“Bodhicatva” – A Cat that is Enlightened!

A play on the term Bodhisatva notwithstanding, have you ever heard of a talking cat, much less a writing cat? That is precisely what the Dalai Lama’s cat does. She has written a book, ‘The Dalai Lama’s Cat’ in first person! It is hilarious to say the least, but also very deeply philosophical.

A cat that absorbs all that Dalai Lama, the Buddhist religious leader of Tibet, says by way of discourse with his high-profile visitors and writes about her experiences of being the pet of Dalai Lama. At least that is how David Michie, the author of the book, would want us to believe.

The cat is rescued at birth by the kind Dalai Lama from the streets of New Delhi and brought up as a pet at his residence. She is a snow-white pedigree cat, though slightly crippled in a fall from the hands of the mischievous boys, who dropped her, while trying to sell her to make some money.

From the window sill of the Holiness Dalai Lama’s visitor’s room, the cat not only surveys the magnificent view of the snow-capped Himalayan mountains, but also gets to listen to the discourses that take place between Dalai Lama and his visitors.

Highly philosophical ideas like ‘you become aware that your true nature is one of boundless love and compassion,’ to all sentient beings including cockroaches, which also share with humans two basic wishes, ‘the wish to enjoy happiness and the wish to avoid suffering,’ the cat absorbs and reflects everything her master theologies. Of course, everyone wants to be loved as well.

The downside of being Dalai Lama’s pet, the cat soon would find out, was having to feel guilty on letting her instincts take the upper hand and caught a mouse in between her teeth. Considering her actions from the point of view of the mouse, it was a grave error in causing that sentient being to suffer. She gave up the prized catch and the mouse recovered much to the delight of everyone around in the household of Dalai Lama, the cat included.

With another visitor, the question arose whether living in nunnery is better than living in jail. The moral that emerged was ‘it is not the circumstances of our lives that make us happy or unhappy but the way we see them.’ Whatever the circumstances we have the chance to live happy and meaningful lives.

Dalai Lama discusses his singleness with an Italian chef, who is also single, to prove his point that being single need not be the cause of unhappiness. The cat leant a crucial lesson that the idea that she needed another cat to make her happy would be a source for her unhappiness, especially if she pursued it. True happiness resulted by giving happiness to others.

She becomes a celebrity at Café Franc, where the owner calls her the His Highness’ Cat (HHC in short), trying to get the maximum mileage for his café; the cat got royal treatment and pure delights of meat dishes which she relished. Both their karmas were getting on very well!

The visitors to the café were of course far from being enlightened. They missed the point of observing “mindfulness,” which is paying attention purely to the present moment and not dwelling on the thoughts of the past or the future. They were so engrossed in texting friends and relatives or reading, that they missed relishing and savouring their food, so carefully and tastefully prepared.

A very interesting visitor comes to meet Dalai Lama, one who has motivated many to improve their lives and in due course built an enormously successful self-development company in America, but it wasn’t working for him. His wealth and guru status were not helping him personally.

Dalai Lama helps him by pointing out that this dissatisfaction with the material world was good, for it will spur him onwards to his spiritual development. From self-development, he needed to work for others’ development. The man went back transformed, shifting the focus from ‘self’ to ‘others’ and very soon started a course in Other Development.

There is a long discourse on karma and karmic account, which left me totally confused. At least in Hinduism, the mother religion from which arose Buddhism and Jainism, the concept karma is clear; it is the accumulated deeds, good or bad, one did in the preceding many births, (one has to believe that such previous births were there, and I do not believe that), which has a direct effect on the status in life a person is born in the present birth. 

In Buddhism, this is not very clear. It is the law of cause and effect, and we create our karma by what we do. What we sow we reap. But Buddhism has borrowed the concept of many births from Hinduism and there everything goes awry. For Buddhism believes that there is no god to punish or reward and no cosmic computer keeps a record of all such deeds over many berths.

To a bewildered Western visitor, it is explained that it all happens in the continuum of our minds. Very helpful indeed!

Saying that Christ and Christianity believed in karma was very misleading, for Christian sowing and reaping is not with respect to many births and deaths; it is with regard to the one life we all have in this world and after death and final resurrection, inheriting eternal life or eternal death, based on our good deeds or bad deeds in this one life. It is a far call from Hindu or Buddhist concept of karma. Moreover Christians believe in a God who would judge all of us on the final day.  

One last episode that really impressed me was the case where a boy who wanted to go abroad to make good his dreams, was not doing it because his parents were objecting and they wanted him to get married and settle down instead. The monk who was advising him points out that these are mere excuses the boy is putting forth and the real impediment is his own fear, fear of failure. On realizing this the boy makes a dash and flies to the foreign land to fulfill his dreams.

A very useful contribution to one life indeed.

Well, there are nuggets of wisdom strewn throughout the book and it is quite a good attempt, especially as it is by a cat, that too a ‘Bodhicatva,’ full of compassion and love for other sentient beings.

Wish human beings would be more like that!