His Dog’s Name? Dharma, Not Drama

In Indian religions, dharma is commonly understood as referring to behaviors that sustain life.

Like?

Like how a dog behaves. Like we humans would do well to behave.

Here are the opening lines of Billy Collins’ poem “Dharma.”

“The way the dog trots out the front door

every morning

without a hat or an umbrella,

without any money

or the keys to her dog house

never fails to fill the saucer of my heart

with milky admiration.”

Isn’t that refreshing?

Do not dogs everywhere, if somehow escaping their leash, rejoice at their freedom and give endless sun-kissed chase to a wind-tossed and teasing blue balloon, or splash happily about in the shallows of beaches with their fellow canine comrades?

If heaven were a reward for sheer, unadulterated and boundless-and-free joy, would it not be bestowed upon dogs?

Isn’t it true that with dogs there is no pretense, no posturing, and only one life to dedicate all their devotion to you?

Yes, true, all of the above.

Oh, then to live a dog’s life, drama-free and, like Dharma the dog, experience the behaviors that sustain life: reveling in love and laughter, and escaping our leash so as to behold the beauty of creation.

Post-script: Having lost my wife of 50 years to cancer just over a year ago; the destruction by fire of both our home and our business during those years together; and the tragic death of our granddaughter, I long for love and laughter again, and often anymore escape to the mountains to experience awe and wonder.