Linda Bender - Animal Wisdom: Learning from the Spiritual Lives of Animals

This is an excellent bookit is substantive and non-sentimental, a good read, and a delightful one. Join a bigger worldinclude the animals in all our decision-making. Read this book. The animals are grateful for this book; you will be too.

Matthew Fox, coauthor of Occupy Spirituality

A compelling body of evidence suggests that human minds can connect with one another across space and time, but also with other sentient creatures as well. Dr. Linda Bender takes us inside these primordial connections and shows how they work toward our welfare and survival.

Larry Dossey, MD, author of One Mind: How Our Individual Mind Is Part of a Greater Consciousness and Why it Matters

There is one natural law for all of us to live by, and that is caring and sharing and being responsible for the wellbeing of all other living things. In Animal Wisdom, Linda Bender gives us all a chance to go back to the way that will maintain everything we have. She helps us remember what the animals have not forgotten, that we are all connected, and that no one being is less than or greater than another. Bender explains what my people have always known, that having a good relationship with all life is the key to physical, mental, social, and spiritual harmony. This is the way it was meant to be. This is the key to our survival.

Tjilpi Bob Randall, Yankunytjatjara elder, author of Songman: The Story of an Aboriginal Elder of Uluru

Copyright 2014 by Linda Bender. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

The Grapes of My Body by Rumi, originally published in The Hope and reprinted by permission of Hay House. Excerpt from Who Says Words With My Mouth by Rumi, originally published in The Essential Rumi and reprinted by permission of the translator.

Published by
North Atlantic Books
P.O. Box 12327
Berkeley, California 94712

Cover photo by Carolyn Evans of PhoDographer
Cover and book design by Mary Ann Casler

Animal Wisdom: Learning from the Spiritual Lives of Animals is sponsored by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a nonprofit educational corporation whose goals are to develop an educational and cross-cultural perspective linking various scientific, social, and artistic fields; to nurture a holistic view of arts, sciences, humanities, and healing; and to publish and distribute literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.

North Atlantic Books publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com or call 800-733-3000.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bender, Linda
Animal wisdom : learning from the spiritual lives of animals / Linda Bender, DVM.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-58394-773-9ISBN 978-1-58394-786-9
1. Human-animal relationships. 2. Human-animal communication. 3. Animal psychology. 4. Emotions in animals. 5. Wisdom. 6. Spiritual life. 7. Love. I. Title.
QL85.B45 2014
591.5dc23 2013023673

v3.1

For

All the beloved creatures

Teach us, Great Spirit,

To walk the soft earth

As relatives of all that live.

Lakota prayer

In my experience, the language of the heart often defies expression in words, and since Animal Wisdom is, in essence, all about the heart, bringing it to life exhausted my abilities consistently. I offer heartfelt thanks to the many human and nonhuman souls who made this work possible.

First and foremost, I thank the animals who, throughout my life, have been and continue to be my sacred teachers. In humble gratitude I bow to the buffalo in Kruger Park, South Africa, for compelling me to share the wisdom with the human community.

Infinite gratitude to:

Most of all, Dad, Nature Girl thanks you for believing in me and my love for animals, and for your unconditional lovethe best in me is because of you. I wish you were here to see the book.

Tom, Dr. Grit, whose love offered me space to dedicate myself to animal advocacy.

Jamee and Nicholas for your encouragement and supportlove you all the way to Heaven and back.

Pepper, my beloved companion, for enriching our lives with your love, and staying by my side during the writing of the book.

A huge thank you to:

Everyone at North Atlantic Books and Random House for taking me on, and for guiding me through the publishing process.

Andrew Harvey, whose passion for sacred activism is boundless. Thank you for introducing this work to my publishers and for your wisdom, encouragement, and unfailing support over the years.

Catherine MacCoun, my friend, without your help the book would not be birthed.

Victor Paruta, thank you for setting the stage.

Rupert Sheldrake for your inspiring research, brilliant mind, and helpful suggestions.

David Simon for encouragement and hilarious animal stories. We miss you.

Deepak Chopra, master teacher.

Linda Tucker and Jason Turner, for your courage, love, and sacred action.

I would also like to acknowledge with gratitude: Uncle Bob Randall and Barbara Schacht Randall, the San people of the Kalahari Desert, South Africa, Carolyn Rivers, founder and director of The Sophia Institute, Carolyn Evans of PhoDographer, Trudy Twigg and Larry Stone, Jennifer and Brian Welham, Susan Rawlings, Nathan Schwartz-Salant, Gail Larson, Joel Mellon, Barb Shafer, Jill Mangino, Jill Angelo, and Bill Rogers, DVM.

Its said that nothing focuses the mind like staring down the barrel of a gun. When Linda Bender describes being held at gunpoint for about a half hour, the life memory that came back to her at that critical moment was one of reliving an experience of absolute freedom with her horse, Je taime, galloping bareback, in blissful union under the African skies. An expanded moment, which swelled with Gods love until a minute became forever. It is not, as you might first imagine, a moment of escapism, a transcendent and out-of-body experience, but the reverse: she was totally present and, as she put it, in my body. There is all the difference in the world between these two conditions: the first, escaping responsibilities of earthly life, and the second, becoming fully embodied, real, and truly alive. Because when you are truly alive, you do not fear death. You do not fear anything.

If youre one of those people who dearly wishes to make a meaningful difference in our challenging world, and are hesitating simply because you havent stepped into your truth and courage yet, then this book will be an inspiration to you from the first word to the last, including stories that are likely to bring you to tears.

Animal Wisdom is a work of pure unconditional love, not only for the animals who have shared so much of their wisdom in its pages, but also for us, mere humans, whose destiny depends on our urgently renegotiating our relationship with Mother Nature, if our species stands a chance of survival in the near future.