Reflections on Awakening, part 3: The Cat and the Parrot

Since reading A New Earth i see our two pets with different eyes. Our cat was born into our family, the parrot was rescued by my wife from a cruel fate with his former owner. Both now share our home and lives, and as non-thinking animals both totally control the present moment, of course. In their quiet (well, mostly quiet) sitting, climbing, moving about they are like flashing signposts reminding me of true being. They express a kind of complete, coherent intelligence unspoilt by thinking and judging. When we silently observe each other, there's something eerie in the air, something ungraspable, a thread of understanding from beneath the waveforms we are, deep down in the Father and Mother Ocean from where all forms emanate. I must and shall use their strength more often, for i now believe they are not just pets ... they are guides.

(Illustration: 'Gaia' by Daroy Lin)