Tricycle's Daily Dharma today is called "The Journey and the Destination." I think it is a very nice reminder about what we pay attention to in life.
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. --Thich Nhat Hanh, Present Moment, Wonderful Moment
2 comments:
Hmm. And here I thought a stop light was just a good excuse to throw out some profanity...
Hee.
Or check out one's neighbor drivers, whatever they may be doing.
After you swear at the red light you could thank it for slowing you down. I know usually when I'm swearing at something it ends up I was taking frustrations out on innocent victims. NOT that I'm saying that about you. :)
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