Parallels Between Worlds (Metaphysical Parables)

           There are truly two worlds which coexist: The physical world and the spiritual world.  The physical world is the more natural of which to speak as it is more concrete in perception and definition, but the spiritual world is just as real and prevalent.  The spiritual world involves our emotions, feelings, and attitudes - basically, everything that is a part of us which cannot be perceived by the five senses.

           The spiritual world involves our relationships with other people, whether it be friendly, romantic, or familial, and our relationship to God.  The previous statement should be evident without having been stated, as relationships are not a visible substance, though they are an important factor of this world.

           The purpose of this discourse is to declare and provide examples of the following maxim that God set in motion about this world:

• Everything in the physical world teaches something about the spiritual world

 For example:

1. You can rub dirty off onto clean, but you can't rub clean off onto dirty.  Why is this the case?  In a literal sense, because dirt is a substance, and it is not sound to believe that a non-substance can rub off onto a substance.  Spiritually speaking, though, it shows the propensity of degradation.  There is a greater aptitude to sully one's own life and reputation than to polish it.  It takes work to maintain a spotless lifestyle.  Conversely it takes no work to destroy one's reputation or mar one's image.
2. It is easier to be lower than higher.  This is what gravity teaches us. Two people, equal in strength, are in a room with just a table.  One person is on the table, the other on the ground.  If both are wrestling with the same intensity to bring the other where he is, who will win?  The person on the ground will win because  he has the greater advantage.  He has gravity working with him to bring the other down.  The person on the table has to work twice as hard to bring the lower man higher.  All this is a physical example.  The spiritual reality is the same as it is more difficult to be good than bad.  (All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.)  Standing requires that certain muscles be flexed; all that is necessary to fall is to relax.
3. To appreciate something, you must earn it.  One man climbed a mountain.  Another man took a helicopter to the top.  Which one enjoyed the view?
4. Building up is only possible through breaking down.  The science of weightlifting is that by lifting weights, one tears his or her muscle.  It then begins to heal and build scar tissue around what was torn.  This causes the muscle to be enlarged.  Likewise, one gains the strength of the trial he overcomes.  After a broken heart, one learns how to handle it.  After criticism, one realizes where alterations must be made.  Through pain, one learns emotional fortitude.
5. Water erodes.  If this were to be transliterated to spiritual language, it would sound more like, "time heals all wounds."  It has previously been noted that time is compared to a river in our world.  As rivers erode all natural things endlessly, so time slowly brings an end to everything that is.  Time takes away all people, fades memories, and changes everything, be it feelings, governments, personal status, etc.  Time takes away the good and takes away the bad.  Just as a river deposits all materials someplace, so time also distributes good and distributes bad.

    Certainly there are limitless things and principles in this world, and all of them have, in essence, a double entendre.  These are parables from and about life.  They  are perceived and interpreted by anyone with enough interest and wisdom to see them.