The metaphor is simple and only takes a minute present.

I hold up a pen and imagining it’s a bone. If I’m standing in front of a dog
and I wave the bone in the dog’s face side to side, and then toss the bone
a few yards away, what will the dog do?

“Chase the bone,”

But what if I’m standing in front of a lion. And I wave the bone in the lion’s
face from side to side, and toss it a few yards away. What will the lion do?
“Eat you!”

The fact is that the lion may eat me. The lion could eat met. But there’s a
fundamental difference between the mind of the dog and that of the lion.
The dog has tunnel vision and can’t see beyond the bone. It becomes
simple: If I control the bone, I control the dog’s reality.

Of course, it’s fundamentally different with the lion. The lion sits upright as I
wave the bone, eyes looking beyond the bone and directly at me. The lion
can go after the bone, can sit there and stare at me, can eat me.

The “bone” is what gets related to our experience. When anger arises,
stress comes. what type of mind, the dog or the lion mind, do we employ?
When we’re extremely anxious, are we chasing the bones of worrying
thoughts, or sitting with autonomy? Sometimes we can get caught up in the
bones of our own stories, thoughts, images, sensations, and emotions.

By remembering the image of the lion sitting there and being present and
non-reactive, we remind ourselves of the state of mind we’re trying to
cultivate with mindfulness. Not necessarily relaxed, but present, with a non-
reactive and non-judging attitude. That’s what awards us with the true
power of mindfulness. To face whatever “bones” get thrown our way.