Monthly Archives: April 2007

At the risk of being even more self-indulgent than usual, my mind seems to be wandering a lot lately to the topic of cats. Not lions or tigers or panthers or cougars or any of the other wilder, more formidable felines. I’m talking kitty cats.

They keep showing up. I’ll be falling asleep and with increasing regularity, I will find myself drifting into a meditative state where I am seeing a sweet, affectionate cat cuddling up to me, nuzzling me, or curling up on my chest. Sometimes they look me in the eye and purr or meow in what seems some meaningful way.

The answer to the inevitable “So what?” of this is that I am not a cat man. I’ve been a dog lover from way back. In fact, I initially inherited a fear of cats from my mother who was traumatized by one as a child. I wouldn’t have anything to do with them for most of my childhood and adolescence. And even as I overcame my phobia, I was still a little intimidated by them. Then as that hesitation around them gradually dissolved, I found myself developing increasingly severe allergic reactions to them: nasty, clog-all-available-passages, sneezing and hacking allergic reactions.

So the context for this suddenly sweet attraction to cats—real and imaginary—seems all the more curious. Being the diligent mystic that I am, I try to pay attention to recurring surprises, and so I finally took the kitty cat question to the Shower Team . . .

The animals on your planet are all wonderful examples of well being, but domesticated cats in particular are perfect conveyers of the message not only that all is well but that nothing and no one is needed—including you—to make things just fine for them. When a cute, cuddly cat comes close to you and looks you in the eye and purrs or meows, what he/she is really saying is, “I don’t need this, but you seem nice enough so we’ll see how it goes for a while.” While that might come as a crushing blow to some cat lovers, the fact is that cats understand completely their own self-sufficiency. If you were to put any of them out on the street, they would fend for themselves just fine. They indulge and permit this mutually beneficial arrangement that humans have with them because there is pleasure in it for them as well as for you. They are extraordinary teachers of the way to approach your connections in general and of the perspective that will serve you well in any conditions. Their message to you really is that all is well and that you need not do or say anything in particular to make that so.

More specifically in the case of your daydreams or meditations where cats continue to appear, they are offering an additional, specific message about where you are focused and what is active in your own experience. You do not dream only when you are sleeping. You are dreaming your life continuously. And those dreams are a continuous expression and reflection of your desires and the extent to which you are allowing or resisting those desires.

These waking dreams or meditations are expressions of what you are wanting where you stand and how you are responding to what you want. As you continue to clarify your desires and to release resistance to them, more and more of what you want flows into your experience. Cats have been a longstanding symbol of resistance for you. Initially you feared them and avoided them. Then you developed allergies to them and avoided them. Now you are waking up to a very felt desire to appreciate and enjoy them as you begin to understand that the Universe does not dole out favors or pleasures in some random or whimsical way. The Universe does not say, “Okay you and you and you and you can enjoy playing with cute cuddly cats . . . but you and you and you and you are not allowed to do so and therefore you will start sneezing and huffing and coughing and tearing up whenever one of these beasts comes near you.” The Universe does not operate on principles of arbitrary exclusion—-some can have this and some cannot—nor does the Universe operate on principles of retribution—you kicked a cat in a previous life and therefore you must suffer in their presence this time around. There are no such rules.

You are beginning to understand that there are endless pleasures and satisfactions available to you, limitless and unrestricted joys and that the only thing holding you apart from any pleasure or satisfaction that you desire is your own resistance, your own belief that it is not available to you.

These cats appearing in your daydreams, cuddling up to you in your meditations are simply telling you that they are available to you. They are saying, “Come play with us, enjoy us—we’re waiting for you.” But more important, they are saying to you, “Come enjoy YOU. Recognize that only you can limit you, that only you can withhold from you whatever it is that you are dreaming of.

Your own desires and dreams are cuddling up to you, purring with a contentment and a joy that is as soft or sweet or comforting or quirky or compelling as you want it to be. All you need to do is reach out and stroke them.

Indulgence seems to be the name of this game. I am consistently humbled and exalted by the Universe’s indulgence of my desires, my daydreams, and of course—my questions. I have not yet invited a flesh-and-blood kitty into my experience but I am so enjoying the comfort and intrigue of their new place in my life. For now that seems more than enough, and it leaves Me/Us feeling, for the moment, purrfectly complete.

There have been some striking examples in the recent past of things I wanted, showing up almost at the exact moment that I decided I didn’t need them anymore. They’re those kinds of head scratching moments where it almost seems like the Universe is really yanking my chain, where the joke seems to be on me but it takes a while for me to appreciate the humor.

A while back I was flying home after visiting my parents out of state. A generous flight attendant friend of mine had given me a buddy pass for the trip so I was flying standby on a holiday and when I got to the airport the flight was already full. The odds of my getting on that plane looked slim to none and I immediately started fretting and giving the evil eye to all the people waiting in line with reservations. Suddenly, somehow a gentler idea occurred to me—that I didn’t HAVE to get on THIS plane. I started telling myself that there were multiple flights home that day, which there were, and that I would no doubt get on one of those planes. I started to relax and just look out the window as the frustration receded.

Not five minutes later, the gatekeeper called my name. Apparently there was one remaining seat on the plane. The couple ahead of me on the list, who were also flying standby, had declined to split up. The seat was mine. There are other examples—a deal on a car that I had walked away from because the price was too high . . . a friend’s house that sold shortly after taking it off the market . . .

So, I asked the Shower Team . . . What is up with this business of getting what we want after we stop trying to get it?

The key part of your question is the word “trying”. When you are “trying” to get what you want you are generally moving in the opposite direction of having it. That sounds counterintuitive because it is not what you learn to do and not the way you have
learned to be. You have learned that what you want comes about through your effort and that the greater the effort the greater the reward and that you can tell how well you’re doing with getting what you want by how much you’re struggling to have it.

Also, when you “need” something, what you are in essence saying is that something—anything—outside of you has the power to give or to take away your joy. When you “need” you are deciding that you cannot be at peace or content or in joy unless and until some circumstance changes. And so you go to whatever lengths necessary to obtain what you think you “need” to feel good. It all gets to be so “trying”.

The reason what you desire seems to show up the moment that you release the “need” for it, is that in that moment you are remembering that nothing outside of you is the source of your well being. You are remembering that joy or peace or contentment or passion or bliss or relief have nothing to do with any situation or any condition or any event or any other person’s action or behavior or response to you. And so in that moment when you remember that you don’t “need” this thing you thought you needed, then you release the resistance that holds back whatever it is that you’re desiring. Often the response to that remembering and release is immediate. The relief is immediate. And in many cases, the manifestation is immediate.

What you want is never as far away as you think anyway, and so you are surprised when it appears to show up as such an immediate result of your choosing differently, but the fact is that this sort of quick response to your desires is much more readily available to you all the time than you are generally able to see.

When you are “needing” you are not remembering how complete you really are. When you are“needing” you are not remembering the abundance and well being that is always surrounding you. When you let go of “needing” you flow right back into the stream where everything you want is flowing. You allow the Universe to respond to you in the perfectly loving way that is always yours for the asking, yours for the allowing—as soon as you relax back into knowing that there is nothing you need.

Word play with the Universe is such a fun game. When I’m immersed in the game there truly is no need for more. And in the needing-nothingness of this moment, I/We are complete.