Short parables about insult
The outside world is a harsh environment that constantly pits people against each other, striking sparks. A situation of conflict, humiliation, or insult can unsettle a person for a long time. The parable comes to the rescue here too, playing a psychotherapeutic role. How to react to an insult? Give vent to anger and respond to the insolent? What to choose – the Old Testament “an eye for an eye” or the Gospel “turn the other cheek”? It is curious that of the entire corpus of parables about insults, the Buddhist ones are the most popular today. The pre-Christian, but not Old Testament, approach seems most acceptable to our contemporaries.
Go your own way
One of the disciples asked Buddha: “If someone insults or hits me, what should I do?” – If a dry branch falls from a tree and hits you, what will you do? - he asked in response: - What will I do? “It’s a simple accident, a simple coincidence that I found myself under a tree when a branch fell from it,” said the student. Then Buddha remarked: “Then do the same.” Someone was mad, angry and hit you. It's like a branch falling from a tree on your head. Don’t let this bother you, go on your way as if nothing happened.
Take it for yourself
One day, several people began to viciously insult Buddha. He listened silently, very calmly. And that's why they felt uneasy. One of these people turned to Buddha: “Don’t our words hurt you?!” “It’s up to you to decide whether to insult me or not,” replied the Buddha. – And mine is to accept your insults or not. I refuse to accept them. You can take them for yourself.
Socrates and the insolent
When some impudent person kicked Socrates, he endured it without saying a word. And when someone expressed surprise at why Socrates ignored such a blatant insult, the philosopher remarked: “If a donkey kicked me, would I really bring him to justice?”
About love with morals
Love moves worlds and human souls. It would be strange if the parables ignored the problems of relationships between men and women. And here the authors of the parables raise a great many questions. What is love? Is it possible to define it? Where does it come from and what destroys it? How to find it? Parables also touch on narrower aspects. Everyday relations between husband and wife - it would seem that what could be more banal? But here too the parable finds food for thought. After all, it’s only in fairy tales that things end with a wedding crown. And the parable knows: this is just the beginning. And keeping love is no less important than finding it.
All or nothing
One man came to the sage and asked: “What is love?” The sage said: “Nothing.” The man was very surprised and began to tell him that he had read many books that described how love can be different, sad and happy, eternal and fleeting. Then the sage replied: “That’s it.” The man again did not understand anything and asked: “How can I understand you? All or nothing?" The sage smiled and said: “You yourself just answered your own question: nothing or everything. There can be no middle ground!”
Mind and heart
One person argued that the mind is blind on the street of love, and that the main thing in love is the heart. As proof of this, he cited the story of a lover who swam many times across the Tigris River, bravely fighting the current, to see his beloved. But one day he suddenly noticed a spot on her face. After this, while swimming across the Tigris, he thought: “My beloved is imperfect.” And at that very moment the love that held him on the waves weakened, in the middle of the river his strength left him, and he drowned.
Repair, don't throw away
An elderly couple who had lived together for more than 50 years was asked: “Probably, you have never had a fight in half a century?” “We were arguing,” the husband and wife answered. – Maybe you never had any need, you had ideal relatives and a full house? - No, everything is like everyone else. – But you never wanted to separate? – There were such thoughts. – How did you manage to live together for so long? – Apparently, we were born and raised in a time when it was customary to fix broken things and not throw them away.
Don't demand
The teacher learned that one of his students was persistently seeking someone's love. “Don’t demand love, so you won’t get it,” said the teacher. - But why? - Tell me, what do you do when uninvited guests break into your door, when they knock, scream, demanding to open it, and tear out their hair from the fact that it is not opened for them? “I lock it tighter.” – Don’t break into the doors of other people’s hearts, as they will close even more tightly before you. Become a welcome guest and any heart will open to you. Take the example of a flower that does not chase bees, but by giving them nectar, attracts them to itself.
Proverb 3. Stop bowing low
“The young man asked the old man: “I heard that in the past, in the good old days, God used to walk the earth, greet people, call them by name. Why don't we see it today? And where is he now? “The Lord is still where he was before,” the elder answered him, “only people have stopped bending so low to see God.”
“Moving to Moscow of Maxim the Greek” miniature 16th century (left); “The Journey of Metropolitan Pimen to Constantinople” miniature 16th century (right).
Statements of famous people
“God is not in power, but in truth. Some with weapons, others on horses, but we will call on the Name of the Lord our God!” ( Prince A. Nevsky )
“Be not dead souls, but living ones. There is only one door to life, and this door is Jesus Christ” ( V.N. Gogol )
“I have committed my soul into the hands of God, my Creator, and have absolutely unshakable faith in Jesus Christ my Savior” ( W. Shakespeare )
“If Man can be God and if God can be Man, then Jesus Christ was both.” ( J.Byron )
“Prayer must remain unanswered, otherwise it ceases to be prayer and becomes correspondence” ( O. Wilde )
“Cooking and dining” miniature 14th century.
Several good parables about God, faith, prayer
Parable 8. Why do you pray?
“Residents of one of the arid places gathered in the temple to pray for rain. And only one person showed up with an umbrella. Seeing this, people began to laugh at him: “Why did you bring an umbrella?” It won't rain. - Why are you praying then? - he answered.”
“Animals of Burma: bear, unicorn, wild ass, baby elephant” miniature 15th century.
Proverb 4. He sees everything
“One wise man gathered his disciples, telling them to bring a chicken each. Then he ordered each of them to kill her, but in a place where no one could see. When the disciples returned, all the birds were dead except one. - Why didn’t you kill your chicken? – the sage asked the student. “You told me to go where I could not be seen, but I did not find such a place, for God sees everything!”
“Shepherds” miniature 15th century.
