Earning the Dog

La Commedia Doggia—Flaubie's Inferno

Well, me little droogies, I could dwell on the years between the execution of Mil-Tan and the good Lord Siddhartha's 15th birthday. But I think it's time to move onward into the extensive and (unfortunately) far more educational atmospheres of hell, which is the point of this whole tale.

The birthday party was, of course, a blowout, with hundreds of guests in the garden (which was, as per the usual, hung all about with the decapitated heads of King Śuddhodana’s enemies, putting a bit of a damper on the celebration for those who choose take note of such things.)

Punnā and Malini were of course there, although Punnā was by now infirm with age and had to be carried about in a litter by younger women. Malini was the one in charge then; she’d matured into the head of the female household surrounding Lord Siddhartha.

These were two sober, grounded women. They’d been present during the entire childhood of Lord Siddartha and absorbed almost all of his initial teachings, which were very high material, indeed, even though he hadn't yet attained enlightenment. It had mellowed them; me, maybe not so much, because I’m an agitated little dog. I like enlightenment a lot, actually, but for me a large part of enlightenment consists of barking at everything, and I already had that down. So I just loved him, and for me, that was enough.

Lord Siddhartha had been born knowing his aim in life, which is very unusual. Most of us don’t know that stuff; we stumble around in the darkness the way I do. We’re dogs in the wilderness, looking for a companion to love and a decent groomer to help get the tangles out of our ear hair.

But Siddhartha knew more than how to care for ear hair. His destiny was to search for Nirvana, and he knew that he’d have to go through all of hell to get there.