Spirituality and Virtues - Story Time: Waiting for a Lion: Thinking About It

In this video, Swamini Supriyananda recounts a tale about patience. Patience is an amazing virtue. When you tell a one year old to wait, they comprehend it as “no”. But have we really grown up, though? Do we correctly understand it? Because “wait” means “until we have put in enough effort, until the time is right, or until the other person is ready”. Wait DOES NOT mean no.
Story Time: In Ethiopia, a widowed young man and woman fell in love. But the man had a son from his first marriage, who was very hostile towards the mother-to-be. He would get extremely angry, which made it hard for the father to accept the relationship.
She went to the village sorcerer for advice on how to make the son love her and accept her love for him. The sorcerer replied, “Bring me three whiskers of a lion.”
So the woman went off, quite speechless by the absurd request, but determined enough to want to arrange the “whiskers of a lion”. The first step was finding a lion, which took a few months. When she found them, she watched the pack of lions from a distance for around a week or two. Simultaneously, she wondered how she would get close to them for they are scary creatures that could devour her in a moment. Finally, she got the idea of getting close to them by feeding them.
So the next day, she brought to the pack, some fresh meat. She walked out of her usual spot and left the meat so that the pack could see that she was leaving it for them, before running back and hiding behind some rocks and trees. The lions came, ate the meat, and left. She continued doing this, first waiting for a few days before feeding the lions once more. Every time she came back to feed the pack, she would move closer to them.
After a few months, she had won the trust of the pack and they knew that she meant them no harm for she only brought them food. One day, when they had fallen asleep after eating their food, she went close enough to pick out three whiskers of a lion.
However, she did not have to go back to the sorcerer. She knew what she had to do. She went back to the young man and his son, and respected the son’s moods, territory, space and boundaries. She went only as close as he was comfortable enough to let her. She waited, and when the son was ready, she would give, while he would receive.

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