The Mind That Remembers the Next Station

Today's teaching begins with the image of a short journey on the subway. A person riding the subway to work does not think they will stay there forever. Because they know where they boarded and which station they must get off at, they accept that time as a passing journey.

The monk said our life is not very different from this. We feel as if we live for a long time, but even if we live for a hundred years, in the larger flow we are only staying for a while and then moving on. Someone who will get off at the next station does not spend a long time fighting over small matters on the train, or try to hold onto everything.

Yet as we live, we spend much energy on unnecessary arguments, sensitive emotions, words that wound and are wounded, and attachment to possessions and relationships. We clutch what we have as if it were ours forever, and even a small loss steals the mind away. But when we remember that someday we must get off, we can see a little more clearly that these things are not everything.

Remembering the next station does not mean seeing life as empty or meaningless. Rather, it means using today's time more meaningfully. It means reducing the mind wasted unnecessarily, practicing, making relationships with people peaceful, and using our energy for the good we can do now.

Today, when the mind becomes sensitive or you feel like arguing with someone, think for a moment. I am not riding this subway forever. If I am someone who will someday get off, how should I use this present moment? That remembrance softens the mind and makes the day peaceful.