Healing

As you know if you follow many of the wonderful dog blogs that enliven this community, our friends at PittieFullove lost their beloved Knox this week. 

I never met Knox but just to look at his pictures and hear the stories about him is to feel what a special, happy, velvety man he was. If you haven't already, stop on over and read the beautiful tributes Jess has been posting about this sweet boy, and send her a virtual hug and Knox a blessing, or a prayer, or a wink and a belly scratch as he traverses the bardo of becoming between this life and the next, or the peaceful time of merging with all that is, or whatever it is that dogs experience and we will all experience, one day, when we leave this realm.

As I've read some of the sad posts that have come through Blogville over the past months, and contemplated how to say something that could possibly be helpful to someone who has lost a beloved dog, I've realized that there's really nothing you can say. 

I've had the same feeling when close friends or relatives were suffering from some affliction of mind or body. Often they won't tell me how bad they are feeling, but I know. And there's nothing I can do. At these times, well-meaning advice is misplaced and any words of comfort can feel hollow. 

The only thing I have found truly helpful is a Buddhist practice for healing I learned years ago. 

Visualize the person or animal who is suffering, and visualize that person's physical pain, emotional distress, or other limitation as a black smoke surrounding him or her. 

As you inhale, imagine that you are breathing in the black smoke so that the suffering person or animal has less of it to bear.

Medicine Buddha

As you breathe it in and it fills your chest cavity, it transforms into white light that nourishes you and cleans your cells, clearing any confusion or unhealthiness. 

As you exhale, exhale the white light back out into the universe and especially to the person or animal who is suffering, so that her or his pain is alleviated.

I find that this practice makes me feel less helpless when people and animals I know and love are suffering, and when I feel less helpless, I can offer better support. 

And although I don't know for sure, I think it's very possible that sending out intentions for peace and healing ultimately does have tangible results in the world. 

Autumn snow in the Shenandoahs

Last weekend was the last weekend before Nutcracker season has Florian in rehearsals all the time, so we decided to go on a little camping trip to see the amazing fall foliage in the Shenandoahs. 

As luck would have it, Saturday afternoon brought 39-degree sleeting slushing rain and snow--which as you may remember was all the more reason to go off on an adventure. 

Saturday stayed chilly and damp, but we didn't mind. We stopped for some world famous peanut soup at the diner in New Market, VA and found our way by dark to a campground deep in the George Washington National Forest, off our favorite road--675. We stayed toasty all night cuddled up in our van in our minus-20 sleeping bags and our heavy-duty dog-shaped van warmers. 





Sunday morning dawned without a cloud in the sky. 


The campground we stayed in was the Wolf Gap, which is in a gap along Old North Mountain near the West Virginia state line. 

On either side are trails up the ridge. We took the Tibet Knob trail, which seemed auspicious. 

The afternoon before, I had just been feeling, as I rested my head against Fozzie who rode in my lap as we drove through the sleeting snow, this incredible feeling of oneness with everything. 

The dogs, the sleet, Florian, even my old van with the questionable transmission.  

That the consciousness we have is one consciousness, and people and animals are vehicles for experiencing one part of it.

Those dogs certainly made the most of their incarnate vehicles. 

All three of them were off-leash, tearing about in the snow, loving every delicious smell. Sandy stayed right with us and kept checking in to make sure we were OK and approved of what she was doing. 

By early afternoon, the weather had warmed and we came down off the mountain to explore the amazing Shenandoahs. Despite some very unsafe driving practices, 

we made it to the Shenandoah river to chase some sticks and enjoy a last blast of summer-like recreation. 

Do we really have to wait til after Nutcracker season to do this again?

Present moment, wonderful moment

I was at work, looking up environmental grantmaking foundations, when I came across one with this on its web page. One of my favorite quotes from Thich Nhat Hanh:

Our true home is in the present moment.
To live in the present moment is a miracle.
The miracle is not to walk on water.
The miracle is to walk on the green Earth
in the present moment,
to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.
Peace is all around us-
in the world and in nature-
in our bodies and spirits.
Once we learn to touch this peace,
we will be healed and transformed.
It is not a matter of faith;
it is matter of practice.


How much better we could relate to our canines--and indeed, to all species--if we took this to heart!


Happy Friday everyone! Remember to thank your pups for being so wonderful today.

T-Touch Transformation

Tonight Your Dog's Friend hosted a TTouch seminar given by Linda Tellington-Jones, the founder of this transformative therapy for animals and humans.


I have been interested in TTouch for years and this seminar was a wonderful inspiration.

TTouch right in front of Lamar's ears starts to help him relax

This was not just learning new techniques of movement, training, touch, or behavior modification, this was learning an entire new way of thinking and approaching everything in our lives.


A few new thoughts/consciousnesses/
paradigms:

• For a dog or person who is really in pain or shock, work on the ears. Place thumb behind ear, fingers in the depressed area just outside the inner ear. Rotate. Gently pull the ears outward and up.  For a dog, begin with the circle at the base of the ear, then stroke outward. 
• To calm a hyper, on-the-move dog, hold down the tail with a flat hand over the butt.
• Act as though animals understand everything you're saying, because they do.
• The book Dogs That Know When their Owners are Coming Home by Rupert Sheldrake.
• Dogs' minds work in pictures, so the pictures we project to them are important. This is only the most recent of the many times I have heard this.

Real-life applications. Lamar is on the bed, Fozzie is approaching, Lamar is beginning to snarl. We do small circles over Lamar's ears, visualize Lamar smiling and relaxing calmly as Fozzie approaches, and say "Lamar, thank you for protecting the bed. You are really an outstanding dog and are doing such a good job, but you don't need to anymore. We've got it covered." Meanwhile, with the other hand we are asking Fozzie to sit a bit farther away, and doing some circles on his ears as well. 

For so many of us, myself included, the growling lunging reactivity is so stress-inducing and the natural response is to tense up and react ourselves. Dog tenses up and growls, we tense up and imagine our dog tensing up and growling, dog tenses up even more and we yell at him or otherwise "correct" him. 

"Lamar, you are doing such a fantastic job!"

What if, instead, we train ourselves to respond to the growling by sending out a picture of our dog relaxed and happy? 

What if our immediate response to a growl is to smile, breathe, and tell our dog what a great job he's doing as we create relaxing circles on his ears and help manage the source of his stress (by, for example, asking Fozzie to sit farther away from the bed)? What if we imagine our dog calmly handling the situation just perfectly, with complete poise, confidence, and well-being?

It seems this would have the potential to transform not just our relationships with our dogs, but our entire way of moving through life, being with our families, dealing with small stresses as well as  existential terrors. 

Fozzie, bouncing all over the place a minute ago,
now so relaxed he can barely hold himself up

The proof is in the sensation of meeting the people who have fully embodied this way of thinking. I have felt it every time I have seen Pam Wanveer, who practices right here in Silver Spring and radiates calm knowingness, but with laughter and humility. It is impossible to feel stressed, or to avoid smiling, in her presence. And I felt it with Linda tonight. 

May my dogs--and my people--experience this same peaceful well-being and confidence in their own potential for transformation.

Tashi delectable

Tashi's full name is Tashi delek, which means auspicious blessings in Tibetan. I named her a few days after I adopted her in Taos, NM, where I was studying Tibetan Buddhism. Her name is used as a greeting and farewell among Tibetan Buddhist practitioners and I wanted to give her a name that would be a bell of mindfulness for her whenever she heard it...and a name that would help her achieve an auspicious rebirth when it was her time to leave this world.

In January, I took Tashi to the vet after a few weeks of coughing that was first diagnosed as kennel cough. The diagnosis this time was a grossly enlarged heart and a recommendation to euthanize as soon as possible.

We've had an extra two months of lying in the sun and going for nice hikes on the Potomac and along our favorite trails. Most importantly, we've had time to cuddle, connect, say the Amitabha mantra together, make peace with what lies beyond. 

Tashi along the Potomac in February

I disagree with the advice of that vet, and of many of my dog-loving friends who say that its better to end a dog's life too soon than too late. Tashi has no doubt endured some suffering these two months, but she has also experienced joy and comfort. She's gotten to do her favorite things, eat her favorite foods. Who knows what goes on in a dog's mind? Who knows what spiritual projects she is trying to complete in this lifetime?

Of course some of my reasons are selfish. After 14 years, how could I put myself in the position of ending this dog's life? It wouldn't ever be easy, but after these weeks at least I know I've packed as much joy into her life as possible. And I know that if I do assist her passing from this world, it won't feel quite so premature.

I don't know what this week will bring. Maybe she will pass peacefully on her own, or maybe I'll feel ready to make that decision for her. Until then, we are going to fill her life with the auspicious blessings that I hoped would adorn her years on this planet when I named her 14 years ago.

Pre-training session meditation

The more I think about it, the more I realize how well meditation, mindfulness, and dog training go together.

Relax

Lamar relaxing and enjoying a paw massage

Our dogs are highly sensitive and tuned in to our mental states. Their noses are so sensitive that they can pick up pheromonal changes the moment we break into a nervous sweat. Having co-evolved with us for hundreds of years, they are highly adapted to pick up on nuances of human emotion. Staying relaxed when we work with our dogs helps them stay relaxed as well, as we project our relaxation down the leash and into them. Here is a meditation to practice at the start of training sessions with your dog.

Meditation: You have already arrived

We live in a very goal-oriented world, and it seems we spend a lot of mental energy thinking about how our lives could be better and the goals we hope to realize someday. We may think about what we’ll do once we’re more wealthy, or how our lives would be if we were more beautiful, had a nicer house, or our dogs were better behaved.

It is important to realize that though we can do many things to improve our lives, we also have everything we need for complete happiness right here, in this very moment.

Close your eyes, and take a deep breath. As you breathe in, imagine you are breathing in white light that floods your lungs, then your chest, then your entire body.

Now think about all the things you have ever wanted: more material wealth, a better job, more friends, a dog who behaves well and responds to your requests. You may have felt that these things were beyond your reach, but remember that with mindfulness, anything is possible.

Now imagine that You Have Already Arrived. All the physical beauty you have ever wanted, is yours. All the material wealth you ever wished for is already in your grasp. Your house is beautiful and sustains you, your friends are generous and abundant. Your dog is tuned in to your wants, and eager to do as you wish. You have already arrived.

To concretize this feeling, imagine a beautiful lotus flower blooming in your chest. The flower is nourished by the white light you’re breathing in, and with each breath the full, waxy, fragrant petals extend into your shoulders, your throat, your belly. This flower represents your completion, your attainment. Enjoy this feeling of abundance, and come back to it frequently. 

Practice this meditation with your dog beside you and think about what a wonderful being she is. Do you know anyone else so sensitive, intelligent, and affectionate? Show her your appreciation, and take some time to enjoy the appreciation she shows you.