Other Species as Our Teachers

 

                         

                I’ve had many good teachers during my time in school.  However, some of my best teachers have been animals that were not members of my own species.  Other species have profound lessons to teach us.  In many eastern and native American spiritual traditions there is a strong emphasis on learning to open to each moment and truly be present, right here and right now, to the wonder of life.  The following is a little story about two of my special teachers who happened to be dogs.

                I live somewhat out in the country.  Up the hill from me, live two neighbors named Dusty and Lynda.  When they have taken trips, they have asked me to take care of their two Labrador dogs named Mandy and Molly.  My job, which I enjoyed very much, was to take them out for exercise at least once a day, and my habit was to take them to the mailbox (if we took that walk, the gravel country road was fenced on both sides so their options for running off were limited), which was a round trip of about a mile or so.  We went every day, first thing in the morning, and when we got back I fed them.  Not much to learn here, or so it would seem.  Here’s how things went.

                I would arrive in the morning, and Mandy and Molly would hear me coming and be standing behind the chainlink gate, jumping 3 feet into the air over and over again, like two pistons going up and down in a two cylinder engine.    If they could have talked, it would have gone something like this…    “Dale is here!  Holy moly!  We’re going to the mail box!!!!  This is the BEST thing that could possibly be happening!!!  I can hardly believe it!!!  We’re going to the mailbox!!!!  Isn’t life great?!!!”  I open the gate and they go roaring out and plunge into a shallow pond in front of the house, and then tear off down the hill.  Every once in a while they come running back to check in with me and say “Howdy.”

                Now imagine the same scene, but Mandy and Molly no longer have dog minds, they have typical human minds.   They notice me coming and shuffle over to the gate:  “Look, here comes Dale again.  Oh, man, he wants to take us to the stinking mailbox AGAIN!   We went to the mailbox yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that.  We’re sick of it!  Forget it, Dale!!   We’re not going!  Going to the mail box again is just SO boring.  YOU go to the mailbox, we’ll just lie around here and maybe something REALLY exciting will come along later.”

                We can learn a lot from dogs, and in fact, from all species that we share this Earth with.  Each time Mandy and Molly go to the mailbox it is completely new and fresh.   They get to experience the joy of running, of smelling smells, seeing sights, being with others that they like—and simply experiencing the joy of being alive.  “Look, here’s a puddle, I can smell this funky water and then get a drink.  Oh, look, there’s something moving in that bush—let’s go see what it is!”  Their enthusiasm for the small things of life is truly inspiring.  Every moment is fresh and new and full of possibilities.  This is what Zen calls beginner’s mind.* 

It’s not so much what life gives us that makes us happy or unhappy, it is how we respond to what life brings our way.  Mandy and Molly seemed to know that lesson very well.

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*(See final section of January 31 Blog post Lessons of the Heart, Part 4: Working with Fear for a fuller explanation of beginner’s mind.  Shunryu Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginners Mind is also useful here.)

 

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