The Hunter, The Forest, The Nagual and You

What does it mean when they say "look inside you to find the way to success?"

There was once a hunter called Juan who came from a little tribe, deep in the great Amazon forest, a tribe that was famous for its hunting skills. In his village, there were about twenty hunters just like Juan.

At some point in his life, Juan was finding it difficult to find game. He would go into the forest at dawn and return at dusk with nothing. This went on for about a month. He would try all sorts of different tricks with each new day, hoping that this new effort would bring him a trophy, finally. But nothing worked. So one day, he sat by the river and pondered what he could do to change his fortune. He decided to go see the nagual, the spiritual leader of the tribe.

He said to him, "Great Seer, everyday for a month I have gone to the forest and found nothing to hunt, returning empty handed. I see my fellow hunters returning with game, yet I return with nothing. At first I thought there was a shortage of animals, but I soon realized that in the great Amazon, there can be no shortage of animals. We live in abundance, we are surrounded by abundance. Besides, everyone else seems to be successful on most of their hunts."

"Then I thought that it must be my hunting technique, that I was applying the wrong one. I tried everything our tribe uses, but with no success. Now I am at an end and I don't know what to do. Can you help me?"

The Nagual said, "It is obvious, if only you were to accept full responsibility for your results. Accept full responsibility, and it will become clear to you. At first you blamed the forest, but then you realized that the forest was full of animals and all the other hunters were successful in most of their hunts. Next you blamed the technique. But when you tested everything that is known to us, nothing worked for you, even though they were working for others. Now, take full responsibility and see where you have not yet looked."

Juan thought about it for a moment and said, "Ah, I see now. It is I. Something in me is causing the animals to run away from me, or me to walk only where they are not presently available."

The nagual looked at him, smiled and waved him off. Juan went back home and searched himself. He looked for everything inside him that was not in harmony with the results he wanted. He examined his thoughts and emotions and found many that were just not supportive of his goal. When he resolved them, he found that he too would find success on most of his hunting trips. In fact, as long as he woke up, got out of bed and went into the forest, applied any proven hunting technique, he would effortlessly find game and catch it most of the time. When his inner world was in harmony with his goal, all he had to do, then, was show up and apply a technique. Life was sweet again.