![image.png](https://images.ecency.com/DQmPv9MpFi1yMVmjftZz9bLx4njkgifobVmh8XB2nybFJzU/image.png)

***
**Dog Ideal**

*without the need to stifle the cry of consciousness
through drink or drug or violent distraction,
disinclined to wreak havoc on self or other*
 
*free of the sustained illusion of written words 
and images, with their enduring damage
or turning to the senseless spell of art for oblivion*

*their memories are not material
but perish at birth, still-born*
 
*always the present, unoppressed
by the burden of past or future
the unspoken and unspeakable*

*without the complication of human sophistication
or impossible longings beyond dog and dog world*

*they dream of food, shelter, air
and wake to find them there*

*without false divisions
among mind/body/soul
so without perversions*

*honest in their need to give and receive 
a love neither tormented nor tormenting*

*nursing their wounds without meditation,
which is the creation of more suffering*

*a spirituality of the earth
a piety and humility that accepts
the man and God-given crumb
expects nothing*

*unconcerned with the pursuit of truth
and other lies
they live in Truth*

*never lost in the labyrinth of self
they are without self-image, 
thus without self-deception*

*blissfully unaware of Schopenhauer's Pendulum
which from pain to boredom swings*

*their tails sway contentedly
always at home, in their bodies*

*nonchalantly, watching the world pass by 
with benign curiosity and sideways glance
slipping in and out of untroubled sleep*

*they do not know the gloom
of deliberately darkened rooms*

*suspicions, fears and worries
real confounded with unfounded*

*or artificially purchased dreams
long after an inexhaustible mind
has exhausted its hapless frame*

*without question, they accept the deposits of Fate
without the added interest of personal doubts*
questioning their place in the universe*

*unconcerned with peace, justice
and other human nonsense*

*impervious to the charm of philosophy or psychology
the conceit of thought, the paralysis of analysis 
all idle speculation, and monstrous civilization* 

*neither prisoners of Time
nor victims of temperament*

*without necessary occupations
or unnecessary preoccupations
with sanity*

*out of reach
out of reach
out of reach…*

*work like a dog
live like a dog
die like a dog.*

©[Yahia Lababidi](https://www.amazon.com/Yahia-Lababidi/e/B0042SRQWG)
*** 
I hope you enjoyed this meditation. Below, is a video of me reading it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNdo4wW_VeQ