 |
| Author David Michie with Princess Wussik. |
This week we had a chat with David Michie about his book Buddhism for Pet Lovers: Supporting ourclosest companions through life and death. David is Australia’s most
successful author on Buddhism, having his work translated into 26 language. He
has sold over 250,000 books worldwide, probably of most relevance to this
audience is his Dalai Lama’s Cat
series of novels.
David is a medication coach, international speaker and
corporate trainer. This was an interesting interview because I am the poster girl
for yoga-class dropout. Every time I sit to meditate my brain thinks it’s the perfect
opportunity to confront me with a to do list, which, being without a pen, sets
my adrenal glands on fire. So it was an interesting interview! (Thank you David
for being so patient).
What’s
your day job?
I try to inspire people.
In Buddhism for Pet Lovers, you devote the first 35 or so pages to
establishing that animals have consciousness. Why is it important to establish
this?
There is a dichotomy between what many scientific authorities
say about animal sentience, and our own hands-on experience as pet lovers, and
I thought it was important for the sake of intellectual and academic rigor to
bring people up to speed with why these attitudes exist in science, where they
come from, and what is the state of play. It was a bit ambitious to try to summarise
that in 30 pages or so.
I like for people to have some sort of reassurance this
is not just me David Michie spouting forth about what I think of the world, there
is actually credibility to where I am coming from. As you know the CambridgeDeclaration of Consciousness is a significant milestone, so wanted to bring people
up to speed about where that came from, so I can now explain why some more
enlightened scientists are on the same page as some of the wise people from the
East, in terms of what they say about animal sentience.
Its about bringing people along on the journey, and
explaining why is it that many scientists still have the view that animals don’t
have consciousness or consciousness that is very low on evolutionary scale,
where these attitudes came from and they are why now starting to change.
Yes,
I only found out about the Cambridge Declaration some years after it had been
made.
I think it’s because the implications are so profoundly
discomforting for the way Western society conducts itself with regard to
animals.
One
theme that comes through in your book is your emphasis that owners should be
aware that we “exert enormous control over the circumstances of our pet’s
lives” (p44). Why is this awareness important?
Well I suppose its because many people are not aware of
how much their pets are completely depending on them. It arises from a lack of
fully understanding the level of sentience of our pets, and not imaginatively
trying to explore what it would be like to be your pet. I hope to inspire
people to imaginatively explore what it would be like to be their pet, a non-verbal
being living in this crazy world, whose circumstances are totally constrained
by who owns them.
Even the most pampered of pets cannot just walk to the
medicine cabinet and have a Panadol if they have a headache, or make an
appointment with their dentist when they have a toothache, or pour a glass of
wine to cheer themselves up. They don’t have access to the stuff we take for
granted.
The hope is for people to become more sensitive and
mindful about the needs of our pets.
On
page 54 you describe “Dog Walk Lite”. What is this and why is it problematic?
It’s essentially that many people are no longer taking
dogs for walks in way they used to. Now they take the dog for a walk secondary
to the fact that they are engaged in social media feeds or texting friends. This
is very unfortunate in terms of their dog’s perspective, not getting their full
attention.
I wrote about a girl who was distracted by her phone when
taking her dog for a walk and many times, unconsciously, she tugged on the dog’s
lead with irritation, not even paying attention. The dog was almost an unwanted
distraction. It’s unfortunate for the pet of course as they are no longer shown
the kind of degree of empathy and understanding you would expect, but also very
sad for the human being as their relationship with their pet is being eroded
and becoming more and more superficial. What once would have been beautiful moments
of enjoying nature with a pet are now not spent enjoying nature, but looking at
facebook and the pet is a distraction. Our relationships with beings of all
kinds are degraded when we only pay them partial attention.
I’m not one of these people who are anti these things
like phones, I use them vigorously, but it’s all about the context.
You
suggest that abandoning killing “is the first and only required vow” of
becoming a Buddhist, and that karma applies to animals. Should pet owners feed
their pets a vegan diet?
The answer to that is no, they shouldn’t. Pets are not designed
for vegan diets [David is referring to
dogs and cats here and not guinea pigs, rabbits or horses for example]. I
know some people who say they can be, I am not a biologist, but reports I have
read is that this is a very dangerous thing to be doing. That’s not to say that
you couldn’t edge your way in that direction.
I
struggled a bit with some of the content relating to veterinary care, especially
euthanasia. For example you mentioned that “natural dying better enables our
pets to come to terms with what is happening and mentally prepare for it”p159.
There is also a claim on p161 that most vets are too busy to do housecalls and
that euthanasias in clinic are less than ideal.
Euthanasia [of animals] is so mainstream now, and it is
something we need to think about. I’ve been on the doing end of that [David has
had some of his own animals euthanased by veterinarians in the past] and I know
it makes a world of difference to have it done in the surgery with all the
lights on than having your cat sedated in your own home. If you’re concerned
about the mind of your cat or dog, it’s something you need to think about. Many
people don’t think about it, but it isn’t really about us and what we want. It’s about them.
One thing I wanted to get across in the death and dying part
of the book is that it is about focusing on the animal rather than ourselves.
I
also struggled with the idea of telepathy. A lot of phenomena you described
could be explained by picking up on cues like body language.
I get the feeling that you think telepathy is a bit out
there and woo-woo. But if one was to mediate for a while [busted – David astutely observed that I haven’t done this, mostly
because I am deterred by being confronted with the list of the things I am
supposed to do but have not yet that floats around in my brain and ambushes me
in quiet moments- Ed.], and experience a calm mind, what quite naturally
arises sometimes is a moment of intuition and being aware of things. Even
neuroscientists have documented a change in brain waves when we mediate.
Whatever the biology, things go on when we’re in this particular state that don’t
go on when we’re in other mental states. From a Buddhist perspective, telepathic
and clairvoyant experiences are a natural by-product of a quietened mind. While
I accept people might find telepathy and clairvoyance a bit woo woo and out
there, keep an open mind on the subject, as our minds are subject to change. If
it is the case that animals have more quiet minds than we do, it’s not really
such a leap to say they have telepathy.
What
non-humans do you share your life with and how did you meet?
Kahlua, who mediates who me, and Nala are rescue cats.
There was also Princess Wussik, the inspiration behind The Dalai Lama’s Cat, along with Mumbo. Those are the most recent.
We haven’t had any dogs as they are higher maintenance and we do a lot of
travel. Growing up in Zimbabwe I had dogs, cats, cockatiels…and used to go and
play with lion cubs and baby elephants at the Lion and Cheetah Park.
Any
advice you’d like to share with veterinarians and future veterinarians?
Interesting one. The advice that I would give is take up
meditating with pets, because I feel that there is nothing like direct first-hand
experience of a phenomenon to convince you that there is something here.
I sometimes laughingly describe myself as a pussy magnet,
because if I meditate the cats will come from wherever they are in the house and
sit beside me. Once you have experienced that quietening of the mind, and animals
being drawn to it, something in that relationship between you and those animals,
a shared non-verbal experience, has occurred that is profound and pretty
special. Once you have experienced that for yourself, nobody can really
convince you that something special didn’t happen. That may provide a whole interesting
new dimension in their experience.
Okay
so I have tried that. But I don’t have a quiet mind.
The challenges you describe are totally normal. Some
people’s minds are completely out of control when try to mediate. Most people think
they have their shit together, and think it will be really easy to focus on one
thing for five minutes. You ask them to focus on their breathing and within 3
milliseconds they are thinking “this is a waste of time, I need to do x, y and
z…”. [Um…yes].
It takes a huge amount of effort to nudge away from that
and change our behaviour, but once we have a taste of being able to have a
quiet mind it becomes really addictive. When we do that we get an inkling as to
what it will be like to have the mind of a pet. They’re not so caught up in
cognition as we are. If we can put ourselves on the same page as our pets, that’s
an extraordinary experience.
Thank
you David for your time. David’s book is available now from all major
bookstores and from Allen and Unwin.
You
can read more about David at www.davidmichie.com
