I wrote this in my novel the ‘Light Bringer’, each time I read it, it still brings a tear to my eye….

“Then one day he was at rock bottom, he couldn’t even manage his small daily routine. He cancelled his chemo session without telling anyone and was thinking that he might commit passive suicide by not taking future treatment. Instead of going to the hospital he decided to take a walk in the park. It was a chilly day, so wrapped up, he sat on the park bench.

There was a dog walking group all happily watching their young, fit, happy dogs bouncing around chasing each other with the pure simple joy of having a body and good doggy friends to chase. He envied them and their simple minds just being in the moment.

Then he looked down and there was an old arthritic black mongrel in his winter doggy coat, obviously too old to run with the other dogs and too deaf to hear his owner calling him. He had dropped a stick at Lucas’s feet and was looking up at him hopefully with milky, cataract eyes, and could only manage a soft throaty ‘woof’ that Lucas could identify with to encourage him to throw it. Lucas threw it (not too far because he didn’t have it in him and didn’t want the dog to drop dead with over exertion.) The dog waddled happily after it, relying on his sense of smell more than his eyes and brought it back to Lucas’s feet, dropping it with happy expectation that he now also had a friend to play with.

“I’m sorry, said his owner, he can’t run with the other dogs now, his arthritis, deafness, cataracts were bad enough but now he has cancer as well. But it doesn’t stop him getting the most of what’s left of his life, dogs are a great example to us all aren’t they?” Lucas looked down at this scruffy little mutt in his winter coat looking happily up at his new found friend wagging his tail with the only expectation that he’ll throw the stick again. It was like a visit from an angel or the Buddha himself to Lucas giving him ‘penetration and insight’ to those Four Noble Truths.

He had to fully ‘understand’ those two arrows of suffering. The suffering he can’t avoid and to accept it, (he hadn’t done that yet) and the suffering he could, he was stabbing himself with that second arrow by tormenting himself like a demon over having cancer. He needed to accept that which he couldn’t change and change that which he could. The desire to have his health back, and the desire of not wanting to be vulnerable meant that he was torturing himself with all the things that cannot be instead of looking to see that which he could do. This furry Buddha was showing him how simple this is. It didn’t require thought or any complex process, just a waggly tail, a nice stick and someone to throw it. The cessation of suffering was to recognise this and to live its simplicity!”