My dog is my Zen Master
My dog is my Zen Master
August 14, 2008
I love the way my dog seems so alive, awake and aware when we go into the woods, to the river. He is such an animal. I’m stuck being human. I’ve forgotten my animal nature. It has been almost completely programmed out of me by our modern, computerized, commercialized consumer culture. It’s difficult to escape human affairs. Even after I’ve gone miles into the woods and hours down the river I still find myself obsessively thinking about the reality we humans have created for ourselves.
My dog is blessed with bliss. He seems to be always in the moment, intimately connected to the world around him. He experiences the world directly using his senses. He sees, smells, hears, tastes, feels, and moves through the world without giving a thought to our human problems. How can he be so thoughtless about my troubles. And why do I find it so hard to stop thinking?
Why do I keep thinking about the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index at the New York Stock Exchange or the price of a gallon of gas and whether it is going up or down and by how much? Or why do I constantly keep up with the latest battle between the Democrats and the Republicans. And why do they constantly argue and fight inside my head?
And, I have to admit, I regularly fantasize about the details of the latest sex scandal involving a politician or the latest celebrity gossip about who might be the father of so and so’s baby?
Walking along deep in the woods I can suddenly find myself lost in thought thinking about who’s going to be the next millionaire, or who will be fired next, or who will be the next survivor, or who will be the biggest loser, or who will be the next American Idol. And why do I have to keep remembering all the dead soldiers and all the dying innocent victims in far away wars? Why? Especially now when I’m here, surrounded by peaceful solitude? Why do I feel obligated to worry?
What I love about going into the woods, down the river, and into a wilderness, is that eventually I do stop worrying, I do stop thinking. My dog is teaching me how to forget about human cultural problems and how to experience my animal nature. I feel like an old dog trying to learn a new trick. My dog is my Zen master.