Introductory Book Notes
The Spiritual World
of Animals - Insights from Reading
“The Souls of
Animals”
By sister-initiates Hao Guang and Heng Xin, Taoyuan, Formosa (Originally in Chinese)
Since ancient times, there have been many stories
of animals saving human lives. Most scientists or research experts,
after observing animals for some time, appeal for their protection.
Why? It is because they have found that animals also have deep feelings
and sensitive hearts just like humans.
Recently, due to the pandemic outbreaks of bird flu, mad cow disease and foot and mouth disease, we often see in the news media billions of innocent animals being slaughtered. We can hardly bear to see such news and it makes us quiver. Recently, we found a book on the Internet that greatly attracted our attention. It is entitled “The Souls of Animals”, and portrays their spiritual world. After reading the book, we felt deeply apologetic for the animals and had a strong urge in our hearts to speak up on their behalf!
The author of the book is Gary Kowalski. He is a parish minister, a graduate of the Theological Institute at Harvard University and has had many years of experience in writing about animal behavior. Through his interactions with church congregations and exchanging correspondence with his readers, he has gathered many true and touching stories. Here are some of the heartwarming anecdotes from his book:
A mother pig’s fantastic idea: After giving birth to her litter of piglets, the mother who was raised on a free range farm carefully bit off daffodil blooms, which she arranged in a bright yellow wreath around the sleeping litter.
Cows with deep emotions: On a small farm in Central America, one day a calf was slaughtered for a barbecue at an impromptu fiesta. For weeks afterward, the remainder of the herd gathered each afternoon and stood lowing in a circle around the spot where the young one had been killed.
Jackdaws, the faithful lovers: Similar in appearance to crows, jackdaws are birds that also have a long life. They are one of the species of birds that mate for life. Even after many years, the male still feeds his wife with the same meticulous care, and finds for her the same low tones of love, tremulous with inward emotion, that were whispered in his first spring of betrothal and of life.
There are many more interesting stories in the book. For instance, in deep grief, a gorilla was able to clearly express in sign language her sadness and anguish about the death of her pet kitten; a wild male goose refused to fly south to the Magellan Islands for winter in order not to abandon his injured mate; a chimpanzee was totally mesmerized by the splendor of a sunset; oblivious to the danger, a group of elephants tried every way to help and resuscitate their family member that was shot in the chest by hunters; after a young dolphin had been caught and wounded off the coast of Caira, a school of dolphins came into the harbor and stopped there until the fisherman let his captive go free; a talented Asian elephant drew incredibly wonderful pictures. All these examples of animals’ abilities, intense feelings, instincts and responses deeply impress and touch the readers.
Recently, there was a documentary on
television about cockroaches. The film revealed that cockroaches are
actually cleaner in nature than humans because they are constantly washing
themselves. The research concluded that cockroaches are beneficial and
not injurious insects because they are shouldering the task of waste
eliminators. However, when they dig into kitchen wastes and other untidy
surroundings of humans, they do unintentionally create some conflict
with them. From this we can see that cockroaches are actually our good
friends. This fact further proves that all living forms deserve our
protection and respect. Animals also possess many of the same deep feelings
as humans. Having come to this realization, we will be able to understand
more clearly the fear and pain animals experience when being slaughtered,
and we believe that most people, if they have this knowledge, would
then choose “a vegetarian diet for life”.
