Driving Meditation
by Thich Nhat Hanh
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When we do walking
meditation, the point is not to get somewhere, but rather to practice,
using walking as the object of our attention. Even when we do have to get
somewhere and must drive to do so, there is an opportunity for practice.
Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Zen master and poet, has written a number of
gathas, or brief verses, for enhancing our mindfulness during everyday
activities, even driving a car.
Before starting the
car,
I know where I am going.
The car and I are one.
If the car goes fast, I go fast.
If we are mindful when we start our car, we will know
how to use it properly. When we are driving, we tend to think of arriving,
and we sacrifice the journey for the sake of the arrival. But life is to
be found in the present moment, not in the future. In fact, we may suffer
more after we arrive at our destination. If we have to talk of a
destination, what about our final destination, the graveyard? We do not
want to go in the direction of death; we want to go in the direction of
life. But where is life? Life can be found only in the present moment.
Therefore, each mile we drive, each step we take, has to bring us into the
present moment. This is the practice of mindfulness.
When we see a red light or a stop sign, we can smile at
it and thank it, because it is a bodhisattva helping us return to the
present moment. The red light is a bell of mindfulness. We may have
thought of it as an enemy, preventing us from achieving our goal. But now
we know the red light is our friend, helping us resist rushing and calling
us to return to the present moment where we can meet with life, joy and
peace. Even if you are not the driver, you can help everyone in the car if
you breathe and smile.
A number of years ago, I went to Canada to lead a
retreat, and a friend took me across the city of Montreal. I noticed that
every time a car stopped in front of me, I saw the sentence, "Je me
souviens" ("I remember"), on the license plate. I did not know what
they wanted to remember, perhaps their French-speaking origin, but it gave
me an idea. I told my friend, "I have a present for all of you here. Every
time you see a car stop in front of you with the line 'Je me souviens,'
you can see it as a bell of mindfulness helping you remember to breathe
and smile. And you will have plenty of opportunities to breathe and smile
while driving in Montreal."
My friend was delighted! He liked it so much that he shared the practice
with more than 200 people in the retreat. Later, when he came to visit me
in France, he told me that Paris was not a good place to practice driving,
as there were no signs "Je me souviens." I told him that he could
practice with red lights and stop signs. After he left Plum Village and
went back to Montreal, he wrote me a beautiful letter: "Thay, practicing
in Paris was very easy. Not only did I practice with red lights and stop
signs, but every time a car stopped in front of me, I saw the eyes of the
Buddha blinking at me. I had to smile at those blinking eyes."
The next time you are caught in traffic, don't fight.
It is useless to fight. If you sit back and smile to yourself, you will
enjoy the present moment and make everyone in the car happy. The Buddha is
there, because the Buddha can always be found in the present moment.
Practicing meditation is to return to the present moment in order to
encounter the flower, the blue sky, the child, the brilliant red light.
---o0o---
Update : 01-03-2003
