By Jane Seidlitz

Just before dawn, one week after his sixteenth birthday, Lama Thubten Yeshe’s Pekingese dog, Dorje Den, died in Hatfield, Massachusetts. Since Lama’s death in 1984 it has been my great good fortune to care for Dorje Den until he died.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche reminded Lama Yeshe’s students from the beginning that Dorje Den was to be considered a manifestation of Lama, and thus should be treated with veneration. As Ashvaghosha advises in his Fifty Verses of Guru Devotion, “you should even treat your guru’s beloved family with the same respect you show him.” Pabongka Rinpoche explains that when The Guru Puja says that “Even a single hair from [the guru's] pores is for us a field of merit more highly praised than all the victorious buddhas of the three times,” “pores of the guru” in fact refers to the guru’s horse, his dog, attendants and so on.

Thus, Rinpoche said, offering one piece of meat to Dorje Den creates more merit than making offerings to all the buddhas of the three times, and that offering a bath was the same as offering a bath to the guru. And Dorje Den was never to be stepped over or petted with one’s feet.

Students of Lama Yeshe, seeing Dorje Den as a representation of Lama, often were moved to make a gesture of respect towards him. Sometimes for fun I even had him give blessings! According to the teachings, treating Dorje Den as a manifestation of Lama Yeshe could only bring benefit to ourselves and others. On a more ordinary level, of course, Dorje Den was a sentient being deserving of kindness and compassion.

Ordinary dog or manifestation of the guru, Dorje Den lived a remarkable and blessed dog life, creating much merit. Brought to Dharamsala in 1983 as a gift to Lama Yeshe and companion for Lama’s female dog, Yeshe, Dorje spent his first three years at Tushita. In 1987, I brought him to Nepal, where he patiently sat by as I sweated through most of my preliminary practices. He frequently attended teachings and initiations from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other lamas. He attended four November Kopan courses, traveled with me when I served Lama Zopa Rinpoche in India and Nepal for two years, was blessed by many other high lamas, circumambulated countless holy objects and made quite a few prostrations (with a little help from his friends).

Wherever he went, whether to Park Avenue or the stupa in Boudhanath, he attracted enormous attention, both for his lively personality and for his beauty. Tibetans often remarked that he looked like a snow lion. Despite his small size – 11 lbs (5 kg) – he became a formidable presence, known, among other things, for his surprise attacks on larger dogs (the bigger the better) and sometimes on human ankles.

Dorje Den’s death was as auspicious as his life. His health had been failing for the past year; he could hardly walk and needed to be hand-fed. A few days before he died, I unexpectedly ran into American nun Ven. Thubten Pemo in San Francisco at Trulshig Rinpoche’s teachings. Two years earlier I had asked her if she could get me some sand from the Kalachakra mandala so that when Dorje Den died I could put it on his crown as Rinpoche had advised. The first thing she said to me was that she had just gotten the Kalachakra sand for Dorje Den blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

When I returned to Massachusetts, it was clear that Dorje Den was beginning to die. For hours the day and night before he passed away I did the various prayers and mantras advised by Rinpoche. At 4 a.m. I dozed off next to him and an hour later woke up suddenly to witness him peacefully taking his last two breaths.

That morning I began a nyung-nä fasting retreat, as Rinpoche had advised, after which I was to “offer fire” to the body and then have the jangwa puja done on some of the bones, offering the rest to the ocean. It poured rain all through the nyung-nä, but the following day – the day of the cremation – dawned clear with a deep blue sky. I did Vajrasattva practice during the cremation; the fire burned strongly and steadily for an hour and a half. All of these – the rain, the clearing, the intensity of the fire – could be regarded as auspicious signs, ones that are often noted when lamas pass away.

As Dorje Den’s good fortune would have it, the day after he was cremated, in New York, I gave Trulshig Rinpoche two of Dorje Den’s bones with the request that Rinpoche perform the jangwa puja, directing the consciousness to a good rebirth. Years earlier it had been Trulshig Rinpoche who comforted me the day I found out Lama Yeshe had passed away. The presence of Trulshig Rinpoche in the West, a rare occurrence, also seemed quite remarkable and further evidence of Dorje Den’s merit.

A stupa is being made for Dorje Den at Root Institute in Bodhgaya and some ashes will be housed in a stupa at Land of Medicine Buddha in California, both bringing benefit to his mind and providing us the opportunity to create merit by circumambulating and making offerings.

Dorje Den was the last of Lama Yeshe’s dogs. He touched many people’s hearts and gave enormous joy and many opportunities to practice the teachings. With his good fortune and all the blessings he’s received, Dorje Den may well be sitting at Maitreya’s feet in the Tushita pure realm. Although I miss him greatly, I certainly hope that he is.

In the early 1980s in Dharamsala, I wrote this praise to Dorje Den, modeled, partially tongue in cheek, after the traditional Praises to the Guru:

I sing praises to Dorje Den,

Canine emanation of Vajradhara,

Whose throne is the supreme seat of the vajra,

Whose mighty body is held up unfalteringly by glorious lion feet,

Who, bounding fearlessly from side to side, cuts through the

gloomy darkness of samsara, tirelessly galloping, when

called upon, to bring happiness in the minds of

suffering ones,

Whose hair falls in great waves, sweeping away the dust of

ignorance,

Whose graceful tail is like the precious umbrella,

Whose velvety face cushions like the floor of the highest

god realm,

Whose saliva inspires the great renunciation in all those who

are anointed by it,

To Dorje Den, who, by manifesting in the Tushita Pure Land

out of compassion, for the benefit of sentient beings,

having mastered the great wisdom (Yeshe) and learnt

the method, has taken hold of the reins of enlightenment,

I bow down.

Tags: lama yeshe