I was driving to town on the freeway a couple of weeks ago and got chopped by another driver. As chops go it wasn’t a really bad one… maybe a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10… but I noticed that little tightening I get in my diaphragm when irritation arises. And I noticed that the other driver was obviously impatient and in a hurry and was lane changing to move ahead more quickly than the flow of traffic.
A few moments later I was coming up on a freeway entrance and a car was entering to merge. There was that little moment of decision. Should I slow down and let them enter in front of me or should I speed up to get ahead of them. That little tightening in the gut wanted me to speed up, to get in front, to win in some subtle way.
It was such a clear example of the law of karma playing out on the road. The actions of the impatient driver creating irritation and impatience in other drivers, and continuing to move outward until one could see the entire flow of traffic being affected. The level of tension and anxiety on the road increased and amplified. There was a consequence for the view (it’s all about me), thoughts (I’m in a hurry) and actions (weaving in and out of traffic) of one driver.
Equally, there is consequence when one driver is calm and courteous. The acts of allowing someone to enter ahead, of making space for another driver to change lanes, of being aware of one’s own speed and selecting a slower lane to avoid impeding faster moving traffic, each reduce the level of tension on the road. Courtesy begets courtesy.
And with mindfulness, karma can be converted. If I can be aware of the tightening in my gut when I judge another’s actions to be wrong, when anger begins to arise in the form of irritation, then I can make the choice to not follow that irritation, to step away from the view that it’s all about me, to see the thought of “she chopped me so I’ll chop you” and to instead make the conscious choice of courtesy.
Sharing Buddhist Practice 