What have I learned in the last eighteen months?
One thing only: how to walk the dog.
The invisible dog who is or isn't there,
Lizzy by name. There is a correct procedure:
Her purple collar is worn round the right arm,
The twing is carried, looped, in the left hand.
(These things are talismans, material links,
Aids for mindfulness to ensure the realisation
Of her Presence. She has no further use for them;
They are for me alone because I am weak.
That they will no longer serve their original purpose
Has been made unmistakably clear to me.)
I do all the walking. The Presence is there.
Whether I perceive it or not is up to me,
A matter of my own relative strength or weakness.
Presence is offered but perception is not guaranteed.
It has to be learnt exactly like meditation.
Like the material links, there are various tactics,
Permitted expedients, practices for the weak student:
Mantra, mindfulness, counting of steps
Or respectful conversation with the Presence.
The student's eyes are permitted to observe
The wonders and splendour of the surrounding landscape;
The ears may register cries of raven, magpie and jay.
As with meditation, the practice of dog-walking,
Has duration, takes up a determinate period of time:
Twenty minutes at least, a half-hour is better.
Three-quarters of an hour is perhaps ideal,
An hour, too long except in benevolent weather,
Having due regard to the fitness of the walker.
Expectations should be kept to a minimum, held in check.
Visions or visualisations are not to be sought for;
Even locutions must be treated with caution.
My task here isn't to seek esoteric spiritual experience
But to pursue at a walking pace the vanishing wraith of the present,
Following the invisible paw prints of my feal four-footed companion.
There is no destination or route, dog-walking goes anywhere.
It is process, not narrative, it has no beginning, no end
Except to discover a space in which walker and dog are united.
The end of all this walking will be to attain
Serenity, simplicity, fidelity,
And perpetual awareness of Presence.
—oOo—