You paint a lovely picture of your ride, brendanoid! To me, the crux of the matter is here: "When the crunching and the pedaling and the euphoria of no thoughts at all..." In my experience, the 'no thoughts' is more about letting the thoughts come and go as I pedal along and open my attention to my surroundings. Riding a bicycle seems to provide the right balance of flow and attention that makes the focus on my breath and the non-attachment to my thoughts somewhat easier...sometimes.
"...yet the zen can still be gotten even here." I agree, Phillip. There's no place like the present, no matter where that may be. I ride in similar environments here in Yokohama (minus homeless encampments). No matter the place, pedaling along, paying attention to my breathing, and encouraging an awareness of my surroundings is an enjoyable part of my riding experience. "Traditional expounders of the Zen form of Buddhism describe something a little more rigorous than a couple of scholars shooting the breeze." For sure, Patrick. I'm not exactly sure of the nature of Watts' and Blyth's conversation, 'shooting the breeze' was my own interpretation. I just loved that bicycles and Zen came into it. Tradition can be illuminating and it can be calcifying. Certainly, rigor is demanded in scholarship and the definition of terms like 'suffering', 'death', 'ego' and 'non-pre-existing results' require it. (If only the neo-Platonists had bicycles!) But, I am of the mind that perhaps, 'lightly' can offer another way in which to approach the practice (rather than the scholarship) of being attentive to the distinction between our thoughts arising from experience and our experience itself. I do enjoy many activities that give me the space to try and notice these things, but I do enjoy riding a bicycle most of all. Cheers, John On Sunday, February 13, 2022 at 3:21:17 AM UTC+9 Patrick Moore wrote: > Traditional expounders of the Zen form of Buddhism describe something > a little more rigorous than a couple of scholars shooting the breeze. > From D.T. Suzuki: > > "Unless we agree to suffer, we cannot be free from suffering." > > "The ego-shell in which we live is the hardest thing to outgrow." > > "Zen teaches nothing, it merely enables us to wake up and become > aware. It does not teach; it points." > > "Until we recognize the Self that exists apart from who we think we > are, we cannot know the Zen mind." > > "The Kingdom of Heaven is for none but the thoroughly dead," said > Meister Eckhart, who also said, "This death is the soul's eternal > quest." > > Ultimately, the spiritual life -- "not the acquisition of a > non-pre-existing result," as the Upanishad says -- is, in the words of > Plotinus, "The flight of the Alone to the Alone." > > None of this to be take lightly! > > On Sat, Feb 12, 2022 at 12:19 AM John Rinker <jwri...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > In a talk called "Zen Reconsidered", Alan Watts relates a conversation > he had with Horace Blyth about sitting meditation (zazen). Just a couple of > Zen scholars shooting the breeze, I imagine. The gist, as I understand it, > is that those who practice Zen and fixate on sitting meditation miss the > whole point of Zen. The practice of Zen can be found in anything we do. Or, > to be more precise, in any doing. The most intriguing example Watts (or > Blyth) gives is 'riding-a-bicycle Zen'.* > > > > I'm curious, does this resonate with others here? What is your > experience of 'riding-a-bicycle Zen'? And, per the 'Buzzy Hubs' thread, > does the noise your hub makes detract from or enhance your 'riding-a-bike > Zen' experience? ;) > > > > Cheers, > > John > > > > *The reference comes around 1:35:25 in the talk. > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send > an email to rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com. > > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/cb59b32d-809f-46e9-9443-f3ec73876f18n%40googlegroups.com > . > > > > -- > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > Patrick Moore > Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/b9f2edcf-2360-4189-aa19-2a4ac14201c9n%40googlegroups.com.
