TEACHING STORIES

Teaching Stories

by

VIKRAM KARVE


A wise man told a small boy to get water from the well. “Make sure you don’t break the pot!” he shouted, and then suddenly gave the child a tight slap.

A shocked spectator asked him, “Why did you hit the poor boy who has done nothing wrong?”

“Because, you fool,” said the wise man, “it would be too late to punish him after he broke the pot, wouldn’t it?”



This is a Teaching Story.

Teaching Stories have a special quality – if read in a certain kind of way they enlighten you. Teaching stories are Gems of Wisdom.

There are three ways to read a Teaching Story:

· Read the story once. Then move on to another. This manner of reading will give you entertainment – maybe produce a laugh; like jokes.

· Read the story twice. Reflect on it. Apply it to your life. You will feel enriched.

· Read the story again, after you have reflected on it. Carry the story around in your mind all day and allow its fragrance, its melody to haunt you. Create a silence within you and let the story reveal to you its inner depth and meaning. Let it speak to your heart, not to your brain. This will give you a feel for the mystical and you will develop the art of tasting and feeling the inner meaning of such stories to the point that they transform you.

Teaching stories relate events that are funny, foolish, bemusing, even apparently stupid.

But they usually have much profound and deeper meanings.

A good teaching story has several levels of meaning and interpretation and offer us opportunities to think in new ways.

At first you may just have a good laugh but as you think and reflect, the significance becomes more and more profound.

Each story veils its knowledge and as you ruminate, the walls of its outer meanings crumble away and the beauty of the previously invisible inner wisdom is revealed, and you begin to identify yourself in the story, and to acknowledge that you too could be as foolish or as lacking in discernment as the characters in these classic tales.

In this storytelling blog I will try to regale and illuminate you with such gems of wisdom, some of my favorite Teaching Stories - let us have an enlightened laugh together!


VIKRAM KARVE

http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve

http://www.ryze.com/go/karve

vikramkarve@sify.com