Sitemap

Member-only story

A Meditation Teacher Explains How to Find Peace In 16 Words

Thich Nhat Hanh does it again

4 min readMay 17, 2025
Image of Thich Nhat Hanh from wikicommons.media.org

Many spiritual leaders often say that there are two choices in life:

Do you choose love or do you choose fear?

This is echoed in a Native American story I adore.

An old Cherokee Indian chief was teaching his grandson about life.

He said, “A fight is going on inside me, a fight between two wolves.

The Dark one is evil — he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The Light Wolf is good — he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.

The same fight is going on inside you grandson… and inside of every other person on the face of this earth.

The grandson ponders this for a moment and then asks, “Grandfather, which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee smiled and simply said, “The one you feed.”

One of the reasons why I love this so much is that it creates a visual to an abstract teaching. It brings imagination into play. And it makes it relatable.

--

--

Responses (2)