Humans and Animals

Meditation on the comparison between animals and human beings

The difference between the gaze of a human being and that of an animal is that human beings, consciously or unconsciously, transport a thought with their attention, while animals express a wilful desiring.

If seekers of insight look deeply at the eyes of a horse, a cat or a dog for a prolonged period, they will increasingly discover that what is being expressed is a true neediness for food or affection. The animal is caught in its own wanting, and in its way it can only adapt this wanting to the environment to a limited extent. The eyes therefore express a needy looking which in itself, with the instincts and dispositions, is linked to the body.

Human beings, however, assuming that they bring themselves into an alert presentness and clear consciousness, develop a real view for the outside world and for all phenomena. They shape a thought, perhaps not always consciously, whenever they look at an object or a person. Doctors, for example, observe their patients and if they encounter them with alertness, with clear interest, they recognise their general state, and furthermore notice the severity of their illnesses. Why do they see their patients according to a reality that has a universal validity? They develop, and bring into motion, specific thoughts, connected with experiences and feelings, which they transport with their gaze – or better expressed – which they allow to enter into their eyes, and in this way they become seeing. It is always that a thought has been learned and finds its way into a flexible, practical application, when the human consciousness takes an object into its sphere of attention. Through the aptitude of spirit and clarity of thought, light and liberating experiences can express themselves in this gesture of the human gaze, and very beautiful encounters can develop.

If human beings remain without thoughts, however, and make no effort to observe with a content for their consciousness, they slip into dreamy periods, only half consciously experience the environment, and even fall into those inappropriate spheres of pure neediness in the longing of their own attachments. Human beings can see, or can ascend to seeing, while animals are still totally unable to rise up to real seeing, as with their instincts they are trapped in the drive of their own wanting.

A consideration of the human gaze with thought content, in comparison to the animal with longing desire, reveals the differences between spirituality and neediness. These observations are very valuable for a basic meditation on a comparison.

To develop a meditation, those practising must actually overcome all wilful, rising needs, all longings for affection or instant liking, and develop a real seeing, a free perceiving of a chosen object, content or topic.

The calming effect of a harmonious relationship between animal and human

A harmonious relationship between human beings and animals calms the autonomic nerves and has the effect of reconciling the mind that is clearly so tense. To a particular extent, encounters with animals help children and young people, in a simple way, to develop a natural love for life and all living things. Children who love their animals feel as if they are taken up by the cradle of the earth. Animals also seek a relationship to children to an astonishing extent. The tolerance that dogs and cats give to children playing is sometimes unfathomable.

There are domestic animals who are raised in the closest cohabitation with humans, and wild animals who do not get involved in symbiosis with humans. Consider the butterfly, in the way it flies from leg to shoulder, and then settles on the hand. Is it not looking for some sort of subtle encounter and contact with the human being? The timid fox brushes along the garden fence, in fact wanting to be seen for a moment. Animals that belong entirely to nature seek a perception for the human spirit; they want to receive a liberating touch with the gaze of the human being, because they are as if set back in their animal realm. When a child calls its parents saying: “Look, there’s a squirrel”, the squirrel, with its long tail, wants to demonstrate an elegant spring and enjoy a moment of the child’s innocent perception. After it has been seen, this little creature experiences a very subtle liberation and it is not rare that it visits the children again and again with a timid gesture.

In contrast to the innocent gaze of the child with its fascinating spontaneity is the wise gaze of the adult. Does the adult see animals as objects to be exploited, or experience them with dignified friendship? When the lizard, curious in the sun-drenched meadow, ventures to within half a metre of the human being, raises its head and inspects its mighty visitor, it wants to experience the gaze of liberating contact. It is as if it wants to express in words: “Look, my nature is such that I am trapped in this animal realm. You however are human, with spirit, and therefore I need you. Give me some sensitive, loving attention and I will take away some of the tension in your nerves.” The encounter between human beings and animals has a calming, reconciling effect and bears within it a most subtle and fascinating kind of magic.

While dogs are the faithful companions of children and adults, cats are the healers in the house who are instinctively aligned to astral influences. They take up harmful magnetic frequencies and can process these in their bodies. For this reason cats like to settle at the diseased areas of a patient.¹⁾ The “astral body” lives both in animals and in human beings. The name astral body comes from its correspondence with the stars and so with the cosmos. It is the bearer of the great variety of subtle-feelings that accompany the living. That is why animals feel pain and react to emotions in the atmosphere or created by human beings. However, the astral body is connected to the nervous system. If this nervous system is influenced logically through very clear learning steps and thoughts, it strengthens the entire physicality and the immune system. In esoteric language, the astral body expands when new experiences of consciousness are achieved through spirituality. A one-sided orientation towards needs, as is prevalent today almost as a modern ideal, chains people to the known and lower portions of the astral body. It casts them back in their development and gradually weakens their health.