What Can Parzival Teach Us Today

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parzival#/media/File:Parzival.Lauber.jpg

The grail story is a peek into human development -- from the individual to the community of humankind.  What can Parzival teach us? 
 
The real meat of this story is Parzival opening up to the frozen parts of his soul.  The thawing, painful as it is, is instructive because pain prods us awake. And once awake we can honor the sacred within not just ourselves but that which is sacred in others.  
 
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.
 
Parzival is a knight.  He murders and maims ... until ... he comes to a place where he turns inward away from deeds and doings to redemption and reconciliation.  How does he do this?  He gets lost. He is taken in by a hermit who is injured.  He uses his senses to turn away from his own pain and asks the question: What ails thee?
 
What can deliver us from evil? Forgiveness, first of ourselves and then others. This compassion opens us up to wonder.  As in "what is going on around me?" What are my fellow human beings experiencing?  Are you okay, brother?  Do you need a hand, sister? It needn't be a grand gesture.  Small is often better. 
 
When we are lost.  When we have become untethered from what we know.  It is okay to drop the reins like Parzival and let the horse lead the way.  Sometimes not knowing is a beautiful gift.  It forces our senses open and allows us the opportunity for discovery.  Maybe we know too much.  Maybe as Confucious taught true knowledge begins at the point of discovering our own ignorance. 
 
In our individual grail journeys we stumble upon truth.  And that's a good thing. Truth often comes in the form of stumbling blocks. How do we perceive it? Curse or blessing?   Take the blessing, move to the next personal or social transformation and then pass it on.  That is the true blessing -- to pay it forward. 

~ Joseph Olejak