Kanu's prayers

Sometimes animals pray — just like human beings. At around six o’clock this morning, I was resting on my bed with my eyes open when my little dog, Kanu, jumped onto the bed and came right up to my face at eye level. Then he began breathing in and out practically with the same rhythm as I had in my breathing.

I did not know if my breath would ruin his breath, or if his breath would ruin mine, but I did not have the heart to move him away. I said, “This much love I have for my dog!”

When Kanu was breathing in and out with me, how devotedly and soulfully he was praying! He was not praying for anything in particular; he was not asking for a human incarnation like that famous cat in Brooklyn did once. Only he was looking at me with such a devoted feeling.

There are so many times during the day when I will grab him and try to get him to look at me, but he will not look. When he does not want to pray or meditate, no matter how hard I beg him, he will not do it. But this morning, he just started praying spontaneously.

4 February 1986