One day, a member of the group I meditated with said to me, "You write and talk about when a friend or family member dies, but what about when we lose our pets?" She had recently lost a cat who had been by her side for nineteen years. This loss was deep and painful. I carried her question with me and contemplated how best to write about grieving our animal friends. Around the same time, another friend told me they thought it would be interesting if my next book was about the spiritual nature of our pets. This, too, was a compelling idea.

I began to realize that I did not have anything new to add to the topic of grieving our pets. If I wrote something, I would most likely be recycling my thoughts around how Buddhism can help us with death and grief.

For me, the teachings that helped with the death of family and friends were also helpful when it came time to say goodbye to pets because at some point, many of us have stopped looking at our pets as animals, and we have elevated them to a place where we might even hold them in higher regard than the people around us.

From theses thoughts emerged my new book, Enlightenment Unleashed: How Your Pet Can Lead You to Spiritual Transformation. Today, I share with you some thoughts on our pets, and attachment and suffering.