Bicycling

Since most people live in urban areas, with little or no access to earth trails and fields where running and walking can be practiced without fear of injury, bicycling is often more practical. Bike riding can also be practiced regularly for long periods of time without risk of knee and back damage from the hard surfaces of urban areas. The euphoria that is experienced by runners is also available to bicyclers, though the bicycler’s high may take longer to kick in.

The bicyclist can commune with nature by riding long distances out to country roads or even to mountain trails. Deserts, forests, mountains, and fields can all be explored on a mountain bike. The bicyclist can usually go further than a person running or walking on foot. A bike is a wonderful tool to use to get somewhere, while you exercise your legs, lungs, and entire being. The quote “The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine,” from the book The Quotable Cyclist (1997), shows us that, “The bicycle is the noblest invention of mankind.” It does not pollute the air and improves the health of the passenger. Perhaps what Iris Murdoch wrote in The Red And The Green is true, “Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.”

For many people, bicycling is an ideal way to reach a higher state of mind. This is because you can go longer and further on a bicycle than on foot. The combination of relaxation, bicyclist’s high, and physical benefit can let you reach a higher state of mind. Your emotions can be greatly benefited by using a bicycle to reach far-off places, mentally and physically, where you can forget the troubles of life. The bike is a tool to achieve higher states of being. Diana Ackerman’s quote, from The Quotable Cyclist (1997),has this important advice: “When I go biking, I repeat a mantra of the day’s sensations: bright sun, blue sky, warm breeze, blue jay’s call, ice melting and so on. This helps me transcend the traffic, ignore the clamoring of work, leave all the mind theaters behind and focus on nature instead.” Repeating a mantra may help you discover the spiritual aspects of riding a bicycle.

The bicycle is a symbol of balance. There is no way to ride a bicycle without balance. So it is connected to the sign Libra. Also the concept of balancing yin and yang is a good meditation to focus on while you are balancing your bicycle. The balance felt by your body when you are riding can also be felt by your mind, emotions, and soul.

The spiritual aspects of riding a bicycle can help you not only transcend the troubles of everyday life, but can bring you to a space of joy, enlightenment, and spirituality. As a mode of transportation and of personal improvement, the bike can be the perfect tool. “It is easy to be a holy man on a mountain bike,” Mark W. Matson is quoted in The Quotable Cyclist (1997).If we could all find it easy to be a holy person when using a mountain bike, then the bike may be the solution to improving the world! Grant Petersen has a great quote, which was also written about in The Quotable Cyclist (1997),“Think of bicycles as ride-able art that can just about save the world.”

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