Unconditional love.

More than forty years ago I was a young married man living on the Isle of Man in a small terraced house. Our neighbours were also a young married couple and the wife, Lucie was heavily pregnant. Her husband, Peter had an old car that was not always reliable and so I made an offer to them. If Lucie goes into labour and the car won’t start, come and get me. No matter what time of day or night I will make myself available for you and drive you to the hospital.

Some days later, at about two thirty in the morning, I was awoken by someone rattling the letter box. It was persistent and sounded urgent. My only thought was, ‘Lucie’s in labour and the car won’t start.’

I quickly grabbed some clothes and stumbled down the stairs still half asleep, shouting ‘coming, coming !’

I opened the front door but saw no-one. The only creature in sight was our cat Bimbo (named after my father's favourite Jim Reeves song), looking up at me as if to say, ‘about time, I’ve been rattling this letterbox for ages !’

He walked past me into the house without a second glance and as I watched him disappear into the lounge, my only thought was, ‘that was really clever. Well done Bimbo !’

Dhamma is everywhere and the teachers of Dhamma are gifts in our life.

If you are a cat owner you have one of the greatest teachers in the world in front of you.

Look at your relationship with your cat. Look what it can do without you becoming upset or even annoyed. Our relationship with our cat is based in an unconditional acceptance of everything they do. If our cat takes the best seat in the house we don't mind. If our cat wants to go out it will sit by the door until we get up and open it. If our cat wants a caress or food, we give that.

Our relationship to our cat is one of almost perfect loving kindness. This of course, applies to all the animals we love.

So here is the teaching: Reflect upon this relationship and try to emulate the same unconditional acceptance for all beings. When you radiate these same feeling for everyone and everything in the world, you will not suffer. Not only that, your presence in the world will bring benefit to all the different beings you come into contact with.

Love is not about liking something, it is about accepting that thing as it is and even if humans are often much more difficult to accept than animals, our practice is here and opportunities are always in front of us.

May all beings be happy.