The Therapeutic Role of Animals: Dogs Help Victims Testify in Court.

James: Animals are perfect for therapy because their instincts and intuition are heightened to allow them to survive in the wilds of nature. Animals often instinctively know when turbulent weather (or even natural disasters) will strike, before humans do. This intuition enables them to detect subtleties in human behavior.



As I've said before, I often struggle with depression. Well, one day, I was visiting my parents, who care for my sister's dog while she's at work. I began talking about my depression with my parents and at one point, began to cry. Immediately, my sister's little dog, Maya, walked over to me and jumped up on my legs. Then she stretched her little body vertically across my stomach and rested there while trying to lick my face. She instinctively knew that I was hurting and rushed to my side. Her and I have shared a strong bond for a lot of years, and she's a joy and a gift to me.



I had a similar experience with my brother's dog during a bout of depression, and crying over Christmas. I retreated to the basement because all the commotion and stimuli from the party was overwhelming. Yet it depressed me knowing I was missing the family time. Well, not long after I went downstairs, my brother's little dog, Weston, appeared and sat right at my feet. He stayed there the whole time I was lying on the couch. It was like he was watching over me and trying to comfort my emotional turmoil.



Therefore, I'm not at all surprised that these therapy dogs are helping calm victims of crime, so that they can be strong in court. Animals aren't simply here as "scenery" and food. They are our cousins, family, teachers and guides. Animals teach us in so many ways and I think that is partly because they are close to being reborn into the human realm. Or, perhaps they were a human in a past life and therefore are able to respond to human behavior. It could also be the connection we share on the animal level, since all of us who believe in past lives spent time in the animal realm. If we are open to what we experienced and learned in our animal lives then I think our understanding of animal rights will expand too. Maybe it's simply the bond we share of being interconnected as sentient beings. One things is sure, animals are smarter than some humans believe.



I'll finish with this closing thought; animals give us great opportunities to practice our compassion and abilities to care for those who are the most vulnerable. In the past, animals have been an easy target for human exploitation because of their natural innocence. I have found that a good indicator of a person's compassion is to see how they treat animals. If they are mean to animals, then it's likely they treat humans poorly, as well. In some ways, an animals vulnerability is a test for the many powers of humanity; as the saying goes, "With great ability comes great responsibility." We know that we are all interconnected (even science teaches this concept). So, as go the animals, so go humanity. We can't survive as humanity if we allow animals to be eradicated (or abused) through our excessive greed for land, money and power.

~peace to all beings~

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I Have Seen the Devil and It is Us.

"We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form."

--William Ralph Inge, writer and Anglican Prelate (1860-1954).

~Peace to all beings~

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The Elephant and the Dog.

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I think that these two animals are well on their way to being reborn in the human realm where they can have the best chance at liberation from samsara. There are many humans who don't have the level of compassion, love and commitment as these two realize.

I find it especially endearing that this happened in an animal shelter between two animals who were otherwise rejected by the human realm. It could be that the elephant came from a circus who no longer saw her as "profitable." It is sad when humans see animals as nothing more than to be here for our benefit.

This is evident in all the pets that are abandoned each year in animal shelters because people bought the animals thinking that they'd be the perfect accessory. Instead they realized that they were no different than little children and required a lot of attention, care and responsibility so they abandoned them, which to me says more about the humans than the animals.

Once I learned in Buddhism that we are inter-related with not just humans but animals I saw these creatures completely differently. It then became impossible to me to continue eating meat when I learned that a chicken meant for slaughter could have been my mother in a past life.

Animals have so much to offer and I've found that they really do have little personalities, which fits the Buddhist teaching that we all have our own karma. In having different karma that means that we each have our own personalities, tendencies, quirks, weaknesses, etc. and animals are no different. There are dogs for example who are very smart like my sister's dog whom I swear can understand English and other dogs who aren't so smart. Thus, perhaps the smarter dog is further along the path toward a human birth due to a different karma.

Then there are dogs and other animals who are aware/mindful enough to get help for their human friends who have an accident or get sick. That requires a certain degree of compassion, which is a thought/action that leads to a change in karma, which (in my view) increases in these animals a greater potential for a human rebirth. May all beings achieve liberation from samsara.

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Healing Our Environment and Ourselves.

In one sitting meditation, when I focused my attention on my heart--breathing in, I am aware of my heart, breathing out, I smile to my heart--suddenly I realized that this is not the only heart that I have. I have many other hearts. Suppose that I look at the sun in the sky. I know that it is also another heart of mine. If this heart failed I would die right away. But if the other heart, the sun, explodes or stops functioning as the sun, I would also die right away.

~Thich Nhat Hanh, The Mindfulness Bell, winter/spring issue 47, 2008.

James: Another heart is our planet Earth, it is literally alive and very much like our own bodies. For example, most of our planet consists of water just like the human body. Deep inside the Earth a constant movement of hot liquid rich in iron keeps the planet alive much like our blood (also rich in iron) keeps us in health. If this plasma like layer where to cool and harden then life would eventually cease, not unlike too much blood loss causes the heart to stop.

The Earth's ozone and magnetic field act as shields that protect life here from harmful radiation emitted from the sun. Radiation is important and helpful in some respects but in small doses just like some bacteria is helpful in our bodies but again in small doses. If too much bacteria grows within our body then our white blood cells are stimulated to neutralize the dangerous levels of bacteria to return our body back to a stable, balanced environment. In that regard the Earth's atmosphere acts as those white blood cells to maintain the right balance to enable life to flourish on this planet.

So when seen through mindful openness an intricate interconnection unfolds within this Universe from the tiniest molecules to the largest stars until it can no longer be described and becomes parinirvana which is beyond our limiting labels, concepts and knowledge.

But let's return back to the present moment as I look out the window and gaze upon the gentle breeze dancing through the branches of the mock pear tree out front. That tree is apart of me as it relies upon the same sun to grow as I do, therefore if I do not care for that tree and millions like it then I will in turn die off. Trees thrive off of the carbon dioxide that we emit from breathing oxygen which is in turn partially created by those very trees and other plants. This leads to recycling.

We humans have not existed in harmony with the other organisms that share this planet with us, we have not been good neighbors over time. We have become in many ways a parasite or a cancer on the Earth because we have taken so much and given so little back to the circle of life that is our environment. Yet all is not lost, we can heal the scars that we have inflicted and return our lovely celestial body back to a more balanced state of being by recycling and using renewable energy sources.

In our city we have a recycling program that we participate in. We save our plastic bottles and recyclable metal and plastic containers in one bin and all our newspapers and paperboard waste such as old pasta boxes go in another bin. Then once a week a truck comes along and picks it all up to be sorted through at the recycling factory who then sell the metals and paper back to companies to make more metal and plastic containers and paper products and the cycle continues. Every time I put those bins on the curb I smile in peace knowing that I am giving back to my fellow organisms that share this planet with me.

The same goes with renewable energy, we harness the abundant clean energy available to us in using solar power, wind power, water, geothermal and others to meet our needs without harming the very body (Earth) that we are apart of. Through these measures we begin to cease being the separate, destructive cancer and return to being just another variation of being on a vast and beautiful heavenly body.

It is true that we can not prevent the eventually destruction of Earth but we do not want to have the karma of speeding up that process by our less than skillful actions. Life ebbs and flows of it's own accord and it is not our right to take life away from any living being and that includes our living Earth.

The Deer Park Monastery in the Zen tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh threw the switch that makes their property environmentally friendly. They are now completely off the grid, what a great example for the rest of us!!

~Peace to all beings~

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