The Four Dignities
Tiger, Snow Lion, Garuda and Dragon — learning to walk, to run and jump, to fly, and to teleport. These are the four dignities, the ways I've learned to travel my inner world, and this walk gathers my teachings, stories and practices on each, from the cave of overwhelm to the effortless wisdom of Dragon. Begin with the big picture of how we travel at all.
Big Picture
Before we fly, or teleport, we learn to walk. Tiger is the first way through the inner world — for the days when everything is too much and one paw down is all there is. Let's learn to walk.
Path of Tiger
Here's the lived account behind Tiger — flattened in bed, waiting for the next episode to auto-play. Come all the way into it, and feel how one paw down, and then a swim in a lake, shifts everything for a while.
When You're Overwhelmed - Part 1: Walking The Path of Tiger
Touch down into the power and resilience flowing through you, however faint it feels today. This practice has carried me through so many difficult times — let it carry you one step.
Tiger: Energy of Contentedness
Once the steps come a little easier and you start to notice the sunlight and the birds, the question changes — from how do I survive to how do I bring joy back. That's Snow Lion. Let's leap.
Once Tiger has you on your feet, Snow Lion asks you to dance. Here's the fuller telling — discipline invited like sun and rain, and five steps through the fog of overwhelm to joy.
When You're Overwhelmed - Part 2: Dancing the Path of Snow Lion
Discipline invited like sun and rain on a field — come feel it in your body. Below whatever stories are running, there's an innate cheerfulness, a delight to be alive. Let's find your Snow Lion.
You've already felt something like it in the ocean: turn toward the big wave and dive right into it — and you may begin to feel a little fearless. Garuda flies straight at what you've been avoiding — not to destroy it, to meet it. Let's fly.
Garuda has no chains and no cage. Come practice the flight — not pretending there's no fear, but choosing to go beyond it, beyond all your reasons to stay smaller, farther into space.
Coming out is one of Garuda's outrageous acts. Here it is in my own life: years under 'WHAT IF THEY FIND OUT', a terrified tram ride to the Castro, and then, within three weeks, telling everyone. Come skip down Grafton Street with me, arms full of flowers.
Coming Out and Coming Alive: From Terror to Joy on Grafton Street
Coming out on Grafton Street loosened the noose of 'WHAT IF THEY FIND OUT.' More than twenty years on, that same fear roared up in a steam room, as strong as ever — and this time I could thank it and let it pass through me. Come see what it's like when shame no longer has a home in you.
Tonight I am man
That night I knew myself a full-grown dragon — fear flowing through me, not living in me. Let's take it up a notch and see what Dragon is: the warrior who doesn't fight darkness, but radiates light, and the darkness recedes.
Dragon isn't something you figure out — it's the wisdom you are. Come feel it writhing in your body and moving with the seasons — summer lightning, winter sleep, spring rebirth — with nothing to hide and nothing to prove.
Dragon isn't a final destination — the path continues endlessly. Step back and see the whole map: drowning, treading water, swimming, flying, radiating, with Tiger, Snow Lion, Garuda and Dragon meeting you along the way. You can be flying in one part of your life and drowning in another — find where you are, and the practice that meets you there.
Five Stages of Awakening