Temple dogs at Samnak Song Tham Sai

Temple dogs at Samnak Song Tham Sai

Uncle Sit can still remember a factual account that Luang Phor Phut Thaniyo told him many years ago. Once a young man came to the Wat to pay his respects. After doing so, this man revealed to Luang Phor that he could remember his past life as a temple dog. 

The man said that as a dog, he could understand the human language and listened to whatever the temple goers or monks said. 

However, whenever he wanted to reply them and join in the conversation, only dog sounds came out of his mouth. 

He remembered that on Buddhist holy days, the monks would be preaching the Dhamma at the Sala Hall. He wanted to go up to the hall to sit and listen to the Dhamma too, however he was a dog. Not only a dog, but one suffering from mange as well. So most times the devotees there would just chase him away. 

So he had no choice but to lie down below the hall and listen to the Dhamma from under the Sala. 

This man also remembered his final day as a dog. One afternoon he was lying in the bushes taking a rest not far from the temple hall. At that time, the temple was undergoing some construction and a newly ordained monk was helping out. 

This monk was carrying a heavy log and through some slip of mindfulness he threw the log into the bushes without first checking if there was anything there. Unfortunately, the dog was resting taking a nap and got struck by the log. So he died from his injuries. 

When the dog was reborn as a human, he could still remember his past life memories as a dog. 

So when he grew up, he asked his parents to take him back to the same temple so that he could meet the young monk. 

Actually, he was very grateful to the young monk for killing him because he saved him from having to live as a dog and was now back to being a human again. But sadly he was not able to meet the monk because he found out that the monk had disrobed. The monk had originally ordained to make merit but ended up killing a dog and felt very bad about it, so he left the monkhood. 

This reminded Uncle Sit of what Luang Pu Doo often said, which was that every animal or creature had the chance to become human again so we should treat them with equal respect and not disturb them.

Temple dogs at Samnak Song Tham Sai