Lessons From Our Pets

 

02.17.2023 LESSONS FROM OUR PETS Recently, my family adopted a new member in the form of a husky puppy named Koda. As I navigated the first chaotic days of welcoming a new puppy into our home, I was reminded of how our pets can provide us with opportunities for practice. When they’re young, puppies are full of life and joy, reminding us to let go and enjoy the little things. They also provide us plenty of opportunities to practice patience — especially those first weeks of getting them housebroken. Later, in their old age, they remind us to pause and slow down, to recognize each moment as precious. In all their stages of life, they are finely attuned to the present, enjoying the moment just as it is. Just as us humans, our pets will inevitably experience sickness and, eventually, death. When we notice them enter their final stages, we’re once again given the opportunity to be present and contemplate suffering. We cherish each final moment with them, and ultimately welcome the sometimes painful truth of impermanence. When we embark on the Buddhist path, our first encounter with Buddhist teachings is often a brutally honest recognition of the truth of suffering. “Birth is suffering, sickness is suffering, old age and death are suffering," said the Buddha. These were the very insights that drove the young Prince Siddhartha onto his path of enlightenment and liberation. Though we often overlook the significance of these simple facts of life, contemplating birth, old age, sickness, and death can help us deepen our practice with a renewed understanding. When our first husky died a few years ago, I faced these truths head on, allowing their pain to wash over me. As our new puppy fills our home with fresh energy, I find myself facing them in a more heart-healing way. Our pets teach us more than we realize. As our closest companions, they can be great dharma teachers. If you have such a companion, I invite you to take a moment the next time you find yourself next to them on the couch to think about the lessons you’ve learned from their presence and how they’ve helped you along your path. Below are three pieces from our archives that explore the ways our pets can be our teachers on the path, too. —Mariana Restrepo, Associate Editor, Lion’s Roar

Suzanne Clothier on what animals teach us about life and letting go Claire Heisler sits down for an interview with animal-trainer and Buddhist Suzanne Clothier about how training dogs can help our own practice. Animals teach me, in a myriad of ways, that there are many rhythms and many songs, and that I am but one small player. In slowing my heart and mind to animal time, in contemplating the brief brilliance of a flower or a beetle, in watching my dogs move through a world richly scented past my wildest imagination, in trying to project myself into the umwelt or environment of other beings and seeing the world through their particular view, I stop being an island and begin – only begin – to grasp how limited my perspective can be.

A Cat By Any Other Name When Sarah Chauncey drops the label “cat,” she sees her pet clearly for the very first time. We all long to be seen, but when humans look at each other, more often than not, there are mental constructs and conditioning that prevent us from truly seeing the other person. When a person speaks—especially in distress—we’re quick to offer advice or to try to distract them or convince them that the problem really isn’t that bad. Animals don’t do that. They soothe us without dismissing our concerns, or telling us to stop crying, or that John really is a jerk and we’re better off without him. They show us that we are essentially loveable and whole, even when we feel our most broken.

Creature Comfort Dogs comfort their human companions and parrots care for their injured mates. When we increase our understanding of how animals show compassion, says behavioral ecologist Joanna Burger, we understand more about ourselves. Understanding compassion and empathy in the animal world is an emerging field in science, and it is no longer a matter of a few anecdotes, but of our recognition that there are too many examples of animals caring for one another to ignore. All science starts with observations. Eventually, we compile these observations and develop hypotheses. Then we devise experiments to test them. Now is the time to gather observations about a wide range of animals, and to track the rise of empathy and compassion through the animal world to ourselves. The evidence of animal compassion will come from species that are social and occur in fairly stable groups, and in species that enjoy long lives. Over evolutionary time, cohesion, compassion, and care for other members of the group have no doubt led to higher individual survival rates and an increased production of young, just as it has in humans. When we can increase our understanding of how other animals show compassion, we will understand more about ourselves.

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