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Rain
Leaving the Forest Research Institute, I headed to Kepong Central Station.
It was going to rain.
In the distance, with thunder rumbling in the distance, I once again continued on the roadless path.
As soon as I got to Kepong Central Station, it started to rain heavily.
So this is what we call a squall.
I had to wait for about an hour for the train to come.
I sat on a bench on the platform and stared at the pouring rain.
Then, a woman in a wheelchair approached me.
She spoke to me in Chinese, so I couldn’t understand what she was saying.
When I say in English, “I’m Japanese.”
Is this the right platform to go to ○○ (the station on the way to Kuala Lumpur)? She asked.
I showed her the route map on my smart phone and told her it was okay on this platform.
What did you come to Malaysia for? Students? How long are you going to stay in Malaysia? She asked me about this.
I think we were not able to communicate with each other because we weren’t very good at speaking English to each other.
The rain continued to fall and there was no sign of the train coming.
A woman in a wheelchair wandered around the platform.
The young woman who was sitting next to me.
“when is the train coming? “She asked,
“I don’t know,” I said.
Again, I began to watch the rain.
When I looked around, I saw a spindly man watching the rain in disbelief, just like me.
A moment later, a woman in a wheelchair shouted something.
“There’s a train coming!”
What is kindness?
Just before the train arrived, one thing flashed through my mind.
What should I do when a woman in a wheelchair goes on the train?
I was thinking that I should help out in some way because I was talking to this person, or that she lives in a wheelchair every day, so she would be able to handle it on her own, or that I would help her if she didn’t seem to be able to go on the train smoothly.
The train arrived at the platform and the doors opened.
I was wondering what a woman in a wheelchair would do.
she turned to me in her wheelchair and waited for someone to help her.
Oh.
Just as I was thinking about it, a slow man from the side pulled her wheelchair into the train. The woman sitting next to me also joined in, and it took two people to pull the wheelchair up.
I didn’t know what to do.
All I could do was watch the scene.
When the woman in the wheelchair got off the train and said, “Thank you,” they both nodded with full smiles and each walked away.
I think there was no ulterior motive in that smile, just pure kindness.
I’m so poor that I thought she could take care of it.
I even try to be nice to people based on a calculation of what I will get in return.
What is kindness?
If we think of the categorical imperative legally, then
I also think it’s better not to be kind if the purpose of being kind to people is not the kindness itself.
If it’s just a little bit of kindness that you want in return, it’s not kindness.
The hypocrisy of doing something rather than the good of not doing it is also nonsense.
Karma, if it exists at all.
If it is a kindness to do for one’s own karma, I don’t think it will lead to karmic ascension.
(I felt like my karma had gone down after the train thing, so I gave money to a beggar or something, but that’s something different. What can he buy with this? I just gave him the amount.)
I guess the kindness I do is, after all, a kindness that only thinks of myself.
However, I would like to be able to do the unrequited kindness that my companions did for me when I was going through a hard time, little by little.
To be continued…
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