# The mangy dog who tried to run away

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-mangy-dog-runs-away
- Themes: blame, self-responsibility, running away, suffering
- Life situations: blaming others, moving to escape problems, conflict in relationships

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

A dog with mange suffers terrible itching and blames the village, so runs off to the forest — still itchy. It tries the pond, the shade, the sun, the shelter of a rock; everywhere it suffers, until it realises it isn't the village, the other dogs, the forest or the sun: it carries the mange inside itself.

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

There's one of Ajahn Chah's favourite stories and this actually comes from an old story in the Buddhist commentary. Once there was a dog and the dog had mange. And the dog's skin was so itchy, no matter if it scratched it, the mange, the skin disease got worse. That's why sometimes in poor countries you see dogs with no hair. So this mangy dog was just having such a lot of suffering and so he decided to run away from the village and live in the forest. So he went in the forest but still had the suffering there. So he went actually under water in the pond but still his back itched. So then he went under the shade of a tree, then out in the sun, then under a rock. Wherever that dog went it was always suffering until it realised it wasn't the village's fault, it wasn't the other dogs. It wasn't the forest or the shade or the sun or the rock's fault. It was actually carrying around the mange inside of itself.

## Teaching point

It's not other people's fault; the problem is the relationship we carry with us wherever we go.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

The itchy dog fled the village for the forest, the pond, the shade and the sun, and itched in every one, because the mange came along. Moving house, job or partner can't fix what we carry inside. Before blaming the place or the people, look at how you're relating to them. Change that, and many places become bearable.

## Source

- [Freeing Problems With Metta | by Ajahn Brahm | 30 Jan 2009](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OswcrsyGQN0) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 7:48 to 9:01: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OswcrsyGQN0&t=468s