Saturday, December 02, 2006

Two Wolves

One evening an old Cherokee Indian told his grandson about a battle that was going on inside him. He said, "My son, it is between 2 wolves." "One is evil: Anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego... The other is good: Joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith..." The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf wins?" The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one I feed."

- Received in an email some time ago:

6 Comments:

Blogger Jack Steiner said...

"The one I feed"

I like that.

December 3, 2006 at 1:49 AM  
Blogger rabbi neil fleischmann said...

Yep. I like this too. Thanks Jack. We don't even realize how we feed into our own moods and levels.

I just read a story in which a young Chasid asks a Rebbe how he could avoid being chased by his yetzer hara, and he Rebbe told him that at his stage the young man was chasing his yetzer hara and not the other way around.

December 3, 2006 at 12:19 PM  
Blogger Maven said...

i liked this post too. what an great way to describe our ongoing yetzer tov/yetzer hara battles.

December 4, 2006 at 10:40 AM  
Blogger Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) said...

i wonder if it's actually a Cherokee story or not

December 7, 2006 at 12:43 PM  
Blogger KRISTIN said...

very good story, ty

December 8, 2006 at 4:36 AM  
Blogger rabbi neil fleischmann said...

maven, steg, kristen - i like the story too and think it's apt, don't know if its cherokee for real

December 8, 2006 at 10:48 AM  

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