A 3-mile Uber ride.
A 10-minute event of open heartedness.
It was just supposed to be transportation to a going-away lunch for Lindsay, a content producer I work with. But a lot of things we believe are just supposed to be what we expect them to be — not what they turn out to be. That’s the thing about beliefs. They can be true but not necessarily. They are you telling yourself an idea over and over until it hardwires a path through your brain. Mindfulness traditions often ask us to pay attention to our beliefs. Every day. Every moment.
My belief dissolved within 10 seconds of stepping into the Uber ride, when the driver, Mohammad, looked in the rearview mirror and said I was handsome; but it was what Mohammad said next that floored me: “You have a good soul.” He could just see my soul by looking at me — it was why he thought I was handsome, he said. The soul made it so.
When you just know, you are not afraid to say it.
And when you feel fellowship and open heartedness, like I did from this Uber driver, you know that everything is not only going to be all right — everything is already all right. It was just the reminder I needed, when I needed it, for I had just stepped out of the house and of my thoughts. I didn’t know what I was doing with my career. Those kind of thoughts. Lindsay knew what she was doing, I believed. She got a job at Apple!
And then bam! I crossed paths with someone who just knew I was good within a second. He did not doubt it. He did not ask a series of questions. He had faith and belief in me. Mystics believe there is no true separation between ourselves and the universe. They also believe there is no true separation between you and me. So, when we are seeing someone as beautiful, we are really seeing that quality we own.
image © 2019 Tommy Tung
During the remaining 9 minutes, we learned a bit about each other. Mohammad was from Bangladesh where his wife and children still lived. He was in Los Angeles to find work; then he would have them move here once he found it. He loved singing. I loved singing too. I told him I was working on a rendition of Jeff Buckley’s “Everybody Here Wants You,” so Mohammad told me to sing it and I did the first verse. Then he sang a song in Bengali and when he finished, we arrived at Rush Street, a bar and restaurant in Culver City where my advertising agency colleagues were celebrating Lindsay.
Mohammad said that God put us in each other’s paths that day. That was his belief. I believe something similar. I just use words other than God for the unfolding of my life.
image © 2019 Tommy Tung