OUR ANIMAL GURUS

For almost 40 years, i'd been looking for something like this. Something simple, without any mystical or abstract intellectual depths.

On reflection i suppose it was obvious that animals knew a way of life without any mystical or abstract intellectual depths.

We must play at 'going on the lookout'. Watching for movements all around and out of the corners of our eyes like blackbirds – listening-out for dogs and humans like a hare does – and smelling on the wind for coffee or food cooking, just as the hedgehog will smell for apples and beetles.

The ways to msiinterpret new ideas are legion. The human tendency is to associate ideas with something they already know. This has very little to do with mindfulness or focusing on the present moment.

Another association is with Shamanism. I reject this connection. Shamanism may or may not have as many truths as any other belief system, but what i am suggesting is not a belief system, it is life itself as animals experience it.

What i am suggesting is common sense, observation, and empathy with animals and their practical approach to life in general, without any spiritual or mystical connotations.

If my unprofessional writing style leaves any remaining doubt, or unanswered questions, please go straight to the experts.

This is not a tradition of teaching with theories and beliefs... but proving by example.

Animals are always here to guide us with first hand experience. They give freely and ask nothing back.

If they've lived through a winter they understand suffering, yet remain open and full of hope.

The teaching tradition would be safe in their hands, safe from pompous and abstract ideas.

I've been practising these 'animal teachings' for around 15 years now, and there are worlds still to discover, but i'm getting old and slow, with too many illnesses to care for.

My dearest wish is that younger people, who have so much more time and experimental energy, will understand what i'm saying, develop it, and... who knows what they could discover...