The Tiger of the Soul

It seems there was a tiger that was mightily pregnant. She was near the term of her pregnancy and the one inside her was pressing ever closer to the doors of life. What appeared as one was trying to become two and the tiger-mother had to eat for both of them. Food was scarce at the time and the tiger found herself climbing amongst the rocky outcroppings of a mountain in search of a meal. Fighting exhaustion, she hauled herself over some rocks and spotted a herd of goats foraging in a little meadow below where she stood.

Looking down, the tiger saw immediate nourishment for herself and for the one about to be born. At the same moment, the goats looked up and saw the shape of sudden death in the form of sharp teeth that can quickly separate one thing from another. Life and death hung in the balance as the great tiger prepared to leap in the direction of the terrified goats. As the mother-to-be leapt at the herd, the goats thought of nothing but escape and scattered in all directions. She leapt with the aim of using death to contribute to life; they scattered with the idea of continuing life by avoiding death.

As fate would have it, the tiger died before even reaching the ground. She was undone by hunger or overcome by exhaustion and she expired mid- leap. Not only that, but the shock of the leap induced labor and just as the tiger-mother struck the earth, the little life within her was born. Thus, death and life were each born in the same moment, the death of one being the birth of the other. It was a case of life literally growing from death.

Despite the sense of impending doom all of the goats survived the scare. Eventually they all convened around the lifeless body of the tiger and the little package she had seemingly delivered to them. Once they felt assured that the great beast could not cause any harm, they became interested in the little presence nearby. The mother instinct is as old and as great as anything in life and the mothers in the herd recognized new life in its delicate and dependent condition. It was not long before they began sniffing at and nudging the strange shape before them. Since for goats as well as tigers loving consists of licking, the mother goats began to lick at the newborn that had fallen into their lives.

The newborn responded to the love-licking and began to stir. Soon its own instincts awakened and it felt a pressing need to nurse on something. Having been licked into life, it wanted to nurse and suck on the sweet milk of existence. The goat mothers did not disappoint. After some experimentation, the little tiger was nursing on goat’s milk and following the goat mothers wherever they went.

Nature has its natural cycles of life and death and creatures in the animal realm have natural adversaries and feed upon each other. Yet sometimes things go contra naturum, against nature and the exception proves the rule. Strange to say, the little tiger was eventually accepted by all of the goats. It fed on goat milk and received loving attention from several goat mothers. Like any child in this world, the young one began to imitate those around it. Soon enough, the child of the tiger began to act like a goat; it began to sound like a goat, and even feel like a goat. The little one learned the language and the ways of goats and began to act like any other kid in the herd.

One night when the moon was rising and shedding its light on the rocks, another tiger appeared on the mountainside. It was a full-grown animal with a great appetite and it had not eaten for a while. While hunting in the moonlight, it came over an outcropping and spotted the same herd of goats. While looking down and preparing for the next meal, the tiger was shocked to see a little tiger acting like a goat and participating in the activities of the herd. At the same time, the little tiger-goat looked up and found itself gazing into the eyes of a full-grown feline. As all the goats scattered in fear, the tiger-goat stood transfixed, gazing up at the apparition with a confused mixture of both fear and awe.

As the great tiger leapt down to the glade below, the tiger-goat thought in its confusion that the end of life had come. When it felt itself being clenched at the nape of its neck and held in the powerful jaws, it knew it would be carried off to be devoured somewhere else. It came as a great surprise when the grown tiger took the little one to the edge of a stream and held it out over the waters. Under the illumination of the moon, in the reflection of the clear stream, the little one could plainly see that its own shape was more like the strange tiger than the goats it knew so well.

In the sudden moment of reflection the little one knew that it was actually a tiger. In the brilliance of that moment, self-knowledge flooded through every cell of its body. Something old and knowing awakened within the young one and it suddenly roared mightily and triumphantly. The transformation of a lifetime took place in that single instant as the young one became entirely changed from within. The moment before, it believed that it was a goat; that it would live and die as a goat. The next moment it had become a tiger; it began to see with the eyes of a tiger and left the goat world far behind. With guidance, the little tiger-goat became all tiger and soon began to prowl the forests and burn with its natural brightness.

To know is to be on the verge of being shattered; for knowledge breaks the shell of what existed before. In a single moment of awakening the would-be goat became a tiger and the world completely changed. It was not a case of adapting to outer circumstances or learning to see things another way, more a matter of an inner essence bursting into awareness.

When it comes to awakening, the point is not “self-improvement” or simply a change in status. Changing one’s fate means awakening to another way of seeing and being. Not simply doing things differently, but becoming a different person, both more aware within and more alert to the mystery of life. The point of change is to become as another, to become the other that was hidden inside all along.

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