Fear of certain animals, uncaring attitudes, insensitiveness, lack
of caring, aversion and unfeelingness…
The right use of feelings is to use them to
recognise our connectedness to the world: to a stone, a plant, a tree, an
insect, a reptile, a mammal and a fellow human being. Feelings can be generated
by thoughts, so a stone is a bone of the earth – we adults have 206 bones. A
plant and tree take in our exhalations and create oxygen. Insects do subtle work
at the limit of perception – by seeing what they do, we value the connectedness
of our eco-systems better. Reptiles have their place in the universe, and in our reptilian brains; we can learn
from them too. Mammals generate emotions with no conflict with thought: a wonderful
thing! Humans beings are sometimes very difficult to deal with, because of
wrong thinking and wrong feeling; and therefore ideal objects for our incipient
or growing compassion.
- So we can sit and look at a stone. I think I
will find one and put it on my altar, and spend 5 minutes meditating on its
significance.
- In the last week, a rose bought from a
street-seller to whom charity is due has blossomed out handsomely and has
lasted longer than many others on my altar, and I am wondering why… as my meditation
practise has been very fruitful and strong of late, and I have never had a rose
that has lasted that long and looked so magnificent without even changing the
water.
- I have spared the lives of 4 cockroaches recently
when walking home at night. In my duty as a part-time barman I would have had to
eliminate them if they had been in the wrong place, like hiding behind my bar!
But in the street, I have sidestepped at least one, lest I tread on it. They
will soon be killed by someone else, but not by me.
- I had a dream the other night about my ceiling falling
down (which is actually true, due to a drain problem in the flat above me), and
when it opened up, a greenish-gray lizard fell out and brushed my right thigh,
and I woke up laughing! My real encounter with a baby garden snake produced the
above photo, as someone had run away from the scene and told me about it. I got
close enough for the little creature to “taste” me with its flicking tongue and
realise I was not dangerous.
- Dogs and cats are easy. We stopped in the
street to greet a particularly friendly and well-groomed dog called Kiko the other
day, whose elderly owner said Kiko was much more loving than her own son, poor
thing! But the faithfulness and love of dogs above humans is well known to all…isn’t
it?
- So what do we do with humans when they get
obstreperous? How do we increase empathy without getting upset? We need a daily
programme for this, and it starts with the stone and works its way up the ladder.
It’s easy – most of the time! – to practise “love” on those we already love. So
the challenge is practising compassion on things and people we are somehow adverse to.
That’s the trick.
1) Learn to love a pebble on the beach – take it
out from under your beach towel, without complaining, and try to feel love for
it and cherish it for 10 minutes. You’re cheating if you pick only the most
beautiful pebble!
2) Plant a plant and look at it for 5 minutes a
day, and touch it gently for another 5 minutes.
3) Save a fly or a spider stuck in your window
instead of killing it. Force yourself to look at a cockroach and feel no fear.
4) Watch salamanders, lizards or snakes and
think well of them for 10 minutes.
5) Find a pet you don’t care for very much, or the
farm or zoo animal you wouldn’t normally pay attention to, and watch it for 10 minutes and
try to empathise with it. See how it moves, acts and expresses its emotions,
whatever they are.
6) Choose someone you “don’t like very much”
and try to find some good things about him or her – even if they’re in your own
family! Give something to a stranger in need. Smile at someone who looks sad or
anxious and see what happens.
Start small and enlarge your capacity for
empathy bit by bit. How are we ever supposed to love “God” if we can’t even stand
up to a spider or a mouse? They may have been put there to test us!
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