nowhere for the tiger to land its claws

Jesus said: Blessed is one who knows where (or when) bandits are going to attack, so that he can prepare, assemble his forces, and arm himself before the bandits enter. Saying 103, The Gospel of Thomas

Spiritual intelligence is essential for spiritual transformation and is a radiant and deep awareness that creates a coherent interflow amongst our other realms of intelligence (kinesthetic, musical, logico-mathematical, linguistic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, visual-spatial). "Blessed is one who knows," who has spiritual intelligence.

The Buddha has identified the bandits as three forces we use against ourselves: greed (wanting what we do not have), hostility (not wanting what we do have), and stupor (a self-induced state of ignore-ance). Jesus says we are blessed when we know where and when these bandits are going to attack. They will attack (we will attack ourselves with them) when and where we are most vulnerable: when we are fatigued, when we are down-hearted, when we are out of step with our spiritual path.

These are the times when we must counter our spiritual inertia and prepare for battle. The bandits are already at our door. It doesn't take much spiritual energy to defeat them. They can be blown away with a single breath.

As the Old Dude says in the Tao Te Ching, when we are in tune with our spiritual awareness, when we are spiritually intelligent: "There is nowhere for the rhinoceros to pitch its horn; there is nowhere for the tiger to land its claws; there is nowhere for the weapon to lodge its blade. Why is this so? Because there are no fatal spots on us."