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Which Wolf Are You?

Which Wolf Are You?

An elder Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, "A fight is going on inside me...It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, pride and superiority. The other wolf stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside of you and every other person too."

They thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?" The old Cherokee simply replied..."The one I feed."

You Wolf Which

I have heard this before. The answer is a wise one indeed. We are our thoughs, if not today, certainly we will be tomorrow or the next.

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First of all, I'd like to point out that this was not at all the concept I thought you were discussing. Secondly, I'd have to point out that these parts of you, from both individual categories, can be mixed and intermingled, twisted and bent, freed from this design. We cannot have one half and deny the other. That is foolishness, and a house divided upon itself will not stand, as Lincoln so adroitly said.

Instead, let us deal with each emotion one at a time, and let us do as we will, and not allow ourselves to trifle with the nature of emotions themselves, rather then simply experiencing them.

If we worried about the nature of the emotions solely, we would be at great risk of falling into a life of worrying solely about others. This brings into mind a theme from the first episode of 'Kino's Journey', whence Kino entered a country which had been driven apart. They had engaged in telepathy, in a quest to to understand the nature of everyones pain, to nd quarrel and strife. This proved to be foolish, for even when you were not in pain, you felt everyone else's inner pain:

"And a life wrought with the pain of others is no life at all"

Simply by feeding ones emotions one wants doesn't solve anything. Living as one desires to live is the only true answer. Bear in mind, though, this grim opinion is only an opinion.

You Wolf Which

While it is true that we will all experience each of these emotions at some point in our lives, I think the point of the little story is which one do you focus your life upon. That is the statement about which one you feed. Have you ever noticed how there are some people who are never happy. They always are complaining about something. Conversely there are some people who are always upbeat and happy. That doesn't mean nothing good never happens to the first person or nothing bad ever happens to the latter. It simply demonstrates which emotion is given the most "food" or attention/focus.

You Wolf Which

I think it's a very deep concept to think about. While there are all these different technicalities we could bring into this, I think that actual thought behind this is something to be thought about. Whichever side we feed, whether it be the "bad" side or the "good" side, will be the side that is our overall governing force. Yes, there will always be circumstantial situations where one will override the other.

I think it's important that we do pay attention to which personality characteristics we focus on. It's not hard to find the negative side of any situation, but the challenge lies in always trying to find the optimistic view point. If a person were to solely focus on the negative, then it's inevitable that they will be a bitter, negative person, and vice versa.

Which Wolf Are You?

I agree with Seth, there is no human who is only one of the wolves. The question should have been, perhaps, which wolf do you feed? I think every person has an equal amount of those 'wolves' inside him, so that the fight between them is determined solely by the individual's personality. If he is leaning toward one of the wolves, or in the Cherokee's words, if he is feeding any one wolf more than the other, he will win.

Edited: Smudge on 2nd Jan, 2004 - 10:46pm

Which Wolf You

I think almost all people, for the most part, would rather feed the second wolf. Society, though, tends to feed the first wolf in all of us. While we prefer to go to parties, hang out with friends, and generally have a good time, society tells us we feel bad, we look bad, we smell bad, and we're not having as much fun as we should be.
As always, there are some exceptions to "all people". Some people seem to enjoy feeding the first wolf more than the second one.

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I don't think that's entirely right. It isn't society that we feel bad, it just gives place for that bad feeling place. It is within us in the first place. Society has turned us much more open to our emotions, among them guilt, where before we would go by instincts.

Also, try to imagine your life without society? Will it be peaceful and serene? Not really. We will constantly be fighting for food and water instead of our self esteem.