"Treat every person as if they are God in drag." Baba Ram Dass

Enoch Dasa Giri would say, "Everyone you meet is the guru in disguise."

"Even the difficult ones?"

"Especially the difficult ones. "

Over time, Dasa helped me see that the people in our lives, whether short encounters or long term relationships, are the bringers of our karma. They are either returning to us what we previously put out in the world, or they are giving us an opportunity to learn a lesson, or build our character, or create a new response to an old problem.

Next time you encounter a challenging person, or find yourself in facing obstacles in a relationship, ask yourself:

• What are they offering you an opportunity to learn? Patience? Compassion? Boundaries?
• Where are they pointing your awareness? To your rigidity? To your attachments? To a limiting belief it is time to let go of?
• What are they asking of you ? Why would you resist it?
• How can you respond from your highest self?

An interesting thing happens when you begin to see others in this way. People stop being problems to be solved, and start being your teachers. They are offering you a way to step into a higher relationship with them, and with yourself. After all, we are all sharing the same source, the same light of consciousness. This shared consciousness is what the yogis speak of when they say “Namaste”, translated as “the light in me sees and honors the light in you.”

Speaking along the lines of this same teaching, Nischala Joy Devi posed this challenge: “As you move through your day, encountering person after person, silently whisper "Namaste" to each of them, and mean it.”

If everyone is your teacher, then all of life becomes an opportunity to evolve.

Namaste,

~P