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 this Teaching. It has always been taught in parallels and in parables and stories, some of which are long, some of which are short. And there is 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 – because 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, which you have drawn and 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. 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, anyplace. And when you show it to him, you have made a parable. He may and may not understand you. It all depends on whether the person has the ability to question the purpose of living.

Our first little 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 from 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 has fulfilled the prophecy 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. And with their ears they have been hard of hearing and their eyes they have closed. Lest at anytime they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their minds and be transformed that I heal them.’”

Now, let’s kind of go through that a little bit. The Teacher was asked why he spoke in parables, why he didn’t just tell them very plainly. And he said to the students 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 whole purpose of living is to be non-disturbed, to gain pleasure and comfort, and escape pain; 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, many that were made up as goes along as you’re 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 away from him. It doesn’t have any meaning to him; it falls by the wayside. 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, “You know, that don’t mean anything. So, so what? Who needs that 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. As many people can see the little parable of the Picture of Man, they don’t see that it applies to them. Or they say, “Well, that’s all right, but I’ve read Freud and I’ve read Adler and I’ve read the newest one on the primal scream. And I’ve read this and I’ve been to sensitivity meetings. I don’t need all that, I know all that!” And so, of course, he gets nothing from it. And what little he had, just hearing it, 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, because 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 and they see a post and they see a car comin’ 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. So 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 any way – it refers to the human being in his inner aspect – because they really have not conceived that there is an inner aspect of man. So, this is reason for using parables. And the great Teacher said, explained to them why he was doing it.

“And this fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah.” So you see Isaiah lived a great number of years, 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 demonstrations, 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. “And, 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.

And their eyes have been closed or blinded. What by? Because we’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 lived when we always saw the value in what ought to be, it could be said that we were blind. So, obviously, there was 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 have 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. But if some come up with it and 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. And we can’t read the book until we have the keys.

But, the first thing that is essential that we be capable of questioning, “What is the purpose of living?” If one has that, one will be given and one will have an 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 an abundance.

Now, we will take another little story, a parable, here.  It starts in Matthew 13, and verse 24 and goes through verse 30.  It will find 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. And when the blades sprang up and brought forth fruit, then the weeds appeared, as well. And the servant of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? How, then, does it have weeds?’ He said to him, ‘An enemy has done this’. And the servant said to him, ‘Wilt 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. Said that a man sowed good seed in his field. The man, of course, is X, the man who sowed an Awareness – clean, fresh. And 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. That stickin’ up for rights, all kinds of weeds: the weeds of pleasing, believing and doing as one’s 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 begin 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 begin to act along with it. And sometimes makes technology turn into something, instead of benefitting mankind and allowing him to have more freedom and more time, it turns it into weapons of war because of the conflict within. So, the weeds grow along with all that, but it was worthwhile.  Now, in all this the personality is growing, many with things that’s worthwhile, and many with things that are totally damaging while I is sound asleep. “While men sleep,” it says.

Now, the servants of the household, which are the various teachers around through 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 basic ideas that what? There is ideals, and there’s self-improvement to gain the ideals, and that there’s signs and wonders when one is about to gain ‘em, 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. And, then he says what? “That lest in gathering the weeds, you root up the wheat along.” 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 questionin’ 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. And that is the reaper.

And what is the first thing that we look to do when we begin self-observation, is to observe the weeds. We’re not lookin’ for the wheat, yet; we’re 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 and its conflict. We have observed self and its account-making. We have observed self in its struggle to achieve the ideal. We have observed self and its thinking of the two different aspects as the way to gain the non-disturbance. This is the reaper; I is the observer, is the reaper. He observes. And X binds ‘em up in bundles and burns them.

And then the wheat shall be gathered into the barn. All the things that one sees is valuable in the personality – the ability to count, the ability to drive an automobile, the ability to build a house, the ability to write, the ability to read – all of this is gathered into the barn. That is wheat. And now, then, 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? And that he has an enemy down the road who doesn’t like him and come and throwed 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. While 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 as a success; it’s very wonderful. And he does remind one as to how well one has learned in the technology. But he never reminds one of the conflict and the struggle within, the illusions to struggle towards ideals. This mammon never reminds us. He only reminds how wonderful we are. And then, of course, pride to defend that. And that is what is called ‘hardening of the heart,” that 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 it 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 arise up and observe the 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, “Well, I ought to be able to do that in all day, in one day. I can see all that Picture of Man. I can see it’s 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 observes the self over a considerable period of time. And we’re also aware in 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’re 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, but as it’s done in more subtle ways we sometimes find difficult. And we do recall that while I am observing and I may be … have cast out all the 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.

And as there’s a little story told back in a little town of Fort Sumner, New Mexico, that the ladies homemakers club, which the husbands all referred to as the home-wreckers club, had a meeting every other week. And during these times, generally the ladies had their certain amount of gossip to tell about somebody in the community. Fort Sumner is about 500 to 1000 population and everbody knows everbody else. So, the ladies would be gossiping very much about certain people. And 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 compliment to say about the person. So, one day the ladies in their meeting were really givin’ some person in the community a real hard way to go. They were judging them as knowing what was right, proper, and justifiable and goin’ on and doing wrong anyway. And they were really readin’ him off. And Mrs. Brown piped in when things slowed down a little bit, and said, “Well, there’s one thing you’ll 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 somethin’ nice to say about Mr. Jordan, that she said, “Mrs. Brown, if we were talkin’ 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 get advantage of that one fact: that we are 100% subject to suggestion, 100% of the time. And if we should be negligent in paying attention, being an objective reporter, reporting to X as to what is and the value of what’s there, mammon gets his little lick in. So we will continue to observe things.

So, have fun writing your parable this week. And, I wish I could read each and every one of ‘em, 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. And 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 amongst all the people who live in this Work for many years, that: “Whenever a student is ready, a Teacher appears.” And it also says, “When 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 two, or three, or four. But make one excellent parable and it is in line with the Teaching and illustrates some point about man and about the Teaching. Have a lot of fun writin’ your parable. And 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.