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Words
are healing. They evoke certain feelings and
images, they evoke certain energies that we
take in. Words that we speak, words that we
listen to, words that we ponder, are all meant
as healing devices.
Words
are also used to convey powerful teachings.
Parables, stories, songs, etc. are all used to
bypass our logical mind and reach something
Higher in us. That's why, for example, Jesus
taught in parables. Understanding his saying
"let dead bury their dead" or that
"God knows even when a sparrow is sold for
a penny on the market" can take a
lifetime.
The
teaching is masked as a parable because most
people will find it impossible to change,
simply because they won't understand it enough
and/or the parable says in the most pithy way.
If the teaching were in a more
"formal" scholarly form, people would
interpret it and change it and it would get
lost. Since the parable is astonishingly
difficult to interpret and modify, the parable
must be told as is, and thus the teaching is
preserved.
Parables
are hard to interpret and thus are left alone,
in their pure, original state. Stories and
sayings can be similar too.
Parables,
stories and sayings shape our lives. Thus, it
is very important to discern who is the source
of the words.
Sayings
of ordinary people are educational to read
because they expose the culture and its values.
A lot of it is junk, yet it shapes people's
lives. Sayings like: "children have to be
seen but not heard" are a brainwashing way
to instill abuse as official. It works!
Similarly, positive enforcement sayings can do
a lot of good for people, giving them good
advice as to how to live a productive life, for
example: "measure twice, cut once" or
"no knowledge without effort."
Sayings
of wise people are profound teaching tools.
Saying like "when you meet Buddha on the
road, kill him" conveys a lot of
information. "Love Thy neighbor as
Thyself" is a saying that takes a lifetime
to master and leads to enlightenment.
Short
and long stories usually have many layers of
meaning, anything from straight literal
physical interpretation all the way to
metaphysical and mystical. For example, this
simple story can be interpreted in so many
ways:
There
are two wolves fighting inside me. One is kind
and considerate, and the other is mean and
nasty. Which one shall win?
The
one I feed.
In
the most basic interpretation, it is "a
zoo-keepers story about which vitamins to give
to the right wolf." In the higher view, it
is a story of enlightenment
and the practice leading to it.
EACH
GOOD STORY SHOULD LEAVE YOU PONDERING SOME
QUESTIONS. Each good piece of word healing is
designed to evoke questions. To open your heart
and make you BE IN QUESTION.
So,
you want to try to work with healing words?
There
are so many ways to work with words:
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The
most basic way is to just chant OM, or AUM.
That combines music and words.
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Read
some fairy tales and other old, traditional
stories, like Esop's fables, or brothers
Grim, or Sheherezade, and Native American
stories. Those stories are simple stories
but they are powerful. For example, the
brother Grim story of the girl who had her
own simple red shoes made out of rags
colored by raspberries, and then a rich
woman came and took her away and gave her
beautiful leather shoes. That is actually a
story of self bertrayal. The shoes
eventually harm the girl and she has to heal
herself. So, the story is about finding
oneself and being true to oneself.
Clarissa Pinkola Estes tells and explains
many such stories. (She wrote "Women
who ran with the wolves.") I can also
recommend Native American books by
Hyemeyohsts Storm and Joseph Bruhac.
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Read
poems of Rumi and Hafiz. They were sufi
mystics who reached a very high state and
their poems were used as textbooks by
spiritual teachers.
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Read
stories that Jesus told, and just that. The
rest of Bible is typically bologney.
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Read
Bhagavat Gita and Yogonanda's commentary.
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Read
Gospels and Yogonanda's commentary.
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Read
stories by Buddha, sufis, Tibetans,
Paramahansa Yogananda.
For
some proverbs and sayings, explore the collection
of proverbs from my heritage and a few
favorite proverbs from all over the world.
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