Stories
Parables of the Buddha
The Buddha was a master teacher who understood that different kinds of minds need different approaches. For some, precise philosophical analysis was the way in. For others, direct meditation instruction. For many, perhaps the majority, story was the most penetrating vehicle. His parables are deceptively simple: a burning house, a raft on a river, a mustard seed, a lute. But within each simple image is a complete teaching about the nature of suffering, liberation, and the human condition. These are ten of his most celebrated and enduring parables.
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Kisa Gotami and the Mustard Seed
Kisa Gotami was a young woman from a poor family who had married into a wealthier household. Her early years of marriage were difficult, she was looked down upon, considered lesser, treated with subtle contempt.
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The Poisoned Arrow
The monk Malunkyaputta was a man of active and enquiring intellect, and he had grown increasingly frustrated. He had been practising in the community of the Buddha for some time.
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The Burning House
A very wealthy man lived in a great old house with his many children. The house was magnificent, sprawling, full of beautiful rooms and precious objects, but it was also old, its wooden beams dry, its thatch dense with years of accumulated debris.
