Religion: Prayer at the Wheel

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Motoji Hatano decided that something drastic had to be done. As president of Tokyo's Kokusai Bus Co., he could hardly ignore the fact that its 59 buses had had 22 accidents this spring—three times as many as last spring. It was the same with the other Japanese sightseeing-bus companies: a total of 51 crashes, 15 deaths, 843 injured. President Hatano's manager did some oriental-style brain-storming and came up with an idea any adman would be glad to put on the train for Westport. The idea: send the bus drivers to a Zen Buddhist temple to cool off with a little meditation.

Last week 33 of the company's drivers and five of its female guides returned to work after completing the first course at Kamakura's 13th century Zen temple, Engakuji. For five days they rose at 4:30 a.m., cleaned their own rooms and swept the temple grounds, and meditated. Anyone who found his mind wandering was supposed to unclasp his hands as a signal, whereupon a waiting monk gave him three sharp thwacks with a stick. Twice a day Chief Abbot Sogen Asahina, 59, lectured them. "When you are in your bus, seated at the wheel or talking to passengers, and feel fatigue overcoming you, stop what you are doing, and for ten minutes sit upright with your hands clasped. Empty your mind of everything. Just meditate. After ten minutes, drive on."

At the end of the course, Abbot Asahina turned his quickie Zenist bus drivers loose with the words: "Continue to meditate, or your light may go out."

In Britain, where more than 6,000 were killed, 300,000 injured in traffic accidents last year, a Church of England clergyman had a similar message for motorists. Vicar Vyvyan Watts-Jones of Darlaston's All Saints Church suggested a ten-second prayer to be pasted on dashboards and to be read before each trip: "Help me, O God, as I drive, to love my neighbor as myself, that I may do nothing to hurt or endanger any of your children. Give my eyes clear vision and skill to my hands and feet. Make me tranquil in mind and relaxed in body. Deliver me from the spirit of rivalry and from all resentment at the actions of others and bring me to my journey's end."