Animals and Buddha Nature

Animals have no choice but to directly express their Buddha nature. Buddha nature is our essence–that which we really are: joy, light, and love. Animals, on the other hand, are always honest. (And yes, they do have feelings.) They have no choice but to be innocent and loving–because that is their true nature.

It is only humans that have the ability to reflect their Buddha nature in different ways. We can hide or mask who we really are inside. We choose how to reflect our Buddha nature by tilting our prism. If we are angry or judging someone else, that is how we choose to reflect our Buddha nature. Of all the choices we had to reflect our joy, light, and love in that moment, we chose to reflect our Buddha nature to condemn another human being. What a waste. The condemnation is destructive, but the true tragedy is the opportunity cost. It is the loss of the beautiful way that we could heave reflected our love during that moment.

Our free will is largely how we reflect our Buddha nature. Bart Anderson explains, “The (0nly) choice is how we affect- how we reflect our Buddha nature.” The choice we make is the effect our life has on the world.

Animals do not have this choice. How they are is what you get. It is our privilege to have this choice. Hopefully, we use this freedom well… That we choose to reflect the joy inside of us in some really beautiful ways.

Stop pushing things away

Having the things you want in life, as well as, being close to people is a lot simpler then you might think. Possibilities of the things you want present themselves to you all the time. Opportunities to be close and connect with people come to you every day. All you really have to do is not push them away.

Having the things you truly want is natural. Being close to the people you care about is also natural. Bart Anderson referred to these states as the natural state of being. It is unnatural to not allow yourself to have the things you want. It is unnatural to not be close and to have love. Most of us believe 180° from this.

The way we disallow the life and love we seek is by pushing things away that are presenting themselves to us.  It is often a self-worth issue. We only allow as much love and beauty as we believe we deserve. Anything beyond that we push away.

Unless… we recognize that we are about to push something or someone away and stop ourselves. Then the possibility that presents itself to us can naturally unfold. So possibilities naturally come to us and unfold. People naturally love us.

All we have to do is let them.

Emotional responsibility.

 ”All of your feelings eventually do come out to play. You can either address them willingly- or on your hands and knees” Bart Anderson.

People stress taking responsibility for all kinds of things these days. But what about being responsible to what you are feeling? The overall healthiest thing you can do with a feeling is to express it. Feelings are energy; energy works best when we experience (feel) it and release it. So it would follow that emotional responsibility is committing to whenever you experience a significant feeling, you find someone to express it to. Think of it as being responsible to yourself.

It needn’t always be the same person. One person may better accept one feeling and another person may  more readily accept another. Discernment is essential when identifying someone to share your feeling with. Their ability to accept the feeling you need to express is the most essential quality in choosing someone to express your feeling to. Someone that has a similar life experience may be able to understand and relate to the feeling.

Obviously some feelings are best expressed to the person you are feeling them toward. Relational feelings such as anger and love work best when they are expressed directly to the person you feel them toward.

Journaling is also an excellent tool to express your feelings. Often feelings and their corresponding thoughts will cycle around and around your psyche until you place them outside of yourself. Writing allows you to concretize your feelings outside of yourself so you can relate to them. Just like sometimes you need to hear yourself saying something to someone in order to understand it.

And don’t think about it too much. Note that you are feeling something, identify someone to share it with, and start expressing.

You might feel a little vulnerable afterwards- that means you are doing it right.

How human of you

Observe yourself. Take a day to observe the way you respond to people and various things. Observe your thoughts and your feelings. It takes some courage to take an honest look. And then totally accept everything that you observe about yourself. Don’t analyze it or put it in a box. Take away the, “I shouldn’t think that” (because you just did).

Take a deep breath and celebrate your humanity. It is you- uncensored. You might observe yourself: being defensive; being irreverent; getting your feelings hurt over something seemingly silly; checking out someone’s butt; thinking about how you have lost respect for someone, or making a snide comment to yourself about someone that is wasting your time with their mindless drivel. How human of you.

There may be some dark things. You may notice some anger, bitterness, jealousy, judgement, selfishness, or lechery. If you can accept these things as a part of you right now, you have made a huge step toward being free. After all, you have to embrace something about yourself before you can let it go.

Or maybe you are cool just the way you are. People told you it was not OK to be the way you are- they were wrong.

My favorite definition meditation is “receptivity to self” (Bart Anderson). You basically observe your thoughts without getting attached to them. So… practice some meditation as you walk through your day.

There is nothing that icky in there. I guarantee there is some really cool, human stuff. And at least it’s real. So let yourself have it.

Feeling equanimous?

Merriam-webster.com defines equanimity as evenness of mind- especially under stress. I also refer to it as a discipline to pull up positive energy to present to people or situation regardless of  your  feeling or mood. So the requiredness of the situation trumps mood.

I used to think that being even-tempered would take away from what I was feeling. But the reality is that we feel things in the moment. Our mood is usually a reaction to or attachment to the feeling. Bart Anderson differentiated between emotion and emotional- emotion being the pure feeling, and emotional being the reaction to the feeling.

So feel the emotion fully. Express it. Move through it, and then open yourself up to the next feeling. And if a new experience presents it self while you are still feeling the last one, open yourself up to that. The feeling will come back soon enough if it needs to.

Bart used to teach that being active during grief and deep feeling is much more effective emotionally. It allows you to work through it- and it keeps the feeling to moving into a depression.

So back to the discipline of equanimity. When you interact with a person, it is the process of opening your heart and letting the natural excitement and anticipation of a new experience unfold. It is just a habit or skill that you develop like anything else.

Plus… when a new experince presents itself to you- it is your life live- where everything exciting and cool happens. Do you really want to risk missing it because you are in a bad mood? It may be when that thing you intended or prayed for presents itself to you.

To quote David Byrne and Talking Heads, “Don’tcha miss it. Some of you people just about missed it.”

Or… as Bart used to say to me when I was in a bad mood, “Get over yourself, Mike.”