Observing the Animal World
Observing the animal world and contacting the spirit of those animals can reveal much to the mindful warrior. The bear is the first of the animals that I have spoken with. From the bear I have learned a few things and this is what I learned from her.
In my vision I watched the bear as she ate all that she could find in the way of berries, honey and fish from the stream. This Giantess was filling up for hibernation time when she would have to live off her stored fat.
Then I saw the grizzly go into her cave to sleep through winter's white robe. In my vision I followed the bear and slept at her side. In the spring when she awoke, I followed her into the deep green forest. The bear seemed very intent on rediscovering the forest and noting the changes in her favorite hollow logs. The deep winter sleep had propelled the Grizzly into a new state of awareness.
The grizzly then left me to my thoughts while she went to forage. Only when left to my own devices did the tiny still voice speak to my silent heart and show me the value of her lessons.
In tasting the fruits of all ideas you can expand your outlook, and by retreating to the silence of the sacred space you can digest your ideas. The ideas that do not sustain you can be eliminated while the others will sustain you during the time of looking within.
So the three pathways to understanding how to look within and reach our goals are like the actions of the grizzly in my vision. The first path is to enter the stillness of our sacred space; basically, it is being willing to receive the answers made available to us through the experience of daily life, that is allowing our receptive side to magnetize or receive in the silence.
The second is digesting the answers that come and learning to feel which ones apply, so the second pathway is integrating the information and discerning what our personal truth is. It is only in the second step, which nurtures the answers received, that the third path becomes evident.
It is because the third pathway is structure based on personal truth. If we have a knowing of our digested ideas, we may then formulate a plan to attain our goals, that's the structure. If our goals are based on personal truth and desire, they will be goals we want to nurture because they are our own, not ones that others have expected of us.