Fables of Spiritual Wisdom From Around the World
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Authors
Alex, Ben
Issue Date
1998
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Type
Book, Whole
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Abstract
Go to the animals and be wise proclaims the introduction. There are twenty-five fables on some 68 pages here, chosen especially for their power to release people's potential rather than to deal with the realities and limitations of human life. This good introduction points to two of the most peculiar human follies: that we notice weaknesses more readily in others than in ourselves; and that we like to accept a truth especially when we think we have discovered this truth ourselves (3). Here the fables reveal less the beast in me and more the best in me, less the instructional and more the inspirational. Generally each fable receives two pages, one of them a full-page colored illustration. New to me and very strong is Kierkegaard's The Religious Geese (10). Perhaps the most engaging of the pleasant illustrations here puts goggles on the flying geese as they ferry the turtle (20). Visually, the cruel thornbush on 29 is a delight! Both the illustration and the story are strong in The Roar of Awakening (45). We are all tigers living here as goats. And the roar--that first roar we all must make--is called the roar of awakening (47). The Big Oven (50) is a Tolstoy fable about a couple that dismantles their home to feed the oven with firewood. The Wise Father (56) is the basic story of the father, the many sons, and the bundle of reeds. But now the story hinges upon one arrow, and that arrow is broken into successively smaller pieces.
Description
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Publisher
Scandinavia Publishing House
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DOI
Identifier
4831 (Access ID)