Katz for Cats!

Pic: Which is scarier – a grinning Cheshire Cat or a scowling one?

I saw two stationary stray cats gazing silently but intently at each other, at about five metres apart. As I wondered what was going on in their minds, it struck me that they might also be wondering what the other was wondering about. Was it tension over territorial rights? Was it something they were figuring out? Was it nothing in particular? Was it a mere staring contest based on feline egos and wills?

It made me realise that much of the suffering we have come from over-exertion of our wills egoistic ways, albeit often subtly – over inter-personal matters and totally personal situations. If we learn to make peace with our’selves’ by letting go of the ego, it becomes easier to make peace with others and find peace within the vicissitudes of life.

Sometimes, we make and maintain eye-contact to exert the ego. Sometimes, we break and reject eye-contact for the same reason. Why do you look at others and things the way you do? Why do you not look at them the way you don’t? How does your ego exercise its prowess via your eyes? The egoistic who only look without fails to look within – at the ego itself… to discover its illusory nature. Maybe the cats ought to close their eyes and meditate ‘Katz!’ (A Zen holler to awaken, while a deliberate pun of ‘cats’ too!) Something extra came to mind…

I challenge you
to break your pointless steely gaze
that burns with scorn and rage…
with a smile of loving-kindness.
Only then, do you win any staring contest.

Related Article:
All That Senseless Pawing & Clawing!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thedailyenlightenment-realisation/message/361