Stop! It's Red Light

Every time you see the red light, you smile to it.

The red light means "stop!"—stop your running, stop your anguish, stop your belief that happiness can only be possible at the end of the road, that is a superstition and is not true.

Whether there is happiness or not depends on the present moment. So when you see the red light, look at it and smile, look at it as a friend, as a bodhisattva, as a bell master.

Smile, sit back, and enjoy your breathing. "Breathing in, I enjoy the present moment. Breathing out, I smile."

You try to live that moment with peace and freedom.

You don’t allow yourself to be caught in all kinds of afflictions, irritations and bad humor. We are prey for all these afflictions, and if you go back to yourself and use your mindful breathing and smiling, then you are a better self.


Extract from: Cultivating Mindfulness in the Context of a Sangha, by Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh