Thursday, March 28

why cats give us a thousand laps in the art of living


He said Pedro J. Ramirez, that of El Español.com (not ‘.es’), which Mariano Rajoy it seemed that he felt a kind of discomfort with his being and being in the world. Rajoy attack, although we are all Rajoy, at some point. And, very particularly, if we compare ourselves with cats, which are hated on the contrary according to John Gray (1948), Doctor of Philosophy and professor at Oxford. We hate felines for their “aristocratic detachment” and their “innate sense” to be comfortable in their own skin.

«The human animal never stops aspiring to something that it is not, with the tragic and ridiculous foreseeable results. Cats make no such effort. The happiness

it is a state in which they settle when the practical threats to their well-being disappear, ”writes the novelist in the pages of ABC Cultural Alvaro Pombo, which, unraveling Gray’s new book in Spain, ‘Feline philosophy: cats and the meaning of life‘ (ed. Sexto Piso), published last year, explains that this is also the very reason why we love them. They are a beacon. An example. A mystery.

Ramiro Street He has dedicated his life to self-knowledge. In his yoga classes in the center of Madrid Shadak He responds daily to the existential doubts of his students. has studied at Buda, a Lao-Tse, a Krisnhamurti, a Jesus, a Confucius, a Zarathustra, a Nyanaponika Thera. And he says of his cat Émile: “Is a teacher. He’s the one who loves me the most because he doesn’t judge me. Eat and sleep when necessary, sunbathe when appropriate without overdoing it. It makes deep relaxation and distributes its time very well. He knows how to enjoy the little things and knows how to be alone and accompanied. We must add his absence of rancor, his benevolence when I do not leave him alone or his contagious tenderness. His ability to concentrate is such that he seems to become absorbed in samadhi. And he ends: «No matter how hard I try, I can’t get into his mysterious brain. But when they look at me, their golden eyes seem to tell me what is perhaps the most essential thing I learn from Émile every day: that thought is insufficient and that the true answers are found in the heart.

Also Read  The brake on new ICU admissions relaxes the pressure with half of Spain at very high risk

Faced with the pejorative note that kittens are irrational animals, Gray believes that their lack of abstract reasoning is something positive and a symbol of freedom: “If they could understand it, philosophy would have nothing to teach them,” he says. In this essay it counts as Rene Descartes, effigy of Reason, threw a cat out the window to demonstrate the absence of conscious sentience in non-humans. Accepting the Christian doctrine of the time, which denied the soul to animals, their empirical experiments sought to show that they were insensitive machines and their terrified screams were only mechanical reactions. “What these experiments showed is that humans can be more thoughtless than any other animal,” Gray writes, adding: “Science perfects the cruelties of religion.”

From hate to love

Although videos of crawling cats live a golden age on the internet, or are literary fashionable (‘Memorable Letters: Cats’, ‘The Secret Life of Cats’, by Martha Sanz, ‘The Big Book of Cats’ compiled by Blackie Books, etc. There are even specialized publishers like Lata de Sal), we didn’t always love them. Before the spotlight was turned on the fearsome pangolin, they were demonized for polluting the environment and spreading infection. Although hate comes from afar. In France, in the Modern Age, they were associated with the Devil, and many religious festivities ended up burning a cat in a bonfire or throwing them off a roof. In Paris it was customary to burn a basket with live cats suspended above. They were also buried alive in new houses because it was lucky. In other cities, they were set on fire to chase them as they burned. And in Germany the screeching of cats even bequeathed a word: katzenmusik. There the carnivals used to culminate with a mock trial in which they were beaten to death and then hung causing the revelry of the people.

Also Read  "The undeserved fame of flurone": what is this double infection and why is it not rare
John Gray
John Gray – ABC

Envy, Gray says, because too many people lead lives of repressed suffering. “Of course, many other animals have suffered human cruelty. But some humans seem to hate cats because they are naturally happy, just like they hate other humans who are naturally happy. It is dangerous to be happy among humans”, he replies. In this book, also about personal growth, it is argued that, unlike cats, humans try to achieve happiness by running away from themselves. Is it a good strategy? “For many humans living on illusions is the only way to bring happiness. At the same time it is dangerous, as it means avoiding reality (hostile people, dictators, climate change)… Humans want to escape from themselves more than they want to escape from death.”

Cat’s lesson: “Do not look for meaning in life”

Unlike chimpanzees and gorillas, felines do not produce alpha cat specimens, they lack leaders. When necessary, they cooperate. But they do not merge into groups. They neither obey nor venerate the people who welcome them in co-living. Would they be anarchists politically? “No, because they don’t trust others easily, be they cats or humans. They would not be liberal either because they accept the need for power. A feline political philosophy, if it existed, would be Realism. But, deep down, cats are not interested in politics. For them, any political involvement would be wasted time. They prefer to sleep and play. Like Messi!

Gray states that “the great failure of rationalism is to believe that humans can live by applying a theory.” What do you recommend? “Sometimes we have to rely on theories, like in the pandemic. Statistics and epidemiology show that one will be safer if one is fully vaccinated. Here science should be your guide. However, much of life is art. If you want to know how to do politics, watch a clever politician in action. If you want to be a poet, read and listen to poetry. If you want to know how to love without suffering, ask someone who has loved: they will tell you what no one knows. What can we learn from cats? Don’t look for meaning in life. Enjoy your days as they come and bear your pain as the price of being alive.

Also Read  The Joe who really rules Washington is not Biden


www.abc.es

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *