Have you heard the story about the vegetarian tiger?

As the tale goes there was an orphan tiger cub was taken in by a herd of goats, which watched over the small animal and raised it as their own. Growing older the tiger resembled a goat more and more. He ate grass, he butted heads with other young goats, he hopped up and down, he stamped his foot when he was mad, etc One day a passing tiger noticed the out of place guest. This was no goat. Surely, reasoned the passer by, this was a truly cunning predator who must have infiltrated the herd. Though, he couldnt exactly rationalize why this tiger had let himself starve for so long, or become so imatiated. He tried to catch the attention of him, only to send the would be goat into a frenzy of terror. Imagine, a tiger here-he thought. As he ran away the other tiger caught up with him. Quickly he assessed the situation, learning the truth. And pronounced, You ARE a tiger! With some effort, the tiger raised as a goat understood, and agreed to leave the other lower beasts. Now, said his mentor, The last thing you must do to be a tiger is catch and kill an animalthen eat it. That is what a tiger does. This came as quite a shock to the poor tiger who had been conditioned to be a vegetarian. It seemed barbaric, senseless, and uncivilized. His concepts of who he was, and his place in the world, didnt match the roaring stranger in front of him. So strong was his, false programming, that he couldnt bring himself to do what he had been born. He wandered back to live among the goats. And there he starved. And there he died. Most of societyeducation, religious institutions, politics, therapy exists to affirm and to teach us how to be goats. We are kept in place, and taught all sorts of concepts which feel fuzzy and foreign to us, but that we accept because we know little different.

The role of the mystic, the prophetthe one who reaches out of what can be seen and touched and heard and handled into that which lies beyondis to awaken the Tiger in us. To show us our tiger face.