Sunday, March 9, 2008

Holy Beings All Around Us

In Mexico, there were men who cleaned the seaweed from the beach each morning. Beginning at dawn, they would sweep the beach, making clumps of seaweed, and then load the seaweed into wheelbarrows and walk the wheelbarrows down the beach, dump the seaweed, and come back for another load. All morning, they wheeled their wheelbarrows back and forth along the hot beach until the seaweed was cleared away. One of these men was a particularly striking looking gentleman, with a leathery tan, wizened eyes, and silver rimmed front teeth. He reminded me of Jack Palanz, in City Slickers – a tough guy you wouldn’t want to mess with. But when our eyes met, and I thanked him for his hard work, he gave me a dazzling smile, and then went quietly about his tasks.

I saw him every morning, and was struck by the patient poetry of how he carried out his task of making the beach beautiful for me and the other visitors. I began to see him as a holy being, a saint, attending to his job with diligence and dedication, and felt great gratitude to him for contributing to the beauty of Maya Tulum.

Once I realized this, I noticed other holy beings going about their tasks that looked small on the surface, but made such a difference in the quality of life at our resort: there was the smiling woman who came in after each yoga class to sweep the studio, align the blankets and blocks, and tidy up the mats; the men who were constantly raking and smoothing the sand along the paths; the woman who each day, cleaned my palapa and folded my towels into whimsical swans and birds; a smiling waiter named Rafael, who gave me a grand “Buenos Dias Senorita” every morning.

It is easy to make these observations on vacation; particularly on a spiritual retreat where we are focusing on the divinity of every human being. But what about at home? How would our world change if we viewed the sanitation workers who pick up our trash as buddhas, or the crossing guards who keep our children safe on the way to school? Or the metro-card sellers in the NY subways; or the person who bags the groceries? Just imagine what kind of changes would be put into place if we viewed the people we barely notice in our day as holy beings. Try it.

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