Equanimity and equality 2

Each day, I should say to myself: "every becoming that I encounter I should treat as my EQUAL." No favor/disfavor, no like/dislike. (I should also check to see that I actually do so.)

Sometimes, a day at home produces more problems with this than a day out in the city encountering numerous becomings. Birds, bugs, bird-hating neighbors, passers by, and grumpy sons coming at me at inconvenient times are just as difficult as a crowd of strangers that I can walk right past.

It may seem strange, at first, to consider everything alive as equal - because nothing LOOKS like anything else. THOUGHT and SPEECH are also entirely different between a hungry dove, nest-building ant, courting pigeon, and money-demanding human, for example. But if you consider our RIGHTS, INNER CORE, and POTENTIAL, instead of the body, lifestyle and mind, it becomes easier.