You will notice that we use metaphors to describe many concepts in the mind. So in this article we will use the tiger as a metaphor for the Ego.

We use metaphors because they are a quick and direct way of involving the Ego whilst also cleverly involving the Intellect too. The Ego deals in images and impressions, and we all understand the tiger as a wild animal. The idea of taming the tiger is immediately understood as a difficult but intriguing concept. We recognise that we have a wild side within us. It is at sometimes fierce, and other times defeated, hungry, asleep, or calm like a pussy cat.

You will have heard affirmations in cheap pop psychology about 'being like a tiger' and so on. This chapter is not about that. That stuff is merely motivational hype, to try to override inner feelings of anxiety or fear. There are multiple problems with simply 'affirming' you are like some kind of superhero or force of nature:

• It only works temporarily
• It is subject to rapid decay
• It is unpredictable in its effectiveness
• It is somewhat destabilising: unleashing an over-hyped ego into any situation is bound to stir up blunt physiological reactions, including adrenaline.
• It can be overkill, causing you to be come over-confident, cavalier and careless.

Here is something much more helpful, not to mention accurate in scientific terms:

Think of yourself as a tiger keeper.

Now imagine your job is to keep your tiger calm and under control. Taming it therefore will be in two parts:

• Forming a bond with it so that you win its favour and obedience in a long term kind of relationship
• Calming it at moments when it is nonetheless roused or fierce. It is, after all, always going to be a wild animal.

So we're talking about long-and short-term ways to handle the ego. Taming the tiger requires a long game and a short game. This module is mostly about the long game.

Long term ways to tame the tiger

Supposing you were handed a baby tiger and you knew nothing about looking after it. You have to raise this tiger up to be docile yet still impressive and strong, able to do 'tigerly' things such as hunt, roar, impress and delight onlookers and so on.

Now write down in your notebook how you would go about it. Write down steps. Go on, do it completely off the cuff.

Think about what you would need to learn, what kind of hazards you might face, and so on.

See how far you get just on your own steam. Then, if you're stuck for ideas, try the following.

Ask an AI program to see what clues you might get.

Copy this prompt and paste it into an AI engine such as ChatGPT. ( https://chat.openai.com/chat )

'I have been tasked with looking after a baby tiger on behalf of a royal family. I have to raise it to be docile and controllable yet still impressive and wild on command. How would I go about this over the next few years?'

Once you have done your own list, post it up on the Reddit or Whatsapp group and see what other people have written.

Next, take these learnings and draw a parallel with your own Ego. This is astonishingly easy to do. It is a reminder of how much we are indeed blessed with similar instincts and emotions as other sentient creatures.

You will find that there are at least three strands of practice here:

1. Understanding it
2. Satisfying it
3. Training it

What other strands have you thought about or discovered?

Here, we have taken one set of answers on how to raise a tiger, and related them to how one learns to tame one's own Ego. This is an essential part of becoming more polished as a person.

In the next part, we will add to this idea of polishing the self, with more detail and explicit instructions.