Last weekend, I attended a wonderful retreat led by dharma teacher Greg Kramer. Rather than meditating silently, as in a typical retreat, we learned and practiced Greg's interpersonal meditation practice, Insight Dialogue. The experience was intense, profound, and surprisingly exhausting--I slept solidly for more than 9 hours on both Saturday and Sunday nights, presumably because some sort of deep, internal reprogramming was going on within me. By midday Sunday, the second day of the retreat, I found myself dropping repeatedly into an expansive, deeply calm state in which my sense of "I" nearly disappeared (of course, it makes no sense to use first person singular pronouns to write about this, but what can you do?). This state of mind has continued to return briefly from time to time, each time bringing a few moments of great peacefulness.

On Monday, still in a state of heightened mindfulness, I went for a long walk in the Issaquah Alps. As I walked along the trail, the trees and ferns, the small forest birds and squirrels, the ice and snow, and each new turn of the trail all seemed vivid and distinct.

I found myself hyperaware of my internal reactions as I passed others on the trail, and was struck by something I'd never noticed before. Each time a dog appeared, I felt my heart instantly open and fill with a surge of friendliness towards the animal. In contrast, my internal reactions to other people were much more restrained (though outwardly, I offered everyone a friendly greeting). Why the difference?, I continue to wonder.

My guess is that over the years, our difficult experiences with other people--the small and large hurts and pains we experience--cause us to take on a defensive stance when we encounter other humans, until we feel safe enough to relax those defenses. For most of us, our experiences with dogs have caused us little pain and great pleasure, so we haven't learned to feel defensive around them. Of course, someone who has been menaced by dogs in the past may react very differently from me.

My hope is that my meditation practice is allowing me to grow more and more open-hearted towards other people, not just their pets.