Cats possess the Buddha Nature

 I’m not sure what’s going on lately. I keep seeing these little things about cats and Buddhism. On Sunday, I was in a mall bookstore, and they had all their calendars on sale for a buck. So I got one for Mom, since she hadn’t gotten one for 2007 yet. It has illustrations of cats and pithy sayings about cats, and the one for June is, “Of all the animals, the cat alone attains to the contemplative life.”

Today I was getting my “Zen-a-Day” desk calendar up to date, and lo and behold, Sunday’s quote is:

Those who understand the Tao delight, like cats, in just sitting and watching without any goal or result in mind. But when a cat gets tired of sitting, it gets up and goes for a walk or hunts mice. It does not punish itself or compete with other cats in an endurance test as to how long it can remain immovable — unless there is some real reason for being still, such as catching a bird.
—Alan Watts

Funny, that was for Sunday as well. So Sunday was all about cats and Buddhism. I wonder if sometimes the universe plays with us, and drops things in front of us to challenge us or to encourage our studies. Is this something that Buddhists believe, too? Anyway, what does it mean? What should I contemplate?

Maybe I should contemplate nothing, but instead watch one of my cats as they sit calmly on the end table, like decorative knick-knacks, either totally absorbed in jhana or comepletely enlightened. Whatever, they seem to be content with just being.

Maybe the universe is saying, “Quit reading so much, quit worring about being a Buddhist, just be.”