise.
They arrived in paradise. And they see people there who are sitting in front of the boilers with food. And everyone has a big spoon with a very long handle in their hand. But they look full, satisfied and happy. When we looked closely, we saw that they were feeding each other. Man should go to man with kindness - that's paradise.
The Secret of Happiness
One merchant sent his son to seek the secret of happiness from the wisest of all people. The young man walked through the desert for forty days and finally came to a beautiful castle that stood on the top of a mountain. There lived the sage he was looking for.
However, instead of the expected meeting with a holy man, our hero entered the hall, where everything was seething: merchants came in and out, people chatted in the corner, a small orchestra played sweet melodies and there was a table laden with the most delicious dishes of the area. The sage talked to different people, and the young man had to wait for his turn for about two hours.
The sage listened attentively to the young man's explanations about the purpose of his visit, but said in response that he did not have time to reveal to him the secret of happiness. And he invited him to take a walk around the palace and come back in two hours.
“However, I want to ask for one favor,” added the sage, holding out a small spoon to the young man, into which he dropped two drops of oil:
- While walking, hold this spoon in your hand so that the oil does not spill out.
The young man began to go up and down the palace stairs, keeping his eyes on the spoon. Two hours later he again came to the sage
- Well, how? he asked. Have you seen the Persian carpets that are in my dining room? Have you seen the park that the head gardener has been creating for ten years? Have you noticed the beautiful parchments in my library?
The young man, embarrassed, had to confess that he had not seen anything. His only concern was not to spill the drops of oil that the Sage had entrusted to him.
“Well, come back and get acquainted with the wonders of my universe,” the Sage told him. “You can't trust a man if you don't know the house he lives in.
Reassured, the young man took the spoon and again went for a walk around the palace, this time paying attention to all the works of art hung on the walls and ceilings of the palace. He saw gardens surrounded by mountains, the most delicate flowers, the delicacy with which each piece of art was placed exactly where it needed to be. Returning to the sage, he described in detail everything he saw.
“Where are those two drops of oil that I entrusted you with?” the sage asked.
And the young man, looking at the spoon, found that the oil had spilled out.
“That is the only advice I can give you: the secret of happiness is to look at all the wonders of the world, never forgetting two drops of oil in a spoon.
Sermon
One day the mullah decided to address the believers. But a young groom came to listen to him. Mulla thought to himself, "Should I speak or not?" And he decided to ask the groom:
“There is no one here but you, do you think I should speak or not?”
The groom replied:
“Sir, I am a simple man, I don’t understand anything about this. But when I come to the stable and see that all the horses have fled, and only one is left, I still give her food.
Mulla, taking these words to heart, began his sermon. He talked for more than two hours, and when he finished, he felt relieved in his soul. He wanted to hear confirmation of how good his speech was. He asked:
How did you like my sermon?
- I have already said that I am a simple person and do not really understand all this. But if I come to the stable and see that all the horses have fled, and only one is left, I will feed her anyway. But I will not give her all the food that is intended for all horses.
Parable about positive thinking
Once an old Chinese teacher said to his student:
“Please take a good look around this room and try to notice everything in it that has a brown color.
The young man looked around. There were a lot of brown things in the room: wooden picture frames, a sofa, a curtain rod, desks, book bindings, and a host of other little things.
“Now close your eyes and list all the objects ... blue,” the teacher asked.
The young man was confused:
But I didn't notice anything!
Then the teacher said:
- Open your eyes. Just look how many blue things are here.
It was true: the blue vase, the blue photo frames, the blue carpet, the old teacher's blue shirt.
And the teacher said:
“Look at all those missing items!”
The student replied:
"But it's a trick!" After all, at your direction, I was looking for brown, not blue objects.
Master sighed softly and then smiled, “That's exactly what I wanted to show you. You searched and found only brown. The same thing happens to you in life. You seek and find only the bad and miss the good.
I have always been taught to expect the worst and you will never be disappointed. And if the worst doesn't happen, then I'm in for a pleasant surprise. And if I always hope for the best, then I will only expose myself to the risk of disappointment.
We should not lose sight of all the good things that happen in our lives. If you expect the worst, then you will definitely get it. And vice versa.
One can find a point of view from which each experience will have a positive meaning. From now on, you will look for something positive in everything and everyone.
How to reach the goal?
A great archery master named Drona taught his students. He hung a target on a tree and asked each of the students what they saw.
One said:
I see a tree and a target on it.
Another said:
“I see a tree, a rising sun, birds in the sky…
All the rest answered in much the same way.
Then Drona approached his best student Arjuna and asked:
– What do you see?
He replied:
I can't see anything but the target.
And Drona said:
Only such a person can hit the target.
hidden treasures
In ancient India, there lived a poor man called Ali Hafed.
Once a Buddhist priest came to him and told him how the world was created: “Once upon a time, the earth was a continuous fog. And then the Almighty extended his fingers to the fog, and it turned into a ball of fire. And this ball rushed through the universe until the rain fell on the earth and cooled its surface. Then the fire, breaking the earth's surface, burst out. So mountains and valleys, hills and prairies arose.
When the molten mass flowing down the surface of the earth cooled quickly, it turned into granite. If it cooled slowly, it became copper, silver or gold. And after gold, diamonds were created.
“A diamond,” said the sage Ali Hafedu, “is a frozen drop of sunlight. If you had a diamond the size of your thumb, continued the priest, you could buy the whole district. But if you owned diamond deposits, you could put all your children on the throne, and all this thanks to huge wealth.
Ali Hafed learned everything there was to know about diamonds that evening. But he went to bed, as always, a poor man. He lost nothing, but he was poor because he was not satisfied, and he was not satisfied because he was afraid that he was poor.
Ali Hafed did not close his eyes all night. He only thought about diamond deposits.
Early in the morning, he woke up an old Buddhist priest and begged him to tell him where to find the diamonds. The priest at first disagreed. But Ali Hafed was so insistent that the old man finally said:
- OK then. You must find a river that flows in white sands among high mountains. There, in these white sands, you will find diamonds.
And then Ali Hafed sold his farm, left his family to a neighbor and went to look for diamonds. He went further and further, but could not find the treasure. In desperation, he committed suicide by throwing himself into the sea.
One day, the man who bought Ali Hafed's farm decided to water a camel in the garden. And when the camel poked its nose into the stream, this man suddenly noticed a strange sparkle coming from the white sand from the bottom of the stream. He put his hands into the water and pulled out a stone from which this fiery radiance emanated. He brought this unusual stone home, put it on the shelf.
Once the same old Buddhist priest came to visit the new owner. Opening the door, he immediately saw a glow over the fireplace. Rushing towards him, he exclaimed:
- It's a diamond! Ali Hafed is back?
“No,” replied Ali Hafed's successor. Ali Hafed hasn't returned. And this is a simple stone that I found in my stream.
- You're wrong! the priest exclaimed. “I recognize a diamond from a thousand other gems. I swear on all saints, it's a diamond!
And then they went into the garden and dug up all the white sand in the stream. And in it they found gems even more amazing and more valuable than the first. The most valuable is always there.
And they saw god
One day it happened that three saints were walking together through the forest. All their lives they worked selflessly: one was a follower of the path of devotion, love and prayer. The other is the paths of knowledge, wisdom and intelligence. The third is action, service, duty.
Despite the fact that they were selfless seekers, they did not achieve the desired results, they did not know God.
But that day a miracle happened!
Suddenly it began to rain, they ran to a small chapel, squeezed inside and pressed against each other. And the moment they touched each other, they felt that they were no longer three. Startled in surprise, they looked at each other.
A higher presence was clearly felt. Gradually it became more and more visible and radiant. It was such an ecstasy to see the divine light!
They fell to their knees and prayed:
“God, why did you suddenly come? We have worked all our lives, but we have not been honored with such an honor - to see You, why did this suddenly happen today?
And God said:
“Because today you are all here together. Touching each other, you became one and therefore saw me. I have always been with each of you, but you could not manifest me because you were only fragments. In unity comes a miracle.
