When I drive for over a kilometre in Mumbai, I usually encounter a maniac who swerves into me from the left or right, a taxi parked on the side that blocks the road ahead, a smiling man who crosses a busy road without a care and of course public bus drivers who want to kill me.
I used to fume, take ‘revenge’ and even contemplated buying a run down SUV that I could then use as a bash up car.
Until I thought of applying some Zen to the situation.
I now think of driving as a Zen meditation test. I think of myself standing in front of a Zen monastery, applying to get in and this challenge being handed to me as an admission process.
The obstacles on the road are tests that are meant to trouble my mind. The people are ploys to distract me from being ‘sane’. My approach is to smile when someone cuts into me & smirk when the taxi up in front suddenly decides to take a U -Turn. Make every irritation a giggle event. I truly believe that if you train yourself to overcome road rage and make it a spiritual quest, there will be a remarkable up-liftment of your state of mind.
Be like ‘cloud – water’ – float and flow and let nothing perturb you. Specially a road journey that you forget in minutes after it is over.
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