Hello,
My name is Julie Ela Grace,
And I am so happy that you are joining me here today to talk about one of my favorite subjects,
Dogs,
And the ways in which our canine companions can teach us about life and how they can be like zen masters.
Dogs seem to have this ability to show us how to live well and just show us a bit more about the nature of life itself.
So before we begin,
Please note that this talk is actually based upon an article that I wrote,
Which was commissioned and published by Kripalu in 2017.
So thank you for that,
And let's jump in.
So the night I adopted my first rescue dog,
I sobbed.
I was 23,
Newly married,
And felt like what I imagine a new mother could feel like.
I cried to my husband.
I said,
Will we be able to do right by her?
She was this precious,
Broken thing.
And every time I looked at her,
My heart just seemingly imploded.
We rescued Janey,
A Boston Terrier,
At a Michigan shelter on a snowy February afternoon.
The shelter,
Only the day before,
Had collected her from a puppy mill in Ohio that had used her for breeding.
Like so many breeding operations,
Animal welfare was of minimal to no concern at all.
Janey was housed in a barn,
In a cage,
For over two years,
And the shelter veterinarian estimated that she had likely birthed four litters of pups in those years.
The facility owners discarded her after she needed a c-section in her last labor,
Which then made her more expensive for them and therefore worthless to them.
I feel like it is my duty here to note that millions of healthy dogs are put to sleep globally every year,
And the majority of puppies that are sold online or through newspapers come from terrible facilities that continue to facilitate lifetimes and generations of abuse.
So if you feel the urge to buy a dog rather than rescue one,
Please do your research about the breeder.
While you may come across a dodgy breeder and then think to yourself that you're going to buy and therefore rescue this puppy,
Unfortunately the reality is then that you're continuing to perpetuate the abuse and the living hell of hundreds of other dogs just for paying for that puppy and continuing their business.
And of course that includes the ongoing abuse of the puppy's mother.
So please vote with your wallet to put a stop to this highly abusive practice.
And if you don't know much about this,
In the UK you can research about puppy farms and in the US you can research about puppy mills and there are different laws in different localities and of course you can petition your representatives in government to try to change the laws around animal welfare.
Okay,
So coming back to my gorgeous girl.
Janie was a classic example of a dog abused by a puppy mill.
She had never been in a house,
She had never played,
And she had never been loved.
She could not actually get up a single step,
A single stair,
As she had no muscle tone from her entire life spent in a cage.
She had infections and urine stains on her legs and she basically was just this number rather than a sentient being to the people who bred and owned her.
The first food that I ever fed her was homemade and fresh from the stove and she ate it so fast that she actually vomited and she trembled anytime people approached her and she had no idea how to be loved or even how to be a dog.
It took time,
Years really,
And so much patience from both me and Janie to rehabilitate her and for her to find enough confidence to experience that profound canine joy with which any dog lover is familiar.
Yet the rub here is that Janie,
By and large,
Put me back together over the years.
She saw me through failed dreams,
A divorce,
And even a transatlantic move where the sympathetic United crew actually put us at the back of the plane and allowed her to sleep on an empty seat next to me where she just snored all the way from Chicago to Paris.
So thank you so much still to that amazing United crew who made that journey so much more bearable for us.
So there have been too many times during the past decade that really the only thing keeping me alive was being Janie's person.
In effect,
Her resilience became my own.
Janie,
Like so many dogs,
Seems to be a Zen master or at the very least a Zen master in training.
Buddhist beliefs that animals are sentient beings and have their own Dharma seem apt.
In a yogic system,
In a Buddhist system,
In an ecosystem,
We are all connected.
Every blade of grass,
Every dog,
Every human.
While cruelty to animals remains an immense spiritual quandary,
I can only hope that the consolation for Janie's early mistreatment in life is that this was part of her Dharma,
Part of her lessons for this lifetime.
Her pain and her triumph,
They're all part of a greater story that affects more than just her beautiful little canine life.
Through her resilience,
Janie not only teaches about forgiveness,
About letting go of the past and letting go of fear,
But she teaches about transformation.
Spiritual seekers can spend their whole lives seeking enlightenment,
Whatever that might be,
And they can do this through meditation,
Through pranayam,
Yoga,
Scriptural studies.
And yet Janie merges with the light,
Moments when she rolls on the grass in soft sea shapes on sunny afternoons smiling up at the sky.
She is a completely present being,
Appreciating whatever the earth is offering to her.
She just surrenders to joy whenever it presents itself,
Because she's present.
The great poet and writer Rainer Maria Rilke wrote,
Let everything happen to you.
Beauty and terror.
Just keep going.
No feeling is final.
Dogs seem to have an implicit understanding of this.
Companion dogs in particular are often forced to surrender.
They are at human mercy for most things,
Food,
Water,
Shelter,
Security,
Love.
And while this must at times be terrifying,
As it surely was for Janie during her first two years of life,
It also allows for the liberation that can come with surrender.
Janie was able to release her earlier anxiety because she surrendered to her situation,
Because she let go of her past traumas.
Everything in her world,
She allows to happen without resistance.
Well,
Almost everything,
Except possibly for the cutting of her back toenails.
How often it seems that we hold onto fears in effort to control them,
When in fact surrendering paradoxically brings the peace that we sought with control.
So just going over that one more time.
When we hold onto fears in effort to control them,
To anticipate,
To prepare,
It often then means the fear controls you more.
Whereas when we surrender,
It brings the peace that we actually sought with control.
No dog is perfect,
No matter what their pet parent says,
Or depending on how you look at perfection,
All dogs are perfect,
All humans are perfect,
Everything is perfect.
So they are sentient,
Just like we are,
Which means that they have their own personalities,
And some are stubborn,
And some are jealous,
And some have been so mistreated that they cannot relinquish the past and trust humans again.
This doesn't make them inadequate,
This just makes them sentient,
Just like humans.
So this in part is why when a rehabilitated dog finds their way back to love,
To presence,
To joy,
That they in effect become our greatest teachers.
It was not only through the patience and love required to rehabilitate Janie that she provided me with immense lessons.
Her teachings continue daily because of the Zen being she has become.
Recently,
At nearly 13 years of age,
Janie became deaf.
This bothers me more than it bothers her.
She likely spent months compensating and taking cues from other dogs without my knowing,
Until finally it was painfully obvious that she could no longer hear me say this name I have grown to love so much that my heart hurts.
Janie.
Janie.
Janie.
In Hebrew,
Janie means a gift from God,
And to me that is exactly what she is.
Upon the diagnosis of her deafness,
I cried,
Wondering when was the last time she heard me say I love you?
And does she miss the sound of the wind and the sound of the birds?
Yeah,
I knew the answers before the thoughts even finished,
Because this Zen master has trained me so well.
Her appreciation and knowledge of life extends well beyond the realm of hearing.
For two weeks now,
I've been watching her and watching behind my feet as she follows me more closely these days,
Particularly in the kitchen where I have tripped over her countless times,
And I can see that her deafness has not diminished her joy.
Perhaps in small ways it has increased her joy in that she can sleep more peacefully and she has relinquished her alert dog status to the younger two dogs,
Again offering herself up as an example to yield and to surrender.
Janie remains by all counts a happy being.
She lives fully from a place of presence and love.
Her sweet bat ears no longer twitch and turn as they once did,
Though the rest of her remains the same.
She remains forgiving,
Resilient,
Compassionate,
Unabashedly joyful,
And completely present.
Over the years,
I have experienced the teachings of dozens of other teachers,
But without a doubt Janie,
The rescued Boston Terrier,
Remains not only my best friend,
But my life's greatest teacher.
So thank you so much for listening to this little talk about a fantastic little dog.
I hope that you and if you have any canine companions,
I hope that you are all well,
Safe,
Happy,
Present,
And full of joy together.
Namaste.
