One trick is to look for why they AREN'T an enlightened being-- then you'll be walking down the street, and boom. You see it. All the judgements, assumptions, mental afflictions on parade. "No- they can't be enlightened, they are too young, old, don't dress like an enlightened being, don't talk like an enlightened being, are too normal, are too weird, blah blah blah." Or- maybe it will go the other way, and you'll start seeing Angels...all over the place.
This applies especially to those who are close to you. Partners, for instance.
I see my partner as my teacher- a holy being who guides and protects me- leading me to total liberation.
I don't have to pretend...he appears to me as warm, funny, equanimous, deeply wise and infinitely generous. But, sometimes stuff comes up. For instance...
We are moving.
Boxes emerge from long hidden, dusty spots- unseen for years, perhaps only to be moved to a similar fate in a new seclusion.
He has a life so full of serving others that his boxes of papers, odds and ends, dharma study materials from years of study- stuff our tiny one-bedroom to the brim.
Which I find irritating. Now if I wasn't a yogini whose job description includes smashing mental affliction, here's what I would do.
Complain to the box owner. Suggest he clean his stuff up. Kick the boxes around and treat them poorly, thinking they truly contain the power to annoy and frustrate.
One level up: bodhisattva self-loathing. O! Look at me, such a bad bodhisattva. Kicking around my Holy Teacher's precious items, overcome with mental afflictions. Go back to bed- pull the covers up high and sulk.
Yoga Chitti Vritti Nirodha. Turn it all around.
Our new place is bigger. Even a room just for studying. Just this morning I went to pick up a bookshelf from a Craigslist ad. White and red-it was perfect and best of all, it was free! I really had my heart set on this bookcase. It fit my colour scheme perfectly and was a discontinued Ikea unit that was selling for $100 elsewhere.
When I got there- however, there was nothing but an empty store. Dissapointed, but aware of the karmic cause of such a feeling, I though, " Oh, here is the result of not giving people what they want"- and mentally I rained offerings on my Teachers.
Fast-forward to the piles of boxes in our cramped apartment.
It is ignorance to think the boxes have some nature of "annoying" (or even a nature of "box", but that's a longer story). "Annoying" is not coming from the box. Otherwise that box would always have the power to annoy me- even hidden under the bed.
So with regard to the boxes, I'm the poster child for ignorant aversion (wanting to get away from something that I think has the nature of causing suffering). Being forced to perceive my mind as knotted with ignorant aversion- this came from something. It's not random, nor could it be caused by the object.
There are rules to the laws of cause-and-effect: if you do the deed, you will reap the result and if you don't do the deed- you can't experience the result. Like comes from like. Karma grows.
What will the result of treating holy (because I see them that way- dharma books that belong to a Teacher I think can help me eliminate suffering in my mind stream) objects with disrespect be? Good can't come from a negative action. Karma grows. I will no longer see Holy books or teachers.
Suddenly- a deep longing seizes my heart. I must get a beautiful new bookshelf for these precious items- so he can easily access anything, and to respect the teachings contained within.
On fire with a desire to serve and purify, I went onto Craigslist. There it was again! This time with a different address- they must have been teaching me something, those Holy Beings- 1008 Homer, not 1088.
With a body as light as a feather, the sulk thrown off- I ran. 30 blocks flew by.
.JPG)
