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Do you think cats are enlightened beings?
I seriously believe that cats (felines) are bodhisattvas. Cats have perfect posture, they are incredible graceful. They never let their desire get the best of them.
Look at them:
Look at them:
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When I was younger, my family had two wonderful cats, but one of them was deaf; would a boddhisatva be born deaf?
My aunt's cat was pretty violent, though, so he probably wasn't a boddhisatva...
And I love the pictures!
I love cats. I mean, I really, really love cats. I'm a cat person through and through. I have a 'potentially life threatening asthmatic allergy' to them according to my allergist and I still came back home to live with my folks after being away for over 20 years...and they have 4 cats.
So I say this with all the love in my heart: When it comes to problem solving, cats are dumb. Since problem solving is one of the fundamental components of measuring intelligence, cats are dumb. According to this way of measuring intelligence, even rats are smarter than cats.
But cats are extremely intelligent at training humans to do things for them. In fact, in a recent study it was shown that the meow of a cat has a similar affect on humans as the cry of a human infant.
Rats can't deliberately manipulate humans, even if their lives depend on it. Cats can manipulate humans just for fun. (Not that they do, just that they could if they wanted to...).
I don't think anyone says a Bodhisattva has to be intelligent in the traditional sense so who knows? I'm just saying...
When Mom was dying, Dad got a Siamese cat who was small enough to curl up in Mom's lap without causing her pain. She seemed to find this comforting. Dad got a second Siamese to keep the first one company, and after Mom died they kept Dad company. It wasn't until more than a year later that I discovered how depressed Dad had been, so I'm very grateful to the cats for taking care of him while the idiot son was blithely occupied with other things.
So like Brigid says, bodhisattva maybe, smart no.
As for the intelligence of a son who doesn't notice how depressed his Dad is, all I can say is "meow".
Not exactly an act of a bodhisattva on the part of the cat. I really love cats (and all animals) and have had several as pets, but they can be extremely cruel to smaller creatures, even if they've just had a large meal. One needs to avoid getting too sentimental and romantic about them, however cute and cuddly they are!
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I don't think you can attribute "cruelty" to cats any more than you can to any other animal. This is simply the way that humans ascribe human feelings where there are none. Cats act, in general, according to their nature.
A good point Simon -- but with regard to the OP #1 it can still hardly be described as the action of a Bodhisatta when they're wounding another creature.
Nice kitties by the way ! (sorry about the different font sizes I couldn't seem to do anything about it)
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My sister was shocked that I'd never seen that video. It made me cry like a baby. She says there's more footage of it so I'm going to have a look on YouTube to see if I can find it. Oh god, I love that video. It just kills me.
Suddenly a full grown mountain lion stepped up onto the road from the woods....
not 20 feet ahead of me.
Wow! It was magnificent....
SO magnificent....I forgot to panic.
I froze.
He/she pretended not to see me.....crossed in front of me and vanished into the woods again.
I went home and gave the cats extra treats and thanked the Cat God/Goddess.
I told a friend it would have been okay if it ate me.....that would be a better epitaph than being crushed on the freeway.....but another friend said:
"I've seen the results of such an encounter and you really don't want to go there."
Now I worry about walking there again.
I think I should carry 10 pounds of cat chow as an offering.
Then I think the cat will smell the cat chow and attack me by mistake.
It's a conundrum.
Now I'm just Lazy Vinyl
Palzang
He also is a healer and knows how to fly through the astral
He is going to have a litter of kittens and needs a girl who is up for it does anyone know a cat? I'm in new england or LA (310) 431-9047
would love to hear from anyone if you find this I don't know how to match him with another cat, if I didn't have him he'd be great in nursing homes to heal the sick
I am seriously true he's a healer and an angel of light
He's training to be a lion in his next life in Africa in the wild!!
I betcha their deep meditative state can accomplish the same "oneness" as ours. Perhaps ultimate awareness does not mean a bigger brain is necessary.
Our large brains mean we have language skills, abstraction, logic and rational thinking. Even so, we're easily impressed so we're thinking that's a major difference.
I bet we're equals as far as meditation abilities are concerned. Perhaps language, abstraction, and rationality makes meditation more difficult and not as great as a cat's ability to concentrate on meditation.
Cats have many millions of years of evolution, many more years than we have. They are better than we are at certain things, who said we are better at meditation than they are?!
:bowdown:
Cats can't be vegetarians, they would die of malnutrition and starvation within just a few weeks...
My cat has become part of my meditation because it always wants to go out. I can't decide if its bodhicitta to let it out or if my medition doesn't matter if I let a cat out.
The animal realm is one of the lower realms. As cute as cats, our biase and discrimination tend to miss out their predatory instinct. We'd soon forgive a cat for torturing a bird than a fly gets on our food.
Well, yeah, but this cat hisses and raises its back and tail when anyone else is around, mainly kids.
We have saved multiple cats over the years and love them all. Some were with us longer than others but we got used to having a small cat colony and have observed their personalities.
We've had near feral cats who, over time, responded to our love and seemed to heal from their past traumas. We rescued a kitten from a drain pipe and he is very devoted to us. Whenever a member of the family was sick, he would sleep with them as if guarding them. He would also try to bring me LIVE wild canaries as a gift. They would fly away as soon as he opened his mouth. The "old lady" of the group would come to the defense of a weaker cat if it was being picked on by one of the others. The last addition to our cat family was a two day old kitten, left to die by the mother cat's owners. I asked permission to take the tiny thing and I did. She only weighed 37 grams and was the size of a mouse. We all took turns feeding her, keeping her warm with a water bottle, and my husband babysat her while he was on vacation for two weeks. As a result, the little girl cat adores him and is very devoted to him. She follows him like a puppy and showers him with affection. She likes the rest of us well enough but has truly bonded with my hubby.
They must have some degree of consciousness to posses such strong personalities- good or bad. I dare say many animals are more capable of love than many people are.
I think that cats, and most other animals do a much better job at just being then us. I suspect they don't have as big a problem with conceptual thoughts getting in the way of the direct perception of reality as it is.
However, can a cat help us along the path? Without question! So can a mosquito.
My bad.
He's doing all sorts of things to avoid giving me an answer. He gets all cute, ignores me, begs for food, sleeps, His avoidance techniques are so obvious! I conclude he knows a lot more about this question than he's willing to share.
Now? I'm sure I'm phrasing the question wrongly, or I'm asking it improperly and he's trying to teach me something. I'll keep working on it.