All Trains Are Going Local

People are always wishing for a simpler life: “I wish I could leave work at work.” “I miss when people just knocked on your door.” “I’d like to live in a cabin in the woods.”

Sometimes we get to that cabin and discover, to our surprise, that life isn’t simpler there either. The roof leaks, the mail gets lost, and the same thoughts about the past and future keep arising. As dharma teachers like to say: same mind, wherever you go.

A simpler life doesn’t come from changing your surroundings. It comes from a simpler mind. Most of us have been trained to use the mind as an instrument of accumulation. We pile up stories, theories, and analyses and carry them wherever we go. Some of that accumulation has value. But a great deal of intelligence lies precisely in letting go.

When we’re caught in stress and pain, the last thing we need is a story about it. As the Buddha said, that’s like being shot with an arrow and trying to figure out where the arrow came from or what wood it was made of. What matters is pulling the arrow out.

And what pulls the arrow out is not analysis or theory, but simple awareness: “Oh, this is pain. It feels like this.” We stop narrating our suffering and allow something deeper than the thinking mind to feel it fully and release it naturally.

It doesn’t sound so profound. But you don’t get points for being an intellectual when you’re overwhelmed by anxiety or depression. You don’t get points for complexity when what you need to do is make it through this day, and the next, and all the days of your life.

Be careful of seeking shortcuts! I once met a man from Silicon Valley who told me, “We’re working on an app to fast-track enlightenment.” That’s like inventing an app that gets you to the end of a piece of music without hearing any of it.

If you want peace of mind, you don’t need to take the express train. There is no express train. All trains are going local.

This moment is all there is. You can burden it with past and future, or embrace it with open hands.

Willy Spiller, "Rush Hour on Lexington IRT" (1977)