Finding Peace of Mind and Joy...or The Zen of Cats

Funny how we accept things as true just because its in the News without knowing for ourselves the truth of the thing. Its not easy to remain objective when all the news media are bombarding us with only one side of the story. True enough though, where there is smoke there is usually fire. But then again, there was a lot of smoke around some of the tallest, brightest figures to walk this earth. The world tends to destroy those that do not bow down to it.

I've been guilty of participating in such mass prejudice, especially in my early life. I am better now at knowing what I don't know...better at withholding judgment until I have all the facts for myself. But I would say that I was fortunate to not know that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh changed his name to Osho. I might never have picked up his books and discovered the remarkable body of work about the meditative life this man left behind. Gem after gem after gem are found in his writings (which are mainly transcriptions of his impressive, extemporaneous talks) But with all the fuss and scandals he generated in the 1980s having influenced me negatively about Rajneesh, I really don't know if I would have picked up a book authored by him. Today there are only books authored by Osho, so I can not say for sure if I would have looked at the Rajneesh name with fresh, unbiased eyes. I can only hope that I would have.

The other day I was watching a video of Eckhart Tolle and Cesar Millan, the dog whisperer, having a conversation. They talked about how dogs by nature live in the moment, and that for the dog there is only unconditional love and forgiveness of its leader. If you forget to let them out, or forget to feed them, or lose your patience and yell at them, they do not hold a grudge but instantly forgive you and move on. They talked about how "well balanced" dogs have eyes that only see in the present moment, completely unaware of the past and lacking any anticipation of the future (except when you ask them if they want to go for a walk. They talked about how much a dog can teach us about love and forgiveness.

Tolle mentioned that he has lived with many Zen Masters, and all of them were cats. One night my wife and I were watching America's Funniest Videos. It showed a segment where cats got themselves into a jam of some kind...sliding off a slippery roof, getting caught in mini-blinds, trying to squeeze through small holes and getting stuck etc, etc. As we watched I told my wife to watch what a cat does, even after a long fall off an icy roof to a hard landing on the ground. It is instantly up on its feet, exhales all the stress and is off to the next thing without missing a beat as if it never happened. The situation is over the moment it is over. That is exactly what Zen Masters would teach us. That is the abilty presence meditation should lead us to, the ability to deal with all of life with grace and ease. Life should be a clean, graceful movement from one moment to the the next as it is for animals.

It is amazing to realize that in a single moment the whole Universe is changed and no longer what it was the previous moment. Everything moved to a new position and is in a new situation different from what it was the moment before. Nothing is static, electron move, stars move, galaxies move, the Universe expands. Nothing stays the same. And so it is with everything. Clinging to even the last moment we get left behind and are not Present to Reality. But let it all go, let go all judgement, fear and anticipation, become like the "living for the moment" dogs Cesar Millan speaks of, or the "Zen Master" cats Tolle speaks of, and find the peace of mind and joy for which you've been searching all of your life.