I had an interesting experience last week.  I'm a psychologist at a high school and they asked me to speak on Career Day.  This is always fun for me because I really enjoy...for the most part...what I do and I love to talk with students about the many twists and turns that my life took before I really knew what I wanted to be when I grew up.    Another psychologist was speaking as well...two presenters per class per period.  Well, I happened to arrive at the class just as the other psychologist was finishing up and I had to bite my tongue.  She works in animal research lab at Arizona State University!  Yikes...my animal rights activist heart nearly jumped right out of my skin.

After she walked out the door I said, "It's a good thing that psychology is such a huge field, 'cause I'd never be that kind of psychologist.  I'd be the one picketing outside of her lab."  That got a chuckle, but it gave me a chance to say a bit about animals and my perspective on the topic. 

So after the presentations, I was speaking to a couple of the teachers and the event organizer and we discussed how different my world view is compared to the animal researcher.  She told me that some of the students were really upset and the researcher assured them that the animals were well cared for and not in pain.  The event organizer said to me, "I know that it's not pleasant, but they're working on a cure for Alzheimers." My mother-in-law, a beautiful and kind woman, died a horrible death due to Alzheimers, so I would also like a cure to be found for this disease.  But I told her that in my world view, my needs don't outweigh another being's needs.  That they value life and fear death just like we do. 

Now, I'd like for you to visualize a world where we are no longer at the top of the food chain.  If you're a Star Trek fan, that shouldn't be too hard ;-)  Another species exists from a galaxy far, far away and they make their way to our beautiful blue planet.  So, they decide that  since we are similar in some ways to them that they can use us for research so that they can develop cures for diseases that still plague them.  They know that we can't be too smart as we are consuming more resources than the earth can support and the pollution here is just horrible.  They set some traps and capture us, lock us in a room so that we can't get away, and then they do tests on us.  Some of them are nice to us...they speak to us and pat us on the head, but some get very angry when we try to get away and they hit us, shock us, and sometimes break our arms.  They do feed us, and clean up our waste, but we are not free to go and we are separated from our friends and family.  Sometimes the experiments hurt...they put chemicals in our eyes to see what will happen, they put electrodes in our heads, and they practice surgical procedures so that they get it right before they try in on themselves.   Oh, and by the way, they thought it was a little exotic at first, but now they are okay with eating us...we taste like something they eat back home...similar to our chicken.

Now, how do you feel about animal research?  It's easy to think about our own needs, but it's not so pretty if we're no longer at the top of the food chain.  Please only support companies that don't use animal testing for their products.  And please don't support organizations who don't use new technology for testing...animals don't have to be experimented on to create new drugs.  It's just cheaper...that's why it's done.  Money always seems to be more important than compassion.

That's my perspective and I'm sticking to it!

Peace, happiness, and compassion,

Donna

My real job...the one that pays the bills...is being a school psychologist.  One of my joys is to see Harley when he attends school with Nancy, our teacher of the Hearing Impaired.  She knows how much I love animals, so she usually gives Harley permission to say hi to me.  Today, Nancy was speaking with Carolyn, a grandmotherly woman, who works as an Instructional Assistant.  Carolyn told Nancy about how good the vegan cake that we ate yesterday was...that's another wonderful story :-)  Well, that comment lead to a discussion about Veganism and why I don't eat anything with a parent or a face or anything that comes from a being that has a parent or a face.  Carolyn made sure that Nancy understood that I don't even wear leather or wool.

When Nancy asked me about why I'm a Vegan, I told her that I don't see myself as being any better than the animals that share the planet with us.  I also told her that I believe that every sentient being contains Divinity within...that to intentionally hurt or be the cause of suffering for another being...would be like hurting myself or hurting my idea of God.  Meanwhile, Harley was laying underneath a desk...just absorbing our conversation.  We continued our discussion and I told them about Covance, a medical testing company, that unfortunately is moving into Arizona.  I told them how painful it is for the animals that they use for testing and how miserable their lives are.  Nancy said that she hadn't thought about any of these things before, but that she was grateful that I had shared my views...that they had made her see things differently.  She then gave Harley permission to say hi to me and he came running across the room and gave me a big kiss :-)  He usually just comes over so I can pet him, but this time he gave me endless kisses.

Nancy said that Harley was thanking me for speaking for him and other animals that can't speak for themselves.

May all beings be peaceful and free,

Donna

Dave Oliver, my Astanga teacher, was talking about the Hindu belief that we all share a small piece of God called Atman...and when all the little pieces are combined together, that makes up Brahman.  This sounded so much like my personal spiritual belief that we all contain god with a small g within us and you add us all together and it makes God with a capital G.  I almost made the comment, "How beautiful...too bad we can't all experience this Oneness," but then I thought of the caste system in India and the people known as the untouchables. 

Now, I am by no means a great spiritual teacher nor am I a scholar on Hinduism or spirituality, but this question kept racing through my mind: "If we are all One...all containing the essence of our interpretation of God, then how can we say that one group of people is better or worse than another?"  It just doesn't make since to me.

We have our own "caste" system in the United States as well.  Judging others based on race, language, social status, education, position, neighborhood, etc.  How do we overcome this?  I believe that we will never reach Samadhi until we see ourselves in others...until we experience no distinction between you and me...until we experience Oneness.

And when we experience Oneness, we will no longer hurt others with our thoughts, words, or actions because we would realize that we are only hurting ourselves.  And when we truly experience Oneness, we will no longer see our own species as better than other species.  We won't see them as food, shoes, entertainment.  We will see that when we cause suffering for them, we are bringing about suffering for ourselves because they too are One with us...they too contain Atman or the lower case "g."

May our thoughts, words, and actions come from a place of Oneness with all beings.

Namaste,

Donna

   

Thirty months ago, we adopted Huck, a large (13 pounds!) gray tabby with beautiful light green eyes. He was approximately 1 1/2 to 2 years old and was turned in to a local shelter as a stray. Since he was no longer a kitten, he was almost euthanized twice, but kind people who saw his sweet spirit kept rescuing him. He was finally taken in by a rescue group and unfortunately contracted the Corona Virus. The cat who infected him died shortly after from FIP. Huck also had Giardia...a nasty parasite. So, when we adopted him, he was a pretty sick boy. The vet told us that he had a 50/50 chance of making it...but he did and he got rid of the Giardia and the following year, his white blood cell count was perfect...but his red cell count was just a little off. On retesting, he was fine.

So now, a year later, we have his annual exam and his red blood cell count is way off. It should fall between 30-35, but he had dropped to 19 which means that he was pretty anemic. Cats are very different than we are and you can't just give them iron, etc. His vet said that if his red blood cell count dropped much further, he would need a transfusion. The only option seemed to be a hormone that could tell his body to make more red blood cells (he wasn't making any at the time). Unfortunately, this option can help 70-75 percent of the cats treated with it, and it can cause a horrible immune system reaction for the other 25-30 percent of them leading to no read blood cell production and death. Needless to say, I was very worried about my boy Huck and didn't know what to do...without the hormone, he might continue to decline and die and with the hormone, he might decline and die. I really didn't know what to do...then I came back to my yoga...centered mind, deep breath, inward focus.

When I'm teaching a yoga class, I always remind my students that we have all of the answers within...we just can't always hear them clearly due to the noise of our thoughts and emotions. So I tried to rid my mind of my fear of losing Huck and found that quiet place within and asked the question, "What should I do?" Now the important thing here is to not let the mind race to find an answer...once the question is asked, we need to be quiet and listen. When I quieted my mind and asked the question, the clear answer that I received was to wait and try energy work with him.   So, I asked my yoga friends to surround Huck with positive healing energy and I performed Reiki on him for 5 minutes each day...that's about all he could handle.

His doctor was out of town, but we spoke on the phone and I told her about my plans. We agreed to give him some time without the hormone and to draw some blood upon her return. But if he was worse, we'd have to start the treatment. On Thursday (9/26) she examined Huck and said that he just didn't look like an anemic cat...his gums were pink, his heart rate was normal...and believe it or not, his blood results went from 19 back up to 30....he's back to normal. So Huck went from not making any new red blood cells at all back to normal with the healing energy of Reiki and our yoga friends surrounding him with beautiful energy.

Huck is a member of our family and brings happiness to our lives every day. Please support organizations in your community that save these sweet beings who just need to find the right home...and please spay/neuter your pets. There are healthy, wonderful animals that are killed daily because there aren't enough people who are willing to bring them into their families. Compassion for all beings is a very important component of our yoga practice. Remember that our thoughts, words, and actions impact every being around us.

Please add your comments and stories.  I'd love to hear about your experiences as well.

Peace and love,

Donna