Being

"You are not separate from the whole. You are one with the sun, the earth, the air. You don't have a life. You are life."

If you know any dog/cat lovers...who have  philosophical or spiritual leanings (or who have too much stress and in need of some peace)...suggest this book to them--The Guardians of Being.  It is so sweet and so profound whilst remaining wonderfully simple and direct.

Dogs and cats are prefect examples of living in contentment and joy by living in The Now.  They've no worries for the future or cares for the past.  They've no concern about their image.  They just are as they are, flaws and all.  They love unconditionally.   I'd read this book a couple years ago, but after talking about it with a friend last night I had to re-read it today.  It is illustrated by Patrick McDonnell, who draws the comic strip Mutts if you are familiar with that.  The words are by the spiritual guide (and in my opinion, genius) Eckhart Tolle.

While I am not a Buddhist I do find the Eastern precepts are often quite reflective of my own mystical experiences.  I have felt absolute connection and unity with strangers, friends, trees, mountains, animals, and sunshine.  An overwhelming and rather indescribable love and compassion and understanding and sense of kinship.  I wholeheartedly believe that we all contain the essence of the Creator--a part of the majestic divine.  Everything is sacred.  Trees, earth, wildlife, streams, humans, stones, waterfalls, stars, clouds.  It is this belief that encourages me to live the way I do--to want to lessen my negative impact and live with as great a harmony as possible with the people and the land around me.  I am not perfect in this, but I try as best I can each day. 

I copied the following quotes down into one of my journals when I read it the first time.  I enjoyed them just as much the second time.  I'd recommend the entire book, but here are a few of my favorite passages. 
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True happiness is found in simple, seemingly unremarkable things.

Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. How still it is, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness.

Everything natural -every flower, tree, and animal- has important lessons to teach us if we would only stop, look, and listen.

We get lost in doing, thinking, remembering, anticipating -lost in a maze of complexity and a world of problems. Nature can show us the way home, the way out of the prison of our own minds.

Dogs offer the precious opportunity, even to people who are trapped in their egos, of loving and being loved unconditionally.

Every being is a spark of the Divine or God.

When you are present, you can sense the spirit, the one consciousness, in every creature and love it as yourself.

Love is a deep empathy with the other's "Beingness." You recognize yourself, your essence, in the other. And so you can no longer inflict suffering on the other.

The one life, the one consciousness, takes on the form of a man or woman, a blade of grass, a dog, a planet, a sun, a galaxy... This is the play of forms, the dance of life...

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Excepts from Guardians of Being by Eckhart Tolle (with drawings by Patrick McDonnell)