I believe that the love that we have for our pets is the most pure of any love that we experience.
These days our old girl, Mikki-Lyn has lost her hearing and can’t see very well. The worst is the damn stairs that she has difficulty with. Chris and I will stay on whatever level she is on. We can’t move from one floor to the other without her following . . . So we do our best to accommodate. We take turns leaving the room.
Lately Mikki-Lyn has periodic accidental poops in the house. We accept that this is just a part of aging. We are very cautious to reassure her that she didn’t do anything bad—that we love her. And good grief, we do love her so.
Lots of folks would say that we were attributing human traits to an animal and therefore a bit wacky.
But our reality is our reality. When I look into any of our pets eyes I see their happiness, their trust and their deep and unfailing love. What an amazing gift they so freely give. I look into my own heart . . . what an amazing and limitless love.
My children are safe for me to love with the whole heart—holding nothing back. In our Buddhist practice we strive to open our hearts
And keep the heart open no matter how painful it is. Equanimity here is to allow, without judging, our experience.
Our pets provide a beautiful source for all this to be.
Perhaps there are varying degrees or types of attachment. Some wholesome and some not. I think that of my attachments, the wholesome are of the love variety. I love the Buddha-Dharma and hope that I never lose the attachment. I’m attached hopelessly to animals.
I like the Porsche (model: Boxter) very much and know that suffering is coming. The first scratch and so on. It’s an object that does not open my heart . . . Well, maybe a little while navigating a curvy road.
By the way, a Haiku poem that I like and have used as a mantra:
“Dew drop girl in a dew drop world . . . But this, but this!
The original didn’t say “girl”. I put the girl in there. I was on a long retreat just after my beloved Sadie died.
The poem is meant to point to “emptiness” – dew drop in dew drop world.
The “but this—but this . . .
Points to our heart’s nature to suffer while we are in this world of samsara.
These days our old girl, Mikki-Lyn has lost her hearing and can’t see very well. The worst is the damn stairs that she has difficulty with. Chris and I will stay on whatever level she is on. We can’t move from one floor to the other without her following . . . So we do our best to accommodate. We take turns leaving the room.
Lately Mikki-Lyn has periodic accidental poops in the house. We accept that this is just a part of aging. We are very cautious to reassure her that she didn’t do anything bad—that we love her. And good grief, we do love her so.
Lots of folks would say that we were attributing human traits to an animal and therefore a bit wacky.
But our reality is our reality. When I look into any of our pets eyes I see their happiness, their trust and their deep and unfailing love. What an amazing gift they so freely give. I look into my own heart . . . what an amazing and limitless love.
My children are safe for me to love with the whole heart—holding nothing back. In our Buddhist practice we strive to open our hearts
And keep the heart open no matter how painful it is. Equanimity here is to allow, without judging, our experience.
Our pets provide a beautiful source for all this to be.
Perhaps there are varying degrees or types of attachment. Some wholesome and some not. I think that of my attachments, the wholesome are of the love variety. I love the Buddha-Dharma and hope that I never lose the attachment. I’m attached hopelessly to animals.
I like the Porsche (model: Boxter) very much and know that suffering is coming. The first scratch and so on. It’s an object that does not open my heart . . . Well, maybe a little while navigating a curvy road.
By the way, a Haiku poem that I like and have used as a mantra:
“Dew drop girl in a dew drop world . . . But this, but this!
The original didn’t say “girl”. I put the girl in there. I was on a long retreat just after my beloved Sadie died.
The poem is meant to point to “emptiness” – dew drop in dew drop world.
The “but this—but this . . .
Points to our heart’s nature to suffer while we are in this world of samsara.
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