The Dragon

In stories about dragons, there is often the idea about the dragon’s horde of wealth, often the dragon sleeps upon the gold and jewels within its lair. Why does a dragon need these things? What good are gold and diamonds to a dragon? They are part of the lure. The treasure wealth the dragon possesses isn’t its own, but the accumulation of that which its victims valued most. The true wealth the dragon does possess is its knowledge which it does not give away. That is the key to the dragon’s success. The knowledge it holds, if it were to share it, would not serve the dragon but rather be its end.

How did this come about? The dragon is a clever being, it knows the minds and weakness of men, so with this knowledge, and to fill its own belly, it at first went out and caused destruction upon the areas to wreak fear upon the masses, and also to get food for its sustenance. It knew that men value their gold and jewelry very highly, so it took these things once it had consumed its prey. It began to horde all these treasures within its lair. You might ask why? Because it got very powerful and at the same time sort of lazy in that it didn’t want to have to go out and find its next meal, rather it wanted its next meal to come to it, so it would occasionally go out into the countryside and cause a ruckus to not only make the people fear it, but also so that they would want to be rid of it as well. And to that end, these people would find amongst themselves or others, people who would go slay the dragon with the hopes of being rewarded with the dragon’s treasure horde. Because so many men found the allure of this treasure so powerful, they would seek out the dragon in its lair in the hopes that they could slay it and thereby have their reward.

The problem is though, no one really knew how to slay the dragon, so each one who tried ended up being the little meal for the dragon. Many sought to slay the dragon, but none ever returned to tell the tale of their demise.

Maybe another idea that you may relate to more easily is that of a spider and it’s web. It spends a lot of time weaving its web, then once it has completed this process, patiently sits in the middle of the web, awaiting its next meal. In the same way, the dragon, takes the riches of its victims and displays that to lure others into its web.

The dragon is huge, powerful and dangerous. The dragon seems to have something that you need, but in order to get it, you must be consumed by it. What does the dragon have that would make a man ignore the dragon’s power and the danger in order to approach it? What makes the dragon so powerful and so dangerous? The men who do approach think themselves to be more powerful than the dragon, at least powerful enough to defeat it. In other words, they over estimate their own powerfulness and under estimate how powerful the dragon is. And this is their demise. In answer to the question about what makes the dragon so powerful and therefore so dangerous? The answer is simple and one word: Knowledge. The knowledge the dragon holds is its power. The unrestrained wielding of this power makes it dangerous. The danger is to those who are subjugated by the unrestrained wielding of this power. And it is dangerous because it wields this power for its own benefit. In other words, the application of this knowledge for selfish ends is the danger while the selfless application of this knowledge is a boon to all mankind.

So, once you are consumed by the dragon, do you really get want you wanted or needed? No, what you thought the dragon had that you needed has always been within you. The dragon knows this. It also knows you don’t know you have it already, so it used that ignorance to lure you in and consume you.

What then is this knowledge that is so powerful that it can corrupt those who hold it? They say that absolute power corrupts and that is true from the ego centric perspective, but it is not true from the all inclusive perspective.

What is the knowledge I already hold within myself? It is the mystery; it is the knowledge that enables you to play this game. Knowing this is like knowing how a magician does his card tricks. Before you know how he does his tricks, they are amazing and puzzling, but once you know how the tricks are done, the mystery which made the trick amazing and puzzling vanishes and is replaced by the knowledge of how he does the tricks. To the one now holds this knowledge, there is no amazing or puzzling element to the trick. That is why the magician keeps how he does his tricks secret, so that his audience can continue to be puzzled and amazed. So, if everyone knew how to do the tricks, everyone would see there is no “magic” to it, there would no longer be a puzzle to solve and the mystery would be gone never to be held again. Because once you know how the trick is done, you can never undo that knowing. So, do you really want to know? The price you pay is the loss of wonder and amazement, the loss of the mystery. Consider what your life will be like without the wonder and mystery. Consider the life where there are no puzzles to be solved because you already know how they are done and therefore how to solve them.

Having this knowledge is like seeing a movie for the second or third or hundredth time. You know very well what is going to happen next, you know how the movie is going to end.

Do you really want that kind of knowledge about yourself, about your life, about your being?

If you want the knowledge, you must face the dragon and be consumed by it.

Find the dragon within yourself.