Saturday, January 26, 2008

"When you change, other will change." 1/26/08

After enjoying swimming exercise at the YMCA pool, I went to the Borders for lunch and books this afternoon. A young guy at the coffee section served me politely and also very friendlily.  I found a book ,“The Best Buddhist Writing 2007”, and stood in a customers’ line. A charming lady at a cashier called me up, and I walked to her. She asked me, "Do you have a Borders’ card?" "Yes, I have. But I didn't bring today." "That's all right. What is your email address?" "OK, it is mizutani21@..." "That's your age!" We smiled together.

A positive interaction always makes me happy. In Japan, we don’t show much friendliness or a smile to those whom we don’t know yet. This is truly a great virtue of people in US.  But even in this county, not all people are nice. Through my own experience, I have noticed something. That is when I am with a big smile, the person I meet is most like respond to me with a big smile. This is the basic concept of Buddhism, the Law of Causation. In a simple expression, it means, “When you change, other will change”. I experienced the dharma today too. Shoko Mizutani


1 comment:

sako said...

Hello, Mizutani-san.
It was nice talking to you in Borders.What a coincidence!As I told you, I just came back from Japan. I felt people who living here always give smile to me compared with in Japan.The
expression mekes us happy and confortable, it is really great to comunicate each other. I want to try to smile any plase and any person.Thanks for advising! Sawako