When my collaboration with Eckhart Tolle, Guardians of Being, was first created, I hoped it might offer a simple entryway into a deep truth: that animals, and all of nature, can help bring us back to the present moment.
That truth and our book feel even more important to me now.
We live in a world that seems to move faster and faster, with more noise, more distraction, more thoughts pulling us away from where life is actually happening: now. And yet animals are still here, patiently, lovingly, and sometimes comically, inviting us back to the present moment.
A dog does not need to be reminded to enjoy a walk. A cat does not need a seminar on stillness before curling up in a sunbeam. A bird on a branch is not wondering if it should be somewhere else. Animals live close to the source. They are not trying to become themselves. They simply are.
That is their great teaching.
In Guardians of Being, Eckhart Tolle gives language to what many of us have felt in the presence of animals but may not have known how to express. Our companion animals are not just pets. They are teachers. They are healers. They are little furry Zen masters. They remind us to breathe, to notice, to play, to forgive, to relax, to love. They are, as Eckhart so beautifully calls them, guardians of being.
I first discovered Eckhart’s work in 1999, when I found The Power of Now at The Bodhi Tree bookstore in West Hollywood. I was immediately moved by the simplicity and depth of it. It spoke to the artist in me. It immediately influenced MUTTS.
My part in our collaboration was to bring my MUTTS characters into conversation with Eckhart’s teachings. MUTTS began as a comic strip about a small dog named Earl and his unlikely best friend, a cat named Mooch. But from the beginning, it was also about the natural world: the joy of a full moon, the quiet of a snowfall, the majesty of trees, the simple enjoyment of walking around the block.
I wanted to be a cartoonist for as long as I can remember. Before I could even read, I looked at comic strip characters and felt they were alive. I still love that magic: how a few simple lines of ink could carry humor, tenderness, sadness, silliness, and truth. Charles Schulz’s Peanuts and George Herriman’s Krazy Kat spoke to me deeply. They had poetry, mystery, spirituality, and great love. Like all good art, they made the world feel a little better.
When I began MUTTS, I hoped to give back some of the joy and comfort those comics had given me.
My own little mutt, Earl, was the inspiration. Earl loved life completely. He loved walks, treats, people, other dogs, the whole adventure of being here. My job was to try to capture some of his joie de vivre on paper. If I could put even a little of Earl’s happy spirit into the strip, I felt I was doing something worthwhile.
Over time, working on MUTTS changed me. I tried to see the world through the eyes of animals, and the more I did, the more I became aware of how difficult this planet can be for them.
Eckhart’s teachings helped me understand this in a larger way. At the root of so much harm is unconsciousness, the feeling that we are separate from nature, separate from animals, separate from one another. But in presence, that separation softens. We begin to sense the same divine spark in every creature.
That is one reason this book means so much to me.
Guardians of Being is a book to savor. Eckhart’s words are spare and direct, like little bells of awareness. Cartooning, at its best, works in a similar way. A comic strip has very little space. You have to get to the essence. A few words, a few lines, a small pause and, hopefully, something opens.
Making art can be a form of meditation. When I sit at my drawing board, on the best days, I am able to get out of my own way. The characters are familiar to me now. Earl and Mooch have been with me for so many years that they often seem to know what they want to say before I do. My job is to listen.
The same is true with animals in life. They ask us to listen in a different way. not with our ears, but with our whole being. They invite us into quiet attention. They bring us into the moment without making a lesson of it.
A dog looking up at you before a walk is in the now.
A cat stretching in a patch of light is in the now.
A bird singing outside the window is saying “now.”
And maybe that is the whole teaching.
Life is now. Love is now. The sacred is not in the past or the future. It is in the ordinary moments we can only experience now.
Our animals know this. They have always known this. And if we are lucky, and still enough, and open enough, they will keep showing us.
Again and again, they bring us back.
As does Eckhart’s powerful teachings.
Again and again, they remind us: life is already good. Enjoy.
— Patrick
More than 15 years after its original publication, Guardians of Being has returned in a new hardcover gift edition from New World Library. All copies from MUTTS.com include an exclusive bookplate signed by Patrick. Fetch yours today.
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