Stay Out Of Traffic
About fifteen years ago, someone from a science and spirituality website asked me to write exclusively for them for six months. “We’d like you to make your teachings short and daily,” they said. “That way, you’ll drive more traffic to our website and get more exposure.”
I’d never heard teaching referred to as “traffic.” But since then, I’ve seen teaching become exactly that. Whether it’s universities becoming gentrifying landlords or self-help gurus making reels for clicks, teaching has become less about depth than circulation.
Capitalism, of course, depends on circulation. A person sitting quietly with one teaching for ten years doesn’t generate much commerce. But a person encountering fifty teachings before breakfast puts a lot of energy into circulation.
The question is: Where is all this energy taking us?
Traffic isn’t just out there. The mind generates its own traffic, particularly when it’s in pain. Something hurts, and we start moving toward concepts, explanations, and teachings that tell us what to do.
The Buddha called this papañca: the proliferation of thought. The untrained mind tries to think its way out of pain by creating more complication. And though we talk about traffic as though it were happening to us, the moment we enter it, we are the traffic.
In my coaching practice, I try to steer clients toward choice in small places. The point isn’t to stop moving. It’s to stop mistaking movement for direction.
You can wait an hour before answering that text. You can feel anger in your body before deciding what it means. You can stay with one question instead of reaching for a thousand answers.
Stay out of traffic, kids. Not everything that gets going is going somewhere.
As always, if you’d like to be held through your own process, reach out and we’ll set up a free coaching call.
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