Bobo the Taoist Bull Dog

"The wise person becomes like an animal or a child, participating joyfully in the profoundly irrational order. He or she learns to trust the chaos.”  (Gates)

Taoists believe that taking a wild animal out its natural environment would be interfering with its natural existence. But most domesticated animals, like the cat and dog, are used to being with people, which becomes their natural environment.

  

I went to a museum that had a small aquarium. I observed some turtles, fish, lizards, frogs, etc. Many of the animals that were in the water were constantly at the edge, trying to climb or make their way out of their cages. This made me realize that this wasn’t very Tao like. They weren’t in their natural habitat, and they weren’t happy. So this wasn’t a successful Tao observation. These animals were not at peace. They craved freedom from captivity and to go back home where there were no longer two legged creatures staring and at poking their tanks.

"When all under heaven know beauty as beauty, there is then ugliness." (2:1) 

                    I did find someone who is Tao like. His name is Bobo.

Bobo is a young Old English Bulldog whom I watch several days a week, along with two of his human companions (kids). He is the combination of ugliness and beauty. Possessing the face only a mother could love, yet a sheen coat that covers his dense body. He can go from being quiet and cuddly to rambunctious and loud in a matter of seconds.  He is the yin and the yang. His yin is his softness and passivity, the way he gives puppy dog eyes and cuddles against you.  His yang is his loud demanding bark and his thick muscles, and the way he chases his ball and the kids around the house.  

 He brings me peace. When the kids make me frustrated beyond belief, I know I can escape to the other room and just lay with Bobo. He is very comforting and always shows lots of love. Most times he is quietude. When I was observing him, he lay in a patch of sunlight streaming through the living room window. He was so at peace in that moment, but he was also sad we were leaving him to go somewhere. He shows emotion much like we humans do yet he accepts nature’s chaos.

 

References: http://www.hummingbirdworld.com/spiritnature/Taoism.htm