Here I add some Meaningful Stories and Parables for Enlightenment I have read and I like to share.
The king lover of knowledge, and the ascetic that gives wisdom
A conqueror king, but also a knowledge-loving, goes to an ascetic that lives simple a solitary and quiet life into a cave. The king said to him firmly:
- I came to conquer these lands and I heard that in these mountains there are saints and ascetics full of wisdom. Because I'm a great lover of Divine knowledge, I want to put you five questions, if you'll answer without being contradicted, I will let these places as they are, in peace with everyone here.
The wise looked at him gentle and indifferently, responding:
- Okay, as you wish, it doesn't matter anyway.
The king, delighted by the way of being of the ascetic, by the peace that radiates from his presence, asks:
1. - Who are the most, those who died or those who live?
- Those who live, because the dead are not.
2. - Where is the largest creature living, on earth or in water?
- On earth, because the water is also on Earth?
3. - How can a man become a god?
- By doing what no other man can do.
4. - There is this cycle of night and day passing continuously one after another. I wanna know which of them, darkness or light, was first and which will be the last?
- Light is the first and last; darkness is only the light which is not seen.
The king, pleasantly surprised by the simplicity and wisdom from his responses, put the last question:
5. - Who are you and who am I?
The wise ascetic answers simple and humble:
- I am the knower; You it's the observer.
The king left contented, illuminated by the last response.
Shortly after, he entrusted the kingdom to his son and he left happily to live in that quiet land, as a disciple of the wise ascetic.
The Narrow Path
God warned the people of an earthquake that would swallow up the waters of the land. The water that replaced them would make everyone insane.
Only the prophet took God seriously. He saved up a supply of water in his mountain cave to last him till he died.
Sure enough, the earthquake came, the water vanished and new water tilled the streams and lakes and rivers. A few months later the prophet came down to the plains.
Everyone had indeed gone mad, and attacked him, for they thought it was he who was insane.
So the prophet went back to his mountain cave, glad for the water he had saved. But he could not bear his loneliness so he went down to the plains once more. Again he was rejected by the people for he was so unlike them.
The prophet then succumbed. He threw away the water he had saved, drank the new water with the people and became one with them in their insanity.
The way to Truth is narrow. You always walk alone.
The Dream Contract
Nasruddin was fast asleep at nine in the morning. The sun was in the sky, the birds were singing in the trees and his breakfast was getting cold. So his wife decided to wake him.
He woke up in a rage. "Why did you wake me up just now?" he yelled.
"The sun has risen in the sky", said she, "the birds are singing in the trees and your breakfast is getting cold."
"Breakfast be damned," he said, "I was about to sign a contract worth a million grammes of gold!"
With that he closed his eyes to recapture his shattered dream and those million grammes of gold.
Now Nasruddin was cheating in that contract and his business partner was a tyrant. If, on recapturing the dream, he stops his cheating, he will become a saint.
If he struggles to free the people from the oppression of the tyrant he will be a freedom fighter.
If, in the middle of it all, he suddenly realizes he is dreaming, he will become Awakened. Enlightened.
What kind of saint or freedom fighter are you if you are still asleep?
The Contented Fisherman
The industrialist saw a fisherman lying beside his boat, doing nothing.
- Why aren’t you out fishing? said the industrialist.
- Because I have caught enough fish for the day.
- Why don’t you catch some more?
- What would I do with it?
- Earn more money. Then you could have a motor fixed to your boat and go into deeper waters and catch more fish. Thai would bring you money to buy nylon nets, so more fish, more money. Soon you would have enough to buy two boats... even a fleet of boots. Then you could be rich like me.
- What would I do then?
- Then you could really enjoy life.
- What do you think I am doing now?
Which would you rather have: a fortune or a capacity for enjoyment?
Meditation
The Master kept scraping a brick against the floor of the room where his disciple sat in meditation. At first the disciple was content, taking this to be a test of his powers of concentration. But when the sound became unbearable he burst out:
- What on earth are you doing? Can't you see I am in meditation?
- I'm polishing this brick to make a mirror out of it, said the Master.
- You're crazy! How can you make a mirror out of a brick?
- No crazier than you! How can you make a mediator out of the self?
To Search and Look
- Don't look for God, the Master said. Just look – and all will be revealed.
- But how is one to look?
- Each time you look at anything, see only what is there and nothing else, without considering before that you know what it is, or think something.
Easier said than done, but with practice, difficult things become easy.
Faith
The Governor on his travels stepped in to pay homage to the Master.
- Affairs of State leave me no time for lengthy dissertations, he said. Could you put the essence of Faith into a paragraph or two for a busy man like me?
- I shall put it into a single word for the benefit of Your Highness.
- Incredible! What is that unusual word?
- Silence.
- And what is the way to Silence?
- Meditation.
- And what, may I ask, is meditation?
- Silence.
Christian
I have, unfortunately, had a surfeit of people to guide me. They badgered me with their persistent teachings till I could barely hear you through the din. I never thought I could have you for my teacher, for they said, "We are all the teachers you have; he who listens to us, listens to Him".
But I am wrong to blame them or deplore their presence in my life. It is I who am to blame. For I lacked the firmness to silence them; the courage to find out for myself; the patience to wait for your appointed time; and the trust that someday, somewhere, you would break your silence and reveal yourself to me.
I have been content, Lord, to learn about you at se-cond hand. From Scriptures and saints; preachers and popes. I wish I could say to them all, "It is no longer because of what you said that I believe, for I have heard him myself".
Vigilance and Presence
- Is there anything I can do to make myself Enlightened?
- As little as you can do to make the sun rise in the morning.
- Then of what use are the spiritual exercises you prescribe?
- To make sure you are not asleep when the sun begins to rise.
- Where shall I look for Enlightenment?
- Here.
- When will it happen?
- It is happening right now.
- Then why don't I experience it?
- Because you do not look.
- What should I look for?
- Nothing. Just look.
- At what?
- Anything your eyes alight upon.
- Must I look in a special kind of way?
- No. The ordinary way will do.
- But don't I always look the ordinary way?
- No.
- Why ever not?
- Because to look you must be here. But, You are mostly somewhere else in your mind.
The Seeing Projection
- Why is everyone here so happy except me?
- Because they have learnt to see goodness and beauty everywhere, said the Master.
- Why don't I see goodness and beauty everywhere?
- Because you cannot see outside of you what you fail to see inside.
Understanding
- How shall I help the world?
- By understanding it, said the Master.
- And how shall I understand it?
- By turning away from it.
- How then shall I serve humanity?
- By understanding yourself.
Nature
A lecturer explained how a fraction of the enormous sums spent on arms in the modern world would solve all the material problems of every member of the human race.
The inevitable reaction of the disciples after the lecture was:
- But why are human beings so stupid?
- Because, said the Master solemnly, people have learnt to read printed books. They have forgotten the art of reading unprinted ones.
- Give us an example of an unprinted book.
But the Master wouldn't give one.
One day in response to their persistence, he said:
- The songs of birds, the sounds of insects are all trumpeting forth the Truth. The grasses and the flowers are all pointing out the Way. Listen! Look! That is the way to read!
Genius
A writer arrived at the monastery to write a book about the Master.
- People say you are a genius. Are you? he asked.
- You might say so. said the Master, without false modesty.
- And what makes one a genius?
- The ability to recognize.
- Recognize what?
- The butterfly in a caterpillar; the eagle in an egg; the saint in a selfish human being.
To remember who you are
A woman in a coma was dying. She suddenly had a feeling that she was taken up to heaven and stood before the Judgement Seat.
- Who are you? a Voice said to her.
- I’m the wife of the mayor. she replied.
- I did not ask you whose wife you are, but who you are.
- I’m the mother of four children.
- I did not ask whose mother you are, but who you are.
- I’m a schoolteacher.
- I did not ask you what your profession is but who you are.
And so it went. No matter what she replied, she did not seem to give a satisfactory answer to the question, “Who are you?"
- I’m a Christian.
- I did not ask what your religion is, but who you are.
- I’m the one who went to church every day and always helped the poor and needy.
- I did not ask you what you did, but who you are.
She evidently failed the examination for she was sent back to earth. When she recovered from her illness she determined to find out who she is. And so, her whole life has changed.
• Your duty is to be. Not to be somebody, not to be nobody; not to be this or to do that; just to be.
You have mind, you have knowledge
With the help of a MANUAL OF INSTRUCTIONS a woman tried for hours to assemble a complicated new appliance she had recently bought. She finally gave up and left the pieces all over the kitchen table.
When she got back several hours later, she found the machine put together by the housemaid and functioning perfectly.
- How did you do that? she exclaimed.
- Well, ma'am, when you don’t know how to read you’re forced to use your mind.
Give what you want God to give you
A farmer, whose corn always took the first prize at the State Fair, had the habit of sharing his best corn seed with all the farmers in the neighbourhood.
When asked why, he said:
- It is really a matter of self-interest. The wind picks up the pollen and carries it from field to field. So if my neighbours grow inferior corn the cross-pollination brings down the quality of my own corn. That is why I am concerned that they plant only the very best.
Between dream and I-reality, I AM
In ancient India there was a king, called Janaka, who was also a sage. One day Janaka was taking a nap on his flower-strewn bed with his servants fanning him and his soldiers standing guard outside his door. As he dozed off he had a dream in which a neighbouring king defeated him in battle and took him prisoner.
Janaka woke with a start to find himself lying on his flower-stream bed with his servants fanning him and his soldiers on guard.
Once again he dozed off and had the same dream. And once again he woke up to find himself safe and comfortable in his palace.
Now Janaka began to be disturbed by a thought: While he was asleep the world of his dreams had seemed so real. Now that he was awake the world of the senses seemed real. Which of these two worlds is the real one, he wanted to know.
None of the philosopher, scholars and seers he consulted could give him an answer.
And for many years he searched in vain till one day a man called Ashtavakra knocked at the door of the palace. Now Ashtavakra means entirely deformed or crooked and he got that name because that is exactly what he had been from birth.
At first the king was not disposed to take this man seriously.
- How can a misshapen man like you be the carrier of a wisdom denied to my seers and scholars? he asked.
- Right from my childhood, all avenues have been closed to me-so I avidly pursued the path of wisdom; was Ashtavakra’s reply.
- Speak, then, said the king.
So this is what Ashtavakra said:
- O king, neither the waking state nor the dream state is real. When you are awake, the world of dreams does not exist and when you dream the world of the senses does not exist. Therefore, neither is real.
- If both the waking and the dream states are unreal, then what is real? asked the king. - There is a state beyond these two. Discover that, it alone is real.
The truth is right in front of us
The Master often said that the truth is right in front of us, and why we do not see it is our lack of perspective.
He once went on a trip to the mountains, with one of his disciples. Halfway, the disciple looked around to the bushes and complained:
- Where is that beautiful view about you talk so often?
Master smiled.
- You are staying right in the middle of it, as you'll realize when we reach the top.
Relax yourself and have faith
The Master told to a disciple full of ardor:
- Someday, you will understand that you already have what you are looking.
- Then way I do not understand this?
- Because you're trying to understand.
- That means you do not have to make any effort?
- If you will relax and will give the process the necessary time, it will reveal itself.
The difference between Heaven and Hell
Two friends were went to the cottage of a wise to ask him about the difference between Hell and Heaven.
- Old man, tell us: what´s the difference between Hell and Heaven?
The wise man answered:
- I see a mountain of freshly cooked rice, which is still emitting steam. Around there are a lot of men and women who are very hungry. The sticks they are using to eat are longer than their arms. So when they take the rice they can´t get to their mouths. Anxiety and frustration are growing.
Later, the wise man continued:
- I see too another mountain of freshly cooked rice, still giving off steam. Around there are a lot of happy people who smile with satisfaction. Their sticks, too, are longer than their arms, but they have decided to feed each other.