It is true that a picture is worth a thousand words because pictures impart and reveal more than words alone can. I refer to “pictures” as visual images, as well as those we may "see" or "hear" in stories, poetry or song. Whichever way we experience pictures, even those in memory or imagination, they have the power to evoke feelings, associations and meaning.
Initially, pictures appeal to the senses and "just are," and affect us before we understand or articulate their full impact. Pictures can be many-layered, speaking to our individual experience, or may have wider, archetypal associations, such as found in fables, myths or parables and may reveal truths and wisdom to live by.
Parables are imaginative teachings, revealing principles and life lessons which can be both literaral and figurative. Such is the seed parable.
Behold, a sower went forth to sow, and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell upon stoney places, where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth, and when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them. But others fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear (Matthew 12:3-9 KJV).
This Biblical parable conveys that knowledge can be received or not. Knowledge, in this case analagous to "seeds," must fall on fertile ground in order to sprout and grow. The images therein reveal a literal realty, as well as a figurative truth or principle. Not only from images in sacred texts may we learn, but also from various forms of creativity--whatever is visual or can be pictured by us. All contain seeds with the potential to fall on fertile ground and bring forth fruits of wonder, curiosity, questions, associations and concepts, and with a power to motivate the will to further ponder, explore, study, discover, and even to live by.
The fertile ground is none other than our imagination, and the intellect’s capacity for seeking a deeper understanding of things subtle and inscrutable.
Some of us are naturally disposed to receive; some of us learn through our life experiences to receive what there is to be learned. Some of us, for a variety of reasons and circumstances, may never be fertile ground for specific kinds of knowledge to take root, sprout, blossom and bear fruit.
Therefore, it is the task of teachers, parents or other sources that hold seeds of wisdom and knowledge, to “fertilize” the imagination and intellect to receive various seeds of practical, cultural, social and moral import for living a life of goodness, truth and beauty. A true teacher, spiritual or otherwise, prepares the ground to receive seeds through providing experiences which develop, exercise and expand the imagination, while being vigilant and respectful of individuals' freedom to discover on their own, such with dialetic, hands on experience and other approaches which have that end in mind.
The pictures/images impressed upon the imagination are far-reaching --far beyond where they fall. They live wordlessly "speaking" to the feeling, thinking, and even the will. Seeds take root, not through direct, prescriptive lessons, that “scorch" and “wither,” but rather illustrative, lively experiences that engage minds, hearts and hands and impart the power to develop, challenge, expand and deepen the ground of imagination, inspiration and intuition.
