There is an old Cherokee tale that goes like this:
There is a young boy who walks up to his elder and asks
“Please tell me a story”
The elder replies
“Within you, there are two wolves:
One is fear,
He is envy, greed, jealousy, lust, gluttony, resentment, hate, contempt, impatience, hostility, anger, sorrow, regret, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego…
The other is love,
He is joy, peace, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith, patience, care, charity, calmness and contentment…
The same fight that is going on within you – and it is going on within every other person, too.”
The young boy replies:
“Well, which wolf wins?”
The elder replies:
“The one that you feed”
What you will find in life is that every negative statement is at the deepest core, the result of fear:
“I had to fight this person” translated: “I was scared that my pride would be harmed”
“I want to be rich” translated “I am afraid of being financially insecure”
“I wish I was better looking” translated “I am worried that I’m unattractive”
Fear is like a plague that spreads amongst us when we focus on the aesthetics of life.
Sometimes we also justify fear:
“I had to fight my way out of the situation because they made me fight“
“I had to attack them, because they attacked me“
“I had to be rude, because they were rude to me“
But every negative situation we find ourselves in, can always be dealt with using love
“I showed them love, because they were not showing me love”
“I showed them understanding, because they didn’t understand me”
“I showed them I had faith, because they had no faith in me”
There is a certain beauty of using love in all situations.
If you use love, it spreads love, people realise the love, and how beautiful it is, and they emulate it.
If you use love, it can put out fires. You cannot put out a fire with fire. Love is like water, it consumes fire.
And if you use love, you can never blame yourself when things go wrong. Because you used love, you did what was right. When you use fear, and things go wrong, you can end up blaming yourself, because you know you acted out of fear when there was a better option: love.
So, be careful which wolf you feed. If you feed fear, the fear will increase, and you will be consumed by the fear within you. The wolf will take over.
But if you feed love. Love will increase, and love will consume you. And when you’re full of love, every action will be made from love. And with love, you can never lose the battle.
Thanks for reading,
Cantona Lynx 1084
