Do Not Harm: Living with Compassion Toward All Creatures.
Just like humans, animals deserve to live peaceful, safe lives. While they play vital roles in our ecosystem and provide benefits to us, we too often forget that they are sentient beings. Many suffer silently, unable to express their pain, fear, or grief, as they face cruelty, neglect, and exploitation.
From a nondual perspective, the compassion we feel for animals is not for “others,” but for ourselves in another form. What we call humans and what we call animals are appearances of the same living reality, arising together and depending entirely on one another. None of us humans, animals, or otherwise, produces ourselves by our own characteristics. Every quality and trait is borrowed from the whole. Seen in this light, compassion is not an act of moral goodness; it is the natural recognition that there is no true separation to begin with.
The Importance of Compassion Toward Animals
It is imperative that all humans not harm our living creatures but show compassion, showing such things not only improve their lives but also nurture our own spirit, fostering a sense of empathy and gratitude. All over the world, there are several individuals who lead us into showing such great examples of how compassion goes a long way.
According to Nagarjuna’s reasoning, no being exists by its own independent essence. If a human or animal truly had a separate, fixed self, it would have to rise from itself, exist without dependence, and remain unchanged. But when we look deeply, we see that all beings arise through conditions: parents, food, water, breath, sunlight, and countless unseen relations. Every name we give each “person,” “dog,” “bat,” “horse” is a label the mind places upon a flowing process.
Recognizing this, the wall between species dissolves. To be compassionate toward animals is to be compassionate toward oneself, for the same life animates both.
A Jail That Became a Sanctuary
Although it was not planned and happened by accident, back in the county Sheriff’s jail is Animal Farm, which consists of a mixture of Capybara’s, Ostriches, and Lemurs at the very least. The zoo houses more than 150 animals, the “Monroe County Detention Center. The zoo eventually came about after several ducks were hit and killed while crossing the street near the jail. Today, the farm has become a haven for those abandoned, abused, or confiscated and criminal cases, some destined to be euthanized. All the inmates help to care for the zoo animals, which they have known over the years, not only to be a therapeutic move but also to both a level of responsibility and compassion.
In truth, the healing that occurs there is deeper than it appears. When a person cares for a wounded or frightened animal, they are unknowingly caring for the same life that looks through their own eyes. The illusion of separation softens. Compassion then is not an effort; it is a return to what is already true: that no life stands apart.
A Bat Lover’s Bold Stand
This spooky true story is such a great act of compassion to share. It all started with Missouri’s Kiristen Alvey-Mudd, Executive Director and founder of Missouri Bat Census, also known as “Bat Lady.” In 2016, she discovered significant vandalism in the cave system within the preserve, which included acts such as spray paint graffiti, which she documented and reported. She has also been knowingly involved in maintaining the preserve by installing new no trespassing signs, ensuring there are minimal violations of the gates. The bat census at Sodalist Nature is the most important hibernation spot for Indiana bats in the Country, with a confirmed estimated 222,129 bats.
From the nondual view, her care for the bats reflects the wisdom that no creature’s life is more valuable than another’s. Each being expresses the same indivisible existence, wearing different forms and names. When we recognize that the bat’s breath and our own depend on the same air, compassion stops being selective; it becomes universal.
The Wild Animal Sanctuary and the Captive Wildlife Crisis
My most favorite act of compassion to tell is here with the “Wild Animal Sanctuary,” which was thought of after the “Captive Wildlife Crisis,” which is the private ownership and display of exotic animals have long been used to demonstrate wealth or power for individuals needing a little extra compensation for their ego, however over the years this method has only proven to hurt the animals by some way of abuse. The Sanctuary was founded by Pat Craig and opened on January 10th, 1980, in Keenesburg, Colorado. Notable animals are Simone, Sophie, Sheila, Eddy, Tyrone, Cricket, and Silly, to name a few. Today, “The Wild Animal Sanctuary” currently operates three facilities within the United States. Two of the Sanctuaries specialize in saving captive-born exotic animal species, while the other is entirely dedicated to saving Colorado Mustangs. The other noted locations are “The Wild Animal Refuge” in Springfield, Colorado and “The Wild Horse Refuge” in Craig, Colorado; combined these facilities encompass more than 40,000 acres and each of their own facilities have unique programs that rescue animals from horrific captive situations and rehabilitate them so they can live and roam freely within large natural habitats with others of their own kind.
From a nondual standpoint, captivity itself arises from illusion, the belief that one being can own another, that “my life” and “its life” are separate. But when we see clearly that no being possesses an independent self, the impulse to dominate or exploit collapses. Freedom for animals becomes freedom for us all.
A Personal Story of Compassion
An act of compassion I remember taking myself was a unit I used to live in, I needed to access the outside laundry room and there was Muscovy duck, which are better known as the “ugly duckling” and the duck looked as if it was shot not clear it was bleeding on one side and it seen me approach it was scared when I tried to approach it and it somehow on one working side of its own body made it behind a machine. Since several kids lived within this unit, I called the police to get a hold of the correct department to retrieve the hurt duck safely. Unfortunately, the services here are not so great that they took at least an hour to arrive, which I was even more concerned about for the duck. Without literally being in the duck’s presence, I stayed outside to watch it to make sure no one would come and hurt it until finally help arrived and they caged the poor Muscovy, and off it went with the animal officer thanking me with grace for the duck’s own behalf because it was stated that not too many others due such a kind act.
Everyday Ways to Show Compassion
I have shared a few situations involving several animals that received an act of compassion from at least one human being. There are small everyday acts of compassion you and I could take, such as adopting pets, reporting animal abuse, supporting wildlife-friendly legislation, educating your own children about animals, and even supporting local animal shelters, to name a few.
And yet, from the nondual perspective, even these actions are not between separate beings. There is only one seamless life expressing itself through countless forms. When we act kindly, we are not helping “others”; we are allowing the truth of our shared existence to express itself through us.
How Compassion Affects Us Too
Although there are still many unknowns in the cognitive mechanisms involved, the impact of showing companionship towards animals on human psychological health has accumulated widespread attention. Research has shown that such acts towards animals contribute positively by reducing depression, anxiety, stress, and fostering positive emotions in humans.
This harmony arises because there is no real boundary between the one who gives and the one who receives. The mind may divide the world into “self and other,” but in reality, there is only the living whole relating to itself in infinite ways. Compassion heals both sides because both sides are one. Neither “human” nor “animal” can be found to exist as independent, self-generated beings. Each depends entirely on conditions, labels, and the whole from which nothing stands apart. Recognizing this ends the illusion of separateness and gives rise to the only possible response: unconditional compassion.
As Carl Sagan once said, “It is unseemly of us, who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals, to contend that only humans can suffer.”
Thanks to Christine Josey fro writing this article, contact Christine: https://blinq.me/S8vUVNUvGCy7KhlAtQEW