The one thing that bothered me was she was heavily religious. She had many Buddhist beads and would pray, like muttering to herself. It was scary to witness her praying, as if an exorcism was taking place.
Price checker was studying Applied Buddhism and Business Management.
I had no idea what that was.
As she told me the first time we met, “I am learning meditating methods.”
“You meant mediating methods?”
“No-no-“She answered politely, “mindfulness meditations. It’s good for business development. When I graduate, I will apply for management trainee with a firm that promotes Applied Buddhism in business.”
It never occurred to me Buddhism could be applied to business. I didn’t think Buddha would concern itself with making business, but I guessed it was a big business these days. Also a group with much political power. Business and religions had a new way of mingling.
“What are you studying?” Price checker asked me.
“Plain old business studies.” Like everyone else in Hong Kong. And would likely grow up to sell insurance or mpf in Hong Kong. A management trainee scheme seemed to be for people slightly better than myself.
“Oh! Just like me!”
Yeah, person with average good enough grades usually go into business in Hong Kong. It was a safe choice.
“I didn’t know what to pick, so I chose business.” I said honestly. “I looked at my grades, and decided, this was good enough, and I had the grades for it.”
“I don’t get it. I really love Buddhism and business, so I picked this subject which was offered only at this school. I loved it. You aren’t like that, huh?” Price checker asked.
Her plain approach reinforced my averageness. I wanted to be very average. So I said nothing. She suggested that we play boardgames after work at her home. We each pretended to be more than one player, and the game took over two hours and still did not end. It was late but I was too polite to end the game, luckily it was time for her to say her Buddhist mantra.
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