Mindful

Wisdom arises out of our mind’s capacity to be aware—which is not the same as thinking. Wisdom allows us to know what is happening in each moment and respond appropriately, with our words, with our actions, with our thoughts. Sometimes responding appropriately means not doing anything at all, simply meeting each moment as it comes. Wisdom is a moment-to-moment awareness of what’s arising internally and externally. It begins with developing concentration, which allows us to let go of our thoughts and our plans and be in this moment. In this practice, we’ll begin with concentration, and then we’ll move to what is traditionally called mindfulness meditation, where we simply notice what’s arising without clinging or pushing away. And then finally, just for two minutes, we’ll let go of all the techniques…

I was driving through Ohio with a colleague when the GPS informed us that we were facing an hour-long delay on the interstate. About 25 miles down the road, we would become ensnarled in bumper-to-bumper traffic, projected to crawl along at an average speed of a few miles an hour for an hour or more. At that point, I thought to call a retired firefighter I know who has worked throughout the entire state and knows it intimately to ask for his advice. He rattled off several smaller roads and a series of towns we could pass through on an alternate route to our destination, one that was not offered by any of our high-tech phone apps. If we went this way, he said, it would probably take even longer, but…