Grace Society

My colleague related to me his true life story of the 'grace society' we are living in. He rented a room from an old couple. A few months later, the old couple sold the flat and down-graded to a small one. They kindly offered my colleague a room at the same rate in their new flat.

On the day they moved to the new flat, not a single child of the old couple came up. No, it is not true that the old couple are childless. They do have children from previous marriages, but still no one turned up. My colleague, a tenant in the house, was the only one helping in the house-moving. Helping the old couple is of no problem, but the strange absence of their children is a problem. What is filial piety? Yes, their children are residing in Singapore. How graceful they are to let their elderly parents to fend for themselves.

This reminds me of another incident which was reported in newspaper quite some time ago. Once a volunteer visited a senior citizen who lived alone in a one-room flat. It happened that the old man's son was there too on a visit. The light in the living was out of order. The son immediately ORDERED the volunteer to repair the light. Who did the son think he was? What a shame.

You can't wake up one day to have a grace society. It needs cultivation in everyday life. The Singapore education system teaches all the wrong concepts, making false perception that as long as you have money, then you can get everything you wanted. In addition, everything you do must have a quantifiable money value in it. If there is no value, time should not be wasted doing it, resources should be reallocated.

Oh, my. Buddists believe in Karma. Whatever you do, some day it will come back to you. You sow sweet seeds today, you harvest sweet fruits tomorrow; you sow bitter seeds, you harvest bitter fruits. Do whatever you like, just be ready to bear the consequences. It is a fair game, everybody will be equal in this aspect, from Emperors, kings & queens to presidents, prime ministers to the ultra poor, everybody will be equal in this game.