The animals certainly like to be close to humans, especially as humans go through the shift in consciousness.

It's interesting that stepping out of thought was actually triggered by a thought.

Life has no opposite. The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal.

What you encounter at your destination once you get there depends on the quality of this one step. Another way of putting it: What the future holds for you depends on your state of consciousness now.

Attention is the vital thing and there is no tension in attention. It just happens to be a similar word. It's not concentration or straining. Attention has the openness of a young child not yet dominated by the conceptual mind.

The ego is just waiting to identify with anything. Whether it's your misery or being a great meditator, it seeks some identification.

"Spiritual teacher" of course is not an identity. "Spiritual teacher" is a function. Somebody comes, the teaching happens. Somebody leaves, there's no spiritual teacher left.