I adapted a fable called “Feeding the Right Wolf” from Pema Chodron’s book “Taking the Leap”, as fabulists are wont to do & made it my own called “Feeding the Beasts”:
“She came to me in a dream, her bronze, flower crowned, figure both youthful and ancient, exuding wisdom. I was crying, collecting my tears in a chipped green enamel cup. “Why, oh why, is there still violence & cruelty in this world?” I asked her. She said it was like the 2 beasts fighting in her heart, one was kind and had an open heart and mind with natural intelligence; the other was filled with anger and judgment, with no interest in expanding it’s heart or mind. “And which beast will win that fight in your heart?” Softly she replied, “The one that wins will be the one I choose to feed.”
As you can see she is feeding the Kind Beast a beautiful heart:
and the Angry Beast a piece of rusty chain:
The heart represents loving kindness and the chain represents the chains that bind us when we practice destructive patterns. The Angry Beast is fading into the rusty tin and is not as visible as the Kind Beast because that is the one we choose not to feed. Once again meaning shapes seeing!
