The use of parables is often used when telling a story or conveying what may be called an if/then statement or scenario.
Examples of what may occur often as a short fictitious narrative that teaches a moral lesson, doctrine, standard of conduct, or religious principle. It’s a type of allegory where a story holds one or more layers of meaning beyond the literal one. Often, it’s these deeper layers that capture our interest. We often grow up hearing about parables in the Bible.
People’s actions as well as reactions, can make us wonder what drives them and why they follow certain paths. We often seek clarity in understanding the motives behind others’ behavior. Looking beyond what we think we already know can open the door to a kind of moral or even cosmic clarity, revealing itself in many different ways and rising above what’s considered the norm.
Using language and making an effort to grow our vocabulary are important because they help us think beyond what we usually take for granted. We’re not meant to stay confined to our familiar thoughts. New words can open our minds and inspire fresh and different ways of thinking.
This shift toward a sense of higher or greater clarity often ignites our thoughts, inspiring what I think of as divine action. To move beyond our limits, we have to embrace exploration—it’s like giving ourselves the green light to venture into uncharted territory. Using parables can help us see the same things we’ve always seen, but from a fresh perspective.
Sometimes, letting go of outdated principles and ways of thinking that no longer serve the situation can feel freeing and rewarding. It often starts with setting aside thoughts of scarcity and limitation, making room for a fresh sense of confidence even renewal.
I often like to refer to something I call “inward training.” I see parables and the ultimate divine guidance as tools that serve as the underlying strength behind what a storyteller or writer is trying to convey. A reminder of why our use of vocabulary is what ultimately defines us to others. Inward training has important meaning to Chinese philosophy. It means inner achievement and refers to the practice by which one cultivates and nourishes the inner mind and preserves one’s vital essence and vital energy.
My travels with Lieh Tzu / Interpolations along the Way
Chapter Eight – Explaining Conjunctions
150. Defining Parables
What is a legend or story but that which illustrates the direction that is to be taken? The parable that defines us all and who we are yet to become. The story that conveys what needs to be said in a way that everyone can relate to and come to understand. How can the sheep know the proper fork in the road, when there are many forks to choose from and keep from getting lost?
Why is it that while three brothers all studying what is to be known about the principles of moral duty, leave and later come home with a diverse or different answer? Or the man who was an expert swimmer who supported himself and a hundred others by ferrying people across the river but could not keep half those who come to learn from him from drowning.
In each case they need only to return to where they were once, go back to where they are the same, restore whatever is missing and find what they lost along the way. What more could there be? As there are many roads to choose from, if you become lost regardless of the fork you take, what can it matter? Which one could have been right or wrong?
Just as when a neighbor of Yang Chu lost a sheep. He not only sent everyone out to find it, but he also begged the servants of Yang Chu to join in the search. Upon their return, Yang Chu asked them if they had found the sheep. They explained that they hadn’t, and that the sheep was lost. Concerned, Yang Chu asked how they had lost the sheep. His servants explained that there were many forks inside the forks, and since they had no idea which ones to take, they had to return in disappointment. 
Yang Chu became very worried and returned to his home. He did not talk to anyone or smile for the rest of the day. His disciples all found this very strange and sought him out to inquire about it. One asked Yang Chu:
“A sheep is an inexpensive animal, and in any case, it was not yours. Why should this stop you from talking and smiling?”
Yang Chu remained silent, and his disciples could get nothing out of him.
Concerned, Meng Sun went to get Hs’in‑tu‑tzu, a friend of Yang Chu and a respected Master in his own right and explained all that had happened. A few days later they returned to see Yang Chu and Hs’in‑tu‑tzu asked him a question through the following story.
“There was a man who had three sons who felt their education was the key to his family’s future. He spent all his savings and sent them away to study under Confucius, which was the ultimate any young man of the age could aspire to. He asked them to return home when they each understood all there was to know about the principles of moral duty”.
A few years later, when all three had returned home he asked each of them to tell him what they knew about the principles of moral duty. The oldest told his father that moral duty makes me take care of my body and put it before my reputation. The next said that moral duty makes me kill my body for the sake of my reputation and the third responded in turn that moral duty makes me preserve both body and reputation.
Their father was confounded and said:
“All three doctrines are contradictory yet have the same sources in Confucianism. Which is right and wrong?”
Yang Chu thought for a moment then responded to Hs’in‑tu‑tzu with his own story.
“There was another man who lived down by the riverside. He knew the water’s current and was an extremely good swimmer. He made his living by ferrying people across with profit enough to support a hundred people. Many others came from great distances away to learn from him in hopes of finding their own profit.
However, half continually kept drowning. They came to learn how to swim not to learn how to drown, but still as many were harmed as benefited. Of which could it be said were right and which were wrong? Of course, what could it have mattered to those who chose to drown?”
Hs’in‑tu‑tzu came out of his meeting with Yang Chu in total silence. Confused, Meng Sun‑Yang asked him:
“Why did you ask in such a roundabout way and why did the Master give such an obscure answer? I am now more puzzled than ever.”
Continuing, Meng Sun Yang told him:
“However, while you two old and venerated Masters are confounded, I think that I have found the answer and know what Yang Chu was contemplating, and I think that our neighbor lost his sheep on the high road because there were too many forks.
The ferryman’s apprentices lost their lives because they couldn’t learn how to swim and the three sons, while all learned the basics of moral duty, in learning them, they diverged from where they began or from their roots as if branches from a single tree, each going off in his own direction.
How can you not see, Hs’in tu‑tzu, that as you have grown old as a friend and one time disciple of Yang Chu, as familiar as you have become with the Way, or Tao, that you could not see through the Master’s parable”.
What Meng Sun Yang did not yet understand was that Hs’in tu‑tzu had understood all along what Yang Chu had meant and referred to. What would have been the purpose of explaining it to Meng Sun Yang, when the parable and its meaning was up to him to find for himself? The parable that defines us all and who we are to become. The story that conveys what needs to be said without needing to be told. 8/30/95
Number one hundred fifty of one hundred fifty-eight entries.
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