Page 8 - Quaker News & Views Nov 25 - Jan 26

The lamp is the real treasure because it is the source of Light, and that Light is very old. It cannot be reached
by the ‘wicked’ one, only by the innocent soul, the young boy. The plot has many twists, but Aladdin must
find and retain the lamp for the story to have a happy ending. The symbol is embedded in the allegory.

As Jesus said: Unless you become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Matthew
18.3

Another very widely used form of allegory is that of the journey or pilgrimage, representing our path through
life. It is the background to Chaucer’s fourteenth century Canterbury Tales, and is the main theme of John
Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, written in 1678. His hero, Christian, climbs over a gate and begins his long
journey through the problems and temptations of the world. He has to encounter obstacles such as the
Slough of Despond and the illusory offerings of Vanity Fair before he is finally able to cross over the water to
reach the Celestial City, which of course is a metaphor for heaven.

In the 12th century, a Sufi writer, Fariduddin Attah wrote a story, The Conference of the Birds, about a group
of birds who set out to find their king. They are led by a Middle Eastern bird called a hoopoe. The journey
takes them over 7 mountains, representing obstacles, and into 7 valleys, and many drop out along the way.
At the end of the pilgrimage, those reaching their goal discover that they lose themselves in the being of the
king, who represents Allah. The journey signifies self-effacement in the divine totality, which Sufis call fana.
In his real life, Siddhartha, who was to become the Buddha, left his cosseted and sheltered life as a royal
prince to wander far and wide, trying different ways, such as extreme fasting, to achieve enlightenment. He
eventually found it while sitting calmly under a bodhi tree.

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In the 20 century, Herman Hesse wrote The Journey to the East. It describes the travels of a group of wealthy
people seeking a spiritual goal. They arrive to find that it is their cheerful, hard-working servant who is the
Master of the place. He is the pattern and example which they did not recognise on the way. Paulo Coelho
wrote The Alchemist about another seeker who is sent around Europe and the East, having to learn about
life to survive. At the end, for the first time equipped with understanding, he returns to his starting place,
where he finds his real treasure. This is reminiscent of what we can read in T.S. Eliot’s The Four Quartets:

And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we first started
And know the place
For the first time.

Before we go on, we might reflect on some reasons why mystics use allegories to convey their message. As
we have noticed, stories resonate with people and are easy to remember. They are often less irritating than
sermons or lectures. And of course they are safer than preaching overtly against the prevailing orthodoxy
during times of political and religious discord.

Jesus himself frequently used stories which we now call parables to illustrate a particular point, such as
forgiveness, and unconditional kindness. Often we can find a deeper message woven into the story.
Sometimes we might find the message a little difficult to appreciate at first – for example, in the parable of
the talents or the labourers in the vineyard. According to Jesus, the owner of a vineyard offered the same
generous pay to those who would work in his vineyard for any part of the day, however long. Those who had
worked all day felt aggrieved to receive only the same pay as the late arrivals. It is a similar complaint to that
of the elder brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son. We might understand that the richness of the reward
was/is beyond any deserving. And everyone should be glad to share this loving gift with everyone else.

Here is a story with no people or animals. A little river is on its journey to the sea, but the last part of the way
is blocked by a hot desert. The little river is aware that if it attempts to flow across the hot sand, it will
evaporate and never reach its destination. The wind comes and says: Allow me to lift you and I will carry you

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