Canine Practice and Abhidhamma Point of View

Canine practice is the practice that behaving like a dog. When one practices like a dog,
he acts like a dog, sleeps like a dog, eats like a dog, urinates like a dog. During the Buddha
time there were people who thought that if one acts like a dog, or like a cow, or like an animal,
he will get free from suffering. By behaving like a dog, one believes that he can compensate
his unwholesome past deeds and reduce defilements, then one will get emancipation. They also
think that animals are not as wicked as human beings, and so if they live like an animal, they
can get rid of mental defilements. Many people followed this belief at the time of the Buddha
and some may also be in the present time. Undertaking the practice of these acts is called Sīla
and really acting (in the manner of dog, cow and others animal) is called Vata.

According to Abhidhamma, canine practice is called silabbata-parāmāsa. The reason is

that if one believes Sīla and Vata to be the sufficient means for achieving enlightenment, he
has this kind of wrong view. The wrong practice with the wrong view that canine morality or
bovine morality (ox-ascetism) will lead to purification of the mind is called “sīlabbata.”
Adherence to false view is called “sīlabbata-parāmāsa,” then clinging to wrong practice and
view is “silabbatupādāna,” rite and ritual clinging.

In Abhidhamma, wrong view is always accompanied by attachment or lobha. When we

have attachment for something and then we have wrong view about it. On the other hand,
when craving or attachment is as condition, grasping arises. There are four kinds of grasping,
the first one is strong attachment and the other three are wrong view. In brief, there are only
two grasping: Lobha and Diṭṭhi (attachment and wrong view). Both are conditioned by craving
which is again attachment. The weak attachment gives rise to strong attachment. Since there is
attachment, there is wrong view with regard to the object of that attachment. That is why, diṭṭhi
present in four lobhamūla diṭṭhigatasaṁpayutta cittas.

Moreover, Abhidhamma also explains “diṭṭhi”, which occurs in eight departments as

āsava, ogha, yoga, gantha, upādāna, anusaya, saṁyojana and kilesā. They are great
whirlpools, bonds to beings, indeed, strongly intoxicate beings and make them wander in
saṁsāra. Therefore, such kind of canine practice if brought to perfection will lead him to be
reborn as a dog. And if he does not but still there is wrong view, he will go to hell or the animal
kingdom.

As a conclusion, if any practice is not in conformity with the practice of mindfulness,

it is not a right way. If we take any practice other than the Satipaṭṭhāna practice as the way to
liberation, then we have this wrong view. On the account of not knowing the four-noble truth,
avijjā always covers our mind not to see the right way. That is why, some people follow the
way of canine practice.