Zen Driving
can make each driving experience enjoyable, whether it’s a daily hour-long drive to work, or a ten-minute run to the local Safeway.
You may well ask, what
is
Zen driving? The Japanese word
zen
literally means meditation, and meditation means being fully aware, fully in touch with your surroundings. When you are in a meditative state, you are in your natural self, your Buddha self—and you can do it while driving.
But
why
Zen driving? The purpose of
Zen Driving,
the book, is to introduce you to your natural self, which is what remains when you still your mind and ignore your chattering ego. When you do this, you gain confidence in your ability, and finally you
are
that ability.
The frustrations of other drivers cutting you off or causing you to sit through two red lights because they’re too timid to make a left turn on yellow will no longer make your blood pressure explode.
will teach you to look, simply observe without qualification, and
then
make your move.
Zen driving is effortless, spontaneous, nondeliberate. It is being one with the road. And in turn, driving becomes a pathway to consciousness, an activity that clears the mind and soothes the soul, something to take with you all those other times when you’re not behind the wheel.