Happy As A Dog

Funny how we accept things as true just because its on the News without knowing for ourselves the truth of the thing. Its not easy to remain objective when all the papers and TV news shows are bombarding us with only one side of the story. Looked what they've done to others. True enough though, where there is smoke there is usually fire, but then again, there was a lot of smoke around some of the tallest, brightest figures to walk this earth. The earth tends to eat those that do not bow down to it.

I've been guilty of participating in such mass prejudice many times in my earlier life. I am better now at knowing what I don't know...better at withholding judgment until I have all the facts for myself. But, in this case, I would say that I was fortunate to not know that Rajneesh changed his name to Osho otherwise I would have never discovered the remarkable body of work about the meditative life this man left behind.

His words, on their own, taken completely objectively, completely unprejudiced, looked at without any judgement based upon history or visuals, contain gem after gem of remarkable truth about the human condition and the way out of it.

I really don't know if I would have picked up a book with the authors name being Rajneesh. There are only books by the name Osho so I can not say for sure if I would have looked at the name with fresh eyes of today, of eyes only concerned with the present moment instead of eyes tainted with yesterdays headlines and sound bites.

I was watching Eckhart Tolle and Cesar Millan, the dog whisperer, have a video conversation the other day. They talked about how dogs by nature only live in the moment and that for the dog there is only unconditional forgiveness of its leader. If you forget to let them out, or forget to feed them, or lose your patience and yell at them, they do not hold a grudge but instantly forgive you and move on. They talked about how well balanced dogs have eyes that only see in the present moment, completely forgetful of anything past or of any anticipation of the future (except when you ask them if they want to go for a walk :-) They talked about how much love and forgiveness a creature such as a dog has and can teach us.

Tolle also mentioned that he has observed many a Zen Master in his life, and most of them were cats. Last night my wife and I were watching Americas Funniest Videos. It showed a segment where cats got themselves into a jam...sliding off a roof, getting caught in mini-blinds, trying to squeeze through small holes and getting stuck etc etc. As we watched I told my wife to watch what a cat does, even after a long fall off an icy roof to a hard landing on the ground. It is instantly up on its feet and off to the next thing without missing a beat. The situation is over the moment it is over. That is what Zen Masters teach. That is what meditation does for us. You can see it in a certain radio counselor I know. I was always amazed how he can have these gut wrenching, emotional or ecstatically profound phone calls where he really helped a person wake-up and then hang up and instantly be on to the next thing without perseverating in the least. That is how life should be...gracefully moving from one moment to the the next without leaving or taking anything from the last moment into the new one.

The point of all this I guess is just pointing out that the goal of meditation is to live so wholly, so presently in the now that there is no time or need to remember anything...whether another's past or the last moment. There is only Now and it is sufficient and utterly fulfilling unto itself. In a single moment the whole Universe is changed and no longer what it was the previous moment, everything moved to a new position, it is not what it once was, it is a new situation and different from what it was the previous moment, who can argue that? Clinging to yesterday we get left behind and become as dead as yesterday. But let it all go, become like the well balanced dog Cesar Millan speaks of, live only for the moment and become just as happy and carefree as the dog. So come now, free yourself of the past, live for the moment only and let your tails wag freely!