Once upon a time there was...'a once upon a time'
that - because it was told over and over again -
was repeated so often...
that it has become reality.
Jorge Bucay, stories to Think about
Stories containing wisdom have not been written to lecture, but to wake people up. Between the lines, in their spirit and atmosphere is a hidden insight, an insight which cannot really be communicated through language. While listening and reading, sometimes, almost unexpectedly, you come across a “lesson without words” and for a moment are roused from sleep. Wisdom doesn’t teach, wisdom breaks through the layer of beliefs, convictions, opinions and established thought patterns, it makes people sensitive to a reality that cannot be told with words. Our own life is a story, not a philosophy, not theoretical. Stories and parables very often mirror situations in our own lives and they allow us to taste the wisdom, which, often without recognising it, is told through our own lives. Maybe that is the hidden power of stories and parables.
A pupil once said to his master: ‘You tell us stories, but you never tell us their meaning, or how we should interpret them.’ The master replied: ‘What would you think if you bought fruit from someone, but the person who sold it to you ate it right in front of you and gave you the peel?’