A Message on Compassion - From the Animals

If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.

Saint Francis of Assisi

This is our response to those humans who think that only a few are deserving of compassion.

So many find it difficult to exercise empathy and to fully understand compassion. These things have no limit and do not need to be valued as rare jewels – yet nearly every human filters them through a selfish agenda. “Who is good enough to earn my empathy today?”

“You are worthy to be “saved” or to be given “rights” and you and you are not worthy.”

This is your canon for genocide, for exploitation, for violence and for destruction.

How many times are you informed that some things are deserving of care and others are not? How many times are you asked “why do you care about them?”

This is a story that your species has built. It is the story that maintains all of your social problems. The root of all your suffering and aggression is growing from this. You do not understand what "value" means.

You do not GIVE or TAKE value. Everything you see- alive (a tree) or not (a stone) - has an energy. It is all connected. It is all one. If you label a thing to have value and another thing to not have it - you are speaking or thinking nonsense. Value exists everywhere. To think you can control it is to believe that you can take away the air and lock it in a cloche. It cannot be done.

“A GOOD DEED DONE TO AN ANIMAL IS LIKE A GOOD DEED DONE TO A HUMAN BEING, WHILE AN ACT OF CRUELTY TO AN ANIMAL IS AS BAD AS CRUELTY TO A HUMAN BEING.” MUHAMMAD

A human asks, “why waste time on them when there are others that are more worthy?”

Who do these people feel are more worthy? And then... there must be others that are far more worthy than you, than them? When we base and save our morality and empathy for only the “worthy” somewhere along that line are those that are unworthy.

Ask these hoarders of compassion – where on the “worthy” scale are they?

We animals understand that such pathetic narcissism is based in a sad fear. But this “sad” fear is perpetrated by its own selfishness. When all of us are viewed as worthy – none are cast outside. Restriction is the fence that ostracizes. Those that WANT to be better than others create the concept of discrimination. The human has fought to remove its place with us in wisdom. You belong in wisdom. You are one of us, and yet, you choose to live "cast" out.

The door is always open for your return.

“SAINT FRANCIS, FAITHFUL TO SCRIPTURE, INVITES US TO SEE NATURE AS A MAGNIFICENT BOOK IN WHICH GOD SPEAKS TO US AND GRANTS US A GLIMPSE OF HIS INFINITE BEAUTY AND GOODNESS. “THROUGH THE GREATNESS AND THE BEAUTY OF CREATURES ONE COMES TO KNOW BY ANALOGY THEIR MAKER” (WIS 13:5); INDEED, “HIS ETERNAL POWER AND DIVINITY HAVE BEEN MADE KNOWN THROUGH HIS WORKS SINCE THE CREATION OF THE WORLD” (ROM 1:20). FOR THIS REASON, FRANCIS ASKED THAT PART OF THE FRIARY GARDEN ALWAYS BE LEFT UNTOUCHED, SO THAT WILD FLOWERS AND HERBS COULD GROW THERE, AND THOSE WHO SAW THEM COULD RAISE THEIR MINDS TO GOD, THE CREATOR OF SUCH BEAUTY.[21] RATHER THAN A PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED, THE WORLD IS A JOYFUL MYSTERY TO BE CONTEMPLATED WITH GLADNESS AND PRAISE.” POPE FRANCIS, “ENCYCLICAL”

Theodore Adorno, reminds us in his famous quote, as he warns us to watch out for anyone who is able to label another living thing as something beneath others that deserves hatred and scorn. These are the people that are the spark of harm not progress. These are the “thinkers” that create racism, sexism, abuse, cruelty and destruction - all of these perversions you are encouraged to cling to.

If you are capable of suppressing empathy – you are capable of anything. Empathy grows through its use ... not through its detention or precious discrimination. When one of us is harmed, all of “us” is harmed. No good is fashioned from the tools of suffering. The perpetrator of suffering is its first victim. Those who view living things as “implements,” speak of who they are by how they view others.

LOVE is your only solution. It will dissolve the darkness. Only light alchemizes the dark. Both light and dark are dancers - but fun nature darkness is beauty. All is bathed in LOVE.

Any philosophy seeded by hatred, can never be the foundation of justice, scientific advancement, education or progress.

The animals embrace those who fight for justice, for reminding humans of the nobility of benevolence. For you humans who find beauty in your religions, you know that nature is love through its perfection. This is the cornerstone of all.

“IN TALKING WITH HIS DISCIPLES, JESUS WOULD INVITE THEM TO RECOGNIZE THE PATERNAL RELATIONSHIP GOD HAS WITH ALL HIS CREATURES. WITH MOVING TENDERNESS HE WOULD REMIND THEM THAT EACH ONE OF THEM IS IMPORTANT IN GOD’S EYES: “ARE NOT FIVE SPARROWS SOLD FOR TWO PENNIES? AND NOT ONE OF THEM IS FORGOTTEN BEFORE GOD” (LK 12:6). “LOOK AT THE BIRDS OF THE AIR: THEY NEITHER SOW NOR REAP NOR GATHER INTO BARNS, AND YET YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER FEEDS THEM” (MT 6:26).” POPE FRANCIS

No human can claim a “religion” yet destroy and insult what their faith describes as perfection. Any who destroy nature are acting in blasphemy against their religion. They are destroying what was created.

“The creatures that inhabit this earth-be they human beings or animals-are here to contribute, each in its own particular way, to the beauty and prosperity of the world.” His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

We animals do not see any fault in the earth or the beings that inhabit it. Remember that you have chosen to believe you are separate from us - and we are welcoming you home. We are with the earth and a piece of its magnificence. We will always wait for you. We do not feel superior to everything and we walk in the resultant tranquility. Remove the ego and live in peace. We extend an offer to share this joy with humans and feel sorrow for those of you who cannot yield your bleakness to reach back.

Please comment with beautiful passages from your world. Every time goodness speaks we silence the power of the hatred that is only a mirage. The more compassion has a voice, the more it drowns out the impact of destruction.