A Favorite of Pema Chodron
When Atisha went to Tibet, to bring the teaching of the Buddha, he brought his Bengali Tea Master. This character was brought to Tibet in order to provide Atisha with an assured source of constant irritiation so that he could be sure he was always on the right path to ultimate compassion and enlightenment and not becoming complacement. Atisha brought his Bengali Tea Master to Tibet because he had heard the Tibetan people were a kind and generous bunch and would perhaps never give Atisha cause to be annoyed.
Pema Chodron, of course, is the Buddhist nun trained by Chogyam Trungpa, who teaches from Gampy Abbey in the beautiful setting of Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Island. Pema calls Atisha’s Bengali Tea Master a “tea servant” but I changed this to a “tea master”, as I imagine a tea master would be so knowledgeable about his subject, “tea” in this case, that he would have to be irritating.
In any case, we all have such Bengali Tea Masters in our lives, and many of us do not have to bring them with us, because we are fortunate enough to live with them, or work with them, or be close friends with them already. Our Bengali Tea Masters are in our midst, and they have many great things to teach us.
In a similar vein, Ajahn Brahm, the student of Thai Buddhist Ajahn Chah, cites how Ajahn Chah always taught his students to pay great respect to the mosquitos of Thailand. The mosquitos of Thailand are particularly noisy and bothersome, and what’s more, they carry malaria, so they are indeed dangerous. They buzz about in your ear for quite some time before injecting you with the anticoagulant that causes the itchy sore and that also allows them to feed on your blood. The Buddhist Chah taught his students to call these mosquitos “Ajahn Mosquitos”, for “Ajahn” is the Thai word for teacher and he believed the mosquitos had much indeed to teach his students about suffering and the relief of suffering.
One of my Bengali Tea Masters is Harry. Harry is a five year old Lhasa Apso, a breed from Tibet, appropriately enough. Sometimes he poops on my carpet. I must find infinite reserves of grace and fortitude in order to not punch the pooch. Not wanting to abuse my animals for bathroom mishaps, I just smile and pet Harry kindly and rub his belly and wonder if he knows how my marriage is going.
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Another of my Bengali Tea Masters is Lady. Lady is a three year old Miniature Poodle. She likes to raid panties. She also hunts for fuzzy socks and stuffed animals. If you have a stuffed animal, it doesn’t stand a chance if Lady the stuffed animal hunter is around.
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