I’ve been trying to pay attention to the “slowly” wisdom I wrote about earlier. I thought of this today as I was deciding when to leave my hotel for Kyoto station to catch the train to Tokyo.
“Earlier rather than later” was my thought. I agreed with this sensible wisdom, for once. I left with plenty of time to catch a city bus for the train station and arrived at the chaotic station with well more than an hour to pick up my tickets, get a coffee, and find my boarding platform.
Then, a long and slow line to get to the ticket machine. Lines are not my strong suit. I get prematurely worried that, even with time to spare, chaos will ensue, and I’ll miss my train. I have tended to be a “worst case scenario” kind of guy.
But, “slowly” intervened for me. I stood calmly in line, not sensing my usual anxiety about all that could still go awry. I had time to wait, watch, and listen.
That’s when I had an unusual sensation. I was feeling stress and anxiety, but not my own. It felt as if it were coming from every direction, from persons dashing madly about Kyoto station.
This sensation came first from the couple standing in line in front of me. They were looking around and, from their English, it was clear that this long and slow moving line was getting to them, especially the gentleman. In his words and actions I saw the very representation of myself in many situations in the past.
Can the anxiety of others be felt, multiplied by thousands, without taking it in and becoming anxious also?
Anyway, that’s what it felt like, for a moment. I continued to feel calm in my own self while the anxiety of others manifested, somewhere, somehow, in me.
Bah! More zen hogwash I suppose. Yet…
Autumn In Japan 