I was at this Thai Buddhist temple today, that I frequent, and I started to think about the way people behave when they are at a temple. Some are very reverent. Others, not so much.
 
How about you? How do you behave when you go to a temple? Do you respect the space and the faith, even if it is not your religion? Or do you just power through?
 
I spend a lot of time in Japan, and I always notice the way particularly Westerners behave when they go into a temple. This is especially the case since Japan has become overrun with tourism since the end of the pandemic. People just walk right into a temple with no understanding of the protocols. Most, simply walk straight down the middle of the path from the gate, “Sanmon,” towards the entrance. This is very disrespectful.
 
The thing is, in Japan, the center of the walkway into a temple is considered sacred space that is strictly reserved for the deities, “Kami,” to pass through. Walking in the middle is considered blocking the pathway of the gods and is very disrespectful. Not only to the deities but to the believers.
 
Whether you believe in this understanding or not is not the point, respect is respect and you should respect the cultural beliefs of any country or place you travel to. Yes?
 
It’s kind of like there is thing that has recently begun to take place in Japan, which is not only very surprising, due to the culture foundations of the country, but also due to the ultimate disrespect it shows to others. It’s called a couple of things but probably, “Butsukari otoko,” meaning, “Bumping man,” is the most common. Some also call it, “Butsukari-zoku,” “Bumping tribes.”
 
What takes place is that some person will walk by an individual and intentionally slam their shoulder into the person walking by. If you watch the news, you may have seen a woman doing that to a little girl getting her photo taken in Shibuya Crossing not too long ago.
 
Now, this has never happened to me in Japan, and I hope it doesn’t because as any martial artist will attest to, you are trained to quickly react instinctually and I would not like to see the repercussion of a white guy, “Gaijin,” jacking a up a local.
 
It was kind of funny this reel I saw the other day. A young dude did that to an older Salary Man in the subway and the old guy quickly turned around and kick the guy right in the butt. But, the young guy kept walking.
 
A lot of the local population is getting very upset about this behavior. There’s even banners promising arrest in the subways. But, still it goes on. Japan is changing.
 
That’s the thing about being young, sometimes you do stupid things.
 
I also saw a reel where this very young Korean girl, maybe there or four, in a Japanese convenience store, got shoved into the merchandise by an adult. If you think racism isn’t still super strong in Japan, think again. On the reel, the store owners apologized stating that they didn’t know if the person who did this was Japanese or not, but they were sorry about the entire practice and what happened to the little girl. Butsukari otoko is not fun or funny, it is just wrong.  
 
And, I guess that/this brings us to the point here… Wrong. If you are doing something wrong, no matter what your motivation, or your lack of cultural understanding, or your whatever, you are just wrong. And, wrong is just wrong. I say that all the time.
 
Are you a wrong person? If you are, is that right?
 
We all need to be better. We all need to be the best example of whatever and whomever we are. If you are not doing that, what are you doing?
 
If you disrespect the gods, what will happen to you. If you disrespect people, what will happened to you?  
 
Be better than that.