| The Awakening
Once upon a time there was a tigress who was about to give birth.
One day when she was out hunting she came across a herd of goats.
She gave chase and, even in her condition, managed to kill one
of them. But the stress of the chase forced her into labour, and
she died as she gave birth to a male cub. The goats, who had run
away, returned when they sensed that the danger was over. Approaching
the dead tigress, they discovered the newborn cub and adopted
him into their herd.
The tiger cub grew up among the goats, believing that he, too,
was a goat. He bleated as well as he could, he smelled like a
goat, and ate only vegetation; in every respect he behaved like
a goat. Yet within him, as we are well aware, beat the heart of
a tiger.
All went well until the day that an old tiger approached the
goat herd and attacked and killed one of the goats. The rest of
the goats ran away as soon as they saw the old tiger, but our
tiger / goat saw no reason to run away, of course, for he sensed
no danger.
Although the old tiger was the veteran of many hunts, he never
in his life had been as shocked as when he confronted the young
tiger. He did not know what to make of this full-grown tiger who
smelled like a goat, bleated like a goat, and in every other way
acted like a goat. Being rather a gruff old duffer, and not particularly
sympathetic, the old tiger grabbed the young one by the scruff
of the neck, dragged him to a nearby creek, and showed him his
reflection. But the young tiger was unimpressed with his own reflection;
it meant nothing to him and he failed to see the similarity to
the old tiger.
Frustrated by this lack of comprehension, the old tiger dragged
the young one back to the place where he had made his kill. There
he ripped a piece of meat from the dead goat and shoved it into
the mouth of our young friend.
We can well imagine the young tiger's shock and consternation.
At first he gagged and tried spitting out the raw flesh, but the
old tiger was determined to show the young one who he really was,
so he made sure the cub swallowed this new food. When he was sure
that the cub had swallowed it all, the old tiger shoved another
piece of meat into him, and this time there was a change.
Our young tiger now allowed himself to taste the raw flesh and
the warm blood, and he ate this piece with gusto. When he finished
chewing, the young tiger stretched, and then, for the first time
in his young life, he let out a powerful roar - the roar of the
jungle cat. Then the two tigers disappeared together in to the
forest.
Heinrich Zimmer tells this story in the opening of his book.
The Philosophy of India, and calls the young tiger's roar the
"roar of awaking." What is this "roar of awakening?"
It is the discovery that we are more than we think we are. It
is the discovery that we have taken on identities that incorrectly
or inadequately express our essential being. It is as though we
have been dreaming and suddenly we awaken from the dream, look
around, and become aware of a totally different reality.
Let us reconsider the story of the tiger / goat: Until he meets
the old tiger, he believes he is a goat and experiences the world
as a goat would experience it. The young tiger's reality is that
of a goat, but we can see that his goat-like perception of reality
allows him to experience only a fraction of his total being. We
know that he is capable of many other perceptions, emotions and
activities. We might paraphrase the story and say that he only
manifested his goat 'self' until the old tiger awakened him to
his essential being - the tiger he really was.
Symbolically, we are all raised as goats; we are all raised in
cultures and families where we are trained to think, feel and
see in specific, predetermined ways. Because our learned perceptions
are all that we know, we naturally assume that the world around
us actually exists as we perceive it, and the self we know is
the only self there is. This is our reality,
Consider a man who is raised in a family that worships the mind:
If this man believes that his mind is his primary source of information
regarding the world, then he is in the same situation as our tiger
/ goat. This man will know nothing of his 'other' nature. This
man will know nothing of his imagination, his deeper intuitions,
the reality and validity of his feelings. He will not have access
to the information available from these other sources. Furthermore,
he will be denied the richness and pleasure that this 'other'
nature could bring to him.
Excerpted from Embracing
Ourselves, The Voice Dialogue Manual, New World Library,
Novato, CA 1989. With permission of the authors, Hal Stone, PH.D
& Sidra Stone, PH.D www.delos-inc.com
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