🤫 The Lion Who Whispered — And the Truth He Was Afraid to Speak
There is a strange paradox hidden inside many spiritual paths: The moment someone begins to recognize the light within themselves, they often feel compelled to hide it again. Not because they stopped believing it. But because they fear how others might react.
Say, "I am worthy" or "I carry the Divine within me", and some people may hear: "So you think you're better than everyone else?"
It is fascinating, isn't it? Those words were never there. Perhaps this is because we have been taught that greatness is a competition.
- If one person shines, another must become dimmer.
- If someone stands tall, someone else must stand lower.
- If one person is close to God... then everyone else must somehow be further away.
We have become so accustomed to measuring life vertically that we struggle to imagine a reality without ladders.
But love does not work like that.
Truth does not work like that.
And neither does light.
🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️
Imagine standing in a room with one candle.
Then another candle is lit.
Did the first candle lose any of its flame?
Of course not.
The room simply became brighter.
The Forgotten Roar — When We Mistake Hiding for Humility
Many years ago, I heard a story:
There was once a lion who had lived among sheep for almost his entire life. As a cub he had been separated from his pride and raised by a flock that loved him as best they could.
He learned to eat grass.
He learned to walk carefully.
He even tried to bleat.
Whenever his voice became too deep, he apologized.
Whenever he stood too tall, he lowered his head.
Whenever his instincts emerged, he called them arrogance.
The sheep praised him.
"Such a humble lion."
And slowly... he forgot he was one.
One day an old lion wandered into the valley. The sheep scattered in fear. Only the young lion remained frozen.
The old lion looked at him with complete confusion: "What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to be a good sheep."
The old lion laughed — not cruelly, but with the gentle laughter of someone watching a child wear shoes three sizes too small.
"You were never meant to become less than what you are."
The young lion lowered his eyes.
"But if I become a lion...
...won't everyone think I'm trying to be better than them?"
The old lion sat beside him in silence. Then he asked,
"Tell me...
when the sun rises each morning...
does it believe it is superior to the stars?"
The young lion frowned.
"No. It simply shines."
For a long time they sat together. Finally the old lion spoke again.
"The tragedy is not that lions exist. The tragedy is when lions spend their lives pretending to be sheep because they mistake authenticity for pride."
🌞 When Shining Feels Wrong — The Hidden Fear of Being Seen
I wonder how many of us are doing exactly that.
Not roaring because someone might misunderstand.
Not sharing our gifts because they might appear self-important.
Not speaking from the heart because confidence can resemble arrogance to frightened eyes.
So we shrink ourselves.
We soften every sentence.
We apologize before we have even spoken.
We dim our own light...
not because it is too bright,
but because we fear someone else may confuse light with superiority.
Perhaps this confusion reveals something deeper.
When someone says: "I carry the Divine within me",
some people instinctively complete the sentence with: "...and you don't."
But those words were never spoken.
They were supplied by the listener.
Why?
Because we often imagine the Divine as something scarce.
As though there were only a limited amount to go around.
As though God's presence were a trophy.
A title.
A private membership.
But what if Divinity is not a prize...
but a source?
A World of Comparison — Forgetting the Unity Beneath It All
Jesus said: "The Kingdom of God is within you."
Not within a chosen few.
Within you!
Vedanta whispers the same mystery through different words.
The deepest Self is not separate from the Infinite.
The Quakers speak of "God in everyone."
Mystics across centuries, cultures, and religions keep pointing toward the same horizon:
Not: "I am divine, unlike you."
But: "If I dare to recognize the Divine within myself, I can no longer deny it within you."
The realization does not build a hierarchy.
It dissolves one.
Your Radiance Is Not Arrogance — It Is Your Nature
Ironically, the ego can hide behind false humility just as easily as behind pride.
Sometimes saying: "I'm nothing."
can be another way of remaining preoccupied with ourselves.
Sometimes refusing our own light is simply fear wearing the clothes of modesty.
Real humility is something entirely different.
Humility does not deny the gift.
It simply remembers who gave it.
A river does not boast because it carries water.
Nor does it apologize for flowing. 🌊
The Infinite Flame — His Light Cannot Take Away Yours
Perhaps the lion's greatest mistake was never believing he was a sheep.
His greatest mistake was believing that becoming fully himself would somehow diminish everyone else.
Yet the sheep never needed another sheep.
They needed a lion who was no longer afraid to be one.
Not to rule them.
Not to dominate them.
Simply to remind them that every creature has its own nature, its own beauty, its own calling.
🐶🐝🐈🦁🐴🍄🦌🦥🐪🦇🐘🦚🐇🌸🐍🦋🕊️🕷️
The lion honors the sheep most deeply not by pretending to be sheep...
but by being a lion without shame.
🥹 The Home We Never Truly Left
We breathe. The Sacred breathes (through) us.
We do not honor the Divine by placing it somewhere far above us.
We honor it by recognizing the sacred presence already moving within us.
We don't need to hallow a name because it belongs to something distant and unreachable.
Instead, we are invited to hallow the breath within us.
Perhaps this is one of the deepest mystery hidden within ancient words, names, mantras.
With every breath, life whispers the same truth:
🌬️ I AM.
So maybe this is what sacred words like YHWH, Om or so'ham have always been pointing to.
Not: "I am greater."
Not: "I am smaller."
Simply: "I am."
No comparison.
No ladder.
No performance.
Just the quiet courage to stand in the truth of who we are.
Because perhaps the greatest act of humility is not making ourselves smaller.
Perhaps it is becoming so deeply rooted in the Divine that we no longer need to be either bigger or smaller than anyone else.
We simply are.
And somehow...
that is enough. 🥲
❤️💛💚
Yours and mine,
I & I 🦁
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