A few months back, I was watching a children’s television show with my nephew about Indian folk tales in cartoon form. The story is one that even features in the Osho Zen Tarot Card deck as the explanation for the Major Arcana card called Conditioning.
It’s about a lion that was brought up by a herd of sheep and even thought he was one.
In the television version, the lion even wore a sheep skin and made sounds like a sheep, sharing their habitat and eating grass.
Then one fine day, an old lion that was passing by saw the sheep-lion and literally forces him to see his reflection in the forest pond.
At that moment, the sheep-lion awakens to his identity and lets out a huge roar that resounds throughout the jungle. Leaves fall, birds fly away, the deer go scampering and the rest as they say is history.
I’d say the lion found his Gravitas!
Looking at it in modern day context, quite a few of us get caught in a herd mentality.
We forget there is a difference between personality and individuality.
It’s an indicator of low Self-Awareness and consequently low Emotional Intelligence.
We adopt a personality based on others’ perceptions and externals instead of looking within and finding our true voice – Our Roar.
The 2 Life Direction Choices Before Us
This story brings out the two choices that we have for direction in life.
We can either go along with the majority of society without thinking for ourselves. It is easier not to take decisions and responsibility for the quality of our lives.
Or we can choose to break free of conditioning and be guided by our inner Higher Source of wisdom.
A person who is tuned into one’s Higher Source or God-Mind will find that they will be intuitively self-directed to rely on that intuitive self-direction from a Higher Source.
The many benefits of choosing to turn to the Higher Source
When one embraces guidance from one’s Higher and true self, the decisions that we make are the right ones for achieving the purpose of our soul in this lifetime.
Letting go of personal egotism, we also let go of our illusions. Thus, becoming more aware of ourselves and our surroundings.
Focusing on externals alone can get us caught in judgments whereas turning inwards to our Higher Mind by maintaining a positive and peaceful attitude at the surface part of one’s consciousness through the practice of meditation, visualization, prayer and affirmation will enable us to raise the right vibrations in the atmosphere for our Higher Mind to more readily influence us through intuition.
While the directions for affirmations, prayer and visualization are simple and can easily be learned by reading self-help books, it is the student who has to be prepared to let go of any previous conditioning.
The student must seek to listen to his/her Inner Voice and committed not to let personal ego and emotion corrupt the guidance messages received.
Making changes however may at times require being shown our reflection in the mirror either by our well-wishers or a guide.
This is perhaps where the old lion came into the story. To be the catalyst that changed the sheep-lion into a real lion!
But there’s more to just realizing that we need to step into our authentic power. Once we have the wake-up call, it’s time to answer our Call to Adventure. This Kindle book will guide you on your transformation journey – guaranteed!
Have you ever had a catalyst that awoke your sleeping inner Lion? Would love to read about what it took to help you find your True Voice in the comments box below.
ROAR!
Once you’ve found your Roar, it’s equally important that others become aware of it, whether in your business or workplace. That’s where you’ll find this Executive Presence Tutorial useful.
Lion Roar by Lee Wag
Image by Heri Santoso from Pixabay
Written By: Vatsala Shukla
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