Hello there.
Thank you so much for joining me for this reading of another classic old parable.
This one is The Ass in the Lion's Skin.
This is another one of the traditional Aesop's fables and it has themes around masking.
Performing,
Pretending to be somebody who we're not.
Perhaps in the interest of appearing more important or powerful or impressive than perhaps we really feel,
And what a fragile business that can be.
As sooner or later the truth usually does emerge.
So before we get into the story here,
Let's just take a moment to have a nice deep exhale.
Letting go of the day.
Letting go of whichever baggage you might be bringing along with us into this moment.
For right now.
There's nowhere else we have to go.
Nothing else we have to be doing.
So we can just relax.
Get ourselves comfortable.
And enjoy.
Another old fable.
The ass in the lion's skin.
Once upon a time,
A donkey came across a lion's skin that had been left behind by a hunter.
He stood looking at it for a moment.
Admiring its magnificent main.
Powerful appearance.
An idea came to him.
What if he were to put on the lion's skin?
Surely,
He thought,
All the other animals would mistake him for the king of beasts.
They would tremble at the sight of him.
And he would no longer have to put up with being treated as an ordinary donkey.
He slipped into the lion's skin.
And set up.
To explore the countryside.
The effect.
Was remarkable.
The first animals he encountered.
Took one look at him.
And fled.
A rabbit darted into a burrow.
A group of deer bolted into the forest.
Even the smaller creatures scurried away in terror.
The Dumb Kitty.
I'm still lighted.
He strutted along the path,
Holding his head high and savouring the respect.
Beer.
He had never experienced before.
For the first time in his life.
He felt.
Powerful.
He imagined that this must be what it was like to be a lion.
No one dared to laugh at him.
No one treated him as a creature of little importance.
They were all afraid of him.
His confidence grew with every frightened animal he encountered.
Eventually,
He came across a fox.
The fox took one look at the strange figure approaching him and began to retreat.
The donkey,
Overcome with excitement,
Could no longer contain himself.
He opened his mouth and let out a tremendous bray.
It hurts!
It hurts!
The fox stopped in his tracks.
He listened for a moment.
Then turned back towards the donkey.
With a knowing smile.
Well,
My friend.
He said.
If you had kept your mouth shut.
I might have been fooled along with the others,
But no lion ever made a sound like that.
And with that,
The fox went on his way.
Leaving the donkey standing alone in his borrowed skin.
The donkey's disguise had fooled the other animals for a little while.
Yeah.
Underneath the tool.
He was still.
A donkey.
Sometimes we humans can fall into this same kind of trap.
You might imagine life would feel better.
If we could only appear more successful.
More powerful,
More important.
We put on our versions of the lion's skin.
We try to impress people,
Seek admiration or create some image of ourselves we hope others will believe.
For a while we may even convince them.
However,
Living behind a disguise,
A mask.
Can become exhausting.
Having to keep up appearances.
Worrying about being found out.
Depending on others' approval.
To feel good about ourselves.
You truly don't have to pretend to be somebody else.
To deserve respect.
To make ourselves appear bigger and more important than we actually are.
To have value.
Freedom comes.
When we start performing.
And become comfortable with who we actually are.
And there's nothing wrong with being a donkey.
Unless we're spending our lives trying to convince everybody else.
We are a lion.
