The camel, the lion and the dragon

There is a myth, told in Eastern worlds, of the camel, the lion and the dragon. That each of us go through these phases of development.

We start out as camels, evolve to become lions and then must slay our dragons.

The camel is born and asks to be made strong, so there are many bags placed on his back, the bags are burdens; the rules of living. Each bag says 'thou shalt'.

The more the burdens the stronger the lions we become. The lion is born out of the camel when the camel has had one too many burden placed on his back and his back is broken, out of the ashes of the camel a lion emerges. The lion bolts throwing off all burdens.

The lion runs into the woods to be confronted by the dragon. The lion must slay the dragon, and on each of the scales on the dragons skin is written 'thou shalt'. Each of the rules of living the camel had placed on his back.

When the lion has slayed the dragon, he becomes a child. The child has now accepted the rules of living and thrown off the the inner demons that constrict. The child represents new beginnings, inner wisdom and resources.

This is how life works in any area. We learn the rules of selling, or music, or art, and then we must throw off these rules to become the artist, or the expert in our field, the master of our fate.

We all need to be tamed, like the camel, and learn the rules of living in society. But then we must go through the stage of throwing off the rules and become a full person, not being driven by the conformity of society.