There is this lady whom I’d encountered a few times in the subway train. She would be very engrossed in reading the newspaper, so much so that she simply did not bother when the carriage gets packed. Taking up more than the standing space of a person with her arms wide open, she was either clueless about the situation or simply inconsiderate. I once had to stand in front of her. As the crowd was pushing in, I had to step back towards her, while she continued reading without moving an inch. As I had no space to turn, I tilted my head back onto her paper. It was at that moment that she realised the carriage was full! She folded the paper and backed a little, but nothing seemed to stop her from the latest entertainment gossip. With one hand, she continued to read, intruding into the space of those beside her with the edges of pages brushing against them.
I was thinking… with her ‘mindfulness’, if only she would turn her focus towards practising Buddhism (which would include being mindful of the welfare of those around her!), perhaps she would be on the expressway to gaining insight.
“This is the only way, monks, for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, for the destruction of pain and grief, for reaching the right path, for the attainment of Nibbana, namely the four foundations of mindfulness.” – Buddha
Related Article:
The Four Foundations of Mindfulness
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nyanasatta/wheel019.html
Everyone is so busy and have lesser time to think about selfless and experience the good benefits …
广结善缘 and å–„å› are things that are not uncommon to Buddhists. If we can see that giving up seats, a smile, a kind gesture or word to bring happiness to others, as one of the means too, there will be some difference …
Giving up the seat for the needy, just a seat and after a few stations/stops I might even get back the seat. By doing so, it forms a ‘good karma relationship’, in future lives, should our path crossed, more likely we will not be foe but friends.
Previously, I would just give up seat and walk away.
Now I added something. When I offer seat, I would address them ‘Aunty or Uncle, here is a seat for you.’ with a smile or signal to them to come over with hand signal and a smile.
The result is totally different and most of them are very gratefully. Besides saying thank you. If they see an empty seat behind or near me, they alert me. Or when they going to alight, they make sure I have the seat back. Sometimes, we have a short causal chat or I just listen to their talking (you don’t have to agree on their opinions but just gave them some space to speak).
There was one incident, my boy gave up a seat for an old man. So, he chit-chat with my boy, telling him need to study hard, blab..blabbb… We left at different stations and went to lots of places. Later in the same day in another train, we see the same person again in another train, surprise! The old man remember us, we smile at each other and waved bye bye when he alighted. For that day, we felt it was a beautiful day for us – our karma reward.
The journey is totally different – happy and enjoyable journey for both parties. Most likely, this positive ‘relationship/karma’ will be there in future.
There will be time when people won’t say thank you at all. That is ok, like the pregnant lady I mentioned. She didn’t because I guess she was not feeling well.
Don’t let these discourage us from doing goods, these goods will stick with us and upon dying, if we have flash back or replay of our life (I don’t know), I think we will feel good we have been kind to others and feel we are a beautiful person.
Have I made you sleepy :sleep: :sleep: then go to sleep and have a good rest. 😀 :sleep:
After some education on requesting us to stand on left side of escalator to allow space movement for rushing passengers, I think similar could be for the prority seats. People sometimes needs reminders, if there are few instances that those (non-needy) on priority seats are requested to give up seats by patrolling MRT staff, I think people will get the idea…
I just came back fr TaiPei & impressed that they really queue per line drawn on floor before the doors of the trains. (Unlike here, people crowd around the doors 😛 )They also have a series of comics on the trains to educate people to give up priority seats for needy…
I believe other countries could also face similar situations before and there could be pointers that we can borrow from other countries on how they improve…
Maybe they can put up a sign saying something like “If you can read this, you are standing too close to the door. Please let train passengers alight first.” 😆
If you observe carefully, the standing on left side of the escalator campaign is not so much a success. We still see people holding up the right side at peak hour! Tsk tsk tsk…
I don’t think the idea of subway staff patrolling the trains can work during peak hours, because it’s just impossible to move much, let alone patrol the whole train. If we have to be policed to give up seats for the needy, I think it’s pretty pathetic. Seats should be given up willingly. It might be just a gentle reminder from the staff, but it can be seen as confrontation by some passengers. After all, the non-needy still have the right to sit and not to give up their seats, as they paid the fare as well. 🙁 Plus, we have to give these people some benefit of the doubt, for they may be really tired or feeling unwell.
There are comics in local subway stations to educate commuters too – those big poster ads. I quite like the recent series, it’s comical while educational. I guess the ‘queue before the train door open’ system was adapted from the Japanese? (I noticed it’s similar to Tokyo in the early 90’s.) I’m sure it started out even way before that. And what’s more impressive is that the Japan’s city is almost totally litter-free! And here in Singapore, we are having campaigns after campaigns with fines to threaten people not to litter or spit. And the result is still not that perfect. One can really tell how backward we are in terms of social consideration.
I used to wonder what went wrong? We educate our young, we have campaigns to remind everyone, yet we still aren’t as good as others. Do we have less compassion or are we more selfish or egoistic? I came to conclude that perhaps Singaporeans function more as individuals rather than as a big community. Our individualistic ideals are too strong – we had lost our kampung (village) spirit along the way. The ‘one for all, all for one’ concept is still not readily absorbed. I guess at this point, we just need to do our part and hopefully, our positive vibes can influence others to do the same.
Yeah! The current situation for ‘Priority Seat’ is chaotic! We heard and read about news on little ‘fight’ on who should give up seats and if you don’t give up, I snap your picture and put in the internet or news … Oh my god, little thing escalated into so BIG and yet the problem is not solved. Something is very wrong here. 惟æ天下ä¸ä¹±!
We lost our compassion, it is bury even deeper now. We are “lostâ€, maybe we are afraid, maybe we are being hurt, maybe we demand too much from others, maybe we are waiting for others to do, maybe we are shy, maybe we are struggling within inside, maybe we are going too fast, maybe we emphasis importance on the wrong things, and maybe we need encouragement to open up …!
Methinks we just need more people to graciously set the right examples (like Crystal for instance). When there are enough of us doing that, a threshold will be reached for positively influencing the masses to do likewise. It’s the only way ‘revolutions’ for change ever start! :woot:
Be a forgiving fellow. Be a friend to her. Most importantly, if we are “kaypo” and concerned enough, find ways to help her change. E.g. standing extremely close to her if you’re a female, what is suggested Keira, express interest in “smart” sharing of the news. hehe! Juicy or not! 😀 :p