LEARNING FROM ANIMALS & OTHER LIVING THINGS

Dansk

On my recent new path to spirituality it struck me how much we can all learn from the animals, birds and plants that surround us. Our puppy is now 8 months old and has brought immense joy into the house for everyone (that's her on my lap in the photograph). Rosie, the puppy, takes us as we are and returns her love tenfold. She seeks not to please any Creator, but just to get on with life - the same of all the birds that visit my garden and the flowers that stretch their necks up to face the sun.

Obviously, we pride ourselves on our intelligence - the highest in the animal kingdom - and yet we (many of us) fear death, the future, war, famine, disease, etc. Instead of living many are just existing. Not so the animals and plants. They have so much to teach us. They live for TODAY and face tomorrow just as happily.

Have we humans become too cognitive for our own good? Are we focussing too much (without necessarily realising it) on the ego-I ?

My dog wakes, she's delighted to see us each morning, she plays, she eats, she sleeps. She thoroughly enjoys life. Do we, as humans, blight our lives with too many thoughts? I believe we do!

I'm not saying one shouldn't believe in a Creator - far from it! - just that even though many here put their faith in a Creator they still worry about things that may never happen, including a cessation of literally everything at death (connected to the ego-I).

Guess I'm in a philosophical mood this morning - but I'm sure many of you will understand what I'm getting at.

Love,

Ian

Simon

I remember an illustration:

An ameoba cannot understand anything, even what it experiences. You stomp on it and it dies, that's it's existence.

A more complex lifeform like a deer can experience fear from being hunted or form a fire but would otherwise be happy / content as long as it had food etc...

We take things one step further. We can have everything we need to be happy and content - food, clothing, shelter etc... but we can imagine threats and play "what if" in our minds, making ourselves miserable.

The trick is to keep the "what if's" positive.

talesin

You are so right. People do 'think' too much, myself included.

My ex once said to me "It doesn't take much to make you happy, does it?"

One of the nicest compliments I've ever gotten.

talesin

acsot

You're absolutely right Dansk. I've read The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, and the Tao of Pooh. What you posted is very similar to the messages in those two books. We need to get out of our minds and just live in the moment.

Easier said than done!

(I've checked on-line for the two books you recommended and the Buddha's Way is available second-hand (good condition), so I will be ordering it. Thanks.

got my forty homey?

I'm a wake up tommorow thinking "what if" I was the Cousin Marylyn from my Munster family. I didn't do anything wrong getting df'd and following a life of David Crosby, my family are the wrong ones for not be brave enough to do what I did!

mouthy

Funny you should write about this. I was looking out my window watching the squirrels,birds rabbits,run around,-then one squirrel picked up some of the bread I had thrown out-the rest of them all chased him for it!!( even though there was still some left on the ground) They chased him /her up the tree he/she had to jump from tree to tree,.the rest running after him.

I thought to my self-They are no differant than us really,we sometimes want what others have....

The poor birds would go near the bread & the rabbits & squirrels rushed them away---Then I thought about the ants, so small> they dont give a darn about anyone- they will even walk all over the bread while the other animals are eating it...No wonder the Bible say they are a mighty army. Sorry guess I am just "thinking" this A.M. Your thread made me "think "more. LOL

I know an unusual thing for me.....

patio34

Thanks Dansk for that positive message.

I've read a few books on Buddhist philosophy and am now reading Deepak Chopra. One thing they all have in common was focusing on the present (mindfulness).

A really good metaphor (analogy?) that I read from Deepak yesterday was that to be long-lived one trait, besides the usual of not smoking, eating right, etc., is flexibility (mentally). He likened it to good digestion (mental). You have experiences, assimilate what's good about it into you, and then eliminate the waste and toxic stuff. He said it's the people who "attach" to having things the same or the way they want instead of letting life happen, that are inflexible and age more rapidly.

Pat

P.S. Sorry this is off-topic, but I think of it as more of a philsosphical thread. But yours is about animals and mine turned into eastern philosophy. Notice it was edited for off-topic, haha.

Undecided

I have my back yard fenced so my dogs can run around without being tied. This morning a cat was in the fence and they had a great time chasing it around until it found a way out.

I wonder what lesson I could learn from that? Chasing pussys is just part of nature?

Ken P.

Carmel

That reminds me of the story in Philosophy 101 about the cow having more wisdom than the materialistic man. Can't remember the details. Have to do some searching......

carm

Carmel

It is no proof of intelligence to reject everything which does not strike the senses. Nay, rather, such a one is brother to the animal. The cow has no idea of God; she does not know the 95 soul. So the only difference between her highness the cow and a materialistic philosopher is that the latter takes a great deal of trouble! It is not a special or exclusive privilege to be the prisoner of one's senses; the cow is the example of this theory.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Divine Philosophy, p. 94)

carmel

not what I was looking for but similar

LEARNING FROM ANIMALS & OTHER LIVING THINGS

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