pets and nature
We only keep pets because we feel so bad - so unloved.
We only have pets to replace the love we didn’t get from our parents.
And to give us a false sense of power.
We only have pets to replace the love we didn’t get from our parents.
And to give us a false sense of power.
The Orangutan mother - inferior to the human mother?
The wild orangutan mother when her baby is to due retreats high into the tree canopy making a nest for the night where her baby will be born. Upon the arrival of her baby she has been observed to absolutely adore it. To hold it, study it, marvel at it for days. Then she keeps it on her body at all time for at least a year. Then never lets it out of her sight for six years or more. She ever so gently holds and caresses her infant, lovingly attending to all its needs. She is totally focused on it, allowing it to freely express itself. She never forces or pushes or coerces or controls it. She allows it to naturally come into the world in its own way and in its own time. My mother gave birth to me in a hospital surrounded by strangers telling her what to do. She had me by caesarian section. I was unable to express myself by being naturally born. I feel like my life hasn’t actually got going, I’m always waiting for it to begin. I lack the feeling that I have a right to be in the world. I don’t see anything as mine. I was removed from my mother, then brought to her at times during her stay in the hospital. At home I slept in my cot, not with her or my father. I was left alone a lot. As I grew older I was left alone more frequently and taken to places with other children. My childhood repression healing has helped me to feel my deeply repressed anger at not feeling loved and cared for by her. She was never focused on me, she never devoted herself to me, I was always a bother and something in the way. I felt unwanted. I didn’t feel like I mattered, or even for that matter, that I truly existed. My relationships have all been dysfunctional. My mother and father were never very affectionate with me. I was just a possession, something to use and gain power from. My mother never adored me. All she did was control me, telling me what to do, when to do it, and how it should be done. She dictated the terms of my life, she didn’t allow me to find my own way in life. The orangutan baby doesn’t grow up to be dysfunctional and full of fear. I did. |
Nature accepts us, we don’t accept it. So who’s right?
Conquering nature? You mean conquering the truth.
Destroying all that makes you feel truly good. All the wonder and joy of nature is free - you don’t have to do anything to get it.
Wait until you realise how cruel you are having left your dog alone day after day. Wait until you realise what you’ve done to your children.
Telling another person how to be is wrong, especially a growing child. It’s criminal to make a child be something that’s its not, something that it would not naturally be. It’s criminal to tell nature - a horse, a bird, a fish, a... - it can’t be free.
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Personalising animals - they are like you with feelings.
The less you hurt and deny yourself by denying your own feelings,
so too the less you can hurt and deny the natural world.
The more you progress in your healing, the more you can relate to all creatures as you relate to yourself.
And the more sympathetic, kind and caring you become to all living things, even all those nasty beasties we call pests.
The less you hurt and deny yourself by denying your own feelings,
so too the less you can hurt and deny the natural world.
The more you progress in your healing, the more you can relate to all creatures as you relate to yourself.
And the more sympathetic, kind and caring you become to all living things, even all those nasty beasties we call pests.
My Goldfish
Dad bought me a small perspex tank and I chose three little goldfish. I was seven. I loved looking at the silky Blackmore, its skin looking so soft and its funny dragon eyes; the flawless orange of the little comet, and the striking markings of the red and white fantail. They were always there, swimming around at the end of my bed. They were always good to me, never complaining, never criticising, never being angry with me. Even when I killed them through childish neglect, they went to their deaths all-accepting. I got new fish. As I grew older I ‘progressed’ to keeping and breeding tropical freshwater fish. From guppies, to Lake Tanganyikan shell dwelling cichlids. And in my fantasies I progressed to setting up very large fish breeding enterprises, designing the layouts, working out costs, making huge profits on the volume of fish I was able to raise. I wanted to be with the fish, to have them all about me, to be their master controller. I wanted to use them to make money from, my livelihood to justify my abuse of them. Yesterday Marion and I went to Boolarra and drove past the goldfish farm. The farm from where my little goldfish came forty-three years ago. I had fantasised about working there, learning how to breed and keep goldfish on a vast scale. I wanted to be involved in the weekly shipping of thousands of them off to the wholesalers, helping to bring in large profits, all in the hope that possibly one day I might be able to do the same - have my own goldfish farm. I thought that when we got to the farm I’d go in and ask about work, and possibly be shown around. I had many questions I wanted to ask. But it didn’t turn out like that. When we arrived looking at the large open ponds, the countless number of small dams stretching way up the valley, and then to see in the brown coloured water little groups of red fish swimming together; here and there lots and lots of little groups of little baby fish, possibly this years all having just coloured, I felt sickened. I didn’t want to go in and talk to the people. I didn’t want a job there, I no longer wanted my questions answered. I wanted us to drive away as fast as we could. It was all too much, to think of all those wonderful little innocent fish. All starting out life in their dams only to be one day netted, put in large plastic bags, taken to fish wholesalers, netted again, put in smaller plastic bags, shipped off to aquariums and pet shops and put in small tanks; then netted again, put in yet another plastic bag, taken home, and put in a seven year olds small fish tank. And live a few months only to die because of ignorance, perhaps of neglect; but it doesn’t matter because there’s always more at the pet shop. Or perhaps if lucky it might end up living in a reasonable pond, there to have something of a real life, to breed and eat real food, to feel the sun on its back and freshness of new water when delivered as rain. But to end up in a nice pond was a low probability, like winning the lottery. Mostly it was to be confined (if it managed to survive) to years of living in a tank, and as it grew often to have to stunt itself (or die) to keep fitting into that tank. Working at the aquarium and seeing the fate of so many goldfish helped me love and appreciate them more than I had. How much abuse they can take, how little they ask for, how readily it would seem they could adjust to life in such a small space when starting out life in one of those large dams. The trip to Boolarra finally did it for me. I no longer want to breed fish to make money out of them. I don’t want to exploit nature this way. My fantasies have all died, died as my first goldies died. I realised that I couldn’t do it to them, I couldn’t subject them to such torture. I could no longer be so cruel. I’d never keep them again. And the more of my bad feelings about it I express, the more I can feel myself letting go of that part of me, that little james that loved his fish. They were all I had. They were all that loved me truly. And now I want to accept my feelings of feeling so unloved by the people who were in my life, making me look to the fish for comfort and good feelings. And the more I can accept these bad feelings and uncover the truth of them, the less I feel I need fish or any other creature to make me feel better and to have power over. |
The only thing that is worthwhile we deprive ourselves of - nature.
We never have the happiness we should have, we miss out on so much. We could have had such a great time, yet die never able to have it again: the wonder and beauty of Earth's natural environment. Let nature show you...
Let your baby show you, Let your toddler show you, Let your young child show you, Let your child show you... The Way; What’s best for them; What they need. The loving nature of your child will reveal itself to you. If yon’t crush it, stop it, override it, and generally get in its way. Be on your child’s side. Imagine a mother cow refusing to give milk to her baby. The baby, distraught with fear of starvation and ultimate rejection - the fear of ceasing to be, clings to her hoping she will allow it to feed. A calf happily fed, bounds off to explore life that’s all there for it, unafraid of anything having its mother always there for it. Compare this with a human baby and child. I clung to my mother because she didn’t give me the love I needed. She didn’t fill me up with her love so I could go off happy and confident in the world.
One day you'll be sorry you had a pet.
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Nature is there to serve our growth of truth,
NOT to serve by being taken advantage of, used and abused, to satisfy our greedy and selfish desires.
We should look to nature as our guide, it’s perfect, we’re not.
Nature doesn’t do what we do.
It lives true to itself, it can’t be any other way.
We can be another way, we can live untrue to ourselves.
We, the aberration, are not true - nature is true.
And amazingly we can live an aberration as if it’s true.
Nature is the truth of natural love.
We can destroy the picture - the image - but never the essence.
And the essence - spirit - is always seeking expression. And we’re nature.
The creatures are brimming over with love all the time, you feel so good with them.
Do you feel the same love when you’re with people?
Creatures don’t smile, we do.
We’re fooled by the smile.
NOT to serve by being taken advantage of, used and abused, to satisfy our greedy and selfish desires.
We should look to nature as our guide, it’s perfect, we’re not.
Nature doesn’t do what we do.
It lives true to itself, it can’t be any other way.
We can be another way, we can live untrue to ourselves.
We, the aberration, are not true - nature is true.
And amazingly we can live an aberration as if it’s true.
Nature is the truth of natural love.
We can destroy the picture - the image - but never the essence.
And the essence - spirit - is always seeking expression. And we’re nature.
The creatures are brimming over with love all the time, you feel so good with them.
Do you feel the same love when you’re with people?
Creatures don’t smile, we do.
We’re fooled by the smile.
The disgrace and horror of the aquarium industry.
Never mind the hundreds and thousands of cows, sheep, pigs and chooks that die horrible deaths, existing only for our gain. And never mind about the countless numbers of puppies and kittens that live such hard lives because of our doing. They are all nothing when compared to the abject meaningless slaughter of zillions of little innocent aquarium fish. Who cares if a neon or guppy or goldfish suddenly dies overnight, it’s what fish do - they die. In Melbourne alone masses of them arrive from all over the country, and even more from overseas, each week, only to be shipped out into mostly unloving, only-concerned-about-making-money pet shops and aquariums, there to be sold onto the mostly ignorant public who like having fish. I liked having fish, and I liked the fact that they died rather frequently because then I could go and buy some more. There was always another beautiful fish I wanted, and once I had it in my tank, then it usually didn’t last long. Some fish did just live on and on, but that was nothing to do with my fish keeping skills, others came and went almost weekly. How many fish did I kill during my early fish keeping years, I hate to think, hundreds of them. Later in my life when working at an aquarium, one that did actually care about the welfare of the fish - even though the owner said it didn’t do his business any good to educate the customers about how to successfully keep fish because then they’d never die and he wouldn’t make as much money - I came to understand just how bad the aquariums and pet shops around Melbourne were in regards to maintaining the health of their fish. Simple weekly tank maintenance would have kept most fish healthy, but the appalling number of sick fish, whole tanks of sick fish still on sale to the inexperienced and uninformed public, made me cringe. And there were countless numbers of customers who came into our shop saying they’d bought a fish from another shop and it must have been sick as all their fish died; or the fish ate all their other fish as it grew bigger and bigger. No one cared about the fish other than a few keen hobbyists who prided themselves on giving their captives a relatively good and happy life, without ever having to deal with disease and bad water chemistry and laziness, and the oh-well-they’re-just-fish attitude. And it’s a huge industry, a huge industry of pain and suffering, of cruelty and torture to all-accepting creatures who can’t complain, being only able to accept their fate. All those poor little fish, every week the wholesalers tanks are stuffed full of yet more new arrivals, many taken out of their wild rivers and lakes. And out they go to be all but flushed down the drain - or toilet when people have had enough of them. Many people loved their fish and were very upset when tank-tragedy struck. And often it wasn’t their fault, they’d been told lies by those who should have been more responsible. As my boss said when I questioned him about selling two goldfish that were too large for the bowl the customer wanted assuring her they would be all right: ‘You’ll see, she’ll be back in a couple of weeks saying there’s something wrong with them, they don’t seem to be right; and I’ll tell her it’s probably because there’s not enough air in the bowl and that she should have them in a larger tank, especially as they are going to grow even bigger. And so having become attached to her fish, she’ll buy a tank, and a few more fish... and then an even bigger tank.’ Business he would say - good, sound business!, as he chuckled to himself over his own prowess. |
If we’re going to subject creatures to our will, then at least we can do all we can to make their life the best horrible life they can have.
It’s said, it might seem cruel but in the end it will all be good and work out all right. That’s a load of bollocks! If any cruelty is involved it shouldn’t be happening. To train your child or dog is not right, you shouldn’t have a child or a dog.
Nature is there constantly and unconditionally for its babies. We’re mostly not there for ours. And mostly ours are good to be with for some amusement, but other than that, they’re a nuisance.
Natures babies are rightly and naturally completely demanding with their parents satisfying their every demand. We stop our babies and young children from demanding because we were stopped by our parents. We’re cruel to our babies.
Nature is truly loving of its offspring - we hate ours whilst pretending we’re even more loving than nature.
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Oh, the terrible shame of treating nature badly.
Our need to keep pets
We need to keep pets because we need to feel something loves us and that we can have power over someone. We didn’t get love from our parents, the love we so desperately needed, nor were we allowed to have power over our parents, and yet all we were shown and taught was that life was about getting love where you can and having power over someone. Our parents used us to get love from and have power over, they treated us like pets, so we then want to do the same. And the beauty about keeping animals against their free will is that they can’t speak back to us, they can’t protest to the extent we can, and we can easily overpower them. So even if they protest we can quickly show them who’s boss and they have to lump it. So through our conditioning of them, our pets learn what’s expected of them, and aren’t we so pleased when they carry out our wishes: always being there for us, always giving themselves to us, always so pleased to see us. And isn’t it such a pity that we don’t feel such things from or for each other; that we need a substitute to make us feel like we exist; that we have a reason for living; that we love someone - or something - in life; that we are loved and not the nothing unlovable thing our parents made us feel we were. Our need to farm animals We need to farm animals for power. Call it what you will, such as your livelihood, but it’s only that you feel so powerless thanks to your parents, that you feel you can keep animals against their own will using them for profit and gain. And as we couldn’t overpower our parents dominating and controlling them like they did us, so we look to the dumb animal instead. And it is because we feel so powerless that we seek our power over nature, because nature is perfect, and if we can dominate and control it, then we are more perfect than it. But it’s a fallacy because we are not perfect, we are only the imperfect seeking to ruin the perfect, nothing short of evil. And we are this way all because it’s how we were treated. We were treated to be powerless, to be the lesser, and so when given power in our lesser powerless state we naturally seek out something that is even less powerful - or so it would seem in our eyes - than us, something we can dominate and be the great one who decrees whether it exists or not. Our need to use and abuse nature All over the world we are hurting nature, from the innocent microbe, to all plants and animals. Everything we are destroying in one way or another. We are on a rampage of nature destruction, believing it is only there for our use, for us to use and abuse as we feel. No one says we can’t, the Bible says we can, so it’s okay for us to go out and hack down the trees, destroy the homes and lives of so many other creatures, all so we can build our own ugly and ghastly self-gratifying homes. We are very quick to war if someone should come in and start destroying our beloved homes, but we can fight back, we are not harmless like nature, having to unconditionally accept all the abuse we dish out to it. Our need to destroy our own nature We only destroy nature because we’re destroying it in ourselves. If we were truly loving of our own self-nature then we’d love all nature of Creation. And we’re only destroying ourselves because that’s how we were treated as children. Our parents destroyed our true selves by making us be untrue - our bad-feeling denial being and obvious result. And our parents only destroyed us because they too were destroyed by their parents, and so back it goes to the ‘Original Parents’. And because we are living in a unloving self-rejecting way, so we can only look forward to and expect yet ever increasing amounts of nature destruction as we continue blindly on our way of self-destruction. Our need to use nature to make us feel loved and like we have some power is a compulsion. It’s become inherent in us, something we can’t use our minds to control. And so we need to look further afield, to doing our feeling- or soul-healing, so we can grow in truth, healing our way out of our unloved states. And as we heal ourselves setting ourselves free of our negative condition, so too will be able to set our pets free, allowing all the animals and plants to be as they should be - free. |
We get rid of all the natural making everything unnatural and ornamental - our gardens, our selves, our pets, our children.
Nature is truly loving of its offspring - we hate ours whilst pretending we’re even more loving than nature.
The dog sits on the other side of the fence in its backyard all day. It gets let out every now and again to be taken for walk, even once a day if its lucky. What would it feel like to live in prison your whole life?
If you don’t think having a pet is cruel, put yourself in your pets life and compare it to the wild life it would have, and then see what you think - what you feel. And if you say, what’s the point of that, it wouldn’t survive in the wild, then don’t you see just how far you’ve removed it from being its true self. And far removed from your true self you are having no feelings for it, as you have no feelings for yourself.
Our pets are all gorgeous, they are wonderful; to be able to be so close to a creature, and to be so loved by it. But it’s all still so wrong to keep them. But we have to come to this understanding ourselves and in our own time. And will only do so fully by doing our feeling-healing.
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On our trip to ‘Wonther’s’ we see:
Cattle, horses, goats, sheep, lamas, alpaca all standing in their fields being blasted by cold and hot winds, rain; being baked by the sun. They have no shelter and protection from the elements - not a single tree. We see many fields with just one horse in them. One horse all alone by itself. If we stop it quickly comes over hoping for... some attention perhaps, something to happen in its dull life. We see so many paddocks bare of trees, nothing to break the monotony - just grass and wire fences, miles and miles of them. In one large paddock there is only one broken bit of old gum tree branch, which always has a cow scratching itself on its pointed end. There is nowhere else to rub against, only the barb-wire fences. And then on one farm, one farm amongst the many we drive past, there are trees, large old gums and introduced Cyprus trees, under which when the weather is bad, all the cattle and sheep congregate. And what a delight it is to see so many of them vigorously and with such obvious relish, rubbing against all the old fallen down branches. I used to think such farm animals were tough, could withstand all weather easily, were nothing more than something to use to make money out of. But I was living in denial of my feelings - and living in a city. As I’ve done my healing steadily liberating my feelings, so I’ve been able to relate to all animals as having feelings. And it’s so nice so see the animals by their own choice choosing to stand under shelter when it’s available. And then I feel very sorry for all those other animals that the farmers don’t give a shit about, as to how they must feel. Then I feel sorry for the farmers for all the feelings they are forcing themselves to deny being farmers. |
We put an animal in a cage and are so happy that it lives longer than it would have lived in the wild.
We’re so happy it lives many years of unfulfilled boredom compared with the vigorous thrilling life it would have lived to the full in its natural state. We’re so bloody inconsiderate and selfish. We want it all for ourselves and we don’t care what another creature might feel. Nature doesn’t have a mind that can interfere with and control its feelings, as we do. And nature works perfectly with only feelings. That’s what we can learn from it.
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We Australians...
We Australians believe we live in the lucky country, and yet we do all we can to wreck it. We don’t love and truly appreciate nature, we don’t see the beauty in our native flora and fauna. We plant a few native trees believing we’re doing our bit, yet vast tracks of land still only have grass on it for cattle and sheep or crops. We allow a little remnant woodland or natural bush to survive on the land we can’t make money from. We don’t understand about the beauty of our insects and spiders, all the little unseen creatures that go into making up the ecosystem of our forests. And we still plant exotic plants, still rip down what we can whenever we can all to make room for more progress and development. We don’t truly value and appreciate what we have, what we had, and what we could have. And we’re all too happy to run something over if it dares to get in our way or stop us or delays us getting to where we want to get. And sure, we’ve set aside a paltry amount of forest, bush land and marine environment as national parks, but we pollute and disrupt them; and sure, some people, a minority, do love all natural Australia has to offer, still overall, we’re really no better than our forbears. |
In Australia we have laws protecting the native wildlife. And yet we think nothing of killing them all day long in our cars. Massive road-kill everywhere.
Some protection! As we become true ourselves, so will be become true to nature - there is no other way.
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If you feel love and sympathetic to nature, it could be said you are closer to your true self than people who have no feeling for it, using and abusing it for their own self gain.