Dharmawheels - Buddhist Bicycle Pilgrimage

Last September I spent two days riding my bike alongside 85 fellow sangha members as part of the Buddhist Bicycle Pilgrimage (BBP)—an annual event that bills itself as “2 Days – 137 Miles - 60,000 Breaths". We left Spirit Rock Meditation Center in West Marin on a chilly morning at 7 a.m. and arrived the next day at Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery near Willits in Mendocino County.

We rode some of the most beautiful—and at times hilly—terrain of Northern California, on freeways, small roads, and bike paths and through small towns and cities. We made stops at the Sae Taw Win II Dhamma Center, where we were hosted by the sangha of the wonderful lay Buddhist teacher Dr. Thynn Thynn, and at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, whose community was started by Venerable Master Hsuan Hua.

While that may not have been the Buddha himself people saw cycling past them down North State Street this past Sunday, it may well have been the spirit of the Buddha. On bikes decorated with multicolored prayer flags flapping in the wind, 60 riders, supported by more than 20 volunteers, came together for a unique two-day event. The third annual Buddhist Bicycle Pilgrimage took them on a 150-mile spiritual journey from Spirit Rock Meditation Center in West Marin, to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Talmage, and ending at Abhayagiri Monastery in Redwood Valley.

If life is a long road, some days are smooth and easy, a winding descent with a cool breeze at your back. Everything's rosy. Conversely, there are days like last weekend, when Alden Mudge dismounted his Lemond racing bike and quietly said, "I feel like soggy tuna."
 
Riding a bicycle 150 miles from Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County to Abhayagiri Monastery in Redwood Valley was no easy feat for Alden or for any of the seventy-five cyclists who braved the hundred degree heat for the second annual Buddhist Bicycle Pilgrimage. Bicycles broke down. Riders suffered dehydration and disorientation. And yet throughout it all, a sense of calm and goodwill prevailed.