Pig Monsters and Wolves

I had an interesting experience a couple of weeks ago during retreat and I thought I’d share it with you all because I know most of you will really be able to relate.

About three or four years ago I was temporarily living in Phoenix, Arizona and was asked to come up to Garchen Institute to talk about a job opening they had. So I packed up my old Redbone Coonhound dog, Gretchen, and arranged to spend the night just offsite next to the Institute at Kathleen Dyer’s house.

First of all, let’s just say that my dog was not happy at all about being in the desert. Redbone Coonhounds are a southern dog used to forests and hunting fields, but here this old gal was in a desert, in a strange house, with failing eyesight and elderly body. (Just where does a hunting dog pee when there are no trees and no grass?) But being the faithful dog she was, she would rather have been with me than anywhere else.

Night time came and the lady of the house brought in her pig for the night. Not just an ordinary pig...we're talking about what looked to be a 175 lb behemoth, named Ludwig, who plopped himself down in the living room of the home. My dog had never, ever seen a pig, but being the gentle soul she was knew that Ludwig was probably not up to befriending a Coonhound and promptly retreated to the bedroom. No sooner had she tried to settle herself when the son of the lady of the house brought his huge, and I do mean HUGE, white German Shepard over into the back yard. So outside this little room where I am trying to reassure my dog that life is fine, there is a huge “wolf” at the window barking like crazy at her and a huge “pig-monster” outside the door waiting, she thinks, to maybe devour her. All she could do was try to make her 85 lb body as tiny as possible and snuggle closer to her mom.

I thought about how this is like the experience of most sentient beings here in samsara. There are wolves at our windows and pig-monsters at our doors, and the best that most sentient beings can do is try to find some bit of security and happiness and try to believe that life will be OK, somehow, some way. The more I reflected on this, the more my heart opened to all sentient beings and the more I knew that I wanted to open to them and help them to be free from suffering. I have to tell you that this reflection preceded one of the biggest outpourings of compassion I've ever experience. I wept like a child.

I wish my heart would continually stay open in this manner. Retreat gave me the time to be quiet enough, for long enough, to allow some small measure of understanding to come forth of what my teachers have been pouring into me for some time now. I am so grateful to the Dharma, my teachers and my deceased dog-teacher, Gretchen, for guiding me. May all our pig-monsters and wolves be seen for the maras that they are. And may we all reach greater levels of compassion and combine it with wisdom in order to help others.

Ani Dadron