Fw:Driving Meditation - Thich Nhat Hanh

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- Jan Sultan

sufiMystic

Sunday, January 20, 2002 2:48 AM

[sufiMystic] Driving Meditation - Thich Nhat Hanh

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.Driving Meditationby Thich Nhat HanhBefore 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.from: Present Moment,

Wonderful Moment: Mindfulness Verses for Daily Living (1990)by Thich

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