No matter how you call this narrative genre, parables or philosophical stories, the meaning will be one. Short stories filled with allegories will be interesting to both adults and children.
What it is
A person learns all his life, and philosophical parables about the meaning of life will always be relevant, because no one has answered exactly the question of why we came to this earth, which means that any answer will be interesting. Such stories exist among different peoples of the world. A parable with philosophical meaning is found in Indian, Christian, Jewish culture and others. Themes are very diverse. Philosophical parables can be about love, about life, about relationships between people, about children. They teach, give instruction, but at the same time do not directly indicate what is good or bad. A man himself comes to a certain conclusion after he has read or listened to philosophical parables.
People or animals
In this article we will consider some of them. Most often, parables about life and wisdom are found. They can be short or have an impressive volume. Some of them tell about famous characters, for example, Solomon, Nasruddin. Others are about fictional characters and events, animals often become their characters. These are philosophical tales-parables. One of them tells about a woman and a chicken. The woman was so greedy that she began to force-feed her bird so that she would carry more eggs. As a result, the chicken suffocated from the fact that a large amount of grain in the throat blocked her access to oxygen, and died. And the woman was left with nothing. The hero of another tale was the monster Azhdaha.
Allegorical meaning
Such philosophical parables can be difficult. It seems that everything is clear, and if you think about it, you can penetrate deeper into the meaning of the story and draw interesting conclusions. But one should not only think about the parable, but about which aspects of our life it touches, what condemns and what approves. Try to understand the Dagestan parable about Azhdakh. Once, it is narrated in it, Ajah captured the source in the accident and did not let anyone near him, killing the daredevils with his tail. On the picket fence around his new palace hung the heads of the men he had killed. This lasted quite a long time, until a daredevil grew up in one aul, who vowed to free his country. He mounted his horse and rode into the palace to the monster. Azhdaha rightly believed that human power would not be enough to defeat him. Therefore, at first he asked a question, by answering which, he could save his life. To a brave youth he showed two women. One of them was very beautiful, and the second had an ordinary appearance. The monster asked me to guess which woman he liked the most. The resourceful young man replied that the one that Azhdha liked the most. It was true, and the monster passed away. This is a parable about the choices we make. Or maybe something else?
Philosophical parables about life
They tell about various situations in which a person finds himself and give wise advice on how to react correctly without prejudice to their personality. One of them tells how one person sailed a boat alone. Once he closed his eyes and began meditation. Suddenly some extraneous boat pushed his little boat. He opened his eyes, full of anger at the man who could not control his boat, but saw that it was empty. This taught him not to react at all to the fact that strangers are trying to hurt or offend him. He immediately recalled that empty boat and calmed down.
The parable of not giving up
This parable allegorically tells that one does not have to give up, and if life is a struggle, then fight to the end. Its main character was a donkey, which fell into a well. He was very scared and began to scream. The owner decided that he would not be able to save the animal and that he should be left in the well. At the same time, he decided to fill the well with earth, because he still did not give water. The neighbors came to the rescue, picked up the shovels and began to shower the well with earth. The donkey began to scream, anticipating the imminent demise. However, he soon became silent. People crowded at the edge of the well and saw a donkey shaking the ground from its back and crushing it with hooves. So an intelligent animal escaped from captivity. Many people should learn from him stamina and vitality.
Solomon's Ring
A parable about how the king received a lesson from the court sage. Initially, Solomon was very irritable. He reacted to everything that happened, and often because of this he lost peace and patience. Therefore, he had to turn to the sage for help, so that he taught him to remain calm. He gave him a ring with an inscription, reading which, Solomon had to control his passions. She said: "It will pass!" For a while this method helped Solomon, but once his anger was so great that the ring could not calm him. Then he took it off to throw it away, but then he noticed that on the inside there is also the inscription "This will pass." He didn’t take off the ring anymore and learned to control his emotions.
Two brothers
Often parables tell us about worldly wisdom. For example, the story of two brothers who were born in the same family. One of them became a professor, and the second - an ordinary worker. But when the family got together, the professor listened with great interest to the arguments of his brother, who was wise and judicious. The professor’s wife was unhappy with this fact. She believed that the worker could not teach her husband anything. But he objected that he was only a professor of botany, and not of life. This parable teaches us to respect the wisdom and life experience of our loved ones, even if they have not reached great heights.
Four wives
This parable through the images of people tells about what our life consists of and how we need to relate to what is happening in it. It speaks of a sultan with four wives. He loved the fourth of them, the youngest and most attractive. She also loved her husband and gratefully accepted his gifts and affection. The third wife was very beautiful, and she was also loved by the Sultan. He often bragged about it to the rulers of other countries and was afraid of losing her. The second wife was very smart. She was an adviser to the Sultan and helped him in solving his problems. But the Sultan did not like his first wife. She was old, he did not choose her himself, but inherited from his dead brother. She loved the Sultan, she always tried to please him and do everything possible for the prosperity of the country and her husband.
Once the Sultan fell ill and felt the approach of death. Then he decided to offer his beloved wives to accompany him to the kingdom of the dead. The first, second and third wife categorically refused to do this, promising only to bury him with all honors. The Sultan was surprised and upset by their answers. But suddenly the fourth wife spoke. She promised to be with the Sultan where he would go after death. Then he noticed that she grieves the most and looks haggard. Then the sultan regretted that he did not love her before and did not pay due attention to her.
So we, summing up in this parable, have four wives. Our body is the first wife. No matter how we look after him, after death we will leave a mortal shell. Career, wealth, position in society - this is the third wife, when we leave for another world, all this will remain different. Relatives are our second wife. No matter how much they care about us during life, after our death they will remain in this world. The soul, to which we usually devote little time in life, will be with us to the very end. And it depends only on us how it will look at the end of our journey.
Signs on the way of man
Finally, we will tell a parable that can be read to a child. She teaches us to be attentive to those signs that we pay little attention to while walking through life. Dean is a little boy walking along the road. For no reason, he fell, hit hard and injured his leg. Then he began to resent why God did not save him from falling. At this time, a poisonous snake crawled ahead of the road. The boy went along another road and fell into a thunderstorm. He decided to take cover under a tree, but, heading towards him, he fell again and hit. Again he expressed his indignation that God did not protect him, and turned onto another path. Meanwhile, lightning struck a tree trunk, under which he was going to take cover, and it caught fire. On the third road, he walked very carefully, hoping only for himself. But still he fell and this time broke his arm. Here he had already lost all faith and strode over the mountains. It was by the way, because the third road led to a cliff. Climbing the mountain, the boy saw a poisonous snake on the first road, a charred tree on the second road and an abyss at the end of the third road. Then he realized that God protected him every time, and faith returned to him.
Any failure can be good luck. An accident can prevent the big trouble that lay ahead. To keep your life path smooth and calm, study philosophical parables - a source of experience and wisdom.