Perception

I arrived in San Francisco last night to complete a long weekend of work, and a weird thing happened. Since joining the program, I kind of lost touch with one of my closest friends from when I lived here. I hadn't seen him since November. He got himself a sweet new apartment, upgrading from a closet sized studio, and invited me to crash with him while I was in town to work. His windows overlook a pretty busy intersection in one of the nicer residential areas of the city, near where I used to live. Shortly after I arrived, we heard a strange noise out on the street. Almost instantly, before it even fully registered, the words "that sounded like a biker being hit by a car" popped out of my mouth. I've never heard that sound before; there was no scream of pain or anything. I don't know why I said that. My friend and his girlfriend were pretty sure it was just a car trying to parallel park that had hit a neighboring car.

However, when we looked out the window a few seconds later, a biker lay unconscious on the road. He appeared to have run a red light and gotten nailed by a car on the cross street. No helmet. I always bike to the office with no helmet, so that was a harsh reminder of the risk I take. The driver had gotten out of his car and a crowd from the sidewalk quickly surrounded him. In less than 3 minutes, there were 6 police cars, an ambulance, and a fire truck on the scene. We watched it all play out through the window for a while. After so much time spent at the retreat center, isolated in the woods, its incredibly fascinating to just watch people. Especially so after a sudden, intense, and traumatic event.

I still don't know how I knew it was a biker being hit. It reminds me of a few months ago when I drove Shifu to the SF airport. Heading south on the 101, I drove past a CA highway patrol officer who had set up shop in a hidden alcove on a turn, hoping to catch people speeding. I was driving a reasonable speed, luckily. Shifu was in the passenger seat, eyes closed, head turned away from the window. Without looking up or opening his eyes, he said "Be careful, don't get a ticket." I was shocked. I had thought he was asleep, and could clearly see in my peripheral vision that his eyes had not opened or looked out the window in the stretch of road leading up to the cop. I asked how he knew, and he said he just sensed it, could feel the danger. He said that so many years of martial arts training heightened his sensitivity to that level.

That blew my mind pretty hard, and as I go through the same training, I wonder how my perception and feeling will change.