{"id":5083,"date":"2012-10-10T17:50:22","date_gmt":"2012-10-10T21:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/?p=5083"},"modified":"2012-08-21T17:53:54","modified_gmt":"2012-08-21T21:53:54","slug":"the-tiger-meets-the-wannabe-goat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2012\/10\/the-tiger-meets-the-wannabe-goat.html","title":{"rendered":"The parable of the tiger and the goat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>True spiritual evolution progresses through a closer and closer alignment with the Higher Self. A quantum leap is achieved through\u00a0fusion<\/em>\u00a0between the focus personality and the Higher Self. The larger person now communicates with a Higher Self on a higher level than before.<\/p>\n

The previous evolution of consciousness has taken humans from the conditions of the group soul \u2014 comparable to animals, fish, or even insects \u2014 toward individuation. The next phase of evolution can take our species as a whole to a new plane of consciousness and being. We are invited to participate in the emergence of a new species.<\/p>\n

The invitation may come in ways that are terrifying to the little self, which clings to its little things.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite teaching stories about this was popular with the gentle, ascetic philosophers of Vedanta, precisely because its way, primal quality is calculated to shock the hearer out of conventional pieties. It is a story about you and me: about the relationship between the little self and the big Self.<\/p>\n

The Parable of the Wannabe Goat<\/strong><\/p>\n

The she-tiger is prowling the woods. She is hungry. She is pregnant and has two lives to feed. At the edge of the forest, she discovers a herd of goats, grazing on the plain. She advances toward them cautiously, keeping downwind. But her big belly makes her clumsy. When she makes her spring, she dashes her head against a protruding boulder and is killed. Her cub is born posthumously. When the goats come back, they find a blind, mewling, helpless newborn. They take pity on it and decide to raise it as one of their own. They teach it to eat grass and to bleat like the herd. The cub is always the odd one out in the herd, the butt of many jeers. But is does its best to fit in.<\/p>\n

Until one day the Bengal man-eater comes stalking through the woods. He has just eaten a gazelle for breakfast, but he is always hungry. His spring is impeccable. The goats all flee \u2014 except for the wanna-be goat. The tiger inspects the cub in astonishment. \u201cWhat are\u00a0you<\/em>\u00a0doing here?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaaaaah,\u201d bleats the wanna-be goat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t bleat,\u201d growls the man-eater.<\/p>\n

Confused, the cub nibbles grass.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we do not eat grass!\u201d roars the man-eater. \u201cWe are\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0vegetarians!\u201d<\/p>\n

The tiger seizes the cub by the scruff of the neck and carries him to a reflecting pool, to show him his true face.<\/p>\n

When the wanna-be goat sees his true face, he squeals in terror.<\/p>\n

Enraged and disgusted, the man-eater grabs the cub and drags him back to his lair, where he is hoarding the remains of the gazelle he had for breakfast. He pries open the cub\u2019s jaw and forces down some of the raw meat. As the blood trickles down the wanna-be goat\u2019s gullet, he opens his jaws. And he\u00a0roars<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Whereupon the tiger says, \u201cNow that you know who you are, we can begin to discuss how you ought to behave.\u201d<\/p>\n

The message is savagely clear. The reason we can hope to succeed in our hunt for the Higher Self is that, while we fancy we are the hunters, the big Self \u2014 the tiger in the soul \u2014 is hunting us.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Adapted from\u00a0Dreamgates: Exploring the Worlds of Soul, Imagination and Life Beyond Death<\/a><\/em>\u00a0by Robert Moss. Published by New World Library.<\/p>\n

I first posted this here a while back. Tiger has made it clear to me he wants me to tell the story again…<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

True spiritual evolution progresses through a closer and closer alignment with the Higher Self. A quantum leap is achieved through\u00a0fusion\u00a0between the focus personality and the Higher Self. The larger person now communicates with a Higher Self on a higher level than before. The previous evolution of consciousness has taken humans from the conditions of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,25,26,36,44,42,43,29],"tags":[1449,729,1450,725],"class_list":["post-5083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-active-dreaming","category-conscious-living","category-life-direction","category-myth","category-power-animals","category-shamanism","category-soul","category-story","tag-goat","tag-parables","tag-teaching-stories","tag-tiger"],"yoast_head":"\nThe parable of the tiger and the goat - Dream Gates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2012\/10\/the-tiger-meets-the-wannabe-goat.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The parable of the tiger and the goat - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"True spiritual evolution progresses through a closer and closer alignment with the Higher Self. 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He is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanism. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He leads popular seminars all over the world, including a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. A former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His nine books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamways of the Iroquois, The Dreamer's Book of the Dead, The Three \"\"Only\"\" Things, The Secret History of Dreaming, Dreamgates, Active Dreaming and Dreaming the Soul Back Home: Shamanic Dreaming for Healing and Becoming Whole. His most recent book is The Boy Who Died and Came Back: Adventures of a Dream Archaeologist in the Multiverse. Over the past 20 years, he has led seminars at the Esalen Institute, Kripalu, the Omega Institute, the New York Open Center, Bastyr University, John F. Kennedy University, Meriter Hospital, and many other centers and institutions. He has taught depth workshops in Active Dreaming in the UK, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Brazil and Austria and leads a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. He hosts the \"\"Way of the Dreamer\"\" radio show at www.healthylife.net. He has appeared on many TV and radio shows, ranging from Charlie Rose and the Today show to Coast to Coast and the Diane Rehm show on NPR. His articles on dreaming have been published in media ranging from Parade to Shaman's Drum.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.mossdreams.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/author\/rmoss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5083"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5086,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5083\/revisions\/5086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}