Philosophy of a cat

The power of framing

I finally opened the book I bought from the secondhand shop in Israel. The life and philosophic perspectives of a cat, written in 1858 by Hippolyte Taine, a French philosopher and critic. 60 pages with some illustrations of a tiny little book that was not even mentioned in the long list of his work.

It was comic, and yet contained deep truth.

In a nutshell,

this cat had witnessed the death of its best friend, the duck, and moved on as if nothing happened.

It killed its niece, which is also his wife, and all her kittens.

It daydreams as the chicken was roasted in the kitchen, thinking about the old wildlife the cats used to have.

Criticize the dogs, and lord human.

Caught a glimpse of thoughts about earth, sky, sun and moon with a poetic, and somewhat twisted view.

Think of itself as the highest manifestation of creation that is above all others with its wisdom and grace. And living an exhilarating good life.

Fantastically written, and a swift read.  

Photo by Raoul Droog on Unsplash

Yesterday, I had my mower picked up to be fixed by a friend that is going through a hard time. On top of personal life serving complications, he was roughed up in an accident of hit and run in the middle of nowhere, a countryside road. He told me that he got up after he was thrown from his 4-wheeler, all bruised, checked that he could walk, and dragged himself and his vehicle back home.

I guess I am tougher than I thought, he said.

I told him that he chose the perfect frame in the hardest conditions, and I am proud of him. Because at the same time, someone else would have counted their misfortunes instead of their blessings- and in that particular moment of “accident”, they could have broken into pieces and go into conditioning and depression. And sometimes you have an opportunity to win when you lose.

Photo by Vitor Rossetto on Unsplash

The cat had a lot to say about everything. For it, it was all twisted and below its own majesty. Anything that happened for good, bad, or worse meant nothing to it- changed nothing of his perspectives. It was deepening his many contemplations of life from its own standpoint. Never once did it consider what the others were going through. Oblivious, and therefore content.

What would have happened to this cat if it had started feeling what other creatures are feeling, and taken it into heart? Its world would have collapsed.

In this world, we have the push and pull of perspectives. What you need to do and why. How you need to think and why. What is the best way to become this or that and why. What to eat. What to drink. What to say. What to think. How to practice.

There are: higher perspective, lower perspectives, caring perspectives, authority perspective, my perspective, your perspective, our perspective, the good of all perspective, the seeming good, and so on.

The winning perspective in the world is the one with more influence, more power behind it- sweeping through the mind of people with “logical” frame.

But the strong mind is untouched because it is connected to another system that is the essence of truth. It is the heart. It is the fire in the shield of the mind.  

The cat had a point. A strong point of thinking for itself- creating its own world with no interest in other’s opinions. Whether it is a good world perspective or worthless is not the issue here.  It chose to see the beauty.

My friend was strong enough to see the good in a bad situation. He stepped out of the victim mentality that he easily could have sunk into in his situation. He chose to see his strength.

Godhead, the mind inside the heart knows creation. It is inside a ring of fire and ice created by a source that is stronger than life itself and therefore creating it. Of course, I can’t imagine what the world would have been like if we all reacted to a slaughter like the cat. It is extreme. Although, there is a perspective in the larger scheme of things that everything is going back to the source- I will debate it in the how. If a soul goes peacefully or screaming- it will change the fabric, slowly but surely, of its collective energy. See history, and then ask what makes a collective? Some perspectives show that human is one collective and cats are another. Trees are all connected, and dogs are different collective. Are the industrious ants separated from bees or is it just another aspect in the greater collective?

But we can take any situation and reframe it to get a sweeter taste. A better feeling that will influence the state of possibilities. A change in the fabric of our soul. A step closer to the godhead which we are all creating from.

If we are doing the works of our soul, then we know that the universe conspires to help us achieve it. And if we let go of what looks good or bad from the perspectives that are provided in society- then we can reframe any situation to at least stay on the higher ground of the universal heart.