I am not crazy

I am not crazy

Boarded a bus at Eunos after Dharma class and sat beside an uncle at the back of the bus. As I sat down on the seat with my bag, I noticed that the uncle sitting next to me, is chanting softly with prayer beads in his hands. I smiled and thought to myself, "I am fortunate to be sitting beside an uncle who is doing his practice." smile emoticon

As soon as the uncle noticed me looking at him and his prayer beads, he quickly stop and tries to hide his prayer beads while still continuing his chanting softly. This thought came to my mind, "Maybe he is embarrassed to be seen as different from the norms of the general crowd in the current context of traveling on public transport."

I closed my eyes, and contemplated on the situation at hand. There are a few thoughts which came up in my mind:

1. It is paradoxically human nature to want to be different and not to be different; in this situation, the uncle may be affected by the wish, not to perceived as different and the incongruency of the wish not to be perceived as different and his own wish to practice causes dissonance, suffering. Am I too, affected by this worldly condition?

2. There is a wish to help alleviate the suffering of the uncle, to help him to continue practice in a more positive psychological condition.

3. It is an opportunity for me to practice too, in the current situation.

I took my prayer beads in my hands and started chanting silently, the name of Amitabha Buddha.

As the uncle saw me chanting for a while with my prayer beads moving as counters in my hands, he started to take out his prayer beads again and continue his chanting beside me. Delight filled my heart. smile emoticon

What will the rest of the commuters on the bus thinks? When they saw us chanting with our prayer beads on the bus. I am not concerned about the perceptions of others, what I am concerned about doing the right things and not only doing things right. Of course, I normally don't take out my prayer beads and chant on the bus to avoid people feeling uncomfortable with me doing that, I normally just chant silently in my mind but tonight, I think I have to do just that to help support the uncle who is doing his practice on the bus.

I am grateful to the uncle for the kind reminder to practice and giving rise to the courage within me to ignore the possible views of others.

Going even further on the application of courage in such a situation, it can be applied to counter the group cohesiveness and diffusion of responsibility elements of the bystander effect, which refers to the social phenomenon in which individuals do not offer any means of help to a victim when other people are present. The unwillingness to be different from a group (the bystanders in a situation starts to think of themselves as a temporary group, identifying themselves as a group in the situation), breaking the group cohesiveness, and apathy resulting from diffusion of responsibility, thinking that others will help the victim, hence there is no need for us to do so.

A lot of times, if we do observe, once we start to be the first one to help in a bystander situation, others in the group will quickly join in and the courage to be different, to do the right thing can perhaps save lives, not only the victims now and then but also future victims when the experiences of helping others in a bystander situations may encourage the growth of such courage in the bystanders who joined in to help in the situations. A little courage from us may have a ripple effect of compassion on the world.

May all have the conditions to cultivate the courage and compassion within us and to share the courage and compassion with all.

May all be well and happy.

And yes, maybe in the eyes of the world, I am a little crazy. Maybe, just maybe.