Eckhart Tolle explains how attachment forms and why the deepest connections with people and animals happen through presence, not possession. He describes the invisible essence that exists beyond physical form and how recognizing it dissolves the need to cling.
There's a sentence in. I believe it's in the book, the little classic by Saint Exupery, the Little Prince. See that book? And I believe it's in that book. There's a lovely sentence that says, what is essential is invisible to the I. I. The I. That's I. What is essential is invisible to the I. Now, I stands for all sensory perception. It's not just the visual. So what that points to is that the essential reality is hiding behind phenomenal reality. And you also, every one of you and myself, are. You can't really put a percentage on it, but let's just say you are 90% invisible. Who you are. Actually, all what we can see is the outer form of you, which is the physical body that senses can see. But now we can. Even one could cut open, hopefully not your. Your brain or whatever, and look for you there on a physical level, on a material level, with the most powerful, powerful electron microscopes, and you would. They would not find you at all. That's the strange thing that you are. You are not a material, physical entity. All the things that make up who you are are actually invisible, and they remain invisible. Even if you cut open your brain or other parts of your body and examine what's there, including your millions of memories, where do they live? Could you find a memory that you have of your first teacher walking into the classroom when you were five or six years old? There. Here she is. Hadn't thought of her in a long time, but suddenly there she is. Where did she live all this time? In your head. In what form did she live? In the form of certain molecules that are the memory of your teacher. Where would you ever find this all? Your room. If you had a room or the living room of the house that you lived in when you were eight years old, I could go there. I could go there. And I can even touch things still and feel. That's what that felt like. And there was that table and that curtain. Where do all these countless things live in you. And these are just mind forms, just memories. Not to mention the deeper dimensions within you. But even those relatively superficial dimensions of just memories are all totally invisible. And we can never become visible as material entities. So you are, and every human being is almost entirely invisible. All you see is the surface shell of the body and all your thoughts. Science, we don't even know what a thought is and how it survives in you, but not really. So it's all. It's invisible, and you cannot find it in the sensory realm. And so the same of course applies to your dog. What is it that you love? Let's talk about. We could talk about human too. It's surprising that there are quite a few, many people who feel more deeply attached or connected to their dog than to another human being. And I'm not saying that that is bad or that should not be the case, but because I can see how and why that happens. Because being is less obscured in the dog than it is in the human. In the human, the being dimension, depending on who it is, depending on the density of your mental emotional conditioning, is obscured by that. Sometimes you can get beyond it and you can deeply connect with a human and recognize what the consciousness that you share with the other. And when that happens, we call it love. But with a dog it's easier to do. But it's important to realize that what you love in the dog is the invisible dog. Although the visible is pleasant, it's pleasant to the touch. When you look into the eyes of a dog, then there you can sense the consciousness of the dog. So what you really love in the dog is the consciousness of the dog. Otherwise you could have a stuffed dog and. Or you could have one with a little electronically controlled dog. Maybe one day they will have it and it goes, but it's not the real thing. So with a dog, you look into the eyes and next time with your next dog, realize that the essence of the dog is not what you see. You can sense it when you look into the eyes of the dog, you can sense the invisible essence of the dog, but only if you have some access to this invisible essence, the beingness in yourself. And as I mentioned yesterday, probably it happens that even people who normally don't have access to that dimension within themselves, they feel drawn to the dog or the cat because for very briefly, the dog or cat, by connecting with the dog, cat, very briefly, it enables this person to have a glimpse of being within themselves. And this is why, I don't know if you. There's a little book that I produced together with a cartoonist, and since I have a bad memory, the name escapes me at this moment. And the title of the book is Guardians of Being and it's mainly about dogs, but I believe there are also some cats in it. And it's based on a few quotes of things I have said or written, I don't remember what. And wonderfully inspired drawings that go with the text. So. And I call dogs Guardians of being for humans because I have a theory that millions of more humans would go insane without their dogs. Their mind would just they keep. They provide a kind of anchor into the realm of being. So the realization that the essence of the dog is invisible and also indestructible. And then you still love the dog. But the excessive attachment to the form of the dog might not be that strong anymore. You will still be sad when the dog passes away, but you won't be devastated. This applies now, obviously, also to humans. When you connect, we are deeply connected with another human being. One of the most difficult experiences in your life. Is to experience the passing away of a loved one. Especially if it seems to come prematurely, Then it's even more difficult. And therefore it is advisable that at all times you keep alive within yourself the realization that this human being is essentially a being. And the human is only a very small part. And this human being is essentially invisible. And what you love in him or her is invisible. Love is the recognition that you share the same essence. In this essence. We could call it consciousness. It doesn't matter what name we give it, but that's what you share. But you recognize yourself, the essence of yourself in the other.
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