A totemic animal spirit with great metaphorical meaning is the
tiger.
It's an image comparative religion scholar Joseph Campbell
offered as a symbol of the true Self.
In the epilogue of the book, The Hero’s Journey,
his honorific to Campbell, Philip Cousineau cites the story of
the Tiger and the Goat. Says Joe:
"There’s a moral here, of course. It is that we’re all
really tigers living here as goats. The function of sociology and most
of our religious education is to teach us to be goats. But the function
of the proper interpretation of mythological symbols and meditation
discipline is to introduce you to your tiger face. (Hero’s Journey,
pp. 230-231)
When you look at the world with all its suffering and pain
and lashing about, what you say is “Yes, it’s great just the way it
is.” And you throw yourself into life like a tiger going after its
prey.
When Joe drew the moral of the story of the tiger raised
as a goat whose hero quest was to discover his true tiger identity, he
added, only partly tongue-in-cheek: …don’t let them know that you are a
tiger!
"When Hallaj or Jesus let the orthodox community know that
they were tigers, they were crucified. And so the Sufis learned the
lesson at that time with the death of Hallaj, around 900 A.D. And it
is: You wear the outer garments of the law; you behave like everyone
else. And you wear the inner garments of the mystic way. Now that’s the
great secret of life." (Hero’s Journey, p. 231)
Joseph Campbell had a slight stutter which came out, paradoxically, as
part of
his eloquence, as part of the drama in his voice. It was occasionally
noticeable in words beginning with the letter “G.” I can hear him
saying, “People ask me: ‘What about all the evil and suffering in the
world?’ And I say, ‘It’s great just the way it is.” That slight stutter
of his on the word “great,” and the force with which he spoke behind
it, have the word sound almost like the cartoon advertising character
Tony the Tiger. "It's g-g-g-great!"
And that’s precisely the meaning of Joe’s "spirituality
of joyful participation in the sorrows of the world." This is the
Mahayana Buddhist mythology of the Bodhisattva
Avalokiteshvara who
saves the world by becoming every one of us. He is the One Being
incarnating in everybody. His is the "Tiger Face" in every sentient
being. Recognizing that is intended to inspire us to love the world, to
love life--just the way it is, with no judgment, no resistance--to
throw ourselves into life like a tiger going after its prey.
Joseph
Campbell’s story about the Tiger Face "spirituality of joyful participation in the sorrows of the world." This is the Mahayana Buddhist mythology of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara who saves the world by becoming every one of us. He is the One Being incarnating in everybody. His is the "Tiger Face" in every sentient being. Recognizing that is intended to inspire us to love the world, to love life--just the way it is, with no judgment, no resistance--to throw ourselves into life like a tiger going after its prey.