In praise of bed bugs, as training for the mind

The house I bought has bed bugs. Not an insane amount active, but when removing trim and ceiling tiles, I saw their telltale stain.

They have been good training for the mind.

I recall a passage where a well trained mind can have a mind not disgusted in the face of what is disgusting. And all combos of <reaction, trigger>, including being disgusted by what is attractive.

Bed bugs are definitely not pleasant. They itch. It is easy to get obsessed with them. There is a stigma. And there is a harm if I accidentally pass them on to others. It would be awful to cause an infestation in some other house.

But I gotta think about scale. They don't carry disease like mosquitoes. They are a nuisance. I am the itch, but also bigger than the itch (a la Thich Nhat Hanh). In the grand scheme of things, if I cannot even put up with the discomfort of an itch of a bed bug, what possible chance do I have against greed or delusion or the itches of addiction?

I'm also not just rolling over. I'm washing clothes, vacuuming, and caulking gaps. I'm replacing or refinishing floors.

But the training is to not get hijacked by needing the outside world conform to my vision of it. Or, to use that quote from Lou Reed /Laurie Anderson in rolling stone magazine:

To feel the pain but not be the pain.

Update april2023: not bed bugs. Probably mites or rat mites.  Even trickier (and smaller).

Good mind training.