The Practice of Not Crashing

Zen Master Kōdō Sawaki once said... “We don’t ride on rails laid down in advance. We must improvise at each instant and go forward. Turning the wheel, we determine our direction. We must be ceaselessly alert or, in other words, hold ourselves at the ready.”

That said, even though we call it “meditation,” I could just as easily call it untangling attention from the virtual reality headset of thought… so that when I turn the wheel, there’s the opportunity for a response rather than a reaction.

Because life isn’t running on rails laid down in advance. Things happen... People happen... Feelings happen. Shit happens and then what? We’re going to have to do something. Will it be a response or a reaction?

Whether it’s Zen... or the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions living meditation practice... honestly at this point, I really can’t tell one from the other… they give me a little more flexibility at the wheel, as I’m driving within the traffic of our shared life.

The result of giving myself to these practices consistently results in fewer crashes.

In this Way, because I’m more present at the wheel of my actions… there are fewer crashes… and less need to completely “crash out,” as so many put it these days.

一We Are the Practice Itself