AJW2W11E

There have been days I've gone out where my mind just didn't cooperate. Thoughts of work. Worries about kids. Pedestrians and dogs on invisible leashes,and children every ten feet. Legs that felt like wood. The ride was just anguish.Today I woke at 5 am. #$^& I thought ,this is going to be another terrible ride. Felt like I was short a few hours of sleep.It wasn't. ​​​​​​​ My mind was crystal empty. My bike felt like part of my body and my legs just seemed to get stronger and stronger .Muscle pain, lactic acid, cramps, wooden legs, fear of the hills ahead--they were all there but somehow my mind wouldn't process their existence. Only thing I felt was the sheer elemental joy of swooping along on a bike​​​​​​​.​​​​​​​Of course tomorrow I will go out and the whole ride will be mental gymnastics and ​grind.​​​​​​​​​​​​​Is that the way it is for everyone? Why does the mind work that way?​​​​​​​​​ Seems like 2 out of 5 rides are bliss and the rest just slogs.​​​​​​​

beng1

There is no difference between the mind and you, and there is no difference between the mind and the body, it is only one thing, not three. Divisions do not exist outside the mind. So the first step is seeing this, for beginners realize there are not three things but one there. The next thing to see is that when this thing is truly observing, the so-called "mind" disappears. Bicycling has nothing to do with it, during any part of the day, as long as you are observing with at least one sense, preferably as many as possible, thinking will not be there. This was your state right after you were born, but you learned to exist in a mode of thought instead of observation. With practice you can go the other way and learn to quit the mode of thought and be in a mode of observation normally. This is not saying you will never think, but thinking is overrated and actually destructive when it is used as a mode of being. When thought is useful as a tool, it is to be taken out of the box, used to get a task done, then put away when the task is finished. Most of the actions you take during the day can be done without thought at all, and that is peace not only when you are riding, but also sleeping, walking, catching a baseball etc.. Good Luck.

Maelochs

Some people practice all their lives to achieve clarity, the "empty" mind. Now you know why.

There are all kinds of methods and exercises and techniques .... what Mr. Beng says is one way of approaching it.

I have been told that you need to let go of the habit of worry and fear and all that negative All Day Long if you want to be able to do anything free of them reliably. I need to train myself to let go of all the worry---which is purely imaginary---and to spend more energy noticing what is going on right now, right where I am .... fill my mind with sensation rather than imagination.

it has not proved easy.

I was going to make a joke about certain substances, and maybe micro-dosing ... which some serious people I know have actually tried with some success, but I do not actually recommend that.

Mostly I am just glad that you had that good ride and ... thanks for sharing.

And Mr. Beng ... I have Strongly disagreed with most of your posts heretofore, but this one is right on point (from my limited perspective.) Well and clearly stated. A pleasure to read. Thank you.

Jughed

Saw a youtube short from an Olympian gymnast...

Her coach listed the training rule of 1/3rd's. 1/3 of the time you may feel horrible, 1/3 you may just feel OK, 1/3 you may feel awesome.


Saturday AM I was in the better 1/3 - was having a beautiful ride, wide open farm road with 8' shoulders - then a bunghole in a bro dozer decided to come into the shoulder at 70 MPH+, buzz me and roll coal. After that my mind was in a different 1/3, one that wasn't covered by that coach.

Maelochs

"Homicidal" might fall under the "horrible" heading ....

Iride01 

That's odd to me. I say 9,999 rides are bliss and just 1 might have seemed like a slog. Sometimes I have to force myself to go riding, but when I do, I almost never regret it.

genejockey 

Most of my rides are pretty good, and I think the big thing is having built my fitness up enough that it's not the limiting factor. I can now do a 60 mile ride without the last 10 miles being a death march. But, yeah - the days when you feel like a Cycling God, when the bike and you are so in tune that you feel like a single unit, and you feel unstoppable? I have no formula for increasing the frequency of those.

staehpj1

Nope, Riding is always a joy when I do it. There have been times when it wasn't but I didn't ride then. Ususlly I found something else that gave me joy when that was the case. Rarely I was just surrendered to depression for a while. These days some mornings I wake up and say to myself that I need a day off. Almost always an hour later I get restless and go for a ride any way.

Pratt

The Two Rules:
#1 Safety First, because if it isn't safe, we shouldn't be doing it.
#2 Let's Have Fun, because if it isn't fun, we won't want to do it.
If the ride feels yucky, turn around and do something fun.

Maelochs

There is much more to it than just enjoying the ride, of course. It isn't so much that the bike and I can be One ... it is when I am zero and the ride is All.

A nice fun ride would also be welcome right now.

downtube42

Re: substances.

I was explaining to a friend about how with randonneuring, after a crap ton of miles, I get to a place where the world shrinks down to my immediate concerns: the road, the next turn, and how I feel at the moment. It's a great place to be, but a crap ton is somewhere upward of 200 miles. So much work. He laughed, said "you know, you can get there with drugs, right?" No, I don't know that.

Maelochs

Re a crap ton of stuff ... I have tried a crap ton of stuff ... lots of things get you to lots of different places .... and there is a cost for all kinds of travel.

Some people use psychotropic substances as tools ... some use them as vehicles .... but as far as I know, unless you do a whole lot of work, substances alone won't get you to the really good places and the prices can be really high.

Might have been Ken Kesey or not ... said something like once the Doors of Perception are open (he didn't use that term) you can't just keep opening the door and looking in. You need to actually go through it and travel around. I prefer not to ravel on a "magic carpet," so to speak ... after enough mileage on them to know what I like.

Medititation, presence of mind .... watching every thought and deleting the bad ones and ignoring most of them .... takes as much work as riding a couple hundred miles ... but the place you get ... well, you know.

PeteHski

I like this post a lot. It makes a lot of sense and is actually one of the things I like most about cycling and skiing. Those are the times when I do stop thinking and just observe. Do you recommend any books on this subject?

beng1

Pete, I would read Jiddu Krishnamurti's Commentaries on Living first series. It is a nice collection of short discussions he had with groups of people or individuals. I read a lot of books on Eastern Thought over the last 25 years, and in the end I don't think any others are necessary if you have this one. I like reading a real paper book, but here is a link to a pdf version I already downloaded just to see what it is about for free; https://selfdefinition.org/krishnamu...n_Living_1.pdf

Camilo

I think waking at 5 am is the problem

PeteHski

Many thanks for this link. I've started giving it a read and will see where it takes me. I have to say this is way off the beaten track for me, but very interesting.

GhostRider62

My wife always asked me what I think about on a long ride.

My response? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Something like 10% have general anxiety, 5% are clinically depressed, and 5% suffer from PTSD where quieting the front part of the brain is not so easy. Some activities help more than others, cycling is good because the alternating left/right motion tends to balance the autonomic nervous system for some. Drugs are not for me.

When I was a working professional, almost none of my tasks could be done without thinking and I wonder what kind of job does not require thought.

I'll ride with a slightly high parasymapthetic tone but will take a rest if the sympathetic gets out of wack. It has to feel good and fun

LarrySellerz

Had a ride like that yesterday morning. It wasn’t until I tried to go home that I realized I had a huge tailwind on my way in. No wonder it was so easy

retswerb

Ok, I guess I'll be a contrarian here - with no malice intended, just a different perspective. I find my mind and body to be quite separate (in a good way!) and I find thinking to be underrated and quite constructive as a rule.

Sure, there are times when I'm out on my bike and not much is going through my mind - I guess this is the observation mode you're referring to, and it can be enjoyable for a while. But far more often, and usually far more pleasurable to me, riding is a great way for me to occupy enough of my conscious mental processes so that the rest of my mind can run free. This can take the form of music running through my head, or light-hearted reminiscing, or idle thoughts about things I see while I'm riding. Often, though, it's a mental space where I'm free to process things that are going on in my life, interactions I've had recently, decisions I need to make, or the like. I find this space to be incredibly freeing and helpful, full of clarity and creativity that is sometimes otherwise elusive in my busy life. Rides like this are filled with reflection, prayer sometimes, and are a place of great peace for me. I wouldn't give up that experience of conscious thought for the world.

Maelochs

I do both .... the optimal state of existence---for me---is to have en empty mind, but that is so ridiculously rare .... and it doesn't have to be while riding.

Most rides, I am using a portion of my mind to ride the bike safely, and the rest takes a holiday, ruminates, creates, or sometimes because or personal situations, creates new problems.

But all the mind/body duality (or mind/body/spirit as some see it) is all just terminology. My finger is part of my body but it is also a finger ... cut it off it is still a finger. But even cut off it is a part of my body. Or is it ... if I have my gall bladder removed is it still part of me? If one of my kidneys is transplanted into someone else, is it still part of my body and also part of someone else's?

Just ways of looking at things. Like using Fahrenheit or Celsius, or English or Metric ..... Only when taken as absolute and/or exaggerated does the mental construct become a mental barrier.

Just ways of looking at things .... use the one which brings best results in a given situation.

Atlas95

Can't say I relate. Every ride is a joy to me.

beng1

Of course you do because the definition of an ego, a self, is the thinking that artificially separates itself from the rest of the universe. And of course thinking can be constructive but it is usually not. The planet's ecosystem on the edge of destruction, and all of the wars in the present and past, have all been the result of thinking. Before there were humans and thinking, the only threats to life on earth were asteroids or the sun burning out. The only true peace is when there is no thought at all, but what you and most people call peace, is not the cessation of thought, but simply being able to have thoughts that please you. Unless a human can take or leave thought at will, they will always be destructive and lacking the knowledge of what they and their world actually are.

Maelochs

The thinking mind is a useful tool for keeping alive until one reaches the level of being able to live entirely in the moment. I won't single out you Mr. Beng1, but i doubt anyone else here or much of anyone I have ever met Never thinks, or never uses the thinking mind.

In fact, pretty much every good teacher I have known starts with, "Think as little as possible but always think positive thoughts" to get the ball rolling, because jumping right in to having Zero thoughts all night and day is a really high level of enlightenment most never reach.

Can you honestly say that you have no "ego," no 'thinking mind," and that your mind is empty all the time?

I mean, good for you if that is the case, and all ......

zandoval 

Man... Ya just thinking about it too much...

Just as bad as taking too much... Ride on Stud!

alcjphil

At 73 years old, my favourite saying is that I can be just as good as I ever was....... Just not as often
Or for as long