Good Karma Music Stories

On the final evening of a qigong seminar weekend in east Melbourne, I was ready to drive home which was about 1hr 15 min away. A woman was asking the number to phone a taxi so that she could get a ride to the train station and catch a train to the city. It was very cold and rainy night.I told her that I would drive her to the city. My home was actually in other direction, but I didn’t want the woman to be waiting in the cold.I drove her into the city, while I had a chant of ‘Namo Quan Shr Yin Pusa’ playing in my car. When we reached the city, she was very thankful, and I then drove home. I arrived home about an hour and a half later than if I had driven directly home, but I was glad this woman did not have to wait in the cold waiting for a taxi and train.

I listened an interview from estonian internet-radio of enlightened teacher Dave Oshana, and thus performed an act of kindness to myself and through me to everyone around me.

One day I was walking back to my dorm room and passed a bench with a cellphone on it. I had kind of walked passed, then stopped and walked back and picked it up. I asked around if it belonged to anyone. It looked like a new phone because I had never seen commercials for it or anything. Usually in a situation like this some people would just keep the phone and wait for the service to be disconnected. I called the contact under Mom and waited around until I got a call back and then returned the phone. My thinking was, if someone found my phone, I would really want it returned to me. It was nice that I was able to help someone out and relieve some stress.

It was more than twenty years ago, I just moved from Los Angeles to San Jose. I didn’t have a car back then, so I took buses to work and school. I always smiled and said “Good Morning!” to everyone I met at bus stops, to bus drivers and the passengers on the buses as well. Nearly everyone of them would either smiled back to me or said “Good Morning!” EXCEPT one bus driver. He never smiled and never spoke a word to anyone(not only me). Each time when I smiled at him and said “Good Morning!”, his stern face didn’t show any emotion and never responded. Most of time, he just sat straight like a robot and his eyes would look ahead and didn’t even bother to look anyone. But sometimes when he did look at you…I mean when he stared at you, it seemed like you had owed him millon dollars. Since I always took same buses at the same time on weekdays, I greeted him with smiles every morning regardless his cold shoulder. At that time, San Jose’s public transportion was not as convenient as LA, and I had to change three different buses every morning and evening as well. Finally, I decided to buy a car after four months or so. On the LAST day I took the buses, MIRACLE happened!!! When I got on the bus and did the samething–smiled and said “Good Morning!” to the bus driver. This time, HE turned and looked at me and said “Good Morning!” with his low voice and taut smile. Before I could react, he had quickly moved his eyes to the front as he always did. Oh! my God! This was totally unexpected. I really don’t remember how I seated and how I got off the bus. All I remembered was that I was so happy and full of joy. I don’t even remember if I have ever said Good-bye to him when I got off the bus. I didn’t go back to take buses anymore, and I never had a chance to tell him it was my last day to take buses. And, I never told him that his smile had made my day. But, it was a perfect ending to me. Even after more than twenty years now, I still remember that priceless smiling (though it is a little bit rigid) and “Good Morning!”. From this experience, I know even an iceburg can be melted as long as it’s warm enough. (P.S. I am not talking about the global warming.) :)To the bus driver: My brother, I didn’t know what had happened in your life, so you become an unhappy man. But, your smile did made my day and I’ve never forgot since then until now. But, I trully hope that you started smile everyday since then. I used to smile all the time. Twenty years later, without I noticed, life experiences have made me smile less and less. When I in the low, I will fell better or happier when someone smile at me. So, please SMILE while you can. Although it costs you nothing, it might mean a lot to others.

When I was five years old, my father wasn’t a vegetarian and I tried to convince him to bea vegetarian. He would never believe me so I hadto do something that was an act of kindness. I went to the store with my father and saw manybutchers that were starting to kill the pigs and I told my father how the pigs like being alive not being eaten. When both of us heard the pig cry my dad decided to not eat meat and was a vegetarian. I finally was HAPPY !!!!!

My on call residents at the university hospital were on call overnight on Christams day. They couldn’t spend the day with their family but were spending the day taking care of sick patients, serving in the path they have chosen. But still, I think staying in the hospital on a holiday overnight can be a little challenging. I was supervising them but am able to go home and have a Christmas dinner. My girlfriend and I bought them each a gift- a scarf and a book, to keep them warm and open their mind. We went to an office that is open, gifts wrapped and labeled for each of them. We told the clerk not to say that we dropped it off so it would be anonymous. Then I texted them on their pager with no name.The next day they were so excited. They were shocked about how kind an act they were recepients of. I think medicine can forget the root of compassion at its core since among residents they often feel brutalized.They were curious as to who did it for them. They still don’t know.

In Islam,it is said that smiling in the face of your brother is charity. I smile to as many people as I can everyday. Please do the same..it can make other people’s days 🙂