Nicola Staff asked 4 years ago
The answer to your latter question is very much "yes," that animals can be made substitutes for family members and human friendships, but we see that as not necessarily a bad thing as it usually occurs when human contact is denied or unsatisfactory, which can happen for many reasons. One’s family are often one’s biggest source of pain and suffering. That is because of the karmic history. People come and reincarnate together for many, many reasons and one of the high priorities is to work on healing past dilemmas, many of which were tragic and unpleasant. So by coming together in a new lifetime, the Law of Karma may start a family group off and headed for a re-experiencing of tough times, many, many difficulties, and tragic circumstances. So being with one’s family may not be the safest place one could inhabit.
The companion animals were former predator species that were repurposed to be more attuned to humans in their need for love, and this was done purposefully to provide an independent way to bring more love into the world and to have a way to reach people who were isolated from fellow humans for any particular reason and give them an alternative outreach, through a loving being who would be simpler and more practical to support and could be trusted in the bargain to be more loyal than many people turn out to be, because animals have simpler needs and fewer expectations than human beings. They are geared to love and to share that love with people, and they do this unreservedly, unless they are harmed or punished in some way and learn to avoid their owner through fear and hard-won experience that it will result in some negative outcome. Given half a chance, companion animals will be earth angels and will even heal their owners as best they can, and this can actually reverse serious illness in some cases.
So the idea of achieving a soothing from being with a companion animal is quite valid and even has been scientifically established now. If this is done for quite trivial reasons, one could say this is self-indulgent and overdone, that people should be tougher, should be more self-sufficient, and so on, and perhaps are giving in too readily to a state of dependency, and disempowering themselves. On one level this may be true, but that disempowerment is a natural consequence of being overwhelmed by inner turmoil being stirred up because of old karma causing inner fear. So people may appear quite fragile and be unable to cope with life circumstances others will take in stride, but there is always much more going on than appears on the surface. If an animal’s presence is of benefit to soothe such a person, it is never a bad thing. It is no different than any other source of comfort and satisfaction. Anything of that sort can be used to excess so it becomes a kind of self-indulgence and perhaps out of habit so indispensable, a person cannot return to productive functioning but must instead get their fix from their soothing object or companion whether a pet or a dose of a substance that is being abused.
The need for love is real. People can always do better in how they grow and learn to cope with life and find ways to solve their dilemmas, and that is always preferable to spending much time self-soothing because they are unable to cope with current circumstances. When there is no path to healing, people are reduced to seeking treatment if only in the form of a feel-good solution that doesn’t truly correct the inner discord and underlying karmic dilemma at its cause. So there needs to be a deeper understanding once again of the underlying dynamics here and that will help put into perspective what is at stake and bring a more enlightened appreciation of what people are truly contending with, even as they appear to be weaklings and self-destructive.
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