In the same cafe but talking with a different friend, I found Gandhi with us at the table again!! He drank orange juice! As we observed in another blog, he was a man who saw the 'connectedness' of all life. For him, every man was important at all times and the same with every animal.
When it came to love and respect, all creation was deserving and he spent his life living this Truth. He was a shining example of a man who was forever seeking to establish a pure open relationship with himself first. Only Truth in thought first would do for Gandhi. He knew that if a man could not trust or respect himself, he would mistreat other humans and animals alike!!
I think he recognised that animals and humans share certain sensitive and beautiful qualities. Gandhi could recognise this because he was entirely open to these qualities in himself. For example, have you noticed that dogs have powerful instincts and 'intuitive' feelings? In that they 'intuit', 'sense' their way through life?
There was a case today on the news about a dog being looked after by an elderly couple. During the night, the dog got up and started to paw at the hand of the sleeping female carer. She thought the dog wanted to go out and opened the door. No, it wasn't that. The dog continued to scrape her hand with his paw until it started to bleed!! The dog wouldn't settle until the woman had gone to her 80 year old husband sleeping in another room, where she found him on the floor having had a stroke!! All is well, I am glad to report owing to the dog's intuitive and psychic abilities.
BUT why didn't the woman wake up and intuit this herself? It seems that in general, these abilities in humans are closed down and suppressed because of fear. Most humans seem to feel much more comfortable in the realm of logic and external authority!
Isn't it interesting then, that dogs and cats have elected or agreed in the scheme of things to live with humans, since in this important aspect of Being they are clearly 'superior' in their development. It is particularly noble of them to take on this role because humans in return are constantly abusing their companions through a total ignorance of their real needs and their insistence on their own convenience regardless!! and I am not referring simply to extreme cases of abuse like Nanette!
You doubt me? Look with eyes a little wider open....Pet food companies creating fast convenience inappropriate 'food' and making a fortune out of a gullible public. Drug companies producing vaccines and sprays known to be toxic and responsible for increasing illnesses in dogs.....all for money!! Thousand upon thousands of unwanted, stray dogs euthanased each week...then in the paper you will read ads ...'Puppies for sale, ready in 6 weeks'!!!
Of course there are also a great number of people out there dedicated to reversing this regrettable situation and thank goodness for it!!! But is it just down to a few dedicated individuals to clear up this mess while the majority continue to either deny the problem exists at all, or know it does but simply wants no involvement???
It isn't going to work like that!! It can only be reversed finally, through the development of those very qualities which in general, we humans suppress through fear, those qualities which reside in the Heart not the Mind. It involves scrupulous honesty with oneself in thought, word and deed!! and why should that have anything to do with our animals? Because they are the most vulnerable (along with our children!)! when it comes to our projections which are the result of denial!! It is their beautiful sensitivity, their 'openness' which enables them both to offer unconditional love and which at the same time, opens them to possible psychic abuse!!
Gandhi's Heart was his Master and his Mind was his Servant and that is why alll his decisions were 'Intuited'...that is to say 'Spiritual' and his actions therefore totally Compassionate and Wise. Can you practise what you preach Jil? .. Let's put it this way....I am just a student but in the words of a very 'wise one' ....'we all teach what we need to learn!!' xx