Secrets Our Pets Teach Us About Love, Life, and Healing

Transcript generated by AI:

Elizabeth Winkler: 0:16

Welcome to the Shadow and the Light podcast with internationally renowned meditation teacher davidji.

davidji: 0:23

And heart healer and psychotherapist Elizabeth Winkler as we guide you through our unique fusion of ancient wisdom and modern psychology. Oh Elizabeth, I know you are a participant in this. So am I. Owning a pet. Why would anyone agree to bring a pet into their life knowing it will die? This is the plight of every single person who has ever brought a pet into their life. A fish, a reptile, a bird, small mammals like gerbils and hamsters with such tiny little lifespans, horses, chickens, geese, and of course the big ones, dogs and cats. I think I neglected pigs, but I think that’s a much smaller percentage. Most of those are rescues. And of course, this is my public service announcement: adopt your next pet. Knowing the pain that we will endure at some point in the future, why would we do this? The only animal you could really ever guarantee would outlive you would be a macaw or one of those really, really powerful parrots. Do you pretty much have to leave them in your will? You’re a pet owner. We were just discussing. They’re so tender, at a certain point they start to get older. Even dogs, they say, one dog year is the equivalent of seven human years. So Peach is the Buddha princess, my mindful morkey, turns seventeen. That’s a long time. It’s a long time. Older than a human could ever live. And so how do we navigate that? The joy that we get from bringing a pet into our life who like sort of like stays as a baby forever. They don’t really learn. Some dogs are very, very smart. Some cows are very, very smart, some pigs really, really smart. And of course, we know that certain macaws and parrots are just brilliant. But why would we bring this being into our life knowing that time is short and precious and this animal probably will suffer in their later years and then perhaps be euthanized? Why would we do this?

Elizabeth Winkler: 3:14

It’s so funny. This is why it’s called the Shadow in the Light podcast. Because I’m like, and why wouldn’t we? I I actually had this conversation with someone who has never had a pet. I can’t even comprehend it. I have had pets my entire life. I’ve never not had a pet my whole life. I’ve had a lot of pets. When I was born, we had a dog, a three-legged dog, and then, you know, our that dog died, and then we got an I got another dog, and then I got a cat. And then when I was in when I moved out here, I I I ended up just taking on someone’s cat because they couldn’t keep the cat, my cat Paris. Then I had two dogs. I mean, dogs. So I’ve had a lot of pets, and one of my dogs recently died. I have another dog, and I have two cats that I inherited in 2020. So um I did have two dogs and two cats. Now I have one dog and two cats. I see animals and I’m like, oh my gosh, I’m always ready for more. They bring so much love into our lives. And everything is impermanent. So when I was talking to a friend the other day who had never had a pet, I’m like, my question is, how could you do that? Like, I can’t. And and that’s fine. I mean, I’m not judging it. I just I don’t understand it because my life, I’ve always had pets. And it’s a lot of responsibility. And yes, there’s so much joy and love and pain because when you have, you know, often you have to make the choice, which is really hard. My my dog that that recently passed away. It was so hard. But I don’t know. It’s life. You keep going, you keep going, and I I just don’t look at it the way that you presented it. I look at it as what we receive. That’s how I see it.

davidji: 5:13

You know, as people get older in their lives, they start to think about that mortality, their mortality, or mortality in general. And a lot of the things that they talk about or think about are there’s some mortality aspect. And so I think I’m in this because I have two dogs. The one’s now turning over 10, and the other dog is turning 17. And I’m like, I’m thinking about it every day. As I walk past both of them laying in their beds, I s I hesitate, I stop for a moment just to make sure they’re breathing, just to see like their their bellies rise and fall, and then I keep moving. You know, I’m living with a lot of uh tension. Everything’s about attention and intention. I’m living with a lot of uh attention on, you know, my people. And they are they are my people. Are my people okay? Are they doing well? Are they comfortable? I’m moving into more of like a palliative care kind of mindset with them. I used to squirt water and throw balls and drag peaches into the ocean with me every summer. This might be the first summer I don’t actually drag her into the ocean with me. And we don’t really go even go in the water until it’s 70 degrees anyway, so it’s not really a shock to the system, but it just might be too much. I don’t need to inflict anything but love and treats. So it is something that I have been challenged by most recently, and really in the last six months. I felt pure shadow and light. What an ideal topic for this. And there may be people listening right now who have like no animals, but you have kids, or no kids, and you only have animals, or both, or that rare group that has none. And we’re here with Matteo, our engineer, who does not have a pet right now. And maybe you could just talk for a moment, Mateo, and share with us. Obviously, this is a conscious choice that you’re making to not have a pet in your life.

Mateo: 7:14

Yeah, well, I’ll preface this: like, my best friend is my mom’s dog. His name’s Tank, and he’s a wonderful little guy. But uh yeah, I just it’s a lot of responsibility to have in my life. And yeah, it’s one of the things like I’m busy taking care of myself right now, too. So that’s one of those things I’m like, can I take care of a dog too? Like, I don’t think I could. Like, what would I do with him when I’m at work? No idea. So yeah, that’s kind of one of the things that pops in my mind with it.

Elizabeth Winkler: 7:41

But you grew up within with a pet.

Mateo: 7:43

I grew up with dogs, chickens, goats, geese. We had like a full little farm in our house, and it was like a lot of pain too. I remember when like my childhood dog that I would like loved the most died, and I wasn’t there for it because I had something else going on. And like, I don’t know if I couldn’t handle it at the time or what it was, but I look back on that moment with so much regret. When I’m a parent, like I’m absolutely still gonna get a dog for me and my kids, my family to enjoy. Because I just there’s so many beautiful memories and moments and learning opportunities in that too.

Elizabeth Winkler: 8:16

Yeah, that’s beautiful. That’s great. Yeah. Who knew? Mateo had goats. You know, you make I’m from Oklahoma, and so we had a ranch growing up. My family had a ranch. The only thing that they bought off the ranch was salt and pepper, so there were a lot of animals. So now I’m like, oh, maybe that’s why I always have animals, because I was used to going to the ranch. We had horses and we had goats and we had the chicken house and they had the pigs. And my grandfather had a pet, always had a pet pig. There were buffalo. Yeah, I think I’m just used to having a lot of animals around. And to me, that’s just like the way it is. I can’t imagine not being that way. But it’s a lot of responsibility. So it’s a wise choice, you know, to a lot of people aren’t that wise.

davidji: 8:59

And so Mateo is in his mid-20s, so this is the perfect time to not necessarily be bogged down by an animal. And again, we saw this during the pandemic. So many people adopted animals during the pandemic. And in the last year, half of those people have given those animals back to shelters, kill shelters, and other places because everybody was home. And then suddenly, as people got back to work and started moving around, they’re making a more conscious choice right now. So, yes, the lessons and the teachings I have always said uh posted on social media, Peaches Teaches, hashtag Peaches Teaches, for so many years because Peaches has taught me so much. So much about patience, and so much about non-judgment, and so much about unconditional love, and so much about, yeah, you suck right now, but I’ll still trust you to show up the next moment and not suck. Oh, you suck again, I’ll still trust you the next moment. She’s relentless in her trust. It reminds me of Osho’s analysis of the fool. The fool betrays you, but you keep on trusting. Someone comes into your life and betrays you, and the fool trusts them. The fool trusts so completely. And that’s really how I see these these animals. They trust so completely and they’ve got really long memories. Really, really long memories. But they’re not holding on to the grudge during the time. I’ve heard the story that there was a dog tied up to a uh parking meter outside of a store, and some guy came outside of the store and the dog barked at him, and he walked over to the dog and kicked him. Two years later, that dog was tied up outside at that parking meter. The same guy came out of the store, and the dog did not bark, and as the guy came closer, the dog bit his leg. And so, but the dog wasn’t thinking about it for two years, like we do. Someone kicks us, we’ll hold that grudge every single day for two years. That dog was a living life perfectly, and suddenly the moment arose again. Oh, it’s that guy? I think I’ll bite his leg now. And so we have so much to learn from animals and certainly all these domestic animals that we can bring into our lives. They must be so weirded out by all of our behaviors, you know, just like the weird stuff that we always do. I mean, Peaches has seen more TV than most humans I know because she’s always been by my side and we’re always, you know, on the couch watching TV. And she has traveled with me to the beach, and we have meditated every single day for about 16 years, obviously, not when I tr have traveled away. I’m very, very sensitive to the fact that her hearing slipping away, her vision slipping away. And it didn’t happen with my mother, you know. My mother suddenly got sick and boom, in just a few weeks she was dead. And my dad thriving crazily. So really, Peaches is the only person that I’ve had the opportunity, the only person, the only being that I’ve had the opportunity to watch them slowly really decline and to be part of that and to to nourish her and figure out, oh, you can’t hear, well, then I’ll I’ll just lay my, I do this, which is pretty cool. I’ll lay my head on her belly while we’re we’re just laying down, and I’ll just breathe really, really deeply, ujayi breath, right? We know what that is. Uh sort of like if you fog the mirror, right? You go like this. Ha! And if you close your mouth and fog the mirror, then it sounds like this. You’re tightening your throat, but you’re not blowing out of your mouth. It’s like Darth Vader. Yeah, it’s Darth Vader voice, right? Peaches, I am your father. I’ll lay there. And she can’t hear it through her ears, but she feels the rumbling of those vibrations. And so it’s pretty cool. I’ll do that sometimes for 20 minutes. I get high from it. And Peaches feels so connected to me in that moment. So I’m trying all these new things because she can hear, but she can’t tell the direction. So if I even like look at her and make a high-pitched sound, she’ll look to the sides. She doesn’t really know that it’s coming from me. So this is uh making me think not really of my own mortality, because I know when I’m dying and it’s not anytime soon, but I am thinking about my dear Peaches the Buddha princess. It’s just made me very, very aware of all the people in my life and all the people who are connected to me, who follow me on social media and who are part of my communities and my world. You know, whenever we get on Zoom, everyone’s got their cats and their dogs, meditating with them, and the occasional bird sitting on our shoulder and something along those lines. And so I’m very, very aware of it. I felt having an episode honoring the animals in our life and really asking that crazy question, and you gave the perfect answer. Why in the world would you commit to something like this? And your answer, how in the world could you not?

Elizabeth Winkler: 14:16

Yeah. And every animal teaches you something different. I’ll tell a funny story about my cats. I inherited these two cats in 2020 because a friend of mine couldn’t keep them. I said, okay, I remember when it was, it was August of 2020. I already had two dogs and two kids. And my daughter, it was actually International Cat Day that day because my daughter had been texting me pictures of cats the entire day because she was trying to get me to give her a cat. And then my girlfriend texted me and said, I have to get rid of my cats because I can’t have them in this place that she was living. It wouldn’t allow cats. Kind of felt like a sign. So I said, okay, I’ll take one. I’ll take one of them. And she’s like, Sorry, they’re brother and sister. I can’t separate them. And I’m like, oh, I mean, I already have two dogs and two children. But I thought about it, thought about it, and I’m like, okay, I’ll try. This was uh, you know, five years ago. So fostering them became, you know, owning them. But anyway, they have taught me a lot. One of them is named Kali, K-A-L-I, came with that name, which is the goddess of destruction, and she lives up to her name. And the other one is Leo, and we just recently got a Pope costume for him. So we have a little cat pope costume for Leo. Because you know, it’s funny. Anyway, I was on Zoom the other day with clients, and um, my cats like to go outside. And so the backyard, and they go out and they do cat things, and they’re very animal. So they’ve taught me a lot about nature, which this is what you’re talking about, like the impermanence of life. You’re how could we, you know, get a pet if we know they’re gonna pass? Well, that’s they’re teaching us impermanence, right? But these cats often like to leave me presents, which is not always what I want. They leave me, you know, little mice or birds, which is hard for me, but it is what it is. So, anyway, the other day they’ve been doing this for five years. These are gifts. No, I know. They are actually bringing you gifts. No, I know, I know it’s a lot of destruction and killing. But anyway, I’m on Zoom and there’s a big window that I can see out, and my cat is leaping way off of the ground, playing with this bird that is killed. So I’m just witnessing the animal of the, you know, you could you could we could judge it as like, oh, that’s terrible that they’re killing the and I feel those things, I do. But at the same time, this is life, this is nature. They’re just doing what cats do. Right. They’re doing cat things, they’re doing what dogs do. That’s that’s what they do. And so I think if we can embrace the lessons that they are teaching us, that that’s part of the purpose of animals. But they open our heart. I remember when I was young, I would talk to my cat because I felt like a connection and like my brother and sister were gone. I was only home with my parents, and I was in bed alone. They can be this kind of support. Well, they can’t be. They are, for most people, a a huge support in their lives. Right.

davidji: 17:26

And we can talk to ourselves out loud, but we could also talk to another sentient being, and maybe they understand the words, maybe they don’t, but they understand the energy. That’s one thing about cats and dogs. And it’s been a while since I had a cat, but I did have a cat. I actually had a cat in college. I brought my cat to college when I first went to school. That had been a house cat for its entire life with me, but suddenly I brought it to college because my parents said, You’re not leaving your cat here. So I was like, All right, I’ll take it with me. And so I had a cat in the dorm and I brought you allow that?

Elizabeth Winkler: 18:01

They allow it now. No, of course.

davidji: 18:03

I was a rule breaker from back in the day. And then after six months, I got a special note forged by somebody that allowed me to move off campus. So then I was able to live in a house with a bunch of guys and have my cat. Sundance was the name of my cat.

Elizabeth Winkler: 18:17

Oh, that’s a good name.

davidji: 18:18

I didn’t really have a collar because it was it was a house cat, and I didn’t have a leash because it was a house cat, but I had an ace bandage. And so I took an ace bandage and wrapped it all around Sundance’s body, and I would use the ace bandage, and then like made a little knot, and then use the ace bandage as my leash, and I would walk around outside. I can’t even imagine how weird it must have been for this cat to be walked around on like a 25-foot or 20-foot elastic, you know, leash or tether. But yeah, that was my that was my first really connected animal. But we always say, oh, animals always teach us unconditional love. There are so many lessons that we could learn. They are fully present. That cat or that dog or that animal might have a memory of something, but it’s not driving every single moment of behavior, like that dog who two years later bit the person’s leg, but they weren’t harping on that. They weren’t thinking about that person every single day. They were thinking about other stuff, like what was happening in the present moment. So, yes, impermanence they teach us. What else do you think they they teach us? They certainly teach us to trust the body’s intelligence because they always just flow into that space, always trusting. Even Peaches now, she’ll still like leap over the garden hose. It’s an inch and a half high. And she still does her launching over it, even in her, you know, more fragile state.

Elizabeth Winkler: 19:44

Well, I had a cat that I received because somebody had left Los Angeles and they couldn’t keep the cat and they left it with someone else who was allergic to the cats, and then I took the cat. This cat’s name was Paris. And I felt like Paris kind of saved my life. Talk about a say like a contract, soul contract. It was a dark time. It was right after college. I was not in a good place dealing with the loss of my mother. And so I was running away from a lot of things. And that cat kept me coming back. The responsibility, or Mateo’s talking about being responsible. I mean, I love that cat. You know, I had to take care of that cat. And taking care of that cat reminded me of what I needed to do for myself. And so that relationship with that cat really was the turning point in that. It was a turning point. Yeah, I always like said like Paris kind of saved me because I couldn’t ignore that. It was an awakening.

unknown: 20:50

Yeah.

davidji: 20:51

I mean, animals don’t love you based on how much money you have in the bank, based on your resume, based on your most recent win or loss. They’re like the sutras of the soul connection. They are these deep, deep, deep whispers that are always like, I love you unconditionally. Just show up. I’m gonna do my thing. You’re here, I’m here, let’s do this. And yes, they are dependent on us feeding them and being them, cleaning them and pooping them and taking them to the vet or or whatever that looks like. But I guess cats and dogs do teach us also that death is not the end. Because you have relationships with the animals who have left this earth realm, correct? Mm-hmm.

unknown: 21:38

Yeah.

davidji: 21:38

Impermanence, unconditional love, death is not the end. What’s really important in life, Peaches has made no demands on me in 16 years.

Elizabeth Winkler: 21:47

Paris really helped me with the loss of my mother, and that was a train at like a turning point when which I mentioned. But I’ve seen this in my clients’ lives. You know, when we go through significant pain, whatever that may be, sometimes we cannot lean into relationships with people. It’s just too hard. We’ve been burned, we’ve been hurt, we don’t trust. But animals are a place that really help people find that love, that trust again. I’ve seen that time and time again. And it often makes people believe in continuing this life that you’re living when we doubt that we want to continue, and many of us do, that an animal can bring that spark back into your life. I see that all the time. So they’re bodhisattvas. They are. They’re bodhisattvas. They are.

davidji: 22:40

They were just about to merge into the cosmic field, but no, they came back to save your heart.

Elizabeth Winkler: 22:46

I think they truly are. They are.

unknown: 22:48

Yeah.

davidji: 22:49

So having cats and dogs, do you have a fave? What do you mean?

Elizabeth Winkler: 22:54

A fave of all of my animals that I’ve had?

davidji: 22:57

Yeah. Has there been like one animal that was like we did an episode on soulmates? This could be like your soulmate animal?

Elizabeth Winkler: 23:07

They’re all so different. You know, I could say something about each of them. I couldn’t pick one. I wouldn’t feel right. For you.

davidji: 23:18

Well, whether it’s true or not, I always tell Peaches that she’s my favorite. I have told her that ever since the day we met. She is the being on this planet that I’ve spent the most amount of time with. There’s no one else in my life that I have spent as much intimate, sacred time with. And I have a friend who, for some reason, always reveals, they’ll always like, whatever you do, I’m gonna share something with you. Whatever you do, don’t tell anyone. And the stuff they, you know, they’re involved, they’re like in your world. They’re hobnobbing with celebrities, and there’s a lot of famous people that they’re interacting with, so they’re always like spilling the tea on somebody that we all know. And she’s like, You’re not gonna tell anyone, are you? And I go, only Peaches, the Buddha princess. So I have told Peaches every single secret that I have and that anyone has ever shared with me. Even you have shared secrets with me. I have shared them with Peaches. I don’t want to, I don’t want to cut her out from any of these deep, deep secret moments. But I have a feeling she has not shared them with any, she hasn’t even shared them with my other dog. So I know she’s kept that one pretty, pretty, pretty tight. But you know, I think it was Ben Franklin who said that two people can keep a secret as long as one of them is dead. Or something along those lines. Except birds, right? Because they can then repeat the secret out loud, depending on on what it is. But yeah, I think they are the holders of the deepest secrets.

Elizabeth Winkler: 24:51

What’s your shame acronym? Secrets hold all my evolution or secrets hold all my energy. Or empathy, which would work with this one. Because animals help us see the possibility of unconditional love. They are that, but for us to be able to access that, it opens our heart.

davidji: 25:14

Yeah.

unknown: 25:14

Yeah.

davidji: 25:15

Peaches holds all my secrets. I’ll have to come up with an acronym for that.

Elizabeth Winkler: 25:21

Anything else you’d like to share as today’s takeaway? I just want to talk about meditating with animals because so important. Yeah. So I just noticed whenever I meditate, I feel like the animals really love it. My dog, he knows when I’m meditating. So I don’t know. I mean, because there are certain meditation lineages that say don’t meditate with your pet.

davidji: 25:46

Oh, whatever those lineages are, I say poppycock and ignore them and in fact forget them because they’re so limiting and dogmatic. We love dogs, not dogma.

Elizabeth Winkler: 25:57

Right.

davidji: 25:57

So I just wanted you to speak to that. When I first got peaches, I took her to work with me every day. So I was working at the Chopper Center at the time, and she lived in that office with me, and I’d be like sealed in there. And David Simon would always come into my office and be petting Peaches. I remember Wayne Dyer came into my office and was petting Peaches. I remember Louise Hay came into my office. I can go down the list of all these amazing beings. My office was sort of like the waiting room people would come because they would be have a meeting with Deepak, and Deepak would be busy, so they would rather than hang out in the hallway, they would come into my room. So all these people interacted with the amazing peaches, the Buddha princess. And it was really just a beautiful, beautiful period of time. So since she was like a part of my life, every time I was hosting an event, I’d be like the MC of these events. All these famous people would be on stage, all the people you can imagine, sharing the stage with Deepak or David Simon, and I would be there as the MC, and I would always have this beautiful chair, and Peaches would lay on it, gazing into the audience of like three, four, five hundred people. It was consistent. So Peaches sort of like grew up meditating with us, being on stage with no issue, never felt the need to leap off. I carried her into every restaurant, even ones where they didn’t allow animals, and had her in my lap. I would just lay a napkin over her and she would just sit in my lap and nap. Of course, sometimes I would squirrel away some food for her off the table. But we started meditating together every single day. And the teachings were do not meditate with your pet. I remember this man who had worked with Deepak for a long time. He was like, No, you do not meditate with your pet ever. They’ll steal your energy. I’m like, uh, I don’t think so. In fact, over time it became clear to me who’s the greatest, most wise sage when people say, Well, who is your deepest spiritual teacher? And I’ve spent time with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Eckhartoli and Deepak and Wayne Dyer and like all these amazing beings. It’s Peaches the Buddha Princess. Peaches has been my greatest, greatest teacher, so I never wanted to deny that. We started off, I had two cushions. I would sit on a Zafu pillow, a Zafu cushion, this round, big, fat, plush cushion, and Peaches would sit on it right next to me. And we sat and meditated like that every single morning and every single evening, probably for seven years. Consistently. Over the last several years, I sit on the cushion with my back resting against my couch in the living room, and Peaches sits, likes to lay curled up on the couch on a little yoga blanket behind me, sort of like driving Miss Peaches. So I’m sitting there, she’s always behind me. But she still wants to be with me when I meditate. So I believe that cats and dogs, I can’t speak for other animals, but I believe that cats and dogs can tell the difference between you when you’re meditating and you when you’re sleeping. They can sense energy. Animals really aren’t listening to our words. They don’t have our language, although they can be trained and reinforced with certain language, but they know energy. I believe it’s so, so powerful. And I think that our meditations are even deeper. And I think, you know, she’s going, I believe that she is also meditating. She may not be using the same technique that I am when I’m using like the om ahum mantra or ahum brahmasmi or whatever that looks like. But I know that she’s not napping. She’s absolutely meditating. And, you know, I have this aura ring, O-U-R-A. It’s a biological marker tracking device which tracks everything. You know, my pulse, my heart rate variability, my deep sleep, my REM sleep, uh, my skin temperature, you know, you know, all sorts of stuff like that. And I know these things are powerfully happening to me. It tracks me while I meditate. And I know if they’re happening to me when I’m meditating, I know I’m in training peaches. To that as well. Just like she entrains me with her calm and her chill, I’m entraining her with my heavily meditated consciousness. And so it’s sort of like this beautiful symbiotic relationship, energy exchange that we’re making each other more relaxed and calmer. And I believe that she will live a very, very long time. She’s lived a very long time, but I believe it’s because she has been a daily meditator. I know it sounds kooky, but I believe that. I believe it too. And so you meditate with your animals?

Elizabeth Winkler: 30:36

My cats don’t really I mean they have, but my dog always likes to meditate with me. And when I had two dogs, they I mean it’s just different, you know, you just notice the different energy, how it shifts. So I just wanted to hear you talk to that because I know there’s that school of thought that you can’t, and I think it’s a powerful thing.

davidji: 30:57

You can do whatever you want. Yeah, you can do whatever you want. But I think why deny more love in your life. Right, right. And why deny the being who’s delivering that love or sharing that love this sacred space with you? And some people just like to meditate. So if your dog sleeps with you or your cat sleeps with you, then just slide your tush up to the headboard when you wake up and then beditate right there with them so you don’t even have to send the message. I know a lot of people say, no, you don’t understand it. My cat needs to her frisky’s buffet. No, she doesn’t. No, she doesn’t.

Elizabeth Winkler: 31:31

You can train them. I’ve done that.

davidji: 31:32

Right. She has trained you that you snap to it. The second you open your eyes, you’re running and feeding them. Same thing with dogs, you know, with peeing or eating. If you’re willing to spend this time with your pets and then train them, it could take a week, maybe. A week, that’s it. And it might seem hard after day three, but on day four, boom, they’re in.

Elizabeth Winkler: 31:53

So Yeah, my my dog and cats know your voice very well. Oh, oh, oh, he him again. We’re meditating now. That guy.

davidji: 32:02

A lot of animals know your voice. Right. Every time that guy’s voice comes down, mommy or daddy closes their eyes and goes into this deep state. Yes. I like it.

Elizabeth Winkler: 32:12

You are you are meditating with so many animals you have no idea.

davidji: 32:18

That’s just beautiful.

Elizabeth Winkler: 32:19

Any final reflections for today’s takeaway? I think it’s gotta be one of, you know, Peach’s teaches. Absolutely. So you gotta you gotta go with that.

davidji: 32:28

Aaron Ross Powell Peaches teaches that the present moment is everything. And we may all of us project ourselves into the future, all the what ifs. We may go back into the past, the wood-cutter shittas, but I don’t believe there’s an animal on the planet who’s thinking about the what-ifs or the wood-kudda shittas. I think that animal is just breathing in the present moment. And also another thing about dogs that I didn’t mention, I don’t know these stats about cats, but the amount of receptors on a dog’s nose are in like the tens of thousands, and we have like two or something like that. So th I have read these studies that when you leave the house, dogs don’t know clocks, dogs don’t know time, but they know how long your scent lingers on whatever it is that they’re laying on, or just even being in the house. And you know, Caesar Milan, at a certain point, he was part of my world in the Chopper Center. He used to just shake his head because I had a flexi leash. You know, peaches would be on that long twenty-foot tether. And Caesar’s like, no, you that’s not a way to train any animal. It needs to be a short leash. But Caesar said that a dog can smell you from a hundred feet away. You don’t need to like crawl up into their face and extend your hand. It’s gonna bite your hand if it’s a biter, and it’s going to lick your hand if it’s not a biter. It’s just that simple. So we know that animals, like dogs specifically, their sense of smell is so extreme that they can smell you pulling into the driveway, pulling up the block, perhaps, in your car. They can smell you when you leave. And that’s why dogs like to sometimes, if you have like a sweatshirt or a t-shirt or something, they’ll like to curl up on your clothing because it’s their clock. It’s like, oh yeah, it’s the scent of the person that I love. And so I think I’ll just hang out on it. And suddenly, as that scent dissipates, they’re like, they haven’t gone a while. That’s the only understanding that they have. We know they’re not watching the clocks, even if it’s that cat clock with the tail that’s moving side to side. So I think our animals use instinct as a sacred compass. We had an episode on your North Star. I think animals have some very, very specific North Stars. And I think one of them is whoever’s their companion human, it’s the heart of the companion human. That’s their North Star. If you’ve ever felt sad or depressed or lethargic or whatever, your animal comes over to you with a different mindset than if you’re they’re bodhisattvas.

unknown: 35:24

Right.

Elizabeth Winkler: 35:27

They are.

davidji: 35:28

They are bodhisattvas.

Elizabeth Winkler: 35:30

Maybe you need to say what a bodhisattva is in case someone doesn’t know.

davidji: 35:33

Oh, if you don’t know what a bodhisattva is, it’s a person who has transcended the cycles of birth, life, and death. Transcended them. And they’re about to move into the land of bliss because they have cleared all their karma. They’ve only created peace in their life, their heart is lighter than a feather, and they’re moving to the next realm. But they believe, no, no, I have more work to do here. There’s humans who are suffering. There’s beings on this planet who are suffering. Let me come back and show some compassion. Let me help these people heal. So it’s so typical that you say that our animals are these bodhisattvas because they return to help us heal. They return. They’ve learned all these deeper lessons. They just want to like do their thing. I mean, when’s the last time a dog or a cat or a parrot or a lizard tried to be something else?

Elizabeth Winkler: 36:32

Right now, exactly. That’s why when the cat was doing that jumping and killing the thing, I’m like, it’s just being a cat. That’s what it’s doing.

davidji: 36:40

Yeah. I’ve seen these videos where they attach like a GoPro to the top of a cat. Oh, yeah. Like over the course of just an afternoon, uh the cat’s killed like five birds. Yeah.

Mateo: 36:52

And just like Reek gotten into fights with the neighborhood cats, and you see it like running around.

davidji: 36:58

Right. And then it comes back into your house and it’s sort of like, oh, hi. Yeah. Um, yeah, just uh just hanging out here.

Elizabeth Winkler: 37:05

That’s why it sleeps for two days.

davidji: 37:08

Nothing special happened today, just doing my cat thing. So great. It’s just really interesting. It’s love without conditions. Everything the animals do, they’re doing it without conditions. It’s like, oh, I thought I was on my best behavior. They’ll do that in front of you when they know that. But there’s other times where we see like the animals like sort of like tapping on the bowl. It’s like, hello there. This is about the time when you usually feed me. Hello? Oh, hello. I know you’re like on the phone or doing something else, you’re on your device. That had to be really hard for all these animals that were hanging out at home. And then their parents all come home for COVID and spend all this excessive time with them. Except they’re all on their computers. They’re like, you’re hanging out in the house now all day and all night, but you’re talking to that rectangle lit up thing instead of loving me. Especially all these animals that got adopted during that period of time. So probably the deepest teachings that we could ever it’s the classic Einstein quote: everything is energy. That’s what all of our animals teach us. Any final words, Mateo?

Mateo: 38:26

I got one dog story if you guys care to hear it. So my senior year of college, I was I left early because of COVID, and uh we were having a go-away, like a going-away party for me. Isn’t that cute? His senior year of college. It was COVID. Yeah, it’s kind of rough. So, me and my roommates, my one of my roommate’s girlfriends was there, and she had a therapy dog. His name was Ralph. He was like a red-haired golden retriever, um, who like we saw on campus all the time. And he always had this like yellow coat on and everything. And everybody, he was like a campus-wide famous dog, and he was there at like my going away party. And I get like super socially anxious. So, and this was especially worse because this party was like kind of directed towards me and about me, and there was like probably just too many people there for my tastes. So I ended up leaving and I kind of disappeared, and it’s like this super cold night, but I’m like, I can’t take all this pressure right now. I went on like a 30-minute walk. And then I came back and everyone’s like, Where have you been? Like, what’s going on? And I’m like, Oh, nothing. Just like I went to like the store or something. I just made up some like BS excuse, you know, just to not have attention on me. And then this dog came up to me and like sensed all my anxiety and worry from that night and would not separate. And then everyone looked at Ralph and then looked at me, he’s like, okay. And they all knew exactly what was going on. I’m like, this freaking dog. And it was really cute, really comforting too. I had an amazing night, but I was just like, I thought it was hilarious that this dog kind of just like snitched on me.

Elizabeth Winkler: 40:01

Oh my god, I’d love that.

Mateo: 40:02

How many people at this party? Oh god, it wasn’t that much, but it had to be maybe like 15-20 people. Just like my roommates and our close friends. And Ralph knew. Yeah, and Ralph knew.

davidji: 40:14

So powerful, so great. Well, this is the Shadow in the Light. I’m so glad that we had this opportunity to talk to you about peaches and dogs and cats and the animals in our life. Let’s keep raising the vibration on that. Adopt your next pet. If you do have the bandwidth, if you do have the space, if you think you’re ready, absolutely bring an animal into your life and feel unconditional love, perhaps for the first time in a while. And you may notice that there are moments where you normally would just be so anxious or so sad or so flustered, but you’ll have uh a Ralph episode like Mateo had, and all that will dissipate. And so hopefully you find value in this. We’d love to hear the name of your dog or cat or animal or your lizard or your gerbil, your guinea pig, whatever that looks like for you. I just hung out with someone who just had two rescue rabbits. I don’t know what that life is going to be, but Peaches is sort of like a rescue rabbit at this point. She has the same she sort of just like sits there hanging out and just drinking in all the energy of life. Please let us know what kind of animal you have and what’s going on in your life with this animal. Because we know that animals just keep raising the vibration, and so they are the shepherds, they are the guardians. And I read this book a while back called Dominion, pointing to the fact that we have dominion over all the animals on the planet. We can make any species go extinct in any moment. And we should take that as a sacred trust. We are the stewards, we are the guardians of all the animals on the planet, and certainly the ones that we can bring into our own lives. So let us know how your guardianship of animals is going in your life, and make sure that you reach out to us. Visit our website, the Shadow and The Light Podcast.com, follow us on Instagram, the Shadow and the Light Podcast, and everywhere you listen to podcasts on the planet. From the sweet spot, sending you love. Come on, Jamar, maybe you can weave some animal energy into us as we say goodbye.

Music: 42:41

I want to be afraid of the shadows in the dark. They will lead the way to the pathways of the heart in the secret place. That is where I find my star.