An old Cherokee chief was 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, self-doubt, and ego. "The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. "This 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 chief simply replied, "The one you feed."
I saw this at a gun show a few months ago (along with books on zen and the kama sutra lol, didn't know what the fuck they were doing there), its pretty awesome. I love how simple it is.
Build small fire - keep warm. Build big fire - keep warm fetching wood. (may or may not be an old indian saying)
I've heard this before and I disagree. Even the negative parts of the human psyche such as sorrow, anger, guilt... are still integral and necessary parts of the human psyche. They're not there without a reason.
It doesn't say that you'll never experience these things, nor that they are always a bad thing to experience. It says that these things will define you if you feed them.
These things define you regardless, who we are is little more than the total of our experiences (genetics aside).
Correct me if I'm wrong. You're saying we have no choice but to feed both. Either in the sense that you need the fight to continue, or in the sense that our natural reaction to life will involve some of both.
Well, in a way yes. It's sometimes beyond our control which of these gets fed. If I see someone with something I want i'll likely experience envy (regardless of whether I pretend and deny it). If someone hits me i'll get angry, or scared depending on what he's hit me with and how big he is. These things are probably beyond my control. I'm trying to say I don't see the reason for a fight, all emotions have their own place and time. The only important thing is to not become dependent on one or a few, be they negative or positive.
Okay, you're not saying it's always beyond our control. No objection here. Eyes that are focused on the smallest details are blinded to the big picture. I agree.
what is fed is what we seek. if we cannot help our behavior, it will consume us and changing that is no easy task but it starts by redirecting the flow of these innate emotions or desires. Our world is only as we make it, you eat the wrong in this world, you will fill yourself up with fear and uncertainty, and other behavioral problems. It's funny you are what you eat.
That's like saying it's okay to murder because that person was going to die at some point anyhow. I do agree that sometimes the negative things happen outside of our control, but that's different than feeding them. Every once in a while I get moles in my yard, but I'm sure as hell not going to feed them. Sure, them coming is inevitable, but I'm not going to encourage them to stay. Even in the end, if I find out that there was no such thing as free will and everything came down to genetics and binary impulses, I will still feel justified in not feeding the negatives.
What the hell? No it isn't. Poor analogy. If you mean excessively feeding one over the other then yes,but they'll all get fed regardless and there's nothing you can do about that. Again, a poor analogy that doesn't relate. If you find out there's no such thing as free will what you feel is 'justified' would be entirely irrelevant.
We cannot control which one gets fed sometimes. Yes, this is true. There are also countless situations in which we can, or should, be able to choose which to feed. The one that is fed more will win. This doesn't mean the loser is gone, for he is kept for the necessary reason discussed prior, only he isn't the one the exudes himself in an aggregate manner in order to create an image of who you are in the external world. Even if I am all wrong, I think the man who spoke this was much more wise than any of us could ever want to be so I'll just agree with him. Not that I am a sheep or anything.
There is no win or lose, there is no battle. That's what i'm trying to say. Excessively feeding either of these pretend "sides" is a detriment to the other. All of these emotions and experiences are a necessary part of the human psyche.
It's a battle over which characteristics you exude, maybe. This is supposed to define who you are or something; I don't know really, I'm sure the original orator was thinking on a much higher level than I ever could. I would agree that both are extremely necessary for our development, no doubt, but I feel like this might be about how you handle both sides, simultaneously. You win if you choose to handle both sides in a way that positively affects both your internal and external world. I'm not really sure what he means by feed, but I'll bet it is not very literal.
Who exactly is doing the feeding? And by that I mean, underneath all the impulses and drives whats left? Whos "you"?