mindfulness (for commuters)

I've been tasked by my Zen teacher Daizan Roshi with putting together a leaflet to hand out at the station in the morning on "Mindfulness for commuters". The idea is that it will explain about mindfulness, why it's useful, how it can help on their commute and in daily life, and how it can be put into practice during the commuting time. It won't be an advert for the zen group, but simply give the web address (zenways.org) if they want to find out more.

One thing that became clear as I was jotting down some ideas is that I really need to know our audience better. How can we best get to that closed off, head-buried-in-their-kindle commuter, and encourage them to experiment with mindfulness - and hopefully see some immediate effects/benefits.

So I joined Chris, one of our members at the zen group and who's been a London commuter for 32 years, on his commute in yesterday morning from Denmark Hill overground station in SE London to the city. It was fascinating! He's been thinking about this for some time and had many observations and little jems to show me. For example, it was a nice sunny morning, so why is it that some people choose to stand in the tunnel not on the open platform in the sun? It's not really that people are miserable (although the feeling might've been closer to that on a cold and wet, dark February morning...) but that they are just withdrawn into themselves. They stand in a little bubble with their iPod, kindle or book and pay little or no attention to the outside world except for the train time indicator. They're in this in-between time, between home and work. But is it dead time, or is it valuable alone-time where they can get on with some reading? Is it a comforting routine, or a stressful battle to get the right train, get a seat, fight through the crowd, and get to work on-time? As an observer, the platform and the train appeared strangely quiet and still, peaceful even. But I remember from the days when I used to commute, it was rarely quiet and peaceful in my head - even when I didn't have my iPod in.

Another thing that came up in our discussion was how to define what mindfulness really is. What exactly are we encouraging them to do...?! In the end we came up with some ideas along the lines of "having a quiet mind: one in which judgements, discrimination and attachments to feelings are kept at a minimum" or "being in the moment, feeling and experiencing what is happening right now, not letting feelings generated in one moment spill over and affect the next moment".

But the challenge really is to work out how to direct a potential commuting reader towards these goals. How do you encourage mindfulness without it being too airy-fairy or, as Chris puts it, "twee"? A hard nosed commuter is probably not going to respond well to asking them to try and smile at everyone they pass! So let's concentrate on the breath. Everyone breaths, and I think pretty much everyone can become aware of their breath if you direct their attention to it. By becoming aware of the breath, nothing needs to change and nothing needs to be done except directing the awareness. So maybe that's it: as you sit there reading your kindle, doing your e-mails on your Blackbery, listening to music, or doing your make-up, just become aware of your breath, its rhythm and depth. Are you breathing in your belly or chest? Without purposefully changing it, does the rhythm or depth change as you're reading this? Can you feel its rhythm change when you begin to walk? What happens to your mind-state when you tune in to the breath? Is there room for thoughts or worries, stories or memories when you're really listening to the breath? How does it make you feel?

In the end mindfulness is not about learning to do anything. It is building an awareness of what is happening whether breathing, seeing, walking or laughing. An awareness that isn't busying itself with conscious thought; an awareness where thoughts come and are go, rise up and pass on, without leaving a trace. The important thing is that it's not about trying to do anything - whether breathing in a certain way, or walking fast or slow. It is just about being with what is.
   (thanks Chris for that last paragraph!)

Comments very welcome

Kanji for mindfulness