“
I have lived with several Zen masters -- all of them cats.
”
”
Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment)
“
Animals are a window to your soul and a doorway to your spiritual destiny. If you let them into your life and allow them to teach you, you will be better for it.
”
”
Kim Shotola (The Soul Watchers: Animals' Quest to Awaken Humanity)
“
Your job then, should you choose to accept it, is to keep searching for the metaphors, rituals and teachers that will help you move ever closer to divinity. The Yogic scriptures say that God responds to the sacred prayers and efforts of human beings in any way whatsoever that mortals choose to worship—just so long as those prayers are sincere.
I think you have every right to cherry-pick when it comes to moving your spirit and finding peace in God. I think you are free to search for any metaphor whatsoever which will take you across the worldly divide whenever you need to be transported or comforted. It's nothing to be embarrassed about. It's the history of mankind's search for holiness. If humanity never evolved in its exploration of the divine, a lot of us would still be worshipping golden Egyptian statues of cats. And this evolution of religious thinking does involve a fair bit of cherry-picking. You take whatever works from wherever you can find it, and you keep moving toward the light.
The Hopi Indians thought that the world's religions each contained one spiritual thread, and that these threads are always seeking each other, wanting to join. When all the threads are finally woven together they will form a rope that will pull us out of this dark cycle of history and into the next realm. More contemporarily, the Dalai Lama has repeated the same idea, assuring his Western students repeatedly that they needn't become Tibetan Buddhists in order to be his pupils. He welcomes them to take whatever ideas they like out of Tibetan Buddhism and integrate these ideas into their own religious practices. Even in the most unlikely and conservative of places, you can find sometimes this glimmering idea that God might be bigger than our limited religious doctrines have taught us. In 1954, Pope Pius XI, of all people, sent some Vatican delegates on a trip to Libya with these written instructions: "Do NOT think that you are going among Infidels. Muslims attain salvation, too. The ways of Providence are infinite."
But doesn't that make sense? That the infinite would be, indeed ... infinite? That even the most holy amongst us would only be able to see scattered pieces of the eternal picture at any given time? And that maybe if we could collect those pieces and compare them, a story about God would begin to emerge that resembles and includes everyone? And isn't our individual longing for transcendence all just part of this larger human search for divinity? Don't we each have the right to not stop seeking until we get as close to the source of wonder as possible? Even if it means coming to India and kissing trees in the moonlight for a while?
That's me in the corner, in other words. That's me in the spotlight. Choosing my religion.
”
”
Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)
“
Negativity is totally unnatural. It is a psychic pollutant, and there is a deep link between the poisoning and destruction of nature and the vast negativity that has accumulated in the collective human psyche. No other life-form on the planet knows negativity, only humans, just as no other life-form violates and poisons the Earth that sustains it. Have you ever seen an unhappy flower or a stressed oak tree? Have you some across a depressed dolphin, a frog that has a problem with self-esteem, a cat that cannot relax, or a bird that carries hatred and resentment? The only animals that may occasionally experience something akin to negativity or show signs of neurotic behavior are those that live in close contact with humans and so link into the humans mind and its insanity.
”
”
Eckhart Tolle
“
First came bright Spirits, not the Spirits of men, who danced and scattered flowers. Then, on the left and right, at each side of the forest avenue, came youthful shapes, boys upon one hand, and girls upon the other. If I could remember their singing and write down the notes, no man who read that score would ever grow sick or old. Between them went musicians: and after these a lady in whose honour all this was being done.
I cannot now remember whether she was naked or clothed. If she were naked, then it must have been the almost visible penumbra of her courtesy and joy which produces in my memory the illusion of a great and shining train that followed her across the happy grass. If she were clothed, then the illusion of nakedness is doubtless due to the clarity with which her inmost spirit shone through the clothes. For clothes in that country are not a disguise: the spiritual body lives along each thread and turns them into living organs. A robe or a crown is there as much one of the wearer's features as a lip or an eye.
But I have forgotten. And only partly do I remember the unbearable beauty of her face.
“Is it?...is it?” I whispered to my guide.
“Not at all,” said he. “It's someone ye'll never have heard of. Her name on earth was Sarah Smith and she lived at Golders Green.”
“She seems to be...well, a person of particular importance?”
“Aye. She is one of the great ones. Ye have heard that fame in this country and fame on Earth are two quite different things.”
“And who are these gigantic people...look! They're like emeralds...who are dancing and throwing flowers before here?”
“Haven't ye read your Milton? A thousand liveried angels lackey her.”
“And who are all these young men and women on each side?”
“They are her sons and daughters.”
“She must have had a very large family, Sir.”
“Every young man or boy that met her became her son – even if it was only the boy that brought the meat to her back door. Every girl that met her was her daughter.”
“Isn't that a bit hard on their own parents?”
“No. There are those that steal other people's children. But her motherhood was of a different kind. Those on whom it fell went back to their natural parents loving them more. Few men looked on her without becoming, in a certain fashion, her lovers. But it was the kind of love that made them not less true, but truer, to their own wives.”
“And how...but hullo! What are all these animals? A cat-two cats-dozens of cats. And all those dogs...why, I can't count them. And the birds. And the horses.”
“They are her beasts.”
“Did she keep a sort of zoo? I mean, this is a bit too much.”
“Every beast and bird that came near her had its place in her love. In her they became themselves. And now the abundance of life she has in Christ from the Father flows over into them.”
I looked at my Teacher in amazement.
“Yes,” he said. “It is like when you throw a stone into a pool, and the concentric waves spread out further and further. Who knows where it will end? Redeemed humanity is still young, it has hardly come to its full strength. But already there is joy enough int the little finger of a great saint such as yonder lady to waken all the dead things of the universe into life.
”
”
C.S. Lewis (The Great Divorce)
“
Indeed, there is nothing on this earth more peaceful than a sleeping, purring cat.
”
”
Jonathon Scott Payne (Mighty Little Man: My Story, His Story, Our Story)
“
Animals are very spiritual creatures and have evolved to a higher plane than humans. Cola was honored with the position of Comforter. Usually that work goes to cats or ferrets...
”
”
Linda Joy Singleton (Dead Girl Walking (Dead Girl, #1))
“
I have lived with several Zen masters — all of them cats. Even ducks have taught me important spiritual lessons. Just watching them is a meditation.
”
”
Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment)
“
The whiskered goddess had two natures; as Sekhmet the lioness, she was a mighty queen of sun-fire and war, and a harbinger of raw spiritual powers. As Bast the cat, she was the gentle bringer of love and domestic joy.
”
”
Zita Steele (The Hidden Sphinx: A Tale of World War II Egypt)
“
My husband claims I have an unhealthy obsession with secondhand bookshops. That I spend too much time daydreaming altogether. But either you intrinsically understand the attraction of searching for hidden treasure amongst rows of dusty shelves or you don't; it's a passion, bordering on a spiritual illness, which cannot be explained to the unaffected.
True, they're not for the faint of heart. Wild and chaotic, capricious and frustrating, there are certain physical laws that govern secondhand bookstores and like gravity, they're pretty much nonnegotiable. Paperback editions of D. H. Lawrence must constitute no less than 55 percent of all stock in any shop. Natural law also dictates that the remaining 45 percent consist of at least two shelves worth of literary criticism on Paradise Lost and there should always be an entire room in the basement devoted to military history which, by sheer coincidence, will be haunted by a man in his seventies. (Personal studies prove it's the same man. No matter how quickly you move from one bookshop to the next, he's always there. He's forgotten something about the war that no book can contain, but like a figure in Greek mythology, is doomed to spend his days wandering from basement room to basement room, searching through memoirs of the best/worst days of his life.)
Modern booksellers can't really compare with these eccentric charms. They keep regular hours, have central heating, and are staffed by freshly scrubbed young people in black T-shirts. They're devoid of both basement rooms and fallen Greek heroes in smelly tweeds. You'll find no dogs or cats curled up next to ancient space heathers like familiars nor the intoxicating smell of mold and mildew that could emanate equally from the unevenly stacked volumes or from the owner himself. People visit Waterstone's and leave. But secondhand bookshops have pilgrims. The words out of print are a call to arms for those who seek a Holy Grail made of paper and ink.
”
”
Kathleen Tessaro (Elegance)
“
The Beat Generation, that was a vision that we had, John Clellon Holmes and I, and Allen Ginsberg in an even wilder way, in the late forties, of a generation of crazy, illuminated hipsters suddenly rising and roaming America, serious, bumming and hitchhiking everywhere, ragged, beatific, beautiful in an ugly graceful new way--a vision gleaned from the way we had heard the word 'beat' spoken on streetcorners on Times Square and in the Village, in other cities in the downtown city night of postwar America--beat, meaning down and out but full of intense conviction--We'd even heard old 1910 Daddy Hipsters of the streets speak the word that way, with a melancholy sneer--It never meant juvenile delinquents, it meant characters of a special spirituality who didn't gang up but were solitary Bartlebies staring out the dead wall window of our civilization--the subterraneans heroes who'd finally turned from the 'freedom' machine of the West and were taking drugs, digging bop, having flashes of insight, experiencing the 'derangement of the senses,' talking strange, being poor and glad, prophesying a new style for American culture, a new style (we thought), a new incantation--The same thing was almost going on in the postwar France of Sartre and Genet and what's more we knew about it--But as to the actual existence of a Beat Generation, chances are it was really just an idea in our minds--We'd stay up 24 hours drinking cup after cup of black coffee, playing record after record of Wardell Gray, Lester Young, Dexter Gordon, Willie Jackson, Lennie Tristano and all the rest, talking madly about that holy new feeling out there in the streets- -We'd write stories about some strange beatific Negro hepcat saint with goatee hitchhiking across Iowa with taped up horn bringing the secret message of blowing to other coasts, other cities, like a veritable Walter the Penniless leading an invisible First Crusade- -We had our mystic heroes and wrote, nay sung novels about them, erected long poems celebrating the new 'angels' of the American underground--In actuality there was only a handful of real hip swinging cats and what there was vanished mightily swiftly during the Korean War when (and after) a sinister new kind of efficiency appeared in America, maybe it was the result of the universalization of Television and nothing else (the Polite Total Police Control of Dragnet's 'peace' officers) but the beat characters after 1950 vanished into jails and madhouses, or were shamed into silent conformity, the generation itself was shortlived and small in number.
”
”
Jack Kerouac
“
Create hell and people will be impatient to get there, just out of curiosity
”
”
Bangambiki Habyarimana (The Great Pearl of Wisdom)
“
How touching to have the meaning of Christmas brought to us by cola, fast food and beer conglomerates. Who'd have ever guessed product consumption, popular entertainment and spirituality would mix so harmoniously. It's a beautiful world, all right.
”
”
Bill Watterson (Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat (Calvin and Hobbes, #9))
“
For many people, the love or the loss of an animal often becomes a gateway into a deeper spiritual journey. The most pragmatic of men will begin to question the fundamental nature of being when he is visited by an apparition of his deceased cat or dog companion.
”
”
Elizabeth S. Eiler (Other Nations: A Lightworker's Case Book for Healing, Spiritually Empowering, and Communing with the Animal Kingdom)
“
Every achievement starts from a dream. So let's dream!
”
”
Leyla Atke (Charm: An Amazing Story of a Little Black Cat)
“
His spiritual energy was completely drained. He was no different from an ordinary person at that time. He couldn't use a single technique, not even a simple communication spell. He could only carry you on his back and climb up the stairs of Sisheng Peak, step by step.
And when he couldn't do that anymore, when he couldn't even stand, he had crawled on the ground, on his knees, dragging him until his fingers were torn and his hands covered in blood.
All to bring him home.
”
”
Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou (The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: Erha He Ta De Bai Mao Shizun (Novel) Vol. 3)
“
It is better to begin the journey, make some mistakes and correct your course, than to wait until everything is perfect and never even start
”
”
James Norbury (The Cat Who Taught Zen)
“
What makes psychopathy so different, so surreal, so much like a relational b@$*tch-slap that it nearly knocks her head off?
--The sensation of being emotionally 'jumped' from behind.
--The inability to wrap her head around the emotional-physical-spiritual-sexual gang-bang that just happened when she thought she was with the most wonderful person.
No one can figure out how a dangerous psychopath curled up to them like a purring cat. Half of recovery is just trying to figure out 'what was THAT?
”
”
Sandra L. Brown (Women Who Love Psychopaths)
“
Try a little experiment. Close your eyes and say to yourself: “I wonder what my next thought is going to be.” Then become very alert and wait for the next thought. Be like a cat watching a mouse hole. What thought is going to come out of the mouse hole? Try it now.
”
”
Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment)
“
A cube or sphere has the characteristics of its form or shape, that is why one calls it a sphere or cube. Just as a cat is what we call a cat by its body type and physiology and its form delineates its interaction with its environment.
”
”
Leviak B. Kelly (Religion: The Ultimate STD: Living a Spiritual Life without Dogmatics or Cultural Destruction)
“
Each man must make is own sacred journey.
”
”
Lailah Gifty Akita (Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind)
“
I have lived with several Zen masters — all of them cats.
”
”
Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment)
“
When you have a cat you assume certain responsibilities that, in a spiritual sense, transcend those of a marital or a business relationship.
”
”
Kinky Friedman (Greenwich Killing Time (Kinky Friedman, #1))
“
Emerson, as a sort of spiritual sun-worshipper, could have attached but a moderate value to Hawthorne’s cat-like faculty of seeing in the dark. “As
”
”
Henry James (Hawthorne (Henry James Collection))
“
Try a little experiment. Close your eyes and say to yourself: “I wonder what my next thought is going to be.” Then become very alert and wait for the next thought. Be like a cat watching a mouse hole. What thought is going to come out of the mouse hole?
”
”
Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment)
“
he never felt that way about Japanese - even though he didn’t understand it. The fluid monotonic sound of it alone made it a far more beautiful and spiritual language. English, with its heavy stresses and wobbly intonation, was dirty and repugnant to his ears
”
”
Nick Bradley (The Cat and The City)
“
So Mo Ran endured it, and forced himself to pick up the pieces. He told himself, It doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t hurt. This wasn’t the first time he’d lived through Chu Wanning’s death. It doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t hurt… But how could it not hurt? Over three thousand steps Chu Wanning had crawled, carrying him on his back—how could it not hurt… He’d drained his very last reserves of spiritual energy, he’d given it all to Mo Ran, how could it not hurt… He had suffered an identical injury, but so as not to burden his disciple, he had adopted a heartless expression and left on his own. How could it not hurt… And in the past life, Chu Wanning had also suffered the same injury as Shi Mei. It was just that he hadn’t said anything about it. He hadn’t said, and Mo Ran hadn’t asked. He’d roared angrily at Chu Wanning, vented endless hatred on him, flung to the ground those wontons Chu Wanning, who had yet to recover from his own injuries, had worked so hard to make for him. Before his eyes, Chu Wanning had bent down, lowered his head, and then, one by one, had picked up each wonton and thrown them away. How could it not hurt… How could it not have hurt?! He had dug out Chu Wanning’s heart! How could it have not hurt?! How could it… Mo Ran couldn’t take a step further. He stood in place for a long spell, trying to suppress these feelings, trying to rescue his calm. His entire body trembled. It hurt. He buried his face in his hands, bit down on his lip, and swallowed his sobs with the blood.
”
”
Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou (The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: Erha He Ta De Bai Mao Shizun (Novel) Vol. 3)
“
If a black cat crosses your path, don't move ahead." This is a fictitious rule but the submissive energy you feel when you follow this rule, and dominating energy you feel when you rebel against it are real. Every tribe and society has such absurd rules because mankind has always taken great interest in creating something real out of unreal.
”
”
Shunya
“
In Proverbs, a wisdom book of the Hebrew Scriptures, a cat would find a few “wisdom” passages as noxious as the Garden of Eden passages. Again the symbology of fruit being eaten
”
”
Leviak B. Kelly (Religion: The Ultimate STD: Living a Spiritual Life without Dogmatics or Cultural Destruction)
“
We carry our fresh air with us, wherever we go. He who has it, has it anywhere—nothing can rob him of it. I find in all characters that live close to nature, capriciousness, variability—they seem to pattern after nature’s higher rules. The children are that way, and dogs, cats—not but that their perceptions, intuitions, are keen enough, but with the capricious, too.
”
”
Walt Whitman (Walt Whitman Speaks: His Final Thoughts on Life, Writing, Spirituality, and the Promise of America: A Library of America Special Publication)
“
He brought you home. You were unconscious, and his spiritual energy was completely drained. He was no different from an ordinary person at that time; he couldn’t use a single technique, not even a simple communication spell. He could only carry you on his back and climb up the stairs to Sisheng Peak, step by step.” “No…” “Over three thousand steps. He…without any spiritual power…
”
”
Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou (The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: Erha He Ta De Bai Mao Shizun (Novel) Vol. 3)
“
All depressives should at least consider getting a wise, spiritually advanced geriatric cat. It’s an easy way to be “of service” without moving much. The shelters are very happy when people adopt the elderly creatures.
”
”
Jacqueline Novak (How to Weep in Public: Feeble Offerings on Depression from One Who Knows)
“
Imagine that you are watching a movie which is so engaging that you forget yourself. Suppose that the movie is not 3 hours long but millions of years long. Of course, a human protagonist can’t have such a long story. So, the protagonist of the movie is someone who changes forms from human to cow to monkey to tree to dog to cat and so on... Then who are you and who is the protagonist of the movie? Aren’t you the eternal power watching your own story unfold before you?
”
”
Shunya
“
At one point in our lives, we’re all afraid to die. For some, it happens the first moment we fully understand what death means—before depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues arise. For others, it’s before they’ve found something to believe in—whether it’s God or something else that’s spiritual. And there are those who flounder through life, terrified of the day they take their last breath. I think for some, they aren’t so much scared of death itself, but rather, how they’re going to die.
”
”
H.D. Carlton (Hunting Adeline (Cat and Mouse, #2))
“
With his own hands, Chu Xun ripped open the gash in his chest, dug into his flesh, and grabbed his no-longer beating heart. Slowly, inch by inch, he tore it out. Blood dripped from the heart, which was enveloped in a golden-red flame. It was Chu Xun’s spiritual core, the last flare of light from a candle that had burned out. “Take…it…” He lifted the flaming heart and held it out in front of him. “Take it…take…it…” Droplets of blood fell only to become so many red haitang blossoms, flaring brilliantly as they drifted downward.
”
”
Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou (The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: Erha He Ta De Bai Mao Shizun (Novel) Vol. 2)
“
Deception is nowhere more common than in religion. And the persons most easily and damningly deceived are the leaders. Those who deceive others are first themselves deceived, for not many, I think, begin with evil intent. The devil, after all, is a spiritual being. His usual mode of temptation is not an obvious evil but to an apparent good. The commonest forms of devil-inspired worship do not take place furtively at black masses with decapitated cats but flourish under the bright lights of acclaim and glory, in a swirl of organ music.
”
”
Eugene H. Peterson (Under the Unpredictable Plant an Exploration in Vocational Holiness (The Pastoral series, #3))
“
Most of all Ginny--part Schnauzer, part Siberian Husky, part angel from heaven--has taught me the most important lesson in life, that life is not worth living without love, that giving love is more rewarding than getting it, and that the humblest creatures, the least advantaged creatures, are worthy of the greatest outpouring of love. It's a spiritual message, that all life is precious (matters), all life is short, and that, just as human beings have immortal souls, so do animals have immortal souls, because they, too, were created by God. (word in parentheses by poster)
”
”
Philip Gonzalez and Leonore Fleischer
“
Try a little experiment. Close your eyes and say to yourself: “I wonder what my next thought is going to be.” Then become very alert and wait for the next thought. Be like a cat watching a mouse hole. What thought is going to come out of the mouse hole? Try it now. Well? I had to wait for quite a long time before a thought came in. Exactly. As long as you are in a state of intense presence, you are free of thought. You are still, yet highly alert. The instant your conscious attention sinks below a certain level, thought rushes in. The mental noise returns; the stillness is lost. You are back in time.
”
”
Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment)
“
In a crisis, do not remain calm, do not look for the nearest exit, do not stick your head in the sand; do agitate, do make things worse, do run screaming through the street, and do refuse to return to business as usual. Business as usual is what created this mess in the first place. Business as usual has meant that businesspeople and corporate fat cats run/ruin the world and artists are out of luck; it has meant that education, spirituality, sexuality all must function on a business model and every attempt to make changes is greeted with a pragmatic question about whether changing things will also mean making money. Making money cannot be the goal of the new feminism. Putting women in positions of power is not what gaga feminism wants. What gaga feminism wants cannot be easily summarized, but it is not an independent bank account, not a profitable nonprofit; mama does not want a brand new bag. Mama wants revolution.
”
”
J. Jack Halberstam (Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal (Queer Ideas/Queer Action))
“
Oh I like that,” says Waverhouse, “that’s a very well-turned phrase. Sneaze, you’ve got talent, real literary talent. And the next stanza?” “Is the Spirit of Japan triangular? Is it, do you think, a square? Why no indeed! As the words themselves Explicitly declare, It’s an airy, fairy, spiritual thing And things that close to God Can’t be defined in a formula Or measured with a measuring-rod.” “It’s certainly an interesting composition and most unusual in that, defying tradition, it has a strong didactic element. But don’t you think it contains too many Spirits of Japan. One can have,” says Beauchamp mildly, “too much of the best of things.
”
”
Natsume Sōseki (I Am A Cat (Tuttle Classics))
“
The cat is an obligate carnivore and it is in its nature that it must eat meat. This is corroborated by the fact that cat's senses are made for “a crepuscular and predatory niche”. They are hunters, carnivores that show no developmental predisposition for herbivore lifestyle based on the current knowledge of their ancestral and genetic development.
”
”
Leviak B. Kelly (Religion: The Ultimate STD: Living a Spiritual Life without Dogmatics or Cultural Destruction)
“
Many people who live with animals have noticed that their cat or dog becomes solicitous of them when they are feeling unwell. A cat who is normally aloof may come sit in the sick person's lap; a normally rambunctious dog may tone himself down when his human friend isn't up to romping or running. In some cases, the ability of animals to sense illness in a human has been lifesaving.
”
”
Linda Bender (Animal Wisdom: Learning from the Spiritual Lives of Animals (Sacred Activism))
“
and outward enemies of the State. The latter were the savages, the former the Quakers; the energy expended by the early Puritans in resistance to the tomahawk not weakening their disposition to deal with spiritual dangers. They employed the same — or almost the same — weapons in both directions; the flintlock and the halberd against the Indians, and the cat-o’-nine-tails against the heretics. One of the longest, though by no means one of the most successful, of Hawthorne’s shorter tales (The Gentle Boy) deals with this pitiful persecution of the least aggressive of all schismatic bodies. William Hathorne, who had been made a magistrate of the town of Salem, where a grant of land had been offered him as an inducement to residence, figures in New England history as having given orders that “Anne Coleman and four of her friends” should be whipped through Salem, Boston, and Dedham.
”
”
Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Complete Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne)
“
Pick a system—any system, legal or ecclesiastical—and you’ll start to wonder at how anyone could think it was fair. And then you’ll realize it was never meant to be fair but rather was intended to protect the interests of the powerful, and then you’re wading through a swamp of cynicism and your day’s ruined. What I like about being a Druid in service to Gaia is that Gaia doesn’t judge much at all—just the theft of her own life force to kill some other part of her. That’s why she prohibits us from using our powers to directly harm others. Otherwise, she’s going to let us sort out judgment for ourselves. Why should Gaia care precisely how people once behaved in Taiwan, or about the spiritual life of a mayfly in Connecticut, or about the deviant proclivities of an alley cat in Kathmandu? She will endure so long as the life upon her keeps reproducing. The violent tides of creatures eating, shitting, and fucking each other are what keep her alive. She’s not going to impose morality on that.
”
”
Kevin Hearne (Scourged (The Iron Druid Chronicles, #10))
“
Adam is definitely said to be vegetarian and not only that but even after the fall, Adam is seen as one who did not even covet flesh! Mankind eating flesh did not even enter the picture according to Genesis until Noah after the deluge.
[...]
The domestic cat would be at a loss to understand this herbivores' delight as being a paradise designed for it. This is because to the cat descended from African wild cats circa 8000 BCE in the Middle East would find it nearly impossible to believe it as true.
”
”
Leviak B. Kelly (Religion: The Ultimate STD: Living a Spiritual Life without Dogmatics or Cultural Destruction)
“
Then the true name for religion,' Fat said, 'is death.'
'The secret name,' I agreed. 'You got it. Jesus died; Asklepios died - they killed Mani worse than they killef jesus, but nobody even cares; nobody even remembers. They killed the Catharist in southern France by the tens of thousands. In the Thirty Years War, hundreds of people died. Protestants and Catholics - manual slaughter. Death is the real name for it; not God, not the Savior, not love - death. Kevin is rights about his cat. It's all there in his dead cat. The Great Judge can't answer Kevin: "Why did my cat die?" Answer: "Damned i I knoe." There is no answer; there is only a dead animal that just wanted to cross the street. We're all animals that want to cross the street only something mows us down half-way across that we never saw. Go ask Kevin. "Your cat was stupid." "Who made the cat? Why did he make the cat stupid? Did the cat learn by being killed, and if so, what did he learn? Did Sherri learn anything from dying of cancer? did gloria learn anything-'
'Okay, enough,' Fat said.
'Kevin is right,' I said. 'Go out and get laid.'
'By who? they're all dead.'
I said, 'There's more. Still alive. Lay one of them before she dies or you die or somebody dies, some person or animal. You said it yourself: the universe is irrational because the mind behind it is irrational. You are irrational and you know it. We all are and we know it, on some level. I'd write a book about it but no one would believe a group of human being could be as irrational as we are, as we've acted.
”
”
Philip K. Dick
“
The domesticated cat in many homes is a friend, a companion, a family member. It is seen as a symbol of grace and poise both in ancient Egypt and in modern society. Women are oft described as cats as men are described as dogs in metaphor as well. Religious adoration of cats was also in ancient Egypt.1 So in some aspects they have, at least, a religious context. This, though, is not what one should look at primarily for a clear indication of their connection to religion. They are examples of a spectrum of how natural spirituality had developed over time.
”
”
Leviak B. Kelly (Religion: The Ultimate STD: Living a Spiritual Life without Dogmatics or Cultural Destruction)
“
Animals at the high end of heartbeat longevity, such as mice, cats, dogs, horses, elephants, and whales, have the capacity for as many as a billion heartbeats within their life spans. Human hearts, on the other hand, can sustain nearly three billion beats in a lifetime. This significant difference in humans’ capacity for longevity demands explanation. The human body’s characteristics allowing for such extended activity on all levels (physical, mental, and spiritual) suggests uniqueness of design and purpose. It argues for a qualitative rather than mere quantitative difference between humans and the rest of Earth’s creatures.
”
”
Hugh Ross (Hidden Treasures in the Book of Job (Reasons to Believe): How the Oldest Book in the Bible Answers Today's Scientific Questions)
“
MARY: Cat, should you be writing all this? I mean, Irene still lives in Vienna. Her secret room won’t be a secret once this book is published.
CATHERINE: She said I could. Granted, she said no one would believe it anyway, the way no one believes Mrs. Shelly’s biography of Victor Frankenstein. Everyone assumes it’s fiction. She says people rarely believe in what they think to be improbable, although they often believe in the impossible. They find it easier to believe in spiritualism than in the platypus.
BEATRICE: So she thinks our readers might assume this is a work of fiction?
CATHERINE: Bea, you sound upset by that.
BEATRICE: And you are not? Do you not care whether readers understand that this is the truth of our lives?
CATHERINE: As long as they buy the book, no, not much. As long as they pay their two shillings a volume, and I receive royalties . . .
”
”
Theodora Goss (European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman (The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club, #2))
“
By nature’s own way the complete system of material activities is a source of perplexity for everyone. In every step there is perplexity, and therefore it behooves one to approach a bona fide spiritual master who can give one proper guidance for executing the purpose of life. All Vedic literatures advise us to approach a bona fide spiritual master to get free from the perplexities of life, which happen without our desire. They are like a forest fire that somehow blazes without being set by anyone. Similarly, the world situation is such that perplexities of life automatically appear, without our wanting such confusion. No one wants fire, and yet it takes place, and we become perplexed. The Vedic wisdom therefore advises that in order to solve the perplexities of life and to understand the science of the solution, one must approach a spiritual master who is in the disciplic succession. A person with a bona fide spiritual master is supposed to know everything. One should not, therefore, remain in material perplexities but should approach a spiritual master. This is the purport of this verse. Who is the man in material perplexities? It is he who does not understand the problems of life. In the Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad (3.8.10) the perplexed man is described as follows: yo vā etad akṣaraṁ gārgy aviditvāsmāİ lokāt praiti sa kṛpaṇaḥ. “He is a miserly man who does not solve the problems of life as a human and who thus quits this world like the cats and dogs, without understanding the science of self-realization.” This human form of life is a most valuable asset for the living entity, who can utilize it for solving the problems of life; therefore, one who does not utilize this opportunity properly is a miser. On the other hand, there is the brāhmaṇa, or he who is intelligent enough to utilize this body to solve all the problems of life.
”
”
Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa (Bhagavad-gita As It Is)
“
When the knowledge of biological fact is conjoined with imagination, on the other hand, one gets facts stranger than most fiction. When biology and morphology combine perspective with religion, they become a chimera of facts that can change the world view of spirituality.
Cats bring this blending of biology, morphology and imagination to the prospective table of religious discussion especially. This is so because they have differing physiological functionalities that humans do not. These differences may seem trivial to many but one wonders how these variations would work themselves out in a sapient religion or spirituality centred on these quadrupedal predatory and often nocturnal creatures. Imagine not the cat worship that other religions in the past may have done. Instead, imagine what religion would be like if cats experienced it as sapient beings. The religion's context would take place in the physical form of the domestic cat, not the anthropological form. From the perspective of cats, the mirror of divinity reflected back at them would be quite different.
”
”
Leviak B. Kelly (Religion: The Ultimate STD: Living a Spiritual Life without Dogmatics or Cultural Destruction)
“
[J.Ivy:]
We are all here for a reason on a particular path
You don't need a curriculum to know that you are part of the math
Cats think I'm delirious, but I'm so damn serious
That's why I expose my soul to the globe, the world
I'm trying to make it better for these little boys and girls
I'm not just another individual, my spirit is a part of this
That's why I get spiritual, but I get my hymns from Him
So it's not me, it's He that's lyrical
I'm not a miracle, I'm a heaven-sent instrument
My rhythmatic regimen navigates melodic notes for your soul and your mental
That's why I'm instrumental
Vibrations is what I'm into
Yeah, I need my loot by rent day
But that is not what gives me the heart of Kunte Kinte
I'm tryina give us "us free" like Cinque
I can't stop, that's why I'm hot
Determination, dedication, motivation
I'm talking to you, my many inspirations
When I say I can't, let you or self down
If I were of the highest cliff, on the highest riff
And you slipped off the side and clinched on to your life in my grip
I would never, ever let you down
And when these words are found
Let it been known that God's penmanship has been signed with a language called love
That's why my breath is felt by the deaf
And why my words are heard and confined to the ears of the blind
I, too, dream in color and in rhyme
So I guess I'm one of a kind in a full house
Cuz whenever I open my heart, my soul, or my mouth
A touch of God reigns out
[Chorus]
[Jay-Z (Kanye West)]
Who else you know been hot this long,
(Oh Ya, you know we ain't finished)
Started from nothing but he got this strong,
(The ROC is in the building)
Built the ROC from a pebble, pedalled rock before I met you,
Pedalled bikes, got my nephews pedal bikes because they special,
Let you tell that man I'm falling,
Well somebody must've caught him,
Cause every fourth quarter, I like to Mike Jordan 'em,
Number one albums, what I got like four of dem,
More of dem on the way,
The Eight Wonder on the way,
Clear the way, I'm here to stay,
Y'all can save the chitter chat, this and that, this and Jay,
Dissin' Jay 'ill get you mased,
When I start spitting them lyrics, niggas get very religious,
Six Hail Maries, please Father forgive us,
Young, the Archbishop, the Pope John Paul of y'all niggas,
The way y'all all follow Jigga,
Hov's a living legend and I tell you why,
Everybody wanna be Hov and Hov still alive.
”
”
Kanye West
“
Self-Obsession & Self-Presentation on Social-Media"
Some people always post their cars/bikes photos because they love their cars/bikes so much.
Some people always post their dogs/cats/birds/fish/pets photos because they love their pets so
much. Some people always post their children’s/families photos because they love their
children/families so much.
Some people always post their daily happy/sad moments because they love sharing their daily lives
so much.
Some people always post their poems/songs/novels/writings because they love being
poets/lyricists/novelists/writers so much.
Some people always copy paste other people’s writings/quotes without mentioning the actual writers
name because they love seeking attention/fame so much. [Unacceptable & Illegal]
Some people always post their plants/garden’s photos because they love planting/gardening so much.
Some people always post their art/paintings because they love their creativity so much.
Some people always post their home-made food because they love cooking/thoughtful-presentation so
much. Some people always post their makeup/hairstyles selfies because they love wearing
makeup/doing hair so much. Some people always post their party related photos because they love
those parties so much.
Some people always post their travel related photos because they love traveling so much. Some
people always post their selfies because they love taking selfies so much.
Some people always post restaurant/street-foods because they love eating in restaurants/streets so
much. Some people always post their job-related photos because they love their jobs so much.
Some people always post religious things because they love spreading their religion so much. Some
people always post political things because they love politics/power so much.
Some people always post inspirational messages because they love being spiritual. Some people
always share others posts because they love sharing links so much.
Some people always post their creative photographs because they love photography so much. Some
people always post their business-related products because they love advertising so much.
And some people always post complaints about other people’s post because they love complaining so
much
”
”
Zakia FR
“
Dude, I was trying to be nice but I guess its time to put down Christian and pick up clarity." Lizzy snapped. "Here it is: I'd rather die penniless in a ditch surrounded by my cat family than marry you. I feel absolutely zero attraction to you on a physical, spiritual, or sexual level. Now, if you'd taken me seriously the first time I said no I wouldn't have to take it to this place-
”
”
J.K. Really (Pride and Motherf*cking Prejudice (Classic-Ass Literature, #2))
“
Sorry about the whole not-showingup-at-school-for-a-few-weeks thing, Chloe pictured herself saying to the principal. You see, I'm a cat person and had to hide with others of my kind in a gigantic mainson called Firebird that also houses a real estate firm while this ancient Masonic-like cult tried to hunt me down because they think I killed one of their assassins. Oh, also, I have nine lives and am apparently the spiritual leader of my people, who belive they were created by ancient Egyptian goddesses.
”
”
Liz Braswell (The Nine Lives of Chloe King (The Nine Lives of Chloe King, #1-3))
“
It is a noble thing, the rearing of warriors for the revolution. I can find no fault with the idea. I do, however, find fault with the notion that dumping pills is the way to do it. You don't prepare yourself for the raising of super-people by making yourself vulnerable - chance fertilization, chance support, chance tomorrow - nor by being celibate until you stumble across the right stock to breed with. You prepare yourself by being healthy and confident, by having options that give you confidence, by getting yourself together, by being together enough to attract a together cat whose notions of fatherhood rise above the Disney caliber of man-in-the-world-and-woman-in-the-home, by being committed to the new consciousness, by being intellectually and spiritually and financially self-sufficient to do the thing right. You prepare yourself by being in control of yourself. The pill gives the woman, as well as the man, some control. Simple as that.
”
”
Toni Cade Bambara (The Black Woman: An Anthology)
“
And I realized with chagrin that my agreeing to be boss had freed Frank to do what he wanted to do more than anything else, to do what his father had done: to receive honors and creature comforts while escaping human responsibilities. He was accomplishing this by going down a spiritual oubliette.
”
”
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (Cat’s Cradle)
“
Racist is a very strange phenomenon that requires more investigation and exposure, because as it is today, seen as politically incorrect, is basically just making people hide their thoughts while continuing to defend them. Three of the most interesting aspects related to racism that I have found correlate to intelligence, spiritual vibration, and eyesight. I say intelligence because a lot of people are really too stupid and don't know what it means having their genes altered through many generations of marriages between communities and tribes, long before there was the concept of country and nationality. Besides, many borders have changed over the centuries as the result of political agreements. As for what concerns the vibration of fear, it does seek for external validation, which is why the most paranoid tend to be the most racist. Their obsession with survival makes them seek for a group of people to blame. This is quite obvious in nations where locals hate immigrants but will go to other nations for better salaries. Then there is eyesight, which is surely associated with how the mind operates. Because for many people I look like a local citizen, while for many others I belong nowhere and they can't associate me with any country. Consequently, it is impossible to look at the topic of racism without looking at what it says about the spiritual level of someone. I have never seen racism among cats or dogs of different colors, so what makes humans inferior to animals is puzzling, especially when the most inferior among us think that this anomaly in their thinking makes them superior. That would be like a psychopath, unable to empathize with anyone, to believe he is superior to other humans, which actually is the case. Are racists then mentally ill? Quite certainly! Is xenophobia a mental illness? Most likely! We should look at both mental conditions in the same way we look at depression and anxiety, as self-destructive states.
”
”
Dan Desmarques
“
The only thing that matters is how we’re used to thinking.
”
”
David Michie (The Dalai Lama's Cat and The Four Paws of Spiritual Success (The Dalai Lama's Cat #4))
“
God is Schrodinger's cat,
one moment it's there, the next it's not -
all depends on the state of mind -
God is the oldest fear-bending construct.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (The Humanitarian Dictator)
“
God is Schrodinger's cat, one moment it's there, the next it's not - all depends on the state of mind - God is the oldest fear-bending construct. Problem is when apes use God to enforce fear, a healthy refuge is rendered harmful refuse.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (The Humanitarian Dictator)
“
He could tell her that dogs used to look like cats and vice versa without a lick of proof and it would change the way she regarded the animals.
”
”
S.A. Tawks (The Spirit of Imagination (The Spirit of Imagination, #1))
“
Cats, based on their corporeal existence, have a different view on trees even if one dismisses the fruit eating aspect. A closer look at common domestic feline behaviour makes these views spring forth like a kitten pouncing on a ball of yarn. It can be hard to miss.
”
”
Leviak B. Kelly (Religion: The Ultimate STD: Living a Spiritual Life without Dogmatics or Cultural Destruction)
“
The cat uses trees, as stated, as many things but here it would not uncommon to see the oak as the marker, not the stone. Cats would spray the tree, not necessarily the rock.
A rock as a further marker would be a non-essential redundancy that a cat would more or less ignore. It would be like saying one needed to ignore the law of God (written on the stone) to honour their promise to not honour foreign gods. The human reaction of obvious strangeness would begin here. If the tree is seen as an item to climb, the rendition would get more queer to the human interpretation.
”
”
Leviak B. Kelly (Religion: The Ultimate STD: Living a Spiritual Life without Dogmatics or Cultural Destruction)
“
As Deborah sits below a tree to give advice to her people, the cat could envision itself above Deborah. In the cats mind, the visual allusion would first point to the prophetess as being a predator. This consideration would not be hard to reach for the lucid intelligent cat as she is giving advice to her people here as how to engage in war. Envisioning this text, the cats would find it hard not to recognize the predatory nature of the human beneath it. This fact means that Deborah becomes, in feline hermeneutics, the antagonist. The prophetess would be seen as a danger to the cat. This could lead the cat to deduce that the enemy of the prophetess was a fellow protagonist. Then the advice that Deborah gave to Barak would seem as a malicious attack on a ally or worse an innocent.
”
”
Leviak B. Kelly (Religion: The Ultimate STD: Living a Spiritual Life without Dogmatics or Cultural Destruction)
“
Through the imagination and the human sense of creativity, the book will examine not only raw clinical data but philosophical perspectives as well. As within many moral fables, animals will be used, at times, to convey a a fundamental truth of human nature. More simply stated, animals that elicit human empathetic responses, will be examined in a religious context.
So, starting with cats, dogs and ultimately other primates, as moral experiments of imagination, we can perhaps understand differing cognitive processes that could have shaped our religious purview. It might be even stated that they should shape our opinion, especially in a reevaluation of the spiritual present and coming future. When this happens, it will help humanity create a unique pristine outlook on its religious traditions.
”
”
Leviak B. Kelly (Religion: The Ultimate STD: Living a Spiritual Life without Dogmatics or Cultural Destruction)
“
The somatotype of the cat or any animal from quadruped to biped partially determines the perspective of the creature. The physiology of any given creature will alter its understanding of its environment. A close look then at the physiology of cats and dogs and one biped, in particular, the primate, should give anyone a clear reason for the biological and psychological shaping of religion. This examination of cats, dogs and then other primates, humanity's cousins, in comparison with some religious ideals, will show just how physiological perspectives would and have influenced religious dogma or cat-ma as the case may be.
”
”
Leviak B. Kelly (Religion: The Ultimate STD: Living a Spiritual Life without Dogmatics or Cultural Destruction)
“
When addressing religion in morphology the average person will seek religious texts and otherwise human instruments and tools to explain the Universe or their own spiritual experience. Yet human hands are not paws or clawed. Humans are not quadrupeds so texts for cats is kind of out of the question one might think.
”
”
Leviak B. Kelly (Religion: The Ultimate STD: Living a Spiritual Life without Dogmatics or Cultural Destruction)
“
Cats were not and are not tool makers the way humans became toolmakers. They are specifically adapted as obligate carnivores, This means the vegetarian cat is an oxymoron at best and a blatant lie at worst. Cats need meat. The concept of a Garden of Eden would be rather atrocious to them.
”
”
Leviak B. Kelly (Religion: The Ultimate STD: Living a Spiritual Life without Dogmatics or Cultural Destruction)
“
A sapient cat looking at humanity's salad garden buffet designed by God would not be seen as so much a paradise if the divine is seen as giving this to intelligent cats. It would be seen as quite the opposite. Since cats use plants as emetics and also lack the ability to taste sweet, Eden would be a rather hellish place. It would be a place where God might send a cat to punish the feline. This is because fruits and vegetation to eat would be a place to eat bland foods that cause one to vomit. It would hardly be a beneficial place for cats if this was a place of divine refuge where death did not exist. Again the immortal state would place cats in a rather hellish environment.
”
”
Leviak B. Kelly (Religion: The Ultimate STD: Living a Spiritual Life without Dogmatics or Cultural Destruction)
“
book The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction as a jumping off point, he takes care to unpack the various cultural mandates that have infected the way we think and feel about distraction. I found his ruminations not only enlightening but surprisingly emancipating: There are two big theories about why [distraction is] on the rise. The first is material: it holds that our urbanized, high-tech society is designed to distract us… The second big theory is spiritual—it’s that we’re distracted because our souls are troubled. The comedian Louis C.K. may be the most famous contemporary exponent of this way of thinking. A few years ago, on “Late Night” with Conan O’Brien, he argued that people are addicted to their phones because “they don’t want to be alone for a second because it’s so hard.” (David Foster Wallace also saw distraction this way.) The spiritual theory is even older than the material one: in 1887, Nietzsche wrote that “haste is universal because everyone is in flight from himself”; in the seventeenth century, Pascal said that “all men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.”… Crawford argues that our increased distractibility is the result of technological changes that, in turn, have their roots in our civilization’s spiritual commitments. Ever since the Enlightenment, he writes, Western societies have been obsessed with autonomy, and in the past few hundred years we have put autonomy at the center of our lives, economically, politically, and technologically; often, when we think about what it means to be happy, we think of freedom from our circumstances. Unfortunately, we’ve taken things too far: we’re now addicted to liberation, and we regard any situation—a movie, a conversation, a one-block walk down a city street—as a kind of prison. Distraction is a way of asserting control; it’s autonomy run amok. Technologies of escape, like the smartphone, tap into our habits of secession. The way we talk about distraction has always been a little self-serving—we say, in the passive voice, that we’re “distracted by” the Internet or our cats, and this makes us seem like the victims of our own decisions. But Crawford shows that this way of talking mischaracterizes the whole phenomenon. It’s not just that we choose our own distractions; it’s that the pleasure we get from being distracted is the pleasure of taking action and being free. There’s a glee that comes from making choices, a contentment that settles after we’ve asserted our autonomy. When
”
”
Anonymous
“
the monks were not comfortable with raising a girl child, as they were accustomed only to raising boys. They addressed her simply as “Girl.” Although the monks were the most spiritually enlightened and progressive men of their day, they were still possessed of the widespread view of women expressed by the general male population of ancient China. As
”
”
Brian Edwards (Black Dragon, Black Cat)
“
to men, the protectors of the kingdom in a time of war. The discipline required to master it provides one of the pathways for men to find inner peace, strength of character, and self-respect. It cannot be practiced by a woman. Doing so would only lead her down a path that is not compatible with her true nature and place in the spiritual world. You do not need kung fu to find your place in the world.
”
”
Brian Edwards (Black Dragon, Black Cat)
“
Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It"
[Female Insert]
Maestro!!!
[Ice Cube]
Blame me
[Intro: Ice Cube]
You niggas know my pyroclastic flow
You niggas know my pyroclastic flow flow
You niggas know my pyroclastic flow it's R-A-W, R-A-W
[Ice Cube]
You looking at the grand wizard, war lord vocal chord so vicious
And I don't have to show riches to pull up pull off with some bad bitches
And it ain't about chivalry
It's about dope lyrics and delivery
It's about my persona ain't nothing like a man that can do what he wanna
Ain't nothing like man on that you knew on the corner
See 'em come up and fuck up the owner
See 'em throw up Westside California
Nigga I'm hot as Phoenix Arizona
I'm Utah I got multiple bitches
It's a new law keep a hold of yo riches
Dumb nigga don't spend it as soon as you get it
And recognize I'm a captain and you a lieutenant
[Chorus 1]
I can say what I want to say ain't nothing to it gangsta rap made me do it
If I call you a nigga ain't nothing to it gangsta rap made me do it
I can act like an animal ain't nothing to it gangsta rap made me do it
If I eat you like a cannibal ain't nothing to it gangsta rap made me do it
[Ice Cube]
I'm raw as a dirty needle
Choke an eagle
Just to feed all my people
Lyrically I'm so lethal
Plant thoughts in they mind just to defeat you
Ice Cube is a saga y'all spit saliva
And I spit lava
I got the fearless flow
Don't get near this ho
If you sacred to go
I keep it gangsta and why should change that
fuck you all you motherfuckers trying to change rap
But aren't you the same cat that sat back when they brought cocaine back
I'm trying to get me a Maybach
how you motherfuckers gonna tell me don't say that
you the ones that we learned it from
I heard nigga back in 1971
[Chorus 2]
So if I act like a pimp ain't nothing to it gangsta rap made me do it
If I call you a nappy headed ho ain't nothing to it gangsta rap made me do it
If I shoot up your college ain't nothing to it gangsta rap made me do it
If I rob you of knowledge ain't nothing to it gangsta rap made me do it
[Ice Cube]
Thank God when I bless the mic
You finally get to hear the shit that you like
A nigga talking bout real life so you can try to get this shit right
Use your brain not your back use your brain not a gat
It's a party not a jack (for real)
Don't be scared of them people
Walk up in there and show them that you equal (fuck them fuck them)
Don't be material a nigga grew up on milk and cereal
I never for got vaness and imperial
Look at my life Ice Cube is a miracle
It could be you if you was this lyrical
It could be her if she was this spiritual
Cause me and Allah go back like cronies
I don't got to be fake cause he is my homie
[Chorus 3]
If I sell a little crack ain't nothing to it gangsta rap made me do it
If I die in Iraq ain't nothing to it gangsta rap made me do it
If I take you for granted ain't nothing to it gangsta rap made me do it
If I fuck up the planet ain't nothing to it gangsta rap made me do it
[Intro]
[Ice Cube]
Oh yeah and another thing
For all ya niggas that don't do gangsta rap
Don't get on TV talking about gangsta rap
Cause 9 times at a 10 you don't know the fuck you talk about
Talk about that bullshit rap you do
Stay the fuck out of mine
”
”
Ice Cube
“
During our ecstasies in the Himalayan caves, tigers will be spellbound and sit around us like tame pussies," my spirits froze; beads of perspiration formed on my brow. "What then?" I thought. "If the vicious nature of the tigers be not changed through the power of our spiritual trance, shall they treat us with the kindness of house cats?" In my mind's eye, I already saw myself the compulsory inmate of some tiger's stomach-entering there not at once with the whole body, but by installments of its several parts!
”
”
Anonymous
“
Are you injured?” Mo Ran was too stunned to react. His eyes were wide, and his mouth opened in shock as he gaped wordlessly. Chu Wanning looked him up and down and detected no obvious injuries, so he turned back to the Elder Immortal. “Weren’t you asking who his master was a moment ago?” He released his terrifyingly potent spiritual energy and slowly descended to the ground, where he said, simply and sharply, with not a single superfluous word, “Chu Wanning of Sisheng Peak. Show me your best move.
”
”
Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou (The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: Erha He Ta De Bai Mao Shizun (Novel) Vol. 2)
“
tears welled up and overflowed Xue Meng’s eyes as he spoke. “By the time he came down, his spiritual energy had been exhausted. Why do you think he put a protective barrier around you and left without looking back?
”
”
Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou (The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: Erha He Ta De Bai Mao Shizun (Novel) Vol. 3)
“
He remembered Xue Meng’s words. His spiritual energy was completely drained. He was no different from an ordinary person at that time. He couldn’t use a single technique, not even a simple communication spell. He could only carry you on his back and climb up the stairs of Sisheng Peak, step by step. And when he couldn’t do that anymore, when he couldn’t even stand, he had crawled on the ground, on his knees, dragging him until his fingers were torn and his hands covered in blood.
”
”
Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou (The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: Erha He Ta De Bai Mao Shizun (Novel) Vol. 3)
“
Writing, he'd come to see, was the spiritual disease of which it considered itself to be the cure;
”
”
Alexander Theroux (Darconville's Cat)
“
Change our mind, and we change our experience.
”
”
David Michie (The Dalai Lama's Cat and The Four Paws of Spiritual Success (The Dalai Lama's Cat #4))
“
Young bodies are beautiful, strong, flexible, and resilient. They have the fire of hope in their hearts. However, the fire can be a bit feral, like a young alley cat. It can go everywhere, in all directions, willy-nilly. It can turn all claws and spit or get nervous and run away. It pretends things that aren’t true and is afraid of showing what is true. The older cat bides their time. They have patience. They pull the fire inside and let it smoulder. They don’t waste energy on fights not worth the battle or where the casualties would be greater than the goal. They own their failures like scars, saying it would be wise to take them seriously. They are not ashamed of their loves. They value their spirit and let it grow. It’s in the eyes. The body may move less, but it has presence and power of a different sort. It is authentic.
”
”
Donna Goddard (Dance: A Spiritual Affair (The Creative Spirit Series, #1))
“
Adam said, “Lord, I am lonesome and have trouble remembering how much you love me.” God said, “No problem! I will create a companion for you so you will know my affection, even when you cannot see me. No matter how selfish and foolish you may be, this new companion will love you unconditionally, as I do.” So God created a new animal for Adam, and this new animal was so happy to be with the man, that it wagged its tail with joy. But Adam said, “Lord, I do not have a name for the new animal.” And God said, “Because I created this animal to reveal my love for you, his name will have the same letters as my own name—you will call him Dog.” So Dog became Adam’s best friend, and Dog was happy and wagged his tail even more. But after a while, one of the angels complained to God, saying, “Lord, Adam has become arrogant. He is insufferably conceited. Dog has taught him that he is unconditionally loved—but no one teaches him humility.’ And the Lord said, “I have a solution! I will create another companion for him who will see the man as he is. This creature will remind him that he is not always worthy of adoration.” And God created Cat. Cat was certain he was far superior to Adam, and so Cat taught Adam humility. And God was pleased. And Cat did not give a darn one way or the other.
”
”
Kenneth McIntosh (Water from an Ancient Well: Celtic Spirituality for Modern Life)
“
The cat's sophisticated personae are masks of an advanced theatricality. Priests and god its own cult, the cat follows a code of ritual purity, cleaning itself religiously. Priest and god of its own cult, the car sacrifices to itself and may share its ceremonies with the elect. [...] The cat is the least Christian inhabitant of the entire home.
”
”
Camille Paglia (Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (Yale Nota Bene))
“
Petipa responds with vigor equal to Ralph's robust song and flamboyant gestures. Once the energy level is raised, Ralph feels that his postures become imbued with an unconscious spiritual significance which Petipa affirms by countering with her own complementary moves. A hopping arabesque from Ralph may provoke a series of elegant stalking leaps from Petipa, while a fluttering of fingers may be countered with tiny aerial flurries. Poignant moments of unconcerned fur licking punctuate the patterns of the dance.
Dancing with a tail of his own attached, Fred becomes a psychic extension of the cat. 'I share its grace, power, and oneness with the universe. I relate to Fluff and the whole spectrum of feline physicality on a profound level--I even regard birds differently.'
Cat dancing is likely a complex vocabulary of gestures that we have yet to recognize and fully understand. Helen, along with others who share her covenant, has come to feel that Boot's studied poses communicate his inner thoughts and embody his souls unexpressed desires.
But you have to be careful; sometimes the energy is so powerful I worry about overstimulating my aura. At those levels, an unstable etheric oscillation could collapse into an astral vortex and suck my spiritual reserves into a sate of negative sub-matter.
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Burton Silver (Dancing with Cats)
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Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Often, our greatest suffering is self-inflicted.
When we say, "I can only be happy when this happens" or "I can only feel peaceful if that happens", that's when we make a problem for ourselves.
Attachment is when we believe that a person, a thing or an outcome is necessary for our happiness. At that moment, we turn the person, thing or outcome into a source of future suffering. We risk becoming enslaved to it. Much better to think: I am already the possessor of happiness and inner peace. To have this person, thing or outcome in my life - how wonderful! But it is not necessary for my fundamental wellbeing.
The more we let go, the more peace here - he touched his heart.
All is letting go. If we wish to be happy, we let go of our delusions: renunciation. If we wish to fulfill our true purpose, to experience ultimate wellbeing, we let go of our preoccupation with ourselves: bodhicitta. And if we wish to act in accordance with reality, we let go of illusions about the way that things exist: sunyata.
Sometimes the things we cling to most tightly are those that hurt us more than anything. But we keep on clinging because we don't believe there's a different way.
Greater concentration means less agitation.
It is a rare privilege for a cat to allow full, eye-to-eye contact with a human.
No matter where you are or what you are doing, as a physically fit and capable person, you are better able to deal with whatever life throws at you.
Training the mind is the same. No matter where you are or what you are doing, as a mentally fit and capable person, you are better able to deal with whatever life throws at you.
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David Michie (The Dalai Lama's Cat and The Four Paws of Spiritual Success (The Dalai Lama's Cat #4))
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When the spiritual teacher and his disciples began their evening meditation, the cat who lived in the monastery made such noise that it distracted them. So the teacher ordered that the cat be tied up during the evening practice. Years later, when the teacher died, the cat continued to be tied up during the meditation session. And when the cat eventually died, another cat was brought to the monastery and tied up. Centuries later, learned descendants of the spiritual teacher wrote scholarly treatises about the religious significance of tying up a cat for meditation practice.
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Zen story
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We teach what we most need to learn, yes?
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David Michie (The Dalai Lama's Cat and The Four Paws of Spiritual Success (The Dalai Lama's Cat #4))
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The very nature of art—failures by which man sought to memorize his experience—spiritually underdeveloped the very disciples who most needed to know what it wasn't, could not be, able to do. The symbol of art is the tombstone, thought Darconville, an obelisk sticking up out of the earth with the inscription, "I count
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Alexander Theroux (Darconville's Cat)
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All too often I was left to my own devices and frequently roamed the forests and fields, a handful of barn cats diligently following after me.
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Althaea Sebastiani (Paganism for Beginners: The Complete Guide to Nature-Based Spirituality for Every New Seeker)
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May this action be the cause for my enlightenment for the sake of all living beings.
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David Michie (The Dalai Lama's Cat and The Four Paws of Spiritual Success (The Dalai Lama's Cat #4))
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At the point in Israel’s history when men, armed for battle, rallied around David at Hebron to take the kingdom from Saul, the chronicler makes an interesting observation about the qualifications of one particular group, the men of Issachar. He lists “men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do” (1 Chr 12:32). We need such people today, people who can understand our times, culturally and spiritually, if we want to be a vital part of what God is going to do next. God has taken me through a learning process over the last forty-plus years, as my wife and I have served him here in Boston, to help me understand how to work with him in his kingdom.
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Douglas A. Hall (The Cat and the Toaster: Living System Ministry in a Technological Age (Urban Voice Book 0))
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Behind my house where satsang is held there is a forest with animals, birds, stones and trees. Several satsang participants have reported that they have had beautiful meeting with deers, birds and other animals after satsang. They say that it is like the animals are attracted to the the spiritual energy from satsang. The animals, birds and trees are in tune with existence, they are part of existence and they have never been separated, so they are attracted to the satsang energy which they want to be a natural part of. Animals, birds, trees and nature should be loved and respected. There are a constant evolution, and loving and respecting the animals, the birds, the trees and the nature shows that we can be loving and respectful towards their future evolution. We are all part of the same life and evolution, and these animals, birds and trees are part of existence just as we are. When man hunts animals for enjoyment, manis simply ignorant and not respecting animals.
A former girlfriend used to say a little sour that I was one of these people that children and animals loved. She said it a little sour because she also wanted to be one of these people. When the animals,birds and trees becomes attracted to the satsang energy, it becomes obvious that it is time for meditators to spend more time in contact with animals, birds, trees and nature. That can help us to learn the secret of existence as the animals, birds and trees are still in tune with existence. They are not separate from existence, which man is in his egoistic effort has separated himself from existence. Therefore to mix with animals, birds and trees and to have the whole universe as friends will help meditators to learn the secret of existence. It will teach usthat we are also part of nature and if nature stops cooperating with us, we will simply be dead.
I was adopted by afamily of deers, where the mother proudly showed me her three small children. Deva Emanuel commented that it is astonishing that it is possible to come in contact with these wild animals.
I also found Padma, my beloved friend from many lives and a participant in satsang,several times out in nature before satsang in deep silence, prayer and oneness with nature. The condemnation against animals, birds. trees and nature is part of the human ego, but animals, birds, trees and nature have so much to teach us. Just look at a cat, who knows the secret of how to relax. Cats are meditative animals. There is not a better teacher in how to relax than cats. Look at a cat sitting, how meditatively he sits. Look at him, how meditative he is. He is just sitting and meditating, one with existence.
Animals, birds and trees also have feelings and a soul. They are part of the divine. The divine is not just in man, the divine is in the animals ,the birds, the trees and nature. The divine is the basic center in everything.
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Swami Dhyan Giten (Meditation: A Love Affair with the Whole - Thousand and One Flowers of Silence, Love, Joy, Truth, Freedom, Beauty and the Divine)
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the experience of an event depends on the mind of the experiencer, even more than the event itself.
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David Michie (The Dalai Lama's Cat and The Four Paws of Spiritual Success (The Dalai Lama's Cat #4))
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As long as we kept on practicing loving kindness and creating the grounds for positive future outcomes, we need have no fear of what might arise.
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David Michie (The Dalai Lama's Cat and The Four Paws of Spiritual Success (The Dalai Lama's Cat #4))
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I fell deeply in love with the books of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. They parented me, and gave me a sense of what it was to be a decent person, without any of the usual hypocritical rhetoric. They fired my imagination and opened me up; I read them all one after the other, Breakfast of Champions, Cat’s Cradle, The Sirens of Titan, Slaughterhouse-Five, on and on they go, they gave me the soul nutrients I needed. He was bitterly funny and awakened in me a morality that lay dormant and unarticulated. He taught me that it was fun and beautiful to be humble, and that human beings are no more important than rutabagas. That we’ve got to love with all we are, not for some reward down the line, but purely for the sake of being a loving person, and that creativity was the highest part of ourselves to engage. He pointed out the frivolous and insensitive attitudes that birthed the absurd cruelty of war. His humorous detachment from the world’s insane and egotistical violence—“So it goes”—my first hint of a spiritual concept. To this day, his books inform my political and social views, my sense of humor, and touch me deeply. KVJ changed my life, he never gets old.
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Flea (Acid for the Children: A Memoir)
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soul friend”. An Anam Cara may play the role of death midwife, helping a being through an important time of transition.
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David Michie (The Dalai Lama's Cat and The Four Paws of Spiritual Success (The Dalai Lama's Cat #4))
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Compassion, wisdom, power. When you have compassion and power but no wisdom, this is idiot compassion. Compassion and wisdom but no power—what can you achieve?” he shrugged. “All three are necessary, together.
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David Michie (The Dalai Lama's Cat and The Four Paws of Spiritual Success (The Dalai Lama's Cat #4))
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Everything begins with intention,
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David Michie (The Dalai Lama's Cat and The Four Paws of Spiritual Success (The Dalai Lama's Cat #4))
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our problems are not out there in the world, but in our minds—where we can do something about them.
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David Michie (The Dalai Lama's Cat and The Four Paws of Spiritual Success (The Dalai Lama's Cat #4))
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Self-care In a healthy relationship, both members practice good self-care. You understand that being healthy on your own is a crucial part of having a healthy relationship. You love yourself, have confidence, and are able to take time to focus on you, without being sabotaged by self-guilt. Self-care involves both physical, mental, and spiritual needs. Go to the doctor. Take mental health days. Take prescribed medications. Eat healthy. Exercise. Pray. Lie in the sun like a cat. Whatever fuels you and gives you rest, that’s self-care.
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Laura Raskin (Codependency: The End of Codependency: How to Stop Controlling and Enabling Others, Love Yourself, Have Happy Relationships, and be Codependent No More)