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November 2009 
Tiger in the Room
Posted on Nov 1st, 2009
by 
heemes
heemes
“Imagine all of you are hypnotized to believe there is a tiger in this room. In your fear you will try to escape it, to fight it, to protect yourselves from it, to placate it. But once the spell is broken, there is nothing to be done. And you are all radically changed. So understanding breaks the spell, the broken spell brings change..."
-by Rev. Anthony De Mello
http://www.demello.org
-by Rev. Anthony De Mello
http://www.demello.org
Access: Public
Thanks to Sankar H. for making me aware of this message.
Also, just poking around, I saw this, perhaps for the first time. :-)
Good stuff.
there is no tiger, there is no spoon :) hugs
Exactly. :-)
Hi, Paul!…come on..prrrrrrrrrrrrrr….you've got something against a tiger? (smile!) The heart is primitive - the universities have not found a way to tame it, teach it to be civilized! The fact that a tiger can still exist in society is the only hope for humanity to survive!
Walking into the room, one with tiger, open to multidimensional potentiality!
Man is the only animal that is imperfect…even dogs and cats do better! Where is man's glory? It's in his imperfection! It's open evolution!
Sincerely, do you know it is my own energy I fear. No tiger in the room…tiger in the skin!
No tiger - no spoon! (smile!!!)…okay! What a trip!
All my love!
Cheyenne
You provide balance like no other, Cheyenne. Let's carry this onward.
Love the tiger, love the self, is that it? If I give energy to the tiger-ish self in you for a moment, what teeth could do? Rend skin from self, bare all for the world to see the real me? The authentic non-ego driven self? Could a mother even recognize her children then?
Hi, Paul!! You must forgive me if I do understand perfectly the questions!
First, I do understand this 'no tiger in the room - no spoon.” And so complement and understand.
After following the Buddha's practice of emptiness - no spoon - no tiger, year after year, day after day, moment to moment - there seem to come a place where nothing else could be negated! All psychology seen as the spoon, the tiger in the room.
Yet underneath this, something I cannot negate! Something alive! I recall once about 20 years ago uttering under my voice, “I wish something could just happen without my effort.” THIS happens without me!..I feel alive, I open my eyes and feel, OMG!, I am here! I am an animal, the divine is soaked in my blood, my soul, I am!…and I am a witness to this alive-ness!
When this creature (smile!) opens itself, leaps, has powerful responses to the moment, it deepens my awareness. Whereas, psychology, made me more unaware, yes? And the animal (or whatever to call it), resolves, becomes apart of my awareness day by day!
I give no condemnation to this - unlike what I did for many many many years practicing emptiness…neti, neti! (smile!). For this feeling awareness is needed, not condemnation - then a transformation happens spontaneously. OH, I tell you, Paul, it is arduous! It is wild! You do not know what you will say any moment, what you will do! And somehow that which decided before is gone…you're just on some ride!!! (laughing!)…
Anger might rise suddenly, like lightening (!) (!)…I feel hot, my whole nervous system shaking and quaking, and I feel a tremor all over the body - a beautiful beautiful moment - I stand smiling..whispering “OMG! I am alive!” When the energy is functioning, I feel it easily…yet day by day it gets easier and eaiser to feel it even in the breath! when somebody laughs…when somebody dies, a real response happens…! (without me!!)….
And it connects me more powerfully to my children! I can smell them, love them, hear them with a super sense!
It is so mysterious. I used to be afraid of it because I did not understand it. I did all I could to kill it! It seemed terrible and I had no practice.
Now it feels graceful, a gift, because now I have the keys- now I am the master to this beast!..this alive phenomenon! I do not 'control' it, ever! I encourage it constantly…feeding it awareness and love - acceptance and encouragement - Just by being aware, I am the master. I watch some days the wildness inside, I know by God (big big smile!)..if I was not well-established in awareness, I would be hospitalized for madness! Thousands of emotions running, wanting to kill, screaming, laughing, running…and I simply smile…and reflect..”So this is controlled madness…this is awakening.”
I do not know, my friend, if I responded to the question…but I tried!
No tiger in the room - in the skin! This is how I feel it!….
Yet I so understand…no spoon - no tiger -only this mystery, this feeling that is not “I”, that cannot be put down by any force of my own!
Thank you, Paul…!!!!
Lovingly,
Cheyenne
And so you/we/i are essence of awareness/consciousness and, through awareness/consciousness, one with all that is. Our pasts will either liberate or ensnare us (perhaps both, moment by moment). Our futures will make our imaginations giggle or tremble (again perhaps both, moment by moment).
And…
The present will allow access to the divine in us, individually as well as collectively.
Is that your message (in my clumsy words)?
Oh, I could never call these words 'clumsy'! 'Brillilant!!!!”
What is written in books and books, you have said gracefully, stunningly!
YES!
I might suggest in a whisper….”the animal and the divine are not separate phenomenons…they are one and the same in strength, power and love.”
Thank YOU, Paul!
with love,
Cheyenne
Cheyenne, I see animals as you do. One with nature, yet humans can detach. Somehow we do. I choose not to ask 'Why detach?'; rather, inquire how to see one as a single sound, pointing skyward.
Love to the equally brilliant yet beautifully different Cheyenne!