How What
We Think Can Help Liberate Animals
We
animal liberators are a lot like dandelions.
A lot of people would rather we not appear in their lawns even though
our bright yellow blossoms are quite beautiful.
They try to pull us up by the roots or spray us with herbicides of all
kinds, but somehow we always manage to pop back up cheerily and then overnight
turn into the most lovely puffballs, full of hundreds of seeds. All we need is a little wind and there go our
seeds flying about like tiny birds.
That’s why the number of vegans (and dandelions) increases every day. We dande-lion-hearted activists have planted
a lot of seeds with both our thoughts and our actions.
It’s
been said that we attract what we think about most. That is why it has also been said that every
thought is a prayer. Atheists and
theists alike “pray,” in that broad sense, whenever we have a thought. Our
dilemma as animal liberationists is that we have awakened from the cultural
trance that ignores animal suffering and are now painfully and constantly aware
of the terrible plight of the animals. In the true meaning of the word
“compassion,” we are “suffering with.” What do we do, then, with our feelings
and thoughts? We have gone through the
door of denial, and now we can’t Not Know.
Our
thoughts and feelings often turn to rage at what is happening, anger at the
perpetrators, burn-out after working so hard with seemingly little progress,
loneliness from being ostracized by some, and endless grief over the animals
whom we cannot physically save. But if it is true that we attract what we think
about most, then for the sake of the animals and ourselves, we must acknowledge
the injustice while simultaneously attracting what we want for the
animals. We want to “attract” their liberation. Therefore, the majority of our thoughts must
be Loving thoughts empowered by the feeling of Love if we are going to bring
animal liberation into reality.
The
question for all of us is--how do we keep our thoughts focused on this Love and
this Vision of peace for all beings. It
is a challenge that activists for justice have faced through the ages. It requires us to take time to feel the joy
and peace that lies within each of us and connects us all to each other and to
the animals. It is from that place of
peace that we can find the strength, the optimism, and the wisdom to do our
part for the animals. In Defense of Animals’ has developed a Sustainable Activism Campaign whose
goal is to help us all with that challenge.
IDA offers many resources to help activists. Among those resources are
Vegan
Spirituality.com;
Circle
of Compassion.org (founded by myself and Will and Madeleine Tuttle)
Prayer
Circle for Animals Facebook (also founded by me and the Tuttles);
My
books: Peace to All Beings: Veggie Soup for the Chicken’s Soul and
The
Missing Peace: The Hidden Power of Our Kinship with Animals (co-author, Tina
Volpe)
The
Animal Prayer Flag Project right here at Peace to All Beings.com
Gandhi
said, “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and
love have always won… Think of it—always.”
Our awakening to the plight of the animals was an awakening to love for
all beings and to reverence for all life. We have the great privilege of seeing
with our hearts what peace and liberation for all beings can look like. We have been blessed with the ability to love
unconditionally just as the animals do.
May the seeds of all our thoughts, feelings, prayers, and actions bloom
with that love. Imagine, feel, and know
that humanity is being transformed and animal liberation is close at hand.
© Judy
Carman, 2015
