In a sea of Empty Boats

I had promised myself and sundry friends that I would no more talk about Pune’s traffic and how people behave on the road surrounded by their big cars=egos. Now I’m sort of breaking that promise, but only a bit. I write with a Solution. An internal solution. Not an external one, though there are plenty of those too – like exchanging Pune and Mumbai cops. Give the Mumbai traffic chaps a change and send them to Pune to straighten us out here, like they’ve straightened out, long back, Mumbai’s red-light jumpers, the lane-changers, the up-the-down-flyover-takers, the signal-non-givers, cell-phone kissers and … now even that most dull-witted species, the drunk drivers. And send our Pune traffic boys to shape up in Mumbai. Take a look at what it is to really control traffic. Not sit in the shade on their motorcycles and chit-chat or extract ‘fines’ after the crime has been committed.

But no, those are external solutions. I’m talking straightaway Zen Buddhism solution. Nothing less. I will name it the Empty Vehicle Attitude. It’s borrowed from Zen Master Chuang Tzu’s Empty Boat concept, which is something like this: A man is plying his boat on the seas. He spots a boat coming towards him, being steered in a rather haphazard and dangerous manner. It seems to be heading straight for him. At first he’s scared and tries to signal to the other boatman to steer clear, straighten his course. But the boat is recklessly on a collision course. Soon our boatman gets really angry and begins to shout things and shake his fist at the rogue boatman. Rogue boat continues to come at him. Finally, our boatman decides this is not a rogue, but an ace idiot, and changes his direction, steering his own boat quickly out of the way, looking pityingly towards the other boat, thinking it must be terrible to be an idiot on the high seas. As the rogue/idiot boatman’s boat passes him, dangerously close, our boatman realizes that the boat is empty. There is no boatman in there, there never was. No rogue, no idiot. Just an empty boat. Adrift. All his anger dissolves and he steers on.

Now, here is the key solution, for all good, obedient and cautious drivers, who rave and rant at what we think are rogues or idiots on the road. Those motorists and scooterists and motorcyclists and rickshawallahs and bus drivers - who do all those Pune traffic things that make your blood run cold first and then very hot later: simply see them as Empty Boats. Don’t be angry when they endanger your lives, definitely don’t chase them down or block their way, as they have shown themselves capable of beating you up or using ugly demented words. Don’t pity them for their idiot-minds. Many of us have been taught to drive ‘like everyone else is an idiot on the road’. Simply understand that there is nothing/no-one there. No rogue, no idiot. A total absence of humans and humanness in those vehicles. Adrift. Steer clear of them, is all you can and must do.
So Repeat after me: ‘These are all Empty Boats’. ‘Loose cannons’ is another word for them, but I like the peaceful concept of the empty boat even better. Get into your vehicle with this new attitude, and you will find yourself beautifully, without rancour or rage, simply moving out of their direction-less paths, and getting to your destination without collisions or without losing your cool.

To take Chuang Tzu’s concept further (as explained by Osho), the next step is to become Empty Boats ourselves on Pune’s roads. No, I don’t mean that we drive around like loose cannons without direction or volition or control. It just means that after recognizing that the Other is an empty boat, the next stage is to stop feeling all puffed up with pride for being more ‘present’ and ‘aware’ and thus a ‘full boat’. That only makes you feel like an alien among all those empty boats. So best to leave our egos out of our vehicles, is what I’m saying. Well maybe I’m stretching the concept a bit too much without understanding it fully. But you get the point.
On a more mundane level: Another person (no name, internet story) treats all other angry and badly driven vehicles as he would a passing garbage truck. He will not yell at them, try to teach them a lesson, engage with them in any way. Just like we give the garbage truck with its stench and falling bits or rubbish a wide berth, he gives all awful drivers the right of way, and waves them ahead with a smile, happy to put as much distance between him and the garbage on wheels as possible. Personally, I think there is even more peace in seeing them as Empty Boats rather than moving garbage. But you can choose your own metaphor, and drive on in peace.