Parables can be called a philosophical instructive story, which necessarily contains moral edification. Listening to such a story, people with their hearts perceive wisdom hidden between the lines, think about the meaning of life, about their mistakes and their correction, learn good.
Parables about students and teachers
Quite often, the basis of legends is cases that really happened in people's lives. A special place is occupied by parables about students and teachers. They directly trace the instructive character inherent in all such stories. Here the parable is a parting word from the teacher to the students.
Many such legends can be found in descriptions of the lives of Christian ascetics. Parables about the teacher and students make you think about philosophical topics and teach good. Let's get to know some of them.
Inclinations
Once the students asked the elder:
- Why are bad inclinations of a person easily mastered, and good inconsistencies?
- What will happen if the diseased seed is buried in the ground and the healthy one is left in the sun? - asked the teacher.
“A diseased seed will germinate, give a bad sprout and an unhealthy fruit, and healthy without soil will die, ” the students answered.
“That's what people do.” They hide their vices and sins deep in their souls so that no one sees them. There they will grow and destroy a man in his very heart. And people often flaunt good deeds and boast about them, thereby ruining them, instead of keeping them deep in their hearts and cultivating virtues.
Parables about students and teachers help fight human weaknesses.
Advice in Tips
The student came to the old man and says:
- Father, here I am with you, repent of sins, every time you instruct me with advice, and I am not correcting myself. What is the use of my visits to you if afterwards I again indulge my weaknesses?
The elder answered:
“My son, bring two pots, one empty and one with honey.”
The student did what the old man said.
“Now pour the honey from one pot to another several times.”
The student did this.
“Now look into the empty pot and smell it.”
The student fulfilled this request and said:
- Teacher, the pot smells of honey, and there is not much left at the bottom.
- And so my instructions remain in your soul. And the Lord will not turn away from you if you keep at least the beginnings of righteousness in your heart.
Parables about students and teachers can help a person find the true path in life, subject to his attention and obedience.
Praise and scolding the dead
A young monk came to the famous old man and asked to show him the path of improvement.
“That night, ” the elder answered, “go to the cemetery and praise the dead buried there before dawn, and then you will come to me and tell me how they will receive your praise.”
In the morning, the monk said:
- I fulfilled your command, father! I loudly praised these dead all night, in every possible way dignified them and attributed to them many virtues.
“And how did they show you their pleasure?”
- No way, teacher, they kept silence all the time, I did not hear a single word from them.
“It is very surprising, but then do this: go there again tonight and take them as far as possible before dawn.” Then they will probably speak.
The next day, the monk said:
- As soon as I reproached them, as soon as I did not disgrace, nor reproached. But they still did not answer …
Then the elder said:
“You stepped on the first step of the ladder to the angelic life. It is called obedience. You will reach the top of this life on earth only when you become as indifferent to grievances and praises as these dead.
Parables about the teacher and students can also show the impossibility of positive changes if the listener does not have the desire to fulfill what he heard.
Need advice
Several monks came to the Monk Anthony and asked him to give them advice for saving the soul. The elder said to them:
- Fulfill the gospel, live according to the commandments of the Savior, and if they strike you on the right cheek, substitute the left.
The monks replied that they did not have the strength to do this.
“If you cannot do this, ” the teacher went on, “at least do not repay evil with evil.”
But this turned out to be too much for the comers. Then the elder said to them:
- If you are not able to fulfill any of what I said, what else can I advise you? It only means that you need more prayers that will help your weakness, not advice.
And so that everything said in this article does not remain barren, as in the above story, in the end, here is another parable about the teacher and student.
