Driving Meditation
- Annie B. Bond
If you feel as if you have no time to meditate but have a long commute, try this Driving Meditation, by former Zen monk and teacher in the Soto Zen who has worked directly with the Dalai Lama.
To practice Moving Meditation you must fully accept where you now find yourself, here in your car. Divest yourself of all expectations, standards of comparison and technique, take that clear, observing, unobserving, unobstructed state of being, and keep on driving!
Now, instead of sitting erect and attentive in a quiet stationary place like a zendo or meditation hall, you are now sitting erect and attentive in your moving vehicle. You are now meditation as you move along. Do not be ruled by anything inside or outside you.
See and experience without intrusion, but when an intrusion does rear its ugly head in the form of anger, an opinion, some driver cutting you off, simply acknowledge the stray image and return your focus to being aware of everything around you. Now, driving along, be intimately involved in the action and be aware that everything around you is happening for the first time.
Everything is constantly changing, each traffic situation requiring its own set of responses. Nothing is left to rote. Keep your mind, body and senses wide awake, and as you drive along know that all that you see is as new as a baby’s smile, no matter how many times you think you have seen it before.
Try this. Spend an afternoon-walking, driving, eating-all experienced as if for the first time. Fresh, new, open.
Adapted from The Tao of Now, by Josh Baran (Hampton Roads, 2008).
