POPE JOHN PAUL'S DREAM

THE POPE AND THE HOMELESS CATS

by J.R. Hyland

The first time I read the account of Pope John Paul II’s dream, the thing that surprised me most was the fact that it was included in the book God’s Broker. Published in 1984, the book was the result of 200 hours of conversation with the Pope. These interviews began soon after the author, Anton Gronowicz, was introduced to the Pope in 1979 and continued for two years, in the Pontiff’’s apartment at the Vatican.

In his dream, John Paul follows a homeless mother cat who was trying to find food and shelter for herself and her kittens. She is turned away by those who lack nothing themselves and by men who represent the various faces of established Christianity.

The dream took place in 1969 the night before the Pope, known then as Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, was to visit New York City for the first time. It was late summer and he had been touring Canada. He spoke of the beauty of its fields and forests and how he had wished for more time to walk in woods vibrant with color and with his "ears filled with the songs and voices of animals."

In the midst of this discussion of Canada, the Pope abruptly changed the subject and said: "The night before my departure from Canada to New York, which I had never seen, I had a strange dream." But his dream was not of beautiful forests, warm with the summer sun. It was of a crowded city, frigid with the cold of a northern winter. And although he had never been there, his dream captured the way Manhattan looks and feels after a major snowstorm.

"It was a terribly severe winter in New York; the city was completely covered with snow. Inhabitants were well off and warmly dressed and walking slowly along roads because cars, due to mountains of snow, could not be operated. I was happy that I could walk on top of the snow on avenues of white.

"All my physical effort was spent on walking. To this day, pictures of huge apartment houses on both sides of the avenue are instilled in my mind and the doormen quickly closing and opening entrance doors as though trying to prevent humanity and warmth from escaping.

"On top of the snow, I noticed a brown cat emerge from a side street and walk on the snow. I looked closer and, to my surprise, saw that this big cat was being followed by six small brown-and-white kittens, all of them following the big brown cat in a perfect line. The mother cat looked back from time to time to see if her babies were there, but her main concern was to reach the entrance door. I presumed she was trying to find warmth for herself and her children, but as soon as she reached the door, a man in a well-pressed uniform jumped at her with a broom and chased them away. I followed this procession and prepared to deliver a speech to the doorman. I opened my mouth and tried to complain, ‘Where is your proverbial American generosity? Where is your American good heart and fair play? Let them in. Let them in!!’

"I tried to speak, but the words would not come out. Maybe I was afraid of the doorman with the broom. I started searching my cassock pockets for a piece of bread, found some crumbs, and put them on my palms, calling, ‘Kitty, kitty, kitty.’ But the words would not come from my supposedly intelligent mouth. Instead, the wind blew the crumbs from my palm, and I said, ‘What can I do? I can’’t speak to the cats. I can’t speak to the doorman. But there are many hungry birds. They might pick up the crumbs.’

"Again, I walked after the cats, now with a pain in my chest, feeling tremendous cold. On the left, I saw a church building and thought, ‘There we will find help.’ I heard singing, and again, the idea occurred to me that it must be a Catholic church. The music grew louder, as though trying to convince God that they were praying to Him.

"The mother cat jumped in front of me and climbed the stairs, followed by her kittens. I raised my head and saw a tall Jesuit priest chasing the cats off the steps. But as I was about to shout at the Jesuit, ‘I am a cardinal!’ and give an order to accept the cats, the mother cat and her offspring ran behind the church because from there came the appetizing aroma of food. Probably there was a kitchen there. But a second Jesuit appeared at the kitchen door and scared the cats away. They returned to the avenue and started walking north.

"They walked on the same side of the avenue as the Jesuit church and I followed. Then they reached an imposing red brick church. An Anglican bishop appeared and said to the cats, ‘My dear animal children, please go immediately to the animal shelter. There is food for you there. We Anglican clergy donate lots of money to the animal shelter every year at Christmastime.’

"The mother cat and her kittens didn’t even meow. They knew the authoritative voice of the Anglican bishop. They walked uptown and gradually the luxurious buildings disappeared, together with the doormen, and we saw drab dilapidated apartments.

"As they walked and the buildings grew shabbier and dirty, a door was opened, not by a doorman but by an old wrinkled woman in a cotton dress. [She saw the cats] and shouted, ‘Oh, little mother,’ and when she opened her mouth, I saw she had few teeth. She gently ushered the mother cat and kittens inside, who jumped happily about because the warmth of the house embraced them."

The narrative ended as the cats found a safe haven with the woman who had little enough, herself. When the Pope concluded his dream, the author to whom he related it did not make any comment on what had been said. But he did write that "I had never seen such a sad expression on the face of this man." Considering that this was the same man who had related the horrors of his young manhood under Nazi occupation, the author’s remark shows the deep impact this dream had on the Pope.

If the Pontiff offered a commentary on his dream, Anton Gronowicz does not share it with the reader. But we are told that John Paul began to recite the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. "Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love ..., where there is darkness, light, and where there is sadness, joy.

The Pope also said that the "solicitous care, not only toward [people] but also toward animals and nature in general," that St. Francis demonstrated is "a faithful echo of the love with which God in the beginning pronounced his ‘fiat,’ which brought them into existence." And, the Pope added, "[W]e, too, are called to a similar attitude."

Some who read these remarks are surprised to find in them such strong support of God’s other creatures. They are surprised to hear the Pope refer to the lives of animals as a manifestation of God’s love: lives that deserve our "solicitous care." But I was not surprised. By the time I came across a copy of the message he gave at Assisi, I had read God’s Broker and the lengthy account of the Pope’s dream. And I knew that if John Paul II had not wanted this very revealing dream to be published, it would never have appeared in print.

In this witness, the Pope is being true to the Gospel message in which Jesus also gave witness to the need for the solicitous care of all beings: "I tell you, whenever you refused to help one of these least important ones, you refused to help me." (Matthew 25:45)

DIALOGUE WITH SAM--Amended and Expanded.


The following is written by someone who had a profound awakening in the J. Krishnamurti and U.G. Krishnamurti tradition, but the awakening is still partial. This person responded to my comments about his below email completely enraged, proving his non-existent ego was still very existent. I will include his full post now, my response and his rage-full re-response, which all goes to prove those who think they are beyond humanity, thinking and the ego altogether, are mostly fooling themselves. This is a very long post, but worth it. He makes a U.G. type discovery and comes to a neo-Advaitin conclusion.

Ed,

Thank you very much for the reply and the books.

Well, that's the point. I'm acquainted with Nisargadatta's and other respectable advaitin sages' teachings, and I had some years ago realized what you're pointing - 'That' beyond consciousness, prior to consciousness, that many talk about but they don't have a glue about what 'it' is because it's a 'no-thing', it's not graspable, mind can't know it. And I say that this is the point because what happened to me did lead me to question even such a consciousness: is there a consciousness?

And what about 'that' that is also thought, accumulated knowledge operating in the machine, the organism, the interpreter generating the complete idea about 'that'? It’s also a concept, a thought. I don't know if I'm making myself clear... I'm questioning even that 'real me' ("YOU", as you say).

Accumulated knowledge or culture or thought or mind, if you prefer, is operating, 'running' the machine - the body - and such accumulated knowledge is the only instrument, the interpreter, there's no other instrument, and such an instrument is conditioned from the roots, then there's no way out. I mean…'you' are that knowledge, that accumulated knowledge functioning the machine as its operational system, and such a ‘you’, and memory, is what is giving the impression of a 'phantom in the machine', a 'psyché', 'soul', 'I', 'ego' or whatever you prefer to call it.

You see, there's nothing else there. The machine in the natural state would be functioning purely by means of the life's energy, without the interference of thought, which is the enemy, you know.

You see, a baby, for example, is natural, freed from all the prisons of thought. But, soon, parents and the whole society begin to give him the false notion of separation by ‘saving’ such information, the accumulated knowledge, in the baby's 'data-bank', and the poor bastard is already deluded from the beginning (laughter).

You see, then the glands, which correspond directly to the so-called chakras, cease to function, and the body is then operated by that 'operational system', the accumulated knowledge, thought, the enemy, and that is why doctors found out that people in puberty have such glands stopped. But those glands were operating and ruling the machine, the body, until the moment when all that shit - thought, accumulated knowledge – was put there. That is what is preventing the natural state to prevail – culture or thought or accumulated knowledge or whatever you prefer to call it.

 And the only chance is: if, by a stroke of luck or a ‘Divine Grace’, if you prefer, such a rubbish in the system is washed out - because it's impossible to be removed (any movement in order to remove it would only be replacement, it would be thought itself ‘cheating’ itself in order to try to keep on perpetuating itself, and there's no other instrument) -, and then a physical mutation take place - something hard, nothing related to that 'blissful' talk at all. Life's energy will retook the command, and, freed from that rubbish, the organism will then be reactivated in the natural state again. That is what happened to me, in spite of all that I have done, all the sadhana and all those things I sincerely practiced for 25 years in my life.

Then I'm questioning consciousness because, you see, what is it that is having the whole idea of consciousness if not thought, that accumulated knowledge itself? Even consciousness is a ‘data’ in such a ‘data-bank’, it’s also a concept, and that ‘data-bank’ is totally conditioned, compromised from the roots, and there's no other instrument - thought, the intellect, is all that is there, and it is giving new answers out the same old ‘data-bank’, transforming the very questions into new recycled answers, but you see, they can't access beyond of themselves, they can’t go beyond themselves, thought is the only instrument and it’s restricted to itself.

Then I realized that there's not even such a thing as consciousness at all, you see. It's thought that is the very thinking about consciousness itself, consciousness doesn't exist but as an idea, thought, a concept, and the same regarding that 'YOU', 'ultimate reality' etc.

Without that interpreter you have no way to know, to see or experience anything. Even the notion that consciousness is just a concept happening and appearing to such a 'YOU', which is supposed to be entirely beyond the world and all phenomena, is also a concept. It's that same source – thought - that is operating.

You see, I have no way to know if there's something beyond. Thought can't 'touch' 'there' and there's no other instrument. Then my will to seek was over. Search was over. You see, if there's no way out, better go out there and do anything usual than pay attention to such silly questions.

The machine, the body, is all that is there, and thought, accumulated knowledge, which is in the whole space, is operating the machine since it was 'installed' there, and there's no way out because thought itself is the only instrument and it is always doing the opposite, trying to perpetuate itself, then there's no way out. Only if that acausal 'finish' occur. Then that natural state prevail, that state in which thought is obviously still there, but only as a background, in order to make communication possible etc, but not as that previous interference anymore. And even this is that very same instrument barking out loud. It’s also a concept.

If there is 'something' beyond thought, considering that thought is the only instrument, what is that will be there to experience or realize, whatever, the existence of 'that'?

Then we have no way to know, you see. Then a kind of 'blankness', but not in a bad sense, took place. I began to lose the interest in the world out there, in going out home etc, but I'm no way 'depressive' or something as people think, on the contrary, this freshness that remains due to the end of wasting energy in a thing that doesn't exist at all, is something that changed my day-by-day without a chance to get back to that former way of life.

Questions on the subject don't arise anymore, at all. Then sometimes a few thoughts appear, I was wondering 'why is that I'm acting in a way so hard regarding all the spiritual things?', then I found your site and wrote to you. I know that it's nothing but that accumulated knowledge which is writing this and acting that way that is written here, no self here at all. But sometimes another thought appears: "and if such a behaviour is ‘bad’?", but it soon disappears, as I realized that there's nothing to the 'two sides of the coin' at all, that they're the only and same, and that there's not even any coin at all. It's all thought cheating itself in order to don’t be killed by the acceptance of the fact that it’s nothing but a bunch of concepts, an ‘operational system’, running and cheating the ‘machine’, the body.

If thought were not here, this machine would have a chance to be something extraordinary, life's energy is 'something' immeasurable, you know. But, you see, not a chance. Thought is the only instrument and it's useless, any movement that it's making in order to escape from itself is itself the same way, you know. And its uselessness is not something 'wrong', Nature could not be that failure, it's useless because there's no need to make any movement in order to realize anything because that natural state is already there, you don't need to take a travel to the place where you already are. And any movement in order to reach such a place will just distract/‘remove’ you from that place because you're already there. Then you’re sort of ‘dissolved’ in the total absence of questioning, seeking, wanting/thinking etc, you know. And this is the way I find myself from then on.

Well, this is what I realized, Sir.

You see, I don't know if those books will be useful to me, but I'll ready them, without doubt, and I thank you once again for them. Nisargadatta's "Prior to Consciousness" I know, I did read it, and that "Autobiography..." by you I was reading on your site that day, it was what led me to feel that you could be the right person for me to write to. I'll continue to read it now that you gave me the e-book version.

Thank you very much.

Love,

Sam

PS: You see, that space, all that 'data-bank' IS the only 'real I' that there is. You see, not even 'I am' because there's no one here to be anything anyway at all. You already are, period. And what would be necessary something else?

That knowledge is all that 'we' are, and there's nothing beyond. If not by thought/accumulated knowledge we don't exist, we're nothing but false impressions of thought itself. We are knowledge.

We are the knowledge running the machine. We are ‘the problem’ in the machine. Once one realizes that 'he' is nothing but that knowledge, something dead, he is finished.

You see, he knows that it was all myths, he is a myth. He not even existed, never, at all.

Body will be reshuffled by nature and the rest of mankind will be operated by that only and same accumulated rubbish, and that’s the only continuity of life that exists. And the body can't know even if it's alive, much less if it will 'die' some day.

Then what remains is spontaneous living, without fear. It's this ‘freshness’, all that accumulated knowledge can’t influence me anymore, nothing can influence me anymore.

I'm nothing but a myth and life's energy somehow took the control back and still keeps a background memory of 'me' (we’re only finally killed when we die, there’s no way to be totally free from thought while still living), then I don't even worry about anything at all.

Truly, I'm in a way now that I'm stopping even to ponder if such a totally spontaneous behaviour is 'wrong' or 'not'. Strangely, the more I realize things as they are, the more strange phenomena seem to take place. Visions, sudden absences of perception, a sort of waking-dream experience, something funny and strange too, lights, flashes surrounding my head, my body, a protuberance appeared on my forehead, and those feelings, as if a electric current was running up the spine, are occurring again, perhaps so intense as they used to happen when I was younger.

Yet, the 'I am' is 'here', but without a complement - "I am...(something)", only 'I am', only pure being. But I'm aware that even such an 'entity' is an illusion, of course. And I'm even aware of the fact that this very knowledge is also knowledge/thought itself. Then the realization that there's nothing to realize because there's no one to realize anything at all simply made me lost the whole interest in anything. This is what happened to me.

I never went to India or somewhere else, I just wanted 'That' so much, 'That' that all teachings promise in 'the end', that 'Goal', I wanted ‘it’ with all my heart, all my soul, and I almost died for two times at least due to those spontaneous events during the kriya yoga times, because I wanted it for real.

I used to live totally surrended to God and begging Him "give me 'That' if possible, please!", and many strange powers and things happened - once even a kind of lizard came and performed the 'namaste' gesture greeting me! And powers, siddhis, you know, I began to perceive them, I was wondering 'how are these things possible?!'. I could think something and that thing certainly would manifest soon, and then over and over and over again.

I also discovered that I could move some objects just by means of thought, without touching them, and I could know things about people who I had never seen before, and many other strange things.

I was totally lost too, sometimes total absence of who I am used to take place, I began to ponder if I was not suffering from alzheimer or something similar, but I could remember everything later, it was just a spontaneous, sudden absence of identity, only  pure ‘beingness’ was running the machine, without Samuel there anymore.

And once I realized that that Samuel is also a myth, the whole movement ('search' etc) ceased to occur. It's not that I realized any thing, I have no way to know, understand? If you asked me: "But, substantially, what happened to you?" I'll have to answer "nothing happened to me at all". I really don't know.

I tell you that this which is writing is just as a background now because it's a fact that I'm living all the time, but I have no way to tell you that I'm a 'self-realized', an 'enlightened' man or anything, you see, I question even such subjects, are there such things? No.

MUZIKA RESPONSE:

Sam,

I am not sure you wanted a response to your 2,200 word statement (rant).

Over 2,200 words repeating the same point over and over, yet giving the impression of complete confusion.

Yes, even consciousness is not real. It is a concept. Even saying it is a concept is a concept.

Yes, the mind has extreme limits and nothing from it can be trusted, especially communication.

Yes, YOU is just a concept made for people that will not accept they are total nothingness. They would kill me if they thought I was saying nothing about them was real. You have seen through it all and yet are still confused. Why?

Yes, these body changes come along with visions and powers, but so what? They all go away too.

Just rest in total emptiness with its profound peace and beauty.

If it is not peaceful for you yet, it will be.


Then in that stillness you will see something, intuit something, not in consciousness, not in thought. You will watch the various mindstates, states of consciousness, body, phenomena come and go, and the knowledge will come that you are none of this. All this falseness happens to you, and you stand apart, untouched. This knowledge may be articulated by the mind through words, but it arises from an apprehension that far precedes the mind.


Already you feel the untouched part, but it is not clear why you feel it. Stay in the silence as much as possible.

Ed


SAM's Angry Response:

Ah, yes, I didn't want a response, I wasted my time (and what time? It's a mere concept, uh?) writing a '2.200 word rant' for nothing, after all, it's all concept, right?

"Over 2,200 words repeating the same point over and over, yet giving the impression of complete confusion."

Yes, I was probably completely confused, of course, or I wouldn't have wasted the fucking muscles of my hands typing and re-typing 'over 2.200 words repeating the same point over and over' to someone who can't even understand the fact - and I wrote about it, it's there among those '2.200 word rant' - that my English is not that good. But, of course, you're a 'self-realized' 'sage' and I'm just a confused idiotic bastard bothering you with my 2.200 non-sense words, uh? 

"Just rest in total emptiness with its profound peace and beauty.

If it is not peaceful for you yet, it will be."

Why worry about such things if 'total emptiness/total confusion' 'peace/war', 'beauty/ugliness', 'being peaceful' etc is all that same shit I repeated in over 2.200 confused words? The movement to 'rest in total emptiness...' or 'being peaceful' or whatever is the 'goal' is exactly what is creating the problem, this is all I'm trying to say, to explain, the understanding I have, and even after noted that I wrote over 2.200 words you still didn't get it, if I'm not wrong. Is not the very want to rest in whatever you name it or to be in whatever state you call it what is preventing the primordial state, natural state or whatever you call it to prevail? Because you people write that there's something 'beyond', something 'extraordinary', something 'blissful' in 'the end', an 'ultimate reality' or something, but it's not what I've found, on the contrary. Is not the 'ultimate reality' merely another concept? If you can't give me an answer, it's obvious that it is. And, 'in the end', you helped me a lot, and I mean for real, you gave me the confirmation that all gurus are bogus, we don't need anything, no 'goal', nothing to realize, nothing to understand, much less someone to 'follow' or even to ask anything, everything is all within us, all the power is in the man, but he silly seeks out there, as if he had not a head of his own and would need another head upon to think for him. And it's all the same, thoughts, rubbish. Search itself was the biggest thought's trap.

Thank you very much anyway.

All the best,

Sam

MUZIKA's RESPONSE TO SAM:

Tisk, tisk, such anger and rage. There certainly is someone there that reacted VERY STRONGLY, isn't there?

All the states come and go, yet there is a knower at the center, the zero point. You haven't seen it yet. You have the first stage awakening with a very angry and fragile ego still very much alive and in control.

Ed

PS: Sam has discovered a truth, namely no truth. He wrote 2,200 words about his discovery of a natural state of the body, which he accepts has the only existence, all the rest is mind and concepts. He alleges he has transcended spirituality and sees even I Am is an illusion. Yet when Muzika points out his 2,200 words only make the same point over and over, and asks whether he wanted a response, Sam gets very upset and calls me a porkchop so to speak. His anger and rage is directed at me who he calls a fake guru because I question his expression of his experience and that his experience is the final one. Yet, what are the qualities of his discovered "natural state?" No peace, no compassion, no love, just a body functioning in a so called natural state, which appears quite self-contained and not attached to humanity or other sentient beings at all.

His "discovery" is the same as U.G. Krishnamurti's and leads just to a neo-Advaita awakening and no more. But he misses the biggest step of all, which so far has not happened to him, and with this mindset, maybe never will.

I once asked Robert if Rajneesh was enlightened.  Very quietly, and with his face turned away from me, he said, "Yes." It was not a deep question, just the usual stupid question asked by any spiritual shopper, but I guess I didn't have anything clever to ask him that day. 

When I posted this a few months ago I got a lot of negative responses from people who had the opinion Rajneesh was not enligtened, including soem professional swami types. People talked about his 93 Rolls Royces, his prescription drug use, and his students, which many judge as bad somehow. But all that is surface stuff. The surface goes on even if the inner part is dead and gone.

When I remember looking at Rajneesh videos, what immediately affected me was: 1. His inner silence; his steady gaze; his sense of humor. Those were Robert's characteristics too.

I think Rajneesh published altogether too many books. It is hard to tease out the highest teachings when there are too many words. The same is true for Robert. You will find hundreds of contradictions within Robert's body of talks. They are just talks, just philosophy, techniques and pointers. Sometimes he just made things up and he even tells people he just made the things up for entertainment. It is all mind stuff, words, concepts, and truth is never found in words.

But Robert's "highest truth" was also the one he announced most often: "You don't exist! You never existed. You are like an optical illusion." 


Non-existence and illusion are complicated topics because non-existence has several levels which I won't go into here. Basically the two non-existences are: You don't exist as a body/mind, these are just concepts, and then more completely, you don't even exist as consciousness, experience. You are absolute nothingness. The bubble of consciousness is just an illusion too.

I just saw these words from Rajneesh today, all they are exactly on:

"Beyond enlightenment you enter into nothingness.

Experience disappears, experiencer disappears.

Just pure nothingness remains, utter silence.

This is the destiny of every human being, sooner or later to be achieved.

They have enjoyed everything. They have enjoyed the purity of individuality; now they have to enjoy the disappearing of individuality. They have seen the beauty of individuality; now they have to see the disappearance and its beauty, and the silence that follows, that abysmal serenity that follows."

Ed,

I just wanted to thank you.  I discovered your website and am totally resonating with the teachings of Robert Adams.  I am a ten year seeker.  I stumbled across Gangaji on cable access TV which let me to Ramana Maharshi…through Nisargadatta…through Ramesh Balsekar…then on to Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie and John Sherman.

So, by this point, I have been exposed to some great teachers.  Your website with the teachings of Robert Adams has blown me away.  He says exactly what I was hoping a teacher would say.  Especially around the preordained, karma topics.  It is no mistake that I “stumbled” across you site.  I have shared it with a good spiritual buddy of mine and we are reading and talking through the ”Collected Works” together.

Thank you for your generosity and making the teachings of this modern master so easily available.

Blessings,

B

LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS STORY ABOUT RAISING PET LIMITS IN LOS ANGELES--SEPTEMBER 16

Ed Muzika, who has an animal blog, has long proposed lifting the restraints on pet owners to allow them to have more dogs or cats in their homes. (Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer)


LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS, SEPTEMBER 16, 2010


STORY BY DANA BARTHOLOMEW


http://www.dailynews.com/ci_16085807?IADID=Search-www.dailynews.com-www.dailynews.com

http://lang3-plus-losangelesdailynewsg2-losangelesdailynewsg2-ca.ca.newsmemory.com/?token=qr/LGy%2bit%2bu24rRUP5ySQg%3d%3d

Ed Muzika has cat companions wandering about his Northridge house, a den full of kitty doodads and the remains of nine feline friends on his mantle.

But given his druthers, he'd have even more cats to keep him company.

"This is Cat Central, with all three cats," said Muzika, 63, as Radha, Sita and Dustin give visitors the once-over. "I want more.

"I want to rescue these guys."

Muzika may get his wish, if two City Council members and the new head of Animal Services can succeed in raising the legal limit for dog and cat ownership.

The motion, introduced in June by Councilmen Bill Rosendahl and Paul Koretz, would increase the number of allowed pets from three dogs and/or cats to five of each.

A town hall meeting to discuss the proposal will be held tonight at the East Valley Animal Shelter; another is scheduled next Wednesday in West Los Angeles.

Neither Rosendahl nor Koretz responded to a request for comment.

Supporters of the plan say it could help reduce the crush of abandoned animals at city shelters, which have seen a 20 percent jump since the start of the recession, and spare them from euthanasia. In addition, they say up to $800,000 more in canine registration fees could help city coffers.

"We want to give people the opportunity to help save the lives of these animals," said Brenda Barnette, general manager of the Department of Animal Services, who supports the measure.

"My research

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shows that communities that have increased or have no pet limits, they're saving more animals' lives, with no more incidence of barking or fighting dogs."

Opponents disagree, and argue that boosting pet limits could increase the legal pet population by millions of dogs and cats across Los Angeles, adding to its problem of surplus animals.

They say the potential legion of extra pets would not only increase noise, parasites, pollution and nuisances to neighbors, but lower property values.

This month, the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles wrote a letter to City Hall expressing its opposition to the plan.

"There are serious issues of increased dog barking and other animal noises, fleas, parasites and rodents, sanitation, odor and animals escaping yards and causing dangers/nuisance to tenants," wrote James Clarke, executive director of the association.

Another resident wrote to complain of neighbors' numerous cats using her garden as a latrine.

Critics note that the motion, as written, would allow up to 10 dogs and cats per "resident," meaning virtually unlimited pets in every household. Advocates counter the motion will be rewritten to state pet limits for every "residence" instead.

"This will set us back 20 years," said Phyllis Daughherty, director of the Animal Issues Movement in Los Angeles, another group that opposes the proposal. "It's cruel to the animals. It's cruel to people who will have dog packs in the streets.

"L.A. will be known as the Barking City. There will be howling in the streets - by dogs. (And) everyone will be howling at this to City Hall."

Because of more potential dog and cat waste flushed down city storm drains, as well as more potential pet attacks on wildlife, Daugherty is pushing for a full environmental impact report.

Pet increase backers, meanwhile, point to the many scofflaws who already own more than the allowed number of pets. They say raising the legal limit will really benefit rescuers and other pet owners who will legally be able to care for them.

"More people are turning in animals (to shelters) because they can't afford them, so I don't expect many people to have five dogs or five cats," said Michael Bell, an animal welfare advocate in Encino. "It's the rescuers who want to do that."

In the battle over limits on companion pets, advocates point to such cities as Santa Monica and San Diego, with liberal thresholds on allowable dogs and cats, and corresponding lower euthanasia rates with no adverse animal nuisances to residents.

Barnette said L.A.'s six animal shelters have a comparable dog and cat impound rate to San Diego, which allows up to six dogs and unlimited cats per home. But while L.A. kills nearly one out of four dogs and six out of 10 cats that end up in city shelters, she said San Diego euthanizes 18 percent of its dogs and 46 percent of its cats.

"So there's a huge difference there in the number of animals that you can save," she said. "And the interesting thing is, there was no effect on the city."

Daugherty countered that because of the city's rampant canines, San Diegans suffered 2,277 dog bites in 2007, according to news reports.

Muzika, who runs a watchdog blog about Animal Services, said the many Angelenos who now have too many dogs and cats are subject to harassment by neighbors or ex-spouses, and take up valuable manpower from Animal Services officer who must answer their complaints.

He said studies report 740,000 homes in L.A. have cats, with 2.3 per household. Raise the limit to five, he said, and rescuers and animal foster homes can take in 2 million more cats - legally.

"When I lived in Santa Monica, I had eight cats," Muzika said. "I loved 'em. But here, three legally and I'm subject to harassment by neighbors who don't like me - or my cats."

THE NEED IS SO GREAT

For the past six years I have fed three colonies of five feral cats total, all fixed and healthy. I would give Jimmy and other colony caretakers money for food and medications for their colonies. Then Jimmy moved and I took over five of his colonies, with an additional 8 cats, doubling the time required to take care of them.

Then three days ago one of the typical cat-ladies who I help, Marie, had her car break down and she couldn’t feed any because of the distance between where she lives and the cats. This time there is an additional five colonies and maybe 40 cats!!! Big cats, small cats, lots and lots of six and eight week old kittens, Siamese cats, black cats, white cats—you name it. I felt overwhelmed with so many new charges.  She should have got the cats fixed but did not and kitten season is upon us. They need to be captured, sterilized, examined and vaccinated. This is an enormous effort because it is primarily in Spanish areas and there are problems feeding and trapping.

But the need is so great. 

There are an estimated 1-2 million cats on the streets of the City of Los Angeles, and about 2,000 rescue groups. The shelter kills over 60% of the cats impounded. These can be friendly house cats turned in by owners for any of a hundred reasons, or a cat born and raised on the street, of a cat that became lost or abandoned. It is truly heartbreaking to see an alley full of hungry cats waiting for their food, who really have nothing else—just you to love and care for them.

So, I have been trying to change things. For years I have worked to have the number of cats and dogs a resident can legally own, increase from three to five. There are an estimate 734,000 households in LA that have an average of 2.3 cats per household. If the number of cats that can be legally owned is increased from three to five, that opens up the possibility of an additional 1.9 million homes. Since Animal Services kills over 10,000 cats per year, the new additional homes opened up is 190 times the number of cats that are not adopted and are killed each year.

I moved to LA from Santa Monica. Santa Monica has no limits on cats. You can have 50 and it is not a legal problem. But when we moved to LA, suddenly we were outlaws. Most of our cats were taken off the street, pure rescues of homeless cats and ferals. In the eight years after we moved, six of the eight died of cancer or kidney failure. Recently we acquired a kitten rescued by Animal Services, Radha. However, we’d like to have more but can’t because it is presently illegal.

In any event, partially due to my lobbying over the years, the City is considering raising the limit to 5 cats and 5 dogs. Since I have been a long time proponent, a reporter from the Daily News interviewed me today for two hours and a photographer took photos of our cats. The story will be on the front page on Thursday’s edition of the Los Angeles Daily News: http://dailynews.com.  The reporter, Dana Bartholomew is a friend of mine, as is the general manager of Los Angeles’s Animal Services, Brenda Barnette.

I don’t want to put this as a burden on you, but I need your help. Mostly I need people to move close and start a community, but part of that community’s mission is acting with complete compassion for the animals that need you. The benefit you would get is a sense of total satisfaction and the experience of complete love.

If I can, when I am out there feeding, I will take photos of all these hungry and needy cats that need love, food and caring. If this were Calcutta, my orientation might be towards children, the homeless or old people, but this is not a problem in LA. I teach you need to focus on your immediate environment and make things better for you and the world there.

There is such a need and you can help fill it and you will feel rewarded beyond measure. Selfless action is the greatest cooking possible. It opens the heart, mind, emotions and pocketbook, and destroys the ego-orientation towards ME.  

Jimmy, the homeless man who fed stray cats all over Northridge is back in Los Angeles. He was fired last Saturday after 41 days of continuous labor because the owner said Jimmy had frequent angry outbursts at him. Jimmy's story can be found on the LA Weekly site: http://www.laweekly.com/2009-07-30/news/jimmy-on-the-edge-of-town/1

Knowing better than to just believe the owner of Shaz's account of Jimmy's stay at his restaurant, I asked Jimmy for his side. It is far, far different from Mohammed's story. Mohammed had said he fired Jimmy because Jimmy kept exploding in anger at him including in front of customers. Jimmy said Mohammed was angry about his cat Meena and constantly wanted him to get rid of her.

Jimmy stated Mohammed had both a good side and a bad side. Good for the first 3 days, especially if you were a visitor. Bad if you were a long term employee. 

Jimmy was given room and two meals a day. He stated he worked from 9 a.m. to about midnight, or 15 hours a day for 41 days in a row without any day off. He was given 1 hour off for lunch and two 15 minute breaks. Employees ate supper after all customers left at around 10:30 p.m. After about a half hour supper, employees cleaned up and closed around 11:30-12:00 p.m. That is a 13-1/2 hour day, seven days a week for almost 6 weeks with no days off!!

Jimmy's pay?  $2.89 per hour!!! No overtime!! All paid as cash under the table.

The minimum wage in California is $8.00 per hour, and has been since 2008!

This is a buffet style restaurant like Soup Plantation. Few tips are left. In any event, under state law, an employer cannot deduct tips from wages. The following is from the state's industrial division website: 

Q.

I work in a restaurant as a waitperson. Can my employer use my tips as a credit toward its obligation to pay me the minimum wage?

No. An employer may not use an employee's tips as a credit toward its obligation to pay the minimum wage. Jimmy was not paid any overtime, despite state law that requires 1.5 pay for any time over 8 hours per day, and 2X for any time worked beyond 12 hours a day. That is, Jimmy should have been making $8 X 8 hours, or $64, + 4 X $12, or $48, plus 1.5 hours X $16 per day, or $136/day, instead of the $38 a day he was actually paid. No wonder Jimmy got mad. Jimmy will be living in a secret place in the Northridge area beginning on Wednesday, looking for a restaurant job.

A new screen play by Matthew Brown is posted on Scribd. There are quite a few similarities between Mathew's earlier script about Robert Adams, but is is about a boy who became enlightened at age 14 while taking a math test named Richard Able. This is Richard's story.


http://www.scribd.com/doc/37267109/The-Razor-s-Handle

Coming soon. There will soon be a new translation from the Hindi, and commentary by both Rajiv and I of the Ashtavakra Gita. Byrom's translation is very poetic, but inaccurate. We will show how. We will also show how the Gita contradicts the neo advaitin theory that Consciousness is everything.


Hopefully, Ashtavakra will not call us and threaten to sue.


We are still confronted with the problem of the accuracy of the various Hindi translations of that Gita from the Sanskrit. This requires rather laborious dictionary hunting and definitions of Sanskrit words into Hindi. Therefore, several Hindi translations would need to be consulted.