Putting Aside Reactions

For the last year and a half during each summer and winter solstice, MAPLE has hosted symposiums for The Center of World Philosophy and Religion. These are large gatherings of two communities, one being the MAPLE community and the other being CWPR’s community.

A consistent challenge for MAPLE when large gatherings occur has been around fragrance chemicals found in most people’s laundry detergent and hygiene products. These chemicals are designed to stick onto people and clothing and they are difficult to remove. This matters because there are multiple community members at MAPLE with severe fragrance allergies. Being around the chemicals causes allergic reactions sometimes difficult to observe from the outside, but for those affected, can be extremely disorienting, painful, and psychologically imbalancing. Soryu, our head teacher, is one of the individuals with this allergy.

It’s important to note that guests aren’t somehow “wrong” for being fragranced. This phenomena is beyond many people’s awareness and the widespread, pervasive use of fragrance is a kind of hidden assault most have become deconditioned to recognize. Despite these chemicals being neurotoxic, long term exposure can desensitize us to the specific scent of these fragrance chemicals, and we can become conditioned to the chronic state of stress they induce such that it becomes a new normal.

Being the leader of the MAPLE community puts Soryu into an important position of leadership when engaging with guests or other visiting communities. This symposium was no different. I would watch Soryu fully engaged in the activities of the symposium, fully engaging with the guests, while also observing that many of the guests were fragranced. I paid careful attention to how Soryu responded.

Not once did I observe Soryu react negatively to any of the guests. Soryu consistently demonstrated an engaged presence, genuine warmth and kindness, and a room filling joy. No one would have been able to guess he was in any kind of distress.

Despite whatever condition Soryu found himself in as a result of these harmful chemicals, he was somehow able to set this aside for the sake of the guests. No guest was made to feel uncomfortable. I don’t know how Soryu did this. Was it through sheer force of will? Was he suffering for the whole duration of the symposium? It was a strong demonstration of putting other’s needs before one’s own, even when suffering is involved.