There is something in the unbroken drone of the road that hypnotizes us. There is something in the complex rhythm of broken pavement, tar seems, and the doppler whine of passing cars that lulls our minds into an instinctive mode. Buddhists call this place Zen--the place where your body can function on it's own and your mind is free to explore the infinite possibilites of being--a place they achieve through rigorous meditation, in immense nature, or peircing solitude.
It is somewhat paradoxical to find this zen while moving a one-thousand pound machine down a road at death-defying speeds. One's instinct would be that any action at this speed would require absolute concentration and focus, and any divergence would invariably result in death. But it is this concentration--being congnisant of me and of my surroundings at all times that allows me to let go of my body and let it run on it's own.
It doesn't make complete sense to me either, I just know that it works.
A teacher once explained to me how he found his zen through doing dishes, and I realized that driving was very much the same thing--my hands and arms know what to do, each muscle knows when to flex and relax in time so that I won't die and ultimately will arive at my destination. In the meantime I am free to think less about where I am driving to, and more about why I am driving there. I think everyone has something they can do to meditate. What's yours?
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Riding, though I guess that you could have guessed that. I know that while on a horse, unless it is a very young horse that I don't trust, I can just fall into default. However, my mind stays partially focused on it. I think i need that though, if I just let my mind run totally wild no focus happens. But with riding I keep part of my mind focused on the animal, so the rest is free to wander and think. It's kinda sad how many times I've had to stop a horse and just sit there because of the power of my thoughts.
Watching animals. It doesn't seem to matter what kind; I can watch finches or jellyfish or cats, just sitting, staring, completely forgetting about anything else. Only a very little bit of me is focused, and that's on watching - I suppose I'm not actually thinking anything, but meditating? Yes, I think so. Climbing trees is good, too. I know, once I'm at the top of a tree, that I'm not going to fall down even if I fall asleep, and it's freeing.
Oh man, yeah climbing trees is on my favorite things--giant pine trees, taller than life. Some friends of mine had one that was at least four stories tall (no joke, I climbed up as high as the branches would hold me and just sat looking down at the barn beneath me.
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