Patch Parables ~ The Parable of the Sandcastles

The parable of the sandcastles is the first episode in the Patch Parables series. This animated series explores different ancient parables and short stories to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson.

This episode starts with a few children playing by a river. Each child is making their own sandcastles in which they all defend from each other. They were all made perfectly, making sure everyone knew who’s was who’s. Once they were built and complete, one of the children walked over to another sandcastle and kicked it over, destroying it to the ground.

The owner of the castle flew into a rage, attacking the child who kicked his castle to the ground. The child whose castle was ruined called out to the other children, telling them his castle has been spoiled.

They all ganged up to attack the poor child, beating him with sticks and stomping on him repeatedly. Then they continued as they had been previously doing. They told each other to keep away from their castle, it’s theirs and only theirs.

As the day grew darker, it became time for them to go home. Each child left their castle, some pushed theirs over knocked down their castles. No one cared anymore what happened to the mounds of sand. They all walked home, waving each other off as they would see each other again the next day.

This parable represents us as a society and how we live our lives. We grow up, caring about our possessions, sometimes we share very little and safeguard all our belongings. But once our life is up, we pass away and leave it all behind. None of our possessions matter anymore. In the end, all material objects don’t matter, what really counts was the experiences that we had in the time we were given.

As the parable seems to suggest, the cycle of reincarnation continues and we enter into a new life, a new day dawns, and perhaps if we are wise, we will take with us the lessons we learned in the previous life and applying them to the next. Remember this the next time you’re feeling greedy or are hoarding your items. What is the most important thing to you, really?

Credits:

Credits Music: Unfinished Business by Genome Joel
Background music: Iwasaki Taku