Basis Of Singaporean Spirit - People Power: Are You Superstitious?

[This is part of the book: Basis Of Singaporean Spirit - People Power, click here to go to the main page]

When I hear people labelling others as superstitious, I can literally see the sense of superiority in the speaker’s mind, thinking that he is smarter than the others because he did not believe in that.

Superstitious in Chinese is called:

迷信

Literally: “Lost, hence believe”

The first word, “迷”, is an indication of the state of mind – in this case it is Lost. The second word, “信”, represents the decision taken – in this case it is Believe.

If we list all the combinations, we will get 4 results:

“迷, 信”              – Lost, hence believe

“迷, 不信”         – Lost, hence don’t believe

“不迷, 信”         – Not lost, hence believe

“不迷, 不信”    – Not lost, hence don’t believe

Therefore, we can see that no matter whether a person believes in a certain practice or not, that person can still be in the “Lost” state of mind – Nothing to feel superior about.

It is fine to use the word “superstitious” on others, but you must ask yourself on what basis are you making that statement? And what are you trying to prove with that?

If you feel that you are smarter by saying that, think again. Ask yourself if you know their cultures and practices more than they do?

If not, you are just being silly, and that statement of yours simply exposed your ignorance and arrogance.

BOSS Wisdom: “Seek to understand the basis of others’ practices and respect them. Labelling those as superstitious without substantial understanding is simply foolish and wilful.” - BOSS 

[This is part of the book: Basis Of Singaporean Spirit - People Power, click here to go to the main page]