Reimagining the Cherokee Parable of the Two Wolves
A Self-Realized Take on a Classic Teaching Tale
A Cherokee Elder is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil — he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”
He continued, “The other is good — he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you — and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
While I love this story as it honors Native Wisdom and calls to mind the love of a grandfather for a grandson, I think it misses the mark just a bit and indicates our Elder is a bit lost in the illusion of perceived reality. In this article, we will visit this piece of ancient wisdom from the point of view of the Self-Realized perspective.
Does It Miss the Mark?
The parable pits good versus evil. As Joseph Campbell pointed out in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, tales of good and evil are nearly as old as our facility with language. Intricately woven into the fabric of the human experience. Mind loves to judge, rank, and create hierarchies. Mind is on constant guard to keep “you” safe. Mind perceives danger around every corner and views so-called “negative” emotions as bad, evil, and to be avoided. Mind finds these tales fascinating, magnetically attractive, even irresistible.
On revisiting the tale from the point of view of Awakeness {or Being, Christ Consciousness, Awareness, Soul…choose your preferred label}, we realize what we are witnessing is the hypnosis of social conditioning in action and very elegantly demonstrated. The grandfather, innocently, and ignorantly through parable is reinforcing the illusion of separation. Encouraging the boy to buy into the perceived reality, and identify with Mind, not his Authentic Self. A conditioned tradition handed down from generation to generation.
Mind is an invaluable tool and a faithful servant, Wisdom is Our True Authentic Self and a Sacred Gift. The illusion teaches us to worship the servant and ignore The Gift.
From the point of view of Awakeness, no emotion is inherently good or bad, it is just information. An easy analogy to demonstrate is the gauges on the dashboard of your car. If you walk outside and start your car and notice the fuel gauge is pegged all the way to the right above full, Mind will instantly think GOOD! Maybe. If you spent your last dollars to fill up and it is a week until payday, maybe not. If you are about to drive 3 miles to the grocery store and back and will be on pandemic lockdown for the next several months rarely driving your car, irrelevant.
The Conditioned Mind however loves it, one less thing to worry about freeing it to look for other bogeymen. If your speedometer indicates you are going 80, is that inherently good or bad? Completely depends on the context. If you are running late and the speeding is allowing you to arrive at your important interview on time, and 5–0 is distracted with crowd control in the “mostly peaceful protests” downtown GOOD. If you are driving the Seward Highway here in Alaska, and it is a foggy night, very, very BAD.
Conditioning tells us “negative” emotions are to be avoided, compartmentalized, powered through. Suck it up, snap out of it, are the common refrain if we honestly and authentically acknowledge those feelings. No Pain, No Gain is the mantra of the Illusionary Wanderer.
The idea of noticing your car is on fumes with a big drive ahead and some intense Tony Robbins style “motivational coach” telling you to power through is somewhere between absurd and a good start to a funny SNL skit. Why then are we berated into ignoring the Whispers of Wisdom guiding us lovingly, elegantly, and effortlessly through the human experience?
In revisiting this ancient parable, let’s make a couple of adjustments for a more enlightened age, and see if this newer version might serve as a pointer away from the illusion, back to the Space Within, back Home.
Parable of The Two Voices
A Cherokee Elder is teaching his grandson about his Authentic Spirit. “Two conversations are going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a battle for attention and it is between two voices. One is loud and incessant — this voice is critical, preaches lack, tells me I am not good enough, tells me I will only be happy with a prettier younger squaw, a bigger tepee, a sharper knife, and a faster horse. Tells me I need more eagle feathers for my headdress andI don’t deserve the ones I’ve earned.”
He continued, “The other One whispers — it tells me I am part of all that is and all that will ever be. The Great Nature. I am One with the buffalo, the elk, and the beaver. When I kill an elk, I am strengthening the herd. When we follow the geese south before the corn moon, to winter in the deep valley, we feed the crows and ravens with what remains of our abundant crops. The One tells me the Great Spirit asks only that we live in harmony with the guidance and wisdom older than time itself. It tells me our True Nature is joy, peace, love, serenity, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you — and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which voice will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you heed.”
As you think about these so-called “negative” emotions, how would life unfold for you differently if you didn’t mistakenly consider them to be a gauge telling you about your life’s circumstances?
You need only pull the thread of those emotions to notice there is a way you want life to unfold, a way you need life to unfold, and the world is not complying with your desires. This is the clinging and attachment Buddha realized was the cause of all suffering
Perhaps an example will illustrate:
Scenario 1: A man gets off an airplane in Atlanta, checks the departures to see which gate his final flight to Miami is leaving from. C-25 but the flight is delayed, no ETA. He is probably missing his brother’s engagement party. Anger arises. He storms off to the customer service desk, demands answers, none available {otherwise the display would have been updated}. He makes a scene, screams at the gate agent, is asked to step away by security. He heads to the bar “needing” a drink, orders a gin with a self-loathing and frustration chaser. Mind steps in to remind him, he had the option to fly out last night. inner Critic regales him with a list of other times he has been a less than stellar brother. An alcohol-fueled downward spiral ensues.
Scenario 2: A man gets off an airplane in Atlanta, checks the departures to see which gate his final flight to Miami is leaving from. C-25 but the flight is delayed, no ETA. He is probably missing his brother’s engagement party. Anger Arises. Hmm, very different from the blissful state he normally experiences. He considers what this means and recognizes it is a signal that he is attached to an imaginary unfolding of life different from what is playing out. Uses his grounding technique of choice, gets centered and aligned, calls breaux to let him know he will be late. Head’s off to the bar to catch the last 3 innings of the Marlin’s game. Hot babe at the bar catches his eye, then he catches hers, she twirls her hair, adventure is afoot.
The facts of the scenarios are identical. The vastly different reactions show the feelings they experience have nothing at all to do with their circumstances. It was indicative of their internal experience, their access to resources, and their grounding. In other words, like the fuel gauge and speedometer, it is information. Neither good nor bad, innately or inherently.
For the Self-Realized Being who chooses to approach life as Perpetual Meditation each day, the way is made through the human experience, a simple mantra can be merely noticing which voice you are heeding, the inner critic for whom the squaw is never pretty enough, the tepee is never big enough and the knife is never sharp enough. Or, are you showing up as Great Spirit? One with the Elk, Buffalo, and Beaver, Guided by Wisdom In Harmony with Nature. Having taught hundreds of these Ancient Teachings {and to be clear what I teach is not elusive to Native culture but is PanCultural {found in every tradition even mystic Christianity, and certainly across all eastern traditions}}. At its essence, it is no more difficult than binary checking-in. Are you seeking love or showing up as Love? Are you acting and reacting from the egoic body/mind or the Divine IAM? Are you responding from a Sacred space or a scared place?
Course correcting is as simple as noticing that you are seeking the light, then suddenly realizing you are Light, once this has awareness arises, simply flip the switch. In Our Mindful Life community, we refer to this as Prime Choice.
The Course in Miracles begins with the statement, “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.”
This is a pointer toward that which is Infinite and Eternal, the Authentic Self. It is an invitation to simply realize when you identify with the body, and believe the body is you, believe the mind is you, you are heeding the first voice. The first voice is a trickster, a con man.
The Truth is never more than One Insight, One AHA Moment, One Realization away.
Below is a chart that has served as a useful guide to many seeking Life as Meditation. One side gives you the experiences common when you embody the Sacred space, the Divine IAM. The other side offers common experiences when you slip back into the illusion of the egoic body/mind.
With Love
Bobby
P.S. If you have questions you can ask them here, my author’s page has my contact information and I run a Facebook Group called Our Mindful Life where other Spiritual Beings commune. https://www.facebook.com/groups/ourmindfullife
