Consuming My Lion

Consuming My Lion

The non-expression of negative emotions is one of the pillars of the Fourth Way and a discipline that is perplexing to our modern “express yourself” culture. Nearly every esoteric tradition recognizes, however, the pitfalls of expressing negative emotions. It is not new, but it is hard to do.

The ancient Greek poet, Sappho, said, “When anger is flooding through your chest best to quiet your reckless barking tongue.” These raw feelings represent many of my most mechanical behaviors and are often associated with the so-called animal side of man. The Gnostic Gospel of Thomas asserts that “Blessed is the man who consumes his lion, and cursed is the man who is consumed by his lion.”

In the Fourth Way tradition, Peter Ouspensky was unequivocal on the necessity of avoiding negative expressions for achieving real work, yet he also acknowledged that such primary mechanical tendencies, like struggling to curb a bad temper or self-pity, are the raw materials from which I would reveal Higher Centers. Ouspensky even says that if we did not have negative emotions, we would have to invent something else from which to transform ourselves into Presence. What he meant is I must consume my lion.

I must resist these negative expressions and transform them into a finer substance, much like an oyster turns an impurity into a pearl. That is the ironic twist of man’s condition. My very own mechanical manifestations contain the ingredients for attaining the Higher Self.

But how do I do that? It starts with observation. My observing part must see and familiarize itself with my favorite negative emotions. Repeated and intense observations lead to the realization of the causes of these negative feelings and expressions. Oftentimes such personal observations reveal parts of my being that are needlessly attached or identified with an imaginary idea of who I am. In other instances, I can see that I place exaggerated meaning on the value of some object, activity, or human relationship.

We learn to not express negative emotions through the Work: by observing, understanding, and resisting the outward expression of these programmed and mechanical tendencies based on identification or attachment. I strive to depersonalize my daily frictions and petty annoyances and rise above them through effort.

It is not easy, as I said above, but once the Observer is fed by sustained effort, progress comes. I learn to control “the reckless barking tongue” and to “consume the lion” and thereby find a deeper sense of who I am, freeing myself from one of our greatest mechanical responses.

The three pillars of awakening are self-remembering, divided attention, and the non-expression of negative emotions. − The Teacher

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Samson Wrestling with the Lion, Illuminated Manuscript