Last night, we went to BongEunSa temple, then crossed the street to COEX mall for some food.
Before leaving we made a stop at the washroom and as I waited outside the door for EunBong, watching all the people coming and going, I caught myself poking fun at them in my head... the portly men squeezed into their business suits, half strutting, half waddling... the girls in their high-heels and designer jeans, perfect hair, lots of make up...
I don't know where this mind comes from, maybe a mistaken assumption that I'm somehow better than them?
Once I was aware of what I was doing, I tried something different. I tried to put myself in the heads of every person that came by, imagined what they were seeing through their eyes, what they were thinking, what they were feeling, what they might be saying to their friend. I imagined the cleaning woman was thinking about her grandchildren, the girl who was in a hurry only had two minutes left on her break, the guy in the gray suit was wondering how late his boss would keep them out tonight. Even though it was still just my imagination projecting my own thoughts about these things, it still gave a sense that none of us were very different on the inside.
It's good to remind yourself of this in Korea sometimes. Otherwise, you start wondering, did the airplane hit a wormhole somewhere over the Pacific?
"did the airplane hit a wormhole somewhere over the Pacific?" lol! I think most foreigners may feel like that in Korea sometimes.
ReplyDeleteThat's a really wonderful photo! Wow...
One thing that I picked up somewhere was visualizing the people I saw with a ball of golden light within them, right in the center of their chest. Sometimes it would natually be bigger or smaller for different people, but when I would do this, all my harsh, dualistic thoughts would just melt away. For me it has a real similar effect to loving-kindness meditation. It's just so freeing to move out of that kind of thinking, isn't it.