Brian Haycock - Dharma Road: A Short Cab Ride to Self-Discovery

When I came back from the monastery, I drove a cab for Checker in Boston and can tell you this is the real deal: good taxi and straight dharma.

Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart and After the Ecstasy, the Laundry

This book is wise and witty and direct: very Zen. Also, fun to read.

Sylvia Boorstein, author of Happiness Is an Inside Job and It's Easier Than You Think: The Buddhist Way to Happiness

In Dharma Road, Haycock has achieved that rare balance of humor and wisdom. His sense of Buddhism runs deep, born out of his own fascinating experience as a taxi driver. Haycock, the Buddhist cabbie, can take you where you want to go, but more importantly he can take you to the most important landmarks of the dharma. The characters he encounters and the insights he uncovers are well worth the modest fare. His experience demonstrates the Buddhist idea that wisdom doesn't need a temple to live in but manifests in every sort of reflective life.

Stephen Asma, author of Why I Am a Buddhist

With wry humor and unflinching honesty, Brian Haycock steers the reader through the ups and downs of modern life with the teachings of the Buddha as his road map. An engaging, no-frills introduction to Zen, the dharma, and just sitting at the wheel.

Stephen Batchelor, author of Confession of a Buddhist Atheist

Compassionate and entertaining... and the flow of anecdotes keeps one turning the pages. It is informative about Zen practice, but more importantly the very human insight it gives into one professionthat of cabdrivingillustrates the quality of ordinary compassion that is the hallmark of fully digested Buddhist understanding.

David Brazier (Dharmavidya), author of The Feeling Buddha

If the point of life is the journey, travel it via Dharma Road. It's accessible, amusing, and wise, with a few surprising forks along the way.

Arthur Jeon, author of City Dharma and Sex, Love, and Dharma: Finding Love Without Losing Your Way

Zen Buddhism comes down from the mountain and hits the streets with Brian Haycock. This gritty, wise, and at times humorous tale shows why Buddhism is exactly what we need in the 21st century. It's practical Buddhism at its finest. You'll enjoy the ride.

Zan Gaudioso, author of The Buddha Next Door

Wherever you want to go, from wherever you are starting, take a ride in Brian's cab'please, for your sake. The ride will be just grand! His is an honest and down-toearth voice that has the ring of a good and wise friend, one who has a deep understanding of Zen... and human nature.

David Kundtz, author of Awakened Mind: One-Minute Wake Up Calls

Copyright 2010

by Brian Haycock

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work in any form whatsoever, without permission in writing from the publisher, except for brief passages in connection with a review.

Cover design by Hugh D'Andrade

Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc.

Charlottesville, VA 22906

www.hrpub.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on request.

ISBN: 978-1-57174-635-1

TCP

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed on acid-free paper in Canada

Dharma Road is dedicated to cabdrivers and bodhisattvas everywhere.

Hi. Where would you like to go?

That's what I always say to people when they get in the cab. It's a friendly greeting that breaks the ice and gets things going on the right foot. I smile when I say it, and I turn partway around, make a little eye contact.

It's a good question. Where do you want to go? Barton Springs for a nice, cool swim? Out to the Oasis to watch the sun go down over Lake Travis? Downtown, maybe to a club on 6th Street to hear some of that good Texas music we like so much here in Austin?

How about a journey of self-discovery? A ride down Dharma Road?

Tuesday afternoon I'm working downtown, checking the hotel stands, cruising the streets. Cab 119, ready to go. I load a woman at the Four Seasons, take her up to the capitol, then take two men from the Omni to the Doubletree. I take a radio call at Brackenridge Hospital and load an old man with a broken leg in a hard cast. He's headed home to an apartment on East 5th, riding on a hospital voucher. He needs a lot of help getting inside. Then I'm back downtown, loading at the Hilton, taking a woman in a gaudy green pantsuit up to the university, listening to her talk about how much she likes Austin, and saying, Yes, ma'am, I like it here too.

It's a typical afternoon in the cab business. It's a lot like yesterday afternoon. Or tomorrow. It's a lot like your life. There's always something going on, but in the end you wind up pretty much where you started.

Then again, it's not typical at all. It's unique. It's a completely new day, one that will go by and never return. The people, the traffic, the sound and feel of the city. The way everything moves. It's all new, and it will never be this way again. It's all in how you look at it.

Cruising down Congress Avenue, I hear a whistle, see a man wave at me from across the street. I'm all over it. I make a tight U-turn and coast up to the curb in a New York nanosecond. Smooth. Three men in matching dark gray suits going to an office building north on the interstate. One of the men sits in front. He acts a little nervous, fidgety, like there's an important meeting coming up and he's spent the day drinking coffee to get ready for it. He's ready now.

On the seat next to me there's a well-used copy of Seung Sahn's classic The Compass of Zen. It's sitting on top of the pile of maps and guidebooks and the clipboard I use to keep track of my cab company paperwork. He picks it up, stares at the cover. You reading this? he asks.

Yeah. It's something to keep me occupied on those long waits at the airport.

You really understand that Zen shit? It's pretty strange stuff, all that one-hand-clapping shit. That's Zen, right?

Yeah, it is. It's a koan, a puzzle.

And you get that?

Well, not that, no. Koans are pretty advanced, more for full-time monks. People with the time to put into it. You can't really do that if you're driving a cab ninety hours a week. But Zen's not as confusing as people think. Most of it's just an appreciation for everyday life. The basics are pretty straightforwardthere's some philosophy, meditation practice, ethics, that kind of thing. And then you can go on from there, build on that.

He grunts, already losing interest, leans back over the seat, and jumps into a conversation about amortization depreciation allowance something or other, a topic that makes as much sense to me as the one hand clapping does to any of them.

When they get out, he hands me a twenty and says with a grin, Good luck with that Zen shit. Then he turns and trips over the curb, losing his briefcase as he throws his hands out to catch himself. The case pops open, and papers spill out across the stones.

That's Zen, right there. That moment, the one you didn't expect. The moment when you notice that your life is one little surprise after another. The moment when you realize that ordinary life isn't ordinary at all.

Then again, maybe he shouldn't have called it Zen shit. That couldn't have been good for his karma.

Welcome to Dharma Road. It'll be a fun ride. Think of it as an introduction to Zen practice for people who live in the real world. People like us. We'll go over the basic ideas of the dharmathe teachings of the Buddha and the others who have followed in his path. We'll talk about morals, meditation, mindfulness. Just the fundamentals. And we'll get started on the day-to-day practice of Zen. This can be pretty serious stuff, but it doesn't have to be. We'll take it easy, make it as clear and concise as possible. And we'll take it out on the streets, see how Zen practice applies in everyday life. We'll try to have a little fun, a few laughs. Because if you're going to put in a sixteen-hour shift behind the wheel, you'll need to have a sense of humor. Maybe we'll even figure out how to make a few dollars along the way. Just like the cabdrivers do. And after that we'll sit back, do a little speculating about what it all means. It'll be quite a ride.