This morning at the dog park I was reminded of something I read in a Book entitled, Dream Yoga, by Andrew Holecek.  There is a teaching in Tibetan Buddhism called lions gaze.  The teaching is that if you throw a stick out and away from a dog, the dog will chase after the stick, but if you throw a stick out and away from a lion, the lion will chase you. The lions gaze is set upon the thrower, not the thrown.  Most of us have the gaze of a dog, forever chasing the sticks thrown out by our minds.  We're constantly running after the thoughts and emotions that are endlessly tossed up from within. Tibetan Buddhism teaches that the mind turned out is dreaming.  The mind turned in is awakened. In order to find the essence of things as they are, we have to look within.  Just as the lion is fearless in the jungle, it takes a fearless gaze to look deeply within the jungle of our own mind.  It takes courage to look into the dark, and even more guts to step into it.  If we know that at the other end of the darkness of our unconscious mind is eternal light, we will go fearlessly into that good night because we realize we're heading toward dawn.