I am lazy.
I don’t like to do mundane things actively. I PHILOSOPHIZE actively, I MEDITATE actively, I READ actively, I COLLECT TRANSFORMERS ACTION FIGURES actively. But when it comes to transport and road trips? Now to me, that is mundane, and not what I see as interesting or important (unlike car fans or those who work in the transport sector).
I don’t have a driver’s license. For academic reasons I want to go to HK to obtain a Master’s in Buddhist Studies, and move on to do a PhD, but it is much better to use public transport over there because it is far more efficient and cheaper. Even then, if I drive, I cannot spend much time at all thinking about philosophy, nor reflect on my life, or anything. I cannot look out the windows and contemplate the view. I must concentrate on driving, safety, and proper execution of lawful transportation. This is fine and imperative for those who are more interested in driving than I am, but as a bum, I prefer to use my own two legs or a couple of dollars to get to the nearest bus stop.
I am also contributing to less greenhouse gases. I use public transport, people pick me up, or I use my legs. Doesn’t get much more energy-efficient than that, at least for the time being. So if people want to buy cars just because all their friends are buying theirs, or due to some kind of pressure other than transport efficiency/work related issues, they should rethink.
I don’t drive and concentrate, I ride and contemplate.
In the States it would help greatly if we actually had any public transportation to speak of in most areas.
Some cities–San Francisco, for one–with its combination of buses, cable cars, street cars, and BART–is very easy to get around without a car.
But in most cities, you can only get along without a car if you happen to live near a bus or subway route, for most places are many blocks from the nearest connecting points.
So, most of us have learned to drive safely and contemplate effectively at the same time.
Malcolm
I live in Germany, close to the Belgian and Dutch border. This year, I finished school and I’m looking forward to highschool. However, I will study in the Netherlands, in a city, which is some 30 kilometres away from my hometown. So I rely on my car, if I did not want to pay for an appartment close to my university. It’s much cheaper for me live in my parents house and travel every day to Maastricht university.
I tend towards the active, as well. I can sit for meditation, and I do daily, but I much prefer tai chi, running, and surfing as active forms of meditation . . .
As for you decision not to drive, all I can say is . . . good for you . . . being the change you want to see in the world . . .
Now I’m gonna go watch Transformers on Joox . . . I’ve been waiting for a good version . . .
Namaste . . .
Mind you, I am a frog in the well when it comes to driving. Drivers will accuse me of not knowing the expanse of the great sea because I am stuck in the tiny well and don’t want to leave (old Chinese fable about a conversation between a seagull and a turtle in a well).
I don’t blame them. But I don’t drive because I don’t like driving. I’d like to drive. But as of the present it is impractical and wasteful, and as a philosopher, “Buddhism is praxis”, or action. To funnel your academic and personal education into the world in which you live is the most crucial thing, otherwise you are just engaging in intellectual wankery.
Have a good one y’all…
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