How to use your Speediness & Stress as a way to Relax.

Do one thing at a

time, and time will slow. And we

are a child, again.

My parents’ Buddhist teacher used to say that you could see how children in classes were doing in the transitions between classes. During class they could pretend to be aware or awake, but could be off in California or Mordor, in their minds. It was in the transitions that one could see if their energy was relaxed, or joyful or crazy and speedy.

He said you could see if a teacher at a lecture was present or speedy/afraid by whether or not they took the time to reach, pick up, sip, swallow, set down, and speak, or if they just grabbed, sipped, started speaking as they set it down.

We’re all speedy. When we find ourselves being speedy, we can remember our mindfulness: relax. Stop fidgeting. Not out of uptightness, but out of maitri. When we find ourselves eating and watching TV, we can just turn it off and reallllly enjoy our food, a la Michael Pollan’s advice.

When we remember that our speediness, our busyness, is fundamentally a fear of space, a fear of our own hearts, a fear of this present moment…then we can use our speediness, whenever we notice it manifesting in any way over the course of our day, as an opportunity to come back to the present moment, gently, with maitri.

It’s like the fly in Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind.