Devouring the lion

On taming our tongue

Photo by Ivan Diaz on Unsplash

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. – The Gospel of Matthew 5:5

Jesus said, "Blessed is the lion that the human being will devour so that the lion becomes human. And cursed is the human being that the lion devours; and the lion will become human." – The Gospel of Thomas, Saying 7

As we emerge from the most recent national election in the United States, the thing that I notice is the coarseness, vulgarity, and brutality marking our common life.  Political violence is on the rise; political discourse is debased.  The bludgeoning of Paul Pelosi with a hammer intended for his spouse, Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, is a sign of how far we have fallen.  Equally disturbing are the incidences of voter intimidation, with some states refusing to call in law enforcement to protect citizens in their exercise of the franchise.  The ties that bind us are unraveling. 

Another sign of how far we have fallen is the response of former president Donald Trump to the tragedy that befell the Pelosi family.  He initially described it as a terrible thing.  But in a speech in Ohio on Monday, the former president referred to Speaker Pelosi as an animal, equating her with violent gang members, who, in his view, are also animals.  Such dehumanizing rhetoric is now a staple of political discourse.  It doesn’t even shock us. 

The temptation is to turn such rhetoric against its source: to decry Donald Trump as an animal. That may serve as a temporary catharsis, but it is neither true nor helpful.  Nancy Pelosi is human.  Donald Trump is human.  MS-13 gang members are also human.  We must resist the urge to go low when others go low.  To speak of people as less than human is the first step toward rendering them invisible, superfluous or, worse, disposable. 

Language reflects and creates reality.  Recognizing the powerful consequences of language, especially the public speech of authority figures, all the great wisdom traditions teach the importance of what our Buddhist siblings refer to as “right speech.”  In Christian scripture, this is forcefully expressed in the Letter of James:

Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is mature, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. Or look at ships: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.

How great a forest is set ablaze by a such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of life, and is itself set on fire by hell. For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse people, made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth comes a blessing and a curse. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so.  – James 3:2b-10

Violent and dehumanizing rhetoric activates the fear centers in our brains and initiates a defensive posture of flight, fight or freeze.  We are neurologically wired to perceive reality through the binary lens of subject and object.  When we perceive someone as a threat, we readily demonize them as an enemy other.  It is precisely this default reaction that Jesus seeks to circumvent in his teaching and practice.  Do we amplify the energy of the passions in a negative direction, or do we find a way to metabolize and redirect them positively?  The metaphor of “taming” the tongue in The Letter of James reflects Jesus’ teaching about taming our passions.

The above quote from the Gospel of Thomas is instructive.  The “lion” refers to our passions, our emotional energy.  Blessed is the human being who “eats the lion,” who metabolizes the passions and harnesses their energy to sustain life.  Cursed is the human being devoured by the lion, who is consumed by her or his passions.  They don’t cease to be human, but they are enslaved by their negative energy and wreak chaos and destruction.  Such people deserve our pity.   But they also must be contained. 

This is echoed in the more familiar saying of Jesus from Matthew’s Gospel:  “Blessed are the meek.”  A better translation would be “Blessed are the gentle” or, even better, “Blessed are the gentled.”  What Jesus has in view here is the “gentling” or modulating of our passions, our emotional energy.   The human needs to be in control of the lion.

Notice that the teaching is not to expel or repress the “lion,” the “animal” passions, but to metabolize them.  We need both the information and the energy that are carried by our emotions.  The key is to balance them within a larger vision of the whole.  We have to upgrade our operating system to perceive reality holistically, to expand our field of consciousness beyond the “us vs. them” binary.  Only those who practice self-discipline and have mastered their emotions can learn how live in harmony with creation. 

In Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s classic children’s book, The Little Prince, the metaphor shifts from that of a lion to a fox.  The Little Prince encounters a fox – the projection of his inner animal energy.  He wants to play with the fox, but the fox replies that he cannot because he has not been tamed. 

“What does that mean – tame?” asks the Little Prince.  “It means to establish ties,” the fox replies.  The fox goes on to explain that this process of “taming” shifts our perception of reality and makes friendship possible:  “One only understands the things that one tames  . . .    If you want a friend, tame me . . .”

“What must I do to tame you?” asked the Little Prince. 

“You must be very patient,” replied the fox.  "First you will sit down at a little distance from me-- like that-- in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day..."

We tame our passions by establishing a relationship with them through patient attention.  This is part of the work of contemplative practice: to simply notice the arising of emotional energy without having to do anything with it.  Slowly, patiently, we come to understand our emotions and learn how to befriend them. 

As the emotional field of our inner life settles down, it cleanses the lens of perception and our way of viewing the people and situations changes.  We upgrade the binary operating system to a holistic vision.  As the fox says, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”  When we see with the heart, we are able to align our emotional energies with true conscious awareness.  This is how we become spiritually mature, responsible human beings. 

“Men have forgotten this truth,” said the fox.  “But you must not forget it.  You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.” 

We are responsible for our emotional energy and how it is expressed.  When we have mastered our passions, we are ready to inherit the earth – and our responsibility for the flourishing of life.  When we have made peace with the tensions of our inner life, we can begin to establish ties with others.  We can love our enemies, refusing to demonize them even if we cannot befriend them. 

Practicing right speech is a good place to begin.