Four Paths
The four dignities as paths of training: Tiger, contentment and ease, power without aggression; Snow Lion, joy grown through discipline understood as nourishment rather than threat; Garuda, fearlessness that flies straight into fear; and Dragon, wisdom in direct action.
Tiger. The fundamental quality developed by the path of Tiger is - Contentment and Ease. Tiger walks through the jungle completely aware of his own power, his own right to be exactly how he is.
He steps with confidence - nothing to hide, nothing to prove. There is no wondering how he is seen as, should he do this or that, just complete presence here in the physical world, stepping through the Earth.
There is no need for aggression, Tiger embodies power without the need to use it. He sleeps well, he eats well, he takes care of himself well. Walks one paw in front of the other without struggle. Is physically powerful, fit, and moves with ease and agility through the world.
Snow Lion. Snow Lion is a joyful mythical beast that has a big shaggy mane, and he leaps from snowy mountain top to mountain top. Still on the earth, but he can leap far into the air, and land softly back where he needs to be.
The fundamental quality developed in the path of Snow Lion is - Joy.
This Joy is developed is through Discipline. But not the generally understood meaning we have of that word. Usually Discipline means “Do this…. or else…”. And the “or else” is “or else you are a loser. You are weak. You are lazy.” If you do not get up and do all the things, I will leave you for somebody stronger. You are not a real man if you don’t do all these things.
The subtext is linked to loss, to rejection, to failure. And so of course we struggle with this version of discipline.
The Discipline of Snow Lion is joyful. It is the sun and rain that we invite into our lives to help us grow stronger and thrive. Like wheat growing upward it needs - it deserves - structure and support and sun and food. And so too us humans need structure and support and exercise and purpose.
Discipline is the quality that we choose into to help us, to support us. Choosing into Discipline helps us grow tall and strong, helps us thrive, and the natural outcome of this is Joy - pure, easy, deep joy.
Garuda. The Garuda is half-man half-bird. He is the King of the birds. He is born in the sky and never touches the Earth. He flies farther and farther. His quality is Fearlessness. Not the absence of Fear, but the quality to fly straight into Fear and touch the space beyond Fear, the open space of loving-kindness, of the divine birthright that is all of ours.
To fly through all that we fear, this is where we begin to touch and alter our secret world. The underlying fabric of reality. We journey into this space, we transcend the aggression that we have relied on - the aggression towards others and towards ourselves - and engage instead with the path of fearlessness, the path of Gentleness, which is greater than fear.
This is where Dragons are born.
Dragon. Our Dragon is Wisdom. Wisdom in direct action. Dragon is mastery, is magical. Watching a Dragon at work we cannot understand how it can do what it can do, it just does it. This is wisdom in action, this is mastery. It can whip its tail, and thunder and rain wash away structures that hold people back. It can appear and disappear at will. It returns from the far reaches to the Earth - it can be underground in one moment, and flying through the sky in the next. Dragon’s purpose is secret, in the sense that it is hard to explain, beyond the words that so many wisdom traditions speak - to manifest love and kindness through strength and mastery. Now we are in our secret world and our true purpose is what Dragon manifests.
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