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Bicycle no-mind
Jeroen
Luminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlands Veteran
in Mindfulness
Have you noticed that while you are bicycling there is a tremendous freedom and satisfaction in the being? You’re fully engaged, with balance, speed, way finding, other road users... the mind is busy doing all of the things it is supposed to do, your body’s reflexes are engaged, the senses are awake and aware with the feeling of the wind and velocity moving down the path. In all this harmonious activity I find a deep sense of happiness.
I love being on my bicycle.
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Comments
I feel that way when I swim laps at the pool
@Kerome
I too love biking....
Almost any physical activity that forces our other sense gates back onto the stage that they formally relinquished to the minds habituated empire building will result in some level of happiness.
When the mind no longer has to assume the sole role of kingship, which it seems to be poorly qualified to fill and the sense gates achieve some level of collegiality in their participation with each other which results in some equanimity when compared to the dictatorship they were formally existing under, some happiness results.
A meditation practice can foster such an occurrence just as a physical activity can do, but where a meditation practice can be done anywhere, anytime, a physical activity is externally based with the happiness it offers also being as transient as the activity is.
I noticed.
Swim laps too. I remember when our local indoor pool opened. Nobody but me and three lifeguards ... and you could bring your favourite music to play over the speaker system. When I was a kid (it seems like only tomorrow yesteryear) we would visit all the best, famous pools in London. Lidos too.
All physical/craft/chores can be mindful.
It is the Way
Madalorian dictum
[edit] ... ah. Better explanation from @how in previous post.
Some pretty impressive biking skills... you wouldnt catch me attempting this!
I stopped riding a bike. With my gammy leg I was becoming a liability. And honestly? My brain works 19 to the dozen when I ride... and motorists are frankly disrespectful and dangerous.
I did a tiger scouts bike event at age 6 and was terrible and crashed into obstacles on the course we were trying and felt fearful of bikes afterwards. Since that I never much liked bikes but I learned to be a great rollerblader from visiting an exchange student who had become a rollerblader skater punk guy. And I also knew rollerblading from playing hockey.
@Kerome
Pretty impressive biking video whose hijinks sometimes had unmentionable parts of my personal equipment retracting. Of course from a boaters perspective I wondered who in the wilderness in their right mind would leave their boat floating unattended and untied....which perhaps is why it wasn't there when he returned to the water.
Oh yeah..That wilderness probably included a sizeable filming crew.
The wheel turns. Where is the mind? Occupied or attentive?
The mind watches. Where is the mind? Watching or turning?
In a similar way, the activity is a practice or a mind filler/escape/reflection. We read or dance or watch or sit but where are we?
Bi-cycle? No-mind? No-know?
https://dharmawheels.org/
For me its downhill skiing. I don't get to do it much anymore but when I do on a nice open slope all my attention goes to the sound of the skis swishing and the bodily sensations of moving back and forth, the wind moving past me. Its really calming.
It was on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, famed for its whiskey. I was there once on a holiday, and the western side of the island is pretty mountainous and has few roads, so getting around by boat is entirely reasonable.
Yes, the sensation of speed is key I think, it focuses the mind.
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