The Ripple

I thought about this today after reading back to a thread from 2013 and a comment by Ryjun I believe, I should have just quoted it but if I got the name wrong my apologies.

Everyday we all undoubtedly see one act of kindness. It can be simple a young man opening the door for others, a man picking up some litter, a woman helping an old lady across the street. So I put this forth, let us record these here. I ask this so that perhaps through a daily dose of this kindness it may ripple through us and spread both internally and externally. I ask for you to be aware for these moments and place them here so that others can read them, maybe some days one of just needs to see a better world exists. Thank you!

I saw a man; clearly not employed by the store collecting the carts out front of a large departments store and placing them in the cart hopper in the parking lot. helping others cars not get damaged but most importantly helping the employee whom later would have been tasked to collect them. What reasons other could he have for this. Kindness!

Please do share, really I want to see what we observe outside of the Temple inside of The Temple and if we can ripple it out and find ourselves more kind.

Much Obliged,
Tim

bumping this because even in less than 24 hrs I fin it hard to believe there is no single thing from another worth mentioning.

Today I had an elderly man give my daughter a dollar so that she could have candy.

This morning while waiting in line to buy a coffee with my wife, we saw a man pay for the order of an EMT who was in front of him. He said "thank you for doing what you do". The woman behind the EMT then bought the first guy a $5 gift card and thanked him for thanking the EMT. It was an uplifting moment for everyone.

Thank you both for kicking this off! These are both wonderful examples that even small gestures of gratitude or of a chance to make someone happy being executed with no want for reward it is the beauty of humanity!

When I was living in Seoul, I studied at a Buddhist temple across the street from my house, and made friends with several of the monks. One special friend of mine was a Korean-American monk who had studied in Tibet (so he wore the bright burgundy and saffron robes rather than the muted grey of the Korean monks), we were the only native-English speaking people at the Temple, and he lived a block away from me, so we would get together for meals or tea from time to time.

One day, as we were walking to the subway station, there was a man begging near the station entrance. Without skipping a beat, he pulled out his wallet and gave the man some money. It seemed as natural as breathing to him, and really made an impact on me.

The next day, I was riding the subway, when a shabby-looking man with no legs, on a rolling platform slowly pulled his way through though the car, pushing a container in front of him. It was a slow process - he would pull the platform ahead a few inches, then push the container forward a few inches. I didn't understand Korean, but it was pretty obvious that he was begging in an absolutely heartbreaking way. Nobody even looked at him.

But I remembered my monk friend and so wanted to follow his example and give. By the time I fished my wallet out of my purse and pulled out some cash, the begging man was almost at the other end of the car. But I walked over and put the money in his container, and returned to my seat. Within moments, at least 5 other people hurriedly got up and also gave to him.

I don't know if I passed on compassion, or if the native Koreans didn't want to be outdone by a foreigner, but either way, the ripple was real

Here is a short video about one of the ways the ripple effect can work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0Qm8I2cCAE

I totally agree with that whole video, thank you Ob1! It is as simple as that it ripples out because we are using those examples to push ourselves to be those examples and it starts small.

I am certainly not going to be a hero any time soon but I can drop a penny in the take a penny leave a penny tray.........

Kobos wrote: I am certainly not going to be a hero any time soon but I can drop a penny in the take a penny leave a penny tray.........

You guys still have pennies? Weird. We phased them out a couple years ago up here in the Great White North!

Kobos wrote: I totally agree with that whole video, thank you Ob1! It is as simple as that it ripples out because we are using those examples to push ourselves to be those examples and it starts small.

I am certainly not going to be a hero any time soon but I can drop a penny in the take a penny leave a penny tray.........

i call it the "karma bucket" -- try to leave a lot more than i take out!

Leah Starspectre wrote: You guys still have pennies? Weird. We phased them out a couple years ago up here in the Great White North!

wtf Leah THATS RACIST!! MICROAGGRESSION!! MISOGYNY!! FATPHOBIA!! WHOREPHOPIA!! SOUTHPHOBIA!! STOP THE PENNICIDE!!
im so triggered right now i can barely talk but when my ability to speak returns to me think we're going to need to talk about your privilege!