Leslie with one of his favourites. But aren't they all?.

January 15, 2012 - Unedited - Straight from the Heart

Dear Ones ...

And here it is 2012, already. For those of you younger ‘uns, you’re going to find out how time passes in an increasing blur as you age. It’s going so fast that I sometimes think that before I know it I’m going to be dead.

Clearly the indication of great blessings. My life is so full. I’m so grateful that in this, most likely the last stretch, I’ve karmically ended up in this configuration that involves lifting so much suffering. It isn’t many times in life that you have a chance for your efforts to count so much. And it feels so good. I could have been involved in doing good feeling things, and enjoying meaningful relationships. But here I am, immersed in this endeavor.
 
Canadian Ken our creative genius, known as The Great One, did a short video-ette (45 seconds) of me as an Indiana Jones type character. It’s not posted for general viewing. Would be too “over the top”. Mostly a “for the grandchildren blurb”. You have to go to a private address to view it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched it. Would be too embarrassing. “ But I swear to you, I don’t think it’s pure ego (though 16 out of 27 times I’m usually wrong). There’s something intriguing about it for me.

I think that it’s the awareness of “what might have been” if we hadn’t come into being.. We never really know what might have been. We can only imagine. But I remember the almost unbearable experience of seeing. Dogs. Puppies. Everywhere. Fighting amongst themselves. Many starving. Injured. Sick. So much suffering. Before we opened.

Ken just told me he has to leave for Katmandu in 10 days. A shock. I’ll miss his presence. How excellent it was to have him here for almost two months. With his unending creative surges. Video-ettes. Stories. Signs. Logos. And on and on.

Relationships with the dogs is so pure and uncomplicated. The immediate return of affection. Instantaneous forgiveness. The surrendering into being protectively embraced.

I’m having a difficult time writing this diary entry. These following comments are being typed over a month after the above passages were written.

There are so many beautiful stories unfolding in this dear, dear Shelter. Truly beautiful. A number of new ones every week. Ken and Daemian (also a creative phenomenom) keep cajoling us to write them up. To let them know. We have done that a few times. But scores and scores have simply receded into the dreamlike past. Sorry. The energy doesn’t move in that direction. We’re just so fully engaged. We know it’s important. But it doesn’t happen. We’ll try harder.

A friend showed up about two months ago. Sautamali. From Germany. He comes for several months each year. A true Sanskrit scholar, no less. He’s a guru brother. We have the same guru. He met him in 1974. I, in 1975. I always think of him as the German Woody Allen. (For those of you who don’t like Woody Allen, think of him as Clark Gable, Clark Kent, or Charlie Chaplin).

The reason I’m mentioning “Woody” is that he’s a keen observer, and I tend to put significant credibility in his observations. He said, “Leslie, the difference this year in how kindly people are being with the street dogs, is stunning.” He went on to say that a number of Foreigners had made similar remarks to him.

How heartwarming it is to hear that. How important. I know I’ve commented about this before, but I want to again. In abbreviated form. (I) If the Heart opens to the animals, it simply opens in all directions, and we’ll be kinder to each other. And (2) The only way the lives of the homeless dogs can be truly uplifted is if the relationship they have with the people amongst whom they live is transformed.

My Baba is again chanting as I write. Maybe he’ll inspire me to share some interesting things. I think not. So I’ll say to you that in these, my final years, happiness is not one of my “goals”. By that I mean I don’t do anything hoping it’ll make me happier. If happiness comes than that would be welcome. For sure. But if it doesn’t, that’s okay. Actually I’m doing very little to get to another space. I’m simply doing what unfolds before me. And it fills me. This endeavor. There is suffering. Warmth. Love, Fear. The whole mix. But most of all Love. And I am truly blessed.

Before signing off, I want to tell you about Marimoota. He’s one of our staff. He’s in his forties. Not much larger than Mickey Mouse. He’s a simple villager. The hardest worker in the cosmos. I love Marimoota. He can’t understand English. I can’t understand Tamil. He takes care of the veranda, and all the wonderful creatures on the veranda. The veranda is s-o-o-o clean. And the puppies/dogs are so well cared for. That sometimes I want to leap over the separator and hug him.

I also sometimes think of buying him a blue elasticized shirt with a big M, and a flowing blue cape. I worry about him because he works so hard. “Mari, are you okay?”. He looks at me. Someone translates. He smiles, thumb up. Clearly exhausted. If I were Bill Gates, or John D. Rockefeller, or Ambani, or Ratan Tata, I’d raise him and personally pay 100,000 rupees a day.

 

Mooji, Leslie, Doctor Raja and friends at the Fundraiser.

September 1, 2011 - Unedited - Straight from the Heart

Dear Ones ...

At home. Upstairs. Osho, Ladyji, and Keshav lying around. Shirdi and Alex are out and about. Wandering as former street dogs do. Enjoying.

Morning. Chants playing on the computer as I type. How I love these creatures. A number of times a day I bend over and stroke them, or give them a little kiss. They just continue lying there, like saying, “Mom … Come on … Leave me alone”, But it makes them feel safe, secure, and loved. They've become so so sweet.

They still like to wander, or just sit outside by the side of the road a chunk of the night. Osho doesn't always go out when the others do. We’re sleeping on the second floor. So I can be on the ground floor with the door open. But he often doesn’t come. He waits until I get upstairs. Then wants me to go downstairs again. Open the door for him, and see him off. Which is okay for one round. That is, letting him out. Then being awakened sometime during the night to go downstairs and let him in. But then, after I’ve fallen asleep he sometimes wakes me and wants me to let him out again. My response is clear and focused. “Stuff it, Osho”. And I go back to sleep.

Osho is the Guru of Dogs. They all simply love him. Follow him. He’s got a certain energy that he emits. He’s one of the very few dogs in town that can go across any other dog’s territory and not be challenged. People love him. Animals love him.

Sometimes when I’m sitting with Osho. I look over at him, and say, “We’ve become old guys together, babe”. “I love you.”

It’s such a blessing for my Heart to be so open to animals. As I walk along the streets I continually get these surges in my Heart which feel so good. Of course, I pick up the flip side, too. I really experience their suffering.

I feel a Heart connection with all the creatures - bullocks, birds, cats, snakes, insects. It wasn’t always this way. I loved animals generally from the earliest parts of my childhood. But the full opening to include insects, and other forms that I can’t think of right now happened during a fourteen month retreat, in silence, in a remote cabin, on several hundred acres of sacred land in the middle of nowhere.

At the time I was doing a Tibetan Buddhist spiritual practice. The simple cabin had been built by a Tibetan monk who did a three year retreat. To get to it you had to follow a narrow trail through heavily forested terrain. It went over a small stream and then over two long hills. The cabin was nestled in a small clearing at the top of the second hill.

We have on the white wall surrounding our Shelter, a famous statement by Mahatma Gandhi. “The Greatness of a Nation and its Moral Progress can be judged by the way its Animals are Treated.”

This is really a comment on the nature of the Heart.

The real importance of this is that the Heart opens in all directions. If it opens more for one thing, it opens a little more for all things. If the community has more compassion and caring for the dogs, they'll be nicer and gentler with each other.

It’s so difficult, costly, and time-consuming to try to get people to be nicer with each other by working directly with them. We’re so, so complicated. How much easier it is to open a Community’s Hearts through demonstrative love to homeless dogs.

It uplifts both the Human and the Animal communities. Dogs have much better lives. Humans have better lives. Humans are more caring with the dogs and with each other. As a result, it is safer and healthier on the streets.

It is a low cost, fast way to uplift Society in many ways. And this is the gift that India’s homeless dog problem actually presents to us.

The solution is demonstrative love - the very core of our work. We are told by all the great Indian masters, that love is the most powerful force in the universe. No question, we are seeing it work.

 

Leslie hugs Doctor Raja at Mooji's fundraiser in Tiru

May 1, 2011 - Unedited - Straight from the Heart

Dear Ones ... An Ode to Dr. Rajasekar and Vishwa

There are so many things I want to say about our beloved Shelter ... About Dr.Raja, our senior vet ... About Vishwa, our general manager ... About our staff ... They come to mind in flashes ... In some kind of associative chain ... I get flickers of what Raja ... and Vishwa do ... Just a glimmer of their devoted activities ... I'm not in the Shelter most of the time ... My activities during this period relate mostly to the computer ... Dealing with outside forces to protect us ... FCRA ... Preparing for the future ... And so on. ... one day I'm in the clinic early morning ... Standing alongside Raja, a woman, and a young puppy he's treating ... Puppy is getting an i.v. .... I ask Raja what for ... "Poisoning" ... "Do you think she'll make it? ... "Yes" ... "But Raja, what if it worsens?" ... "It won't" ... "What do you mean, 'It won't ... How do you know? " ... '"It's over the crisis ... I saw her 1:30, last night ... She's past the crisis" ... So just by chance I find out about his middle night emergency ... .It happens regularly ... About a cow  emergency treated one day at 8:30pm ... On another day, a dog hit by a rickshaw that he saved at 11pm ... And that's only a faint glimmer of what he's doing ....

It's the same with Vishwa ... Sitting down next to him on the veranda ... "Vishwa, you look awful" ... "Yes sir" ... "Anything I can help with" ... "No sir" ... "What's wrong" ... "Nothing sir" ... "Vishwa, what do you mean nothing" ... "I was here last night sir ... There was a problem with one of our patients ... I stayed up with him ... And didn't sleep" ... "Vishwa, go home and get some sleep" ... "Yes sir ... Later sir" ..... Or finding out, by chance, that he was out on a rescue in the middle of the night...Or a four hour round trip at some ungodly hour to replenish our stock of "bonesetter herbs" ... And so on ... This is only a tiny tip of his activities ...

My beloved Dr.Raja, and Vishwa ... They were sent to me by Providence ... One doesn't get humans like this just by chance ... A precious gift ... And so closely I've worked with them for over four years ... Explaining ... Cajoling ... Loving. .. Raging ...Teaching.. .At times it was so intense ... At times so, so difficult...It was a close, close Heart connection ... How beautifully they've unfolded as they've connected with their own inner strength ... As they unfolded, growing in directions that were not predictable ... How unbelievably hard they worked and struggled ... How beautiful it was to see their own Hearts opening further, and further ... What a blessing for them ... What a blessing for the vulnerable animals they protect ... And now, these two precious human beings ... These blessings to the Planet ... Don't do my bidding ... They are "walking on their own legs" ... With their own unique strengths ... With their Hearts fully open ... And I have to stand further and further back to give them room as they move... It's so touching ... So humbling...

Thank you God ... For this chance in the last stretch of my life ... To be involved in something like this ... To have a chance in participating in lifting so much suffering from these helpless creatures we serve ... To be able to work with and teach such incredible human beings ... To open my Heart like you have ... Thank you ... Thank you...

I wish that all of you could spend a few hours in the Shelter ... Towards evening when it slows down a little ... It's so harmonious ... So quietly alive ... I was sitting next to Dr.Raja one evening ... He was on my right ... I looked at him and said, "Do you feel that quietness, Raja" ... "That peacefulness" ... "That's Grace" ... "It's pure love" ... "And all this before us is unfolding in that space" ...

The Shelter evolves...All of us evolve with it ... We're no longer just a Shelter...A sanctuary ... A hospital ... A hospice ... A rescue center ... An adoption facility ... We're all of those things ... They are our very roots ... But beyond that ... Above that..In its simplest terms ... We have become a Center for Healing ...

Again ... Thank you God ...

 

Leslie (left) chats with Swami Sadashivananda over breakfast

January 13, 2011 - Unedited - Straight from the Heart

Dear Ones ...

It's 3:15am ... Osho, one of my dogs woke me ... Barking outside to comeback in after several hours of wandering ... He likes to go out twice, but I'm only willing to support once ... Living on the second floor of a modest house I'm renting (4500 rupees a month--about $100US -- You, too, could live a life of "luxury" on a pauper's income) ... Have to go up and down twice on each of "Osho's meandering" -- once to let him out, once in ... Also, I'm only willing to get up twice during the night for him ... I have five dogs ... They're not pets ... They're street dogs -- Osho, Lady-ji, Keshav, Shirdi, Alex, by name ... I live with them ... Love them ... Give them reasonable freedom ... They've all become sweet ...

But Osho's like a great being ... People and dogs, alike, adore him ... He seems to have free passage into other dog's territories -- where no other's have ... And is anointed with affection and adoration as he wanders around -- from humans and dogs alike ... I occasionally get jealous, but manage to keep it under wraps ... Think Ken is writing a story about him in our first Newsletter ...

So here it is at this ungodly hour ... I'm communicating because Ken has pressured me by pointing out -- several times, mind you -- that I last wrote anything for the "Founders" section of the website, some thirty or forty years ago ... He thought it would be good if I'd communicate more regularly ...

This is the 13th of January... Three days ago we celebrated the fourth anniversary of our opening ... I'm not heavily into celebrations ... So it was a modest affair ... A brief puja early evening ... (For those of you who aren't familiar with "puja", it's basically an expression of gratitude to God ... For those who are agnostics, or atheists -- think of it, as a heartfelt thank you to the Universe) ... There were about 20 present, in addition to the staff ...

There were still two clinic cases being treated (We were all in the clinic, where the puja was held) ... Operations were still going on in the operation room ... Our beloved puppies and dogs were mingling with us ... It was growing dark ... Since I didn't know the appropriate mantras (I did the offering) ... I waived the light in silence while soft mantras were playing ...

I wish you could have experienced it ... You could feel the intimacy, warmth, and Heart in the air ... All of us crowded into this simple clinic room ... Here in the south of India ... We were truly moved ... It was an anointment by the Universe, to bless us for our activities ...

I wish that all of you could have been there ... I talked a little after the waiving of the lights ... Mostly about our staff ... Actually about all of us engaged in this endeavor ... The deep changes we were going through ... The magical changes ... As we experienced more spaciousness in our minds and came closer to our Hearts ... Each of us could look back at how we were a year ago ... And the year before that ... And see the profound changes that had taken place ... I'm aware of the "unfolding" of each of my staff ... Some came in heavily contracted ... And it was so moving to see the light entering their eyes as they worked through their things and their Hearts started opening further ... It's such a blessing for each of us to be involved in this Work ... And we were surrounded by some of those creatures we've been able to help lift from suffering ... How warm it feels to see their happiness ...

Towards the end ... It was already solidly dark ... I was sitting on the Shelter veranda with two old, dear friends who were visiting ... We'd known each other for over forty years ... Ranvir and Manjit Singh ... They're family to me ... Several times over these decades I've actually lived with them in their countryside home outside Ann Arbor, Michigan ... A fellow named Dev was leaving ... He'd been living in Tiruvannamalai for a number of years ... I introduced him to Ranvir and Manjit ... He talked about his experience ... It's the first time I saw him so deeply moved ... His eyes were almost teary, as he expressed his gratitude ... He took some photos (he's an accomplished photographer) ... And has posted an account of the evening on the Internet which is essentially what he said to us that evening as he recollected his memories, and I quote ...

"Public memory is short. Few can recall the rampant stray dogs everywhere, young and aged, starving and diseased, scavenging in the garbage heaps, fighting amongst themselves, ignored and abused by the human population, while remaining a menace to all including themselves .... In four short years, the roads are more peaceful, with few strays to be seen, and the naturally loving relationship between humans and animals restored to its true state."

How grateful I am that it turned out this way ... It truly is magical and a great blessing ... Without those blessings, with the same effort, it could have been much different..