Am I Getting Closer To Enlightenment?

During every yoga training I teach, there is always a confrontation with a very lucky or unlucky cockroach. We periodically meet in a room where it seems there is a colony of roaches within the walls that on occasion come out to say hi or to scare the crap out of us.  And each year we have the same conversation related to ahimsa, nonharming, and is it really fair for us to take away a living thing’s life just because it grosses us out.  Do we have the right to play God?

My stance is that I cannot kill them, but I still cannot go up to them and carry them out either. I usually choose to just let them run away. And, my claim to the trainees each year is that the day that I am able to calmly put one of them in my hand and carry them out of my house with love then I will know there’s been an internal shift within me.  Whether you want to call it enlightenment or something else I don’t know because enlightenment has so many charged implications. Regardless, this action will be a sign that I’m evolving and experiencing nonattachment, and who knows what else. It will be a beautiful feeling though.

So, yesterday, I had an interesting and blessed situation. I was cooking in my house with a friend and we open the bottom cupboard to take out a pan. When I move the pan, a little cockroach is running around inside the bottom container below the pan. I jump and screech, “Cockroach!” Being that my friend was a man, and society clearly states that men are responsible for taking care of the cockroaches when women freak out, he manned up and carried the container outside. (He later admitted he was freaking out too.) He flipped the pan over and dropped him on my porch. But when the roach fell, he fell belly up. So the roach was lying on his back and I felt compassion for the little guy. I couldn’t just let him die. His legs were moving slower and slower and it was breaking my heart. And yes, since he was a smaller roach it probably made it easier for me to think he was cute instead of gross. So, I went outside and with my finger… YES MY FINGER, not a piece of paper or a stick –  I flipped him over onto his feet and he happily ran away. I could feel his joy and it felt so fulfilling.

Then, I realized what I had done. HOLY SHIT! I just touched a roach and saved his life and didn’t freak out!! What does this mean?  I don’t know what it means, but it felt darn good inside to see the roach as a living, breathing, suffering animal instead of a disgusting, slimy good-for-nothing beast that needs to be exterminated.

So, next time you see a roach in your house, take a second look at him/her and ask yourself, is he/she living? And should you be the one to take away his/her life? Maybe, but maybe not.

Rina Jakubowicz

4 thoughts on “Am I Getting Closer To Enlightenment?

  1. Mijael "Yoga Video" Brandwajn says:

    I took this from a cocrkroach related site:

    Cockroaches are known to carry diseases like dysentery, typhoid and poliomyelitis, as well as gastroenteritis. Not only can people get sick from the diseases that cockroaches contaminate human living space with, many humans are allergic to cockroach feces. Of course, no one exposes themselves to cockroach disease and feces on purpose, but it can happen by inhaling particles of dust in the air that has been left behind by the cockroach. Food can also be contaminated with the smell of cockroaches, which is very distinct. Food can have particles of feces, salivary gland secretions, as well as dead insects if it has not been stored properly. If people eat food that has not been properly stored they can be exposed to all of these things, which can cause asthma as well as other health conditions to those that are sensitive.

    Cockroach disease is nothing to fool around with. Even if you just don’t like bugs, you have to consider the disease and filth that these insects bring into your home. Cockroach control is very important because you cannot always see, smell, or even taste the presence of cockroaches, yet you can ingest these items and become sick.

    Many people believe that cockroach problems will take care of themselves, or if you haven’t seen all that many cockroaches there is no need to worry. The fact is, because you often don’t see the cockroaches that live in your home, you always have to worry if you see even one or two roaches. Cockroach disease can spread fast, and when you consider that cockroaches often hang out in the kitchen and places where food preparation takes place, you’ll want to nip the problem in the bud!

    This is where the practice of Ahimsa brings up really heavy questions… do we kill the cockroaches to avoid disease?

    Are we more important than the cockroaches then?

    I think we are.

    This is where evolutionary enlightenment has great answers to this question.

    Hope you figure out how to live an ever more enlightened life that keeps your home free from cockroach related diseases…

  2. KJ says:

    lol for a while I thought I was the only person who had the same back and forth with insects. I spent the first few months while living in LA trying to find peace with ants as roommates (ultimate test) and when I moved back to Miami mosquito’s that loved to taste my blood decided to welcome me for a couple weeks.

    Luckily for the most part I made it and the welcome party ended both times.

    My teacher had been the only person who pointed this perspective out to me which began the “holding back of murder by foot stomp”…now I have found someone else. Thanks!

  3. Rina Jakubowicz says:

    Thanks Mijael! 🙂 Miss you my brother!
    I understand the site’s concern and yours. I just couldn’t see the little guy die on my watch.
    I washed my hands and moved on. I am meant to die of something one day… haha! 🙂 Besos Rina

  4. Matt says:

    For relaxing your mind yoga is a wonderful medicine. It can enlighten the mind of a person.enlightenment can make the awareness and intelligence of a person.

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