Lesson 25
The reason we are studying parables is that one may become acquainted with the means of thinking by parables or by parallels, that one is acquainted with an ancient language of the Teaching. It has always been taught in parallels and in parables and stories, some of which are long, some of which are short. There is a very definite reason for this because as you go along you will find that you have need of parables because it aids the way of seeing things. About everything in the world is a parable; everything in the man-made world is a parable of the real world. The picture of man that you have drawn, labeled, and used consistently because it is a parable in itself. It is a parable of a person born on earth and what happens to him in developing a self, and that I goes to sleep, casts a spell on, and is in a deep trance sleep and finally awakens — this is a parable.
Now this week you are to write a parable. You can draw it if you can draw a parable, you can write a parable, whatever way you want to do it. You can use animals speaking; you can use machines having their own ideas or whatever means. A parable is always a story that is somewhat current in its application to the people one speaks with and you will use parables in many conversations. The picture of man is a parable. It’s something you can show to anyone any place, and when you show it to him, you have you have made a parable. He may or may not be understood you. It all depends on whether the person has the ability to question the purpose of living.
Our first discussion today will start with an excerpt from the book of Matthew chapter 13 starting with verse 10. “And the students came up and said to Him: Why do you speak to them in parables? And He answered and said, For you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not given. For to him who has, shall be given and he shall have abundance, but for him who does not have, even that which he has shall be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear. Neither do they understand. And then was fulfilled the prophesy of Isaiah who says, Hearing, you will hear but not understand and seeing, you will see but not perceive. For the hearts of this people has been hardened. With their ears they have been hard of hearing and their eyes they have closed lest at any time they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their minds and be transformed that I heal them.”
Now let’s go through that a little bit. The Teacher was asked why he spoke in parables, why he didn’t just tell them very plainly. He said that to the student it was given to know the mysteries, or the symbols or the meaning of the parables. In other words, a parable is a mystery or a symbol. The word mystery merely means symbol for something else. It doesn’t mean something hidden, lost and all kinds of unusual exotic things; it merely means that a symbol is given. So a parable is a symbol or a parallel of something else and he had taught them, as he said, what all these symbols meant. But to the many people it was not given because they didn’t have one certain something, a very essential something, apparently. This something is the ability to question the purpose of living. As long as one is certain within self that the wholepurpose of living is to be non-disturbed, to gain pleasure and comfort and escape pain, to gain attention and avoid being ignored or rejected, gain approval and escape disapproval, and to gain control over other people and thus a sense of importance, and to avoid being unable to control, thus escape the sense of inferiority. Now as long as a person does not have the ability to question that the Teaching is not given to them. But he said, “To a man who has,” who has the ability to question mammon, that purpose of living, “it shall be given and he shall have an abundance.” In other words he would be given the Teaching, the opportunity to experiment with it and the opening of many, many doors to him, the meaning of the parables, the meaning of the stories of the Old Testament, the stories that were made up as we go along, as you are going to do this week.
So he who has the ability to question the purpose of living shall be given. But him who doesn’t have that ability, even what little understanding, or if he hears some ideas of the Teaching it will be taken awayfrom him. It doesn’t have any meaning to him; it falls by the wayside. As he followed this discussion immediately with the parable of the sower, that a person who didn’t have this ability to question the purpose of living would immediately find, “That doesn’t mean anything, so what! Who needs a little story about some guy who went out to sow and certain things happened to his seed, everybody knows that!” So he wouldn’t see that it had relationship to him, that what was being sown was the Teaching. Many people can see the little parable of the picture of man, they don’t see that it applies to them. Or they say, “That’s all right, I’ve read Freud and I’ve read Adler and I’ve read the newest one, The Primal Scream. I’ve read this and I’ve been to sensitivity meetings and I know all that.” So, of course, he gets nothing from it. What little he had, just hearing, is taken away from him.
This is why I speak to them in parables and it is the same reason that you and I will speak to people in parables because we find out whether they have questioned the purpose of living or not. There is no way to keep everything secret and no intention. Everybody is offered. It is available to everyone, always has been. But, if we give them a parable and they see no value in it then, of course, we know that they do not see. They see a lamp, they see a post, they see a car coming down the road and they see you as a person on the outside, they do not see you as a being. They see you as a body and refer to you as “He’s somebody.” So they think of everything as the body. They see but they do not perceive. They hear what you have to say in your parable but they do not really hear it on the inner state that it refers to them in anyway. It refers to the human being and his inner aspects because they really have not conceived that there is an inner aspect of man. So this is the reason for using parables.
The Great Teacher said and explained to them why he was doing it. “And this to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah.” So you see, Isaiah lived 600 or more years before the time of the great Teacher and he had it to say also, “That hearing, you will hear.” Yes, you will hear words and you will relate them to your frame of reference which is entirely that of the world, ideals, self-improvement, signs and demonstration and what’s to blame, anti-love if you please, “and that you will see but not perceive, for the hearts of this people have been hardened.” What is it hardened by? By vanity, having a beautiful picture of self as having everything one really needs except the ability to control other people. “If you’ll just tell “me” how to do that then “I” can have everything “I” really need because this is the only thing “I” really don’t know.” So their hearts have been hardened and their ears have been hard of hearing. They can only hear the literal; they cannot hear the inner meaning of anything. Their eyes have been closed or blinded. What by? Because they’re looking to see that the only thing that has value is “what ought to be.” So obviously their eyes are closed. Any of us that live, when we only saw value of “what ought to be,” it can be said that we were blind. So obviously there is no need to show us beautiful sights or show us anything that was worthwhile. There was no reason to tell us about information that if we applied it and used it we might have our eyes opened and the ears opened. But only as we had that one essential could we begin to hear the parable. When I’ve questioned the value of mammon’s world, the whole idea of non-disturbance as being the purpose of living, which very few people even know they have much less have observed it. This is the essential to being admitted to the meaning of the parables and the stories, in other words to understand the symbols and to read the book of self. Then one will be given the keys and all these keys are very, very useful. We can’t read the book until we have the keys.
The first thing that is essential is that we be capable of questioning, “What is the purpose of living?” If one has that one will be given and one will have it in abundance. If one does not have that one is given something but he sees no value in it. He doesn’t see it as applying to self because he knows what he needs to be non-disturbed. He knows that the ideals ought to be brought into existence. So he will not receive any value and what little you gave him will be taken away. So you see the reason for writing your parable, becoming acquainted with the language of parables, with being able to see that everything one visibly sees also has an inner content, an inner meaning that relates to the inner state of man. This is when one begins to receive in abundance.
We will take another little story parable here. It starts in Matthew 13 and verse 24 and goes through verse 30. You will find it very interesting. “Another parable He set before them saying, The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while men were asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. When the blades sprang up and brought forth fruit then the weeds appeared as well. The servant of the householder came to him and said, Sir, did thou not sow good seed in thy field? How then does it have weeds? He said to them, An enemy has done this. And the servant said to him, Will thou have us go and gather them up? No he said, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will say to the reapers, Gather up the weeds first and bind them in bundles to burn, but gather the wheat in my barn.”
Now this is saying what the whole idea of the evolvement of man or the transformation of man is like. It said that a man sowed good seed in his field. The man, of course, is X, the man who sowed an awareness, clean, fresh. But it said, “while men sleep.” In other words, the awareness went to sleep, and then what happened — an enemy, suggestions from mammon. Mammon is all around every newborn — came and sowed weeds in the field. The weeds that the purpose of living is to be non-disturbed, the weeds that complaining will get one’s way and therefore gain the greatest value of being non-disturbed. Sticking up for rights. All kind’s of weeds. The weeds of pleasing, believing and doing as ones told. The weeds of putting on a different front and the weeds of blaming, many bands of weeds. And when the blades sprang up and brought forth fruit and the weeds appeared as well. The awareness began to accumulate some education, knowledge of how the world works, how to count, how to read, all these things, but the weeds came along. All this conditioning began to act along with it and sometimes making technology turn into something that instead of benefiting mankind and allowing him to have more freedom and more time, it turns it into weapons of war because of the conflicts within.
So the weeds grow along with all that is worthwhile. Now in all this the “personality” is growing, many with things that are worthwhile and many with things that are totally damaging while I is sound sleep, while men sleep it says. Now the servants of the household, which are the various Teachers around the world, said, “Shall we go and dig up those weeds now? He said no, let them alone until the time of harvest.” Now the time of harvest is what? It is when I begins to see the end of the world of mammon; I wakes up and begins to question the purpose of mammon. So, “the end of the world is at hand,” the world meaning four dual basic ideas that there are ideals, there is self-improvement to gain the ideals, there are signs and wonders when one is about to gain them, and something to blame when one doesn’t. So he said, “wait until the harvest,” which is when I wakes up and begins to observe self.
Then he says what? “Lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.” You might destroy everything if you begin to clear the mind of the person of every conditioning before he has this challenge himself, for within the world there is the questioning of the value of it. “Let both grow together until the harvest.” The harvest will be when the human being begins to question and starts observing self. That is the reaper. What is the first thing we do when we begin self-observation to observe the weeds? We are not looking for the wheat yet. We are looking for the weeds, the conditioning, that stuff which says that the whole purpose of living is non-disturbance, all the work of mammon. And as this is observed it’s bound into bundles and cast out, as each of us has observed, as we have done the work of self-observation. We have observed self in its conflict, we have observed self in its account making, we have observed self in its struggle to achieve the ideal. We have observed self in its thinking of the two different aspects as the ways to gain the non-disturbance. This is the reaper, I the observer is the reaper and X binds them up in bundles and burns them. “Then the wheat shall be gathered into the barn.” All the things that one sees as valuable in the personality; the ability to count, the ability to drive an automobile, to build a house, to write, to read, all of this is gathered into the barn. That is wheat. And now the personality is being diminished, that field of the personality is being reaped. The weeds are bound in bundles and burned, all the conditioning. All that technology which one has learned to operate adequately in the world, in the man-made world, is of some value and it is stored in the barn. It is called wheat.
Now as we observe this, it sounds like a little story of a farmer, doesn’t it, that he has an enemy down the road who doesn’t like him and he came and threw stuff in his field. No, mammon doesn’t like X because he doesn’t want the awareness to serve X; he wants the awareness to serve mammon. Mammon is a decision, a Pinocchio; he has great power. He has the ability to deceive and his great ally, his great ability is in vanity and pride. Vanity that he paints a beautiful picture of self, is a success, is very wonderful. And he does remind one as to how well one has learned the technology but he never reminds one about the conflict and struggle within, the illusions to struggle towards ideals. This, mammon never reminds us. He only reminds us of how wonderful we are. Then, of course, pride defends that and that is what is called “hardening of the heart.” The whole business is turned into concrete. Vanity and pride are the hardening of the heart. Then one doesn’t see and one doesn’t hear. One has been caught in mammon’s trap and there cannot be anything done about it until sometime there is at least a faint questioning of the purpose of living. Then I is beginning to awake and when it awakes it can rises up and observes self. It sees the field. It then becomes the reaper that reaps the harvest. First it reaps the weeds.
Now we went for many weeks just observing the self. That sounds to some people that, “I ought to be able to do that all day. In one day I can see all that picture of man. I can see the picture of man, I can see it is working.” Uh huh! That is fine, but it has many, many different aspects. It has many different tricks. It has many false faces to put on. So one observed the self over a considerable period of time. And we’re also aware the past few weeks that while it has been cast out, while the weeds that were there have been burned, that still mammon which is in the world, in the world we live in, even though we are of the real world, is constantly trying to suggest that one start back over and worship mammon. That he sounds better and better as he puts on new and better ways of expressing his “thing.” Not just the crude one as it is written in the picture of man, which is so crude that everyone can see it, but as it’s done in more subtle ways, we sometimes find difficult. We do recall while I am observing, and I may have reported to X all the weeds and they have been cast out and burned, tied up in bundles and burned, that I am still subject to suggestion 100% of the time. Being aware of this one is no longer “under control” of suggestion. But if one doesn’t have that little bit of REMEMBERING also, and remembering I, that I have a weakness which turns out to be the greatest strength: THAT I AM 100% SUBJECT TO SUGGESTION 100% OF THE TIME.
There is a little story told back in the little town of Fort Sumner New Mexico about the ladies homemakers club, which the husbands all referred to as the home-wrecker’s club, had a meeting every other week. And during these times the ladies had their certain amount of gossip to tell about somebody in the community. Fort Sumner is about 500 to 1000 population and everybody knows everybody else. So the ladies would be gossiping very much about certain people. There was one little lady, Mrs. Brown, who always came to the defense of the person who was being gossiped about and she always managed to find some nice complement to say about the person. So one day the ladies were giving some person in the community a real hard way to go. They were judging him as knowing what was right, proper and justified but going on and doing wrong anyway and they were really reading him off. And Mrs. Brown piped in when things slowed down a little bit and said, “Well there is one thing you will have to say about Mr. Jordan, he sure does provide well for his family.” Now one of the ladies was so upset that somebody could find something nice about Mr. Jordan that she said, “Mrs. Brown, if we were talking about the devil you would have something good to say about him.” And Mrs. Brown said, “Well you must admit, he’s always on the job.”
So go along with Mrs. Brown and remember that mammon is always on the job and he is working to take advantage of that one fact that we are 100% subject to suggestion 100% of the time. If we should be negligent in paying attention, being an objective reporter, reporting to X as to WHAT IS and the VALUE OF IS, mammon gets his little lick in. So we will continue to observe things.
Have fun writing your parable this week. I wish I could read each and every one of them because I would use them, but you see I don’t always get to have them. But some way or other enough parables come along like Mrs. Brown that always shows up to illustrate a point. I would like for you to be able to write parables freely and easily because this is the way you will communicate to most of the people that will be asking you before long. There is a saying among all the people who have lived in this work for many years that “Whenever a student is ready a Teacher appears.” And it also says, “Whenever a Teacher is ready students appear.
So let’s get busy with the parables. Let’s write not just one if you have time, write 2 or 3 or 4. But make one excellent parable that is in line with the Teaching and illustrates some point about man and about the Teaching. Have a lot of fun writing your parable. After you have written it you will begin to understand many other parables that other people have written and speak. You will begin to understand the language of the School.
Copyright © 1973 by Rhondell. All rights reserved. This material is for an individual student’s personal use; it is not to be duplicated or loaned to another.
