Buddhism, Bodhicitta & EFT for Road Rage
I was on a little trip today from San Jose up to Berkeley. It had been several years since I’d done this trip and by heck, the traffic was something else again! Tons worse than the last time I drove this stretch of 880. After three sudden stops necessitated by unaware drivers bulling ahead as if they were the only car on the road, I began chatting up a non-stop stream to myself about it: "Lookit that guy, willya? I mean just LOOK! What an idiot! What a moron! You’d have to be a total dipshit to do a stupid thing like that! He almost killed that whole van full of cub scouts!" ad nauseum. As I fumed I began tapping - after all, I was stuck at a dead stop in traffic. And then I remembered the Coolest Spell of All ™ - guaranteed to bust through any block you have, including the 880-580 interchange sea of idling autos.
I’ve been re-reading Wayne Dyer’s Your Sacred Self: Making the Decision To Be Free and doing meditations on the Dalai Lama’s May, 2001 talk on Bodhicitta. Both suggest that to achieve greater spiritual awareness and development, you wish the absolute best of things and a release of suffering for others, as you also wish for yourself (release of menopausal symptoms for myself and all my friends and clients, thank you Universe!). This has a round-about boomerang effect of getting you what you want and helping out the planet and its sentient life as a whole. Wish happiness for the whole world AND the jerk - oops, I mean the blessed being who just cut you off in traffic (he needs blessings more than most - so do I also, need blessings, so it is) - and happiness will be yours. The specific Buddhist saying is from a beautiful poem by Shantideva that says in part:
Enthused by compassion and wisdom Today in Buddha’s presence I generate the mind of compassion For the benefit of all sentient beings.
For as long as space remains And as long as sentient beings remain Until then may I too remain To dispel the suffering of all beings.
I wasn’t entirely sure I bought into this at first, but as I’ve meditated on it over the years, I’ve seen that it’s a powerful piece of magic that does indeed work. It’s the Karmic Law of Three: what you send out returns to you threefold. If you send out hate, distrust and bitterness, that’s what you’ll receive in return, from every possible source around you. The worse your life gets, the more you complain bitterly about it, and the worse your life gets…
I blogged on this a few weeks ago . I made conscious a decision to start working from the mind of compassion, or at least to aspire to *have* a mind of compassion, and to use as a test-case, The Road. So instead of my usual Road Rant persona, I’m practicing blessing instead of cursing-at, and wishing the best possible outcomes for all beings - especially while on the road. I’m not perfect at it, but goodness me, what a change I’m noticing already! As per Wayne Dyer’s commentary about things which happen when you start freeing yourself, the coincidences are coming thicker and faster than ever before. One of those coincidences happened on the road to Berkeley tonight…read on if you’d like an EFT recipe that really works!
So here’s the format I followed: Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) tapping going down the body from the top of the head (skip the set-up, since your’e already "in the emotion" just by being on the road with the less-than-aware) and make the following observations:
(Top of Head) "I am so pleasantly suprised at how the road just opens up before me, at how cars and traffic part to allow me through safely and swiftly to my destination, and how everyone on this road can allow themselves to be pleasantly surpised at the ease and swiftness of their movements in complete safety towards their destinations…both those on this road and all people on all roads, everywhere.
(Third Eye) "Swiftly and smoothly moving through traffic in complete safety and with supreme awareness of prevailing conditions."
(Inner Eyebrow) "I know what is happening before me and behind me, to my right and to my left as do all people on this road."
(Outer Eye) "All drivers, like me, have superb awareness and are protected and safe at all times with our guardian guides, spirits, power animals, angels and/or deities at all times protecting and providing superbly accurate guidance for me as these protective spirits do for all on this road, on all roads everywhere."
(Under Eye) "I am completely safe and protected in my extreme awareness of road conditions, guarded and guided by my helpful spiritual companions, as all on this road and all roads are guarded and guided."
(Under nose) "How delightful to see a swift and safe way through the traffic open up before me as if by magic, just as ways open up for all others on this road and on all roads, everywhere."
(Chin) "Safely and swiftly I make it to my destination on time and even before time, as all on this road and all roads make it to their destinations in good time"
(Collarbone) "Peace and inner calm is mine, Peace and calm are with all on this road and on all roads, everywhere."
(Thymus) "We are all in synch, in flow with each other and with the universe. We are one with the road and with each other. We are all blessed, loved and are loving. We are all in this together, and are supremely supportive of each other in keeping each other safe, in ensuring we all make our destinations on time."
(Underarm) "Our guides and guardians are with us. God/Goddess/Higher Spirit is strong and powerful in each one of us here, and in each person who travels roads anywhere. For all Roads are One Road and we are all travelling it together. There is nothing we can’t accomplish together"
(LV14, Under Breast) "I am completely in the Flow of all things, all beings are completely in the Flow of all things (repeat 3x). I am keeping my neighbors safe as they are keeping me…"
(Fingers, Karate Chop and Gamut) "I yield to others and am in turn yielded to, as I need. I gracefully and joyfully give way on the road as others give way for me in my turn, and I am a good Citizen of the Road as all others on this road and all roads everywhere are good Citizens of the Roads on which they travel.
Etcetera. Keep going on this and tapping on yourself and I guarantee you, the traffic will part before you like Moses getting serious with right-of-way on the Red Sea. You’ll notice people calming down, a cessation of those horrific snarl problems where everyone is just out for themselves and contributing only to their own forward movement. You’ll see people yield right-of-way to you and to each other, courteously. That’s a word we’ve almost forgotten how to use on the road. You’ll also notice clock time differences in your travel time. Mine from that place in San Jose to Berkeley at rush hour was going to be an hour and a half. I made it in 59 minutes flat without rushing, and arrived three minutes early.
Now that’s just a flat-out miracle. Or this Bodhicitta thing, being in harmony with what is and compassionately wishing for others what you want for yourself, actually works. Be careful though, Bodhicitta practice is addictive!
And that’s *way* cool…
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