The Buddhist-Canine Dialogue

Some people know I've done something on dialogue between Buddhists and Jews. But they may be less aware of my work in another significant dialogue: that between Buddhists and dogs.

Here's the story. A few years ago a learned Tibetan Buddhist teacher from Montreal came to my house to give a teaching. His driver was Garry. They were coming up from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. I told Garry it might take an hour and half. He arrived in a half hour. I'm not sure how he did that.

Geshe Khenrab was wonderful. We talked for hours about his life in old Tibet--he had been living in exile for quite a while, but as a young boy in the Amdo region he had loved being a monk. I asked him what sort of animals they had there. He said, "Oh, rabbits, deer, yeti, mountain lions..." I said, "Wait a minute, hold on, what did you say?" He said, "Rabbits, deer, yeti, mountain--" I said, "Stop. Yeti? The abominable snowman? Did you see one?"

"Yes."

"What did he look like?"

"Like a man but very big and hairy." Geshe leaned forward across my kitchen table. "If they find you alone, they like to tear off your face." He gave a deep laugh.

I realized Geshe Khenrab came from a realm where there were other kinds of realities, not ones I knew about.

"When a dog keeps coming into the temple, it means he aspires to learn dharma," said the Lama.

Meanwhile, Garry rearranged our living room, covered our book shelves and TV with a Tibetan thankga [a scroll painting of a buddha or deity]. And he took up our nicest stuffed chair for the teacher to sit in, and moved a table near him with a bouquet of flowers that someone donated.

That evening, the room filled up with Buddhists and seekers, who came to hear Geshe Khenrab's teachings. My dog liked the teaching a great deal. Taxi was a pretty good size mature mutt. He had beautiful sad brown eyes, and a broad forehead like a Labrador, but he was hairy all over like a Muppet. He was extremely intelligent. He walked into the room and put his big head on Geshe Khenrab's knee. Geshe-la gently moved him aside, but Taxi came back and put his head on his knee again, so Geshe Khenrab simply let it rest there.

It didn't seem to bother anyone.

The next day Geshe Khenrab was leaving. I saw him in a nook of the house talking to my dog. I came closer, he was saying something in Tibetan and Taxi was taking it in very carefully. I said, "Geshe Khenrab, what are you doing with my dog?"

He said, "When a dog keeps coming into the temple, it means he aspires to learn dharma. So I am saying prayers that when he is reborn, he will be reborn as a human so he can learn dharma."

People say all traditions say the same thing but use different ways to get there. For instance, the Dalai Lama teaches that Tibetans say every person is your mother. Since there's been an infinite series of rebirths in the past, then at some point, every person you encounter in a previously life was your mother, and you have been a mother to every person you encounter.

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