Leo

9/7/2009

Leo was an 11-year-old Dalmatian cross Husky.  I had him since he was about 2 months old and he died 5^th July at 8 p.m. after he was attacked by another dog, a pig dog, on 30^th June 2009.  

This image of a pig dog[1] is not that of the actual dog that attacked Leo, but shows the type of animal, as far as I remembered it, for it was dark at 5 o’clock in morning and I was most upset then.   

And now, as I am writing this story, I feel more serene knowing that Leo’s suffering from his injuries came to an end and maybe one day, God willing, we will see each other again in Heaven. I say this because in the last few days, I have been so saddened by the whole incident and I felt too that some part of me was gone for good. 

However, after a while, and looking at things from a different perspective, I said to myself that there are people suffering in the world much more than myself, in ways too atrocious for human beings to bear.  Take for example the most recent case of the Palestinians in Gaza during the Israeli bombardment since the hostilities started.[2]  I read stories that are real tragedies where children have lost, not only their parents, but also their whole family and home.  

I have learned in my life that whatever happened to me is always for a good reason, for God permitted it. And if the following episode would not be of any consolation then there is nothing else I can add to that. 

One day the Buddha received a visit of a woman in distress because she had just lost her husband. She told him how miserable she felt since the death of her spouse and that now she did not have any reason to live.  

The Buddha said to her: “My dear woman, go in peace now. But on you way home, go and knock on the doors you pass and ask if there is anybody there who just had died or is missing. Then come back to me again.” 

The woman did just that. She knocked on all the doors and asked the same question: “In your family do you have anybody who is missing or just died?”  In most cases the sad woman received the same answer, “Yes….” a husband just died, a son or a daughter or a relative gone missing and so on. 

Thus the woman went home comforted thinking that she was not the only one in this world to have lost a loved one.