Contemplative Practices for Connecting to Animals (and Ourselves)
Animals and Religion 2024 DOI: 10.4324/9781003324157-29 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key points | Argues that mindfulness of animals, through practices such as Three World Circle Breathing, attending to wild animals, and adapted loving-kindness meditation, can deepen self-understanding and understanding of human-animal relationships, benefiting both humans and animals. |
Abstract
In this chapter, I will offer a series of contemplative practices that I use myself and teach in my classes to help students utilize mindfulness of animals as a tool to deepen their understandings of themselves, of animals as fellow living beings in the world (both as species and as individuals), and of the relationships between humans and other animals. After defining some key terms, I will focus on the benefits these practices can bring to animals and humans. I will then discuss several practices in detail, including a Three World Circle Breathing practice I have developed based on Native North American cosmologies, several practices for attending to wild animals and understanding their personhood, and finally loving-kindness ( mettā ) meditation adapted to focus on animals. I will briefly introduce a few other relevant contemplative practices related to animals, and end by considering whether other animals themselves engage in such practices.