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.

All of this was an excuse to practice together— not only in the meditation and dharma centers where we regrouped, fueled, rested, and received teachings, but also on the ride itself, where all aspects of the trip were practice. Instead of sitting on a cushion for many hours in order to pay attention to the state of our minds and tend to the weather of our hearts and the discernment, and appropriate response. It involves unifying our experience so that we are able to see clearly and respond accordingly.

When do I need to relax more during the ride? When is it time to push the pace? What brings balance and more ease when I am having a difficult time? What is the difference between pain and suffering? How do I let go into the immediacy of what is happening and release all the ideas and beliefs about what I imagined would happen? How do I use the skills and experience I have developed as a bike rider without creating the identity of a bike rider? What happens when I let go of all concepts and become one with the bike, the road, the other riders? What creates suffering as I ride? What brings freedom? fluctuations of our physical experience, we sat on our bikes.

Here we meditated on our attitudes and ideas and the various stories about how the ride was going. Like meditators waiting for the bell to ring in the meditation hall, we might have wondered how much further there was to go until the next rest stop. When the ride was going well, we might have entertained thoughts of being the next Lance Armstrong. And when we’d been going uphill for ten minutes and hadn’t gotten anywhere near the top, we might have lamented what poor riders we were. On the cushion, this type of mind activity translates as “I’m a good meditator, I’m a bad meditator.”

Practicing while riding means paying attention to the ups and downs of how we are feeling both emotionally and physically and then applying the fitting skillful means, as we would on the cushion. Like any art—such as the art of meditation— biking involves mindfulness, concentration, In addition to mindfulness, concentration, inquiry, and discernment, a number of other dharma principles came to the fore during the BBP, including generosity and the jewel of sangha.

In the monastic tradition, the teachings are offered freely as an expression of dana. In the same spirit, everyone on the BBP contributes to make the ride happen. Some people give through organizing and planning the ride. Some lead training rides that begin early in the year so that participants are well prepared for the trek. Many people help pay for the food and supplies that are needed. Some donate food or cook for the hungry cyclists. Others ride in support vehicles to help with flat tires or lost riders.

One of the greatest gifts was the presence of Ajahn Amaro, the co-abbot of Abhayagiri, who generously gave his time over the two days by leading formal teachings to begin and end each day. He also joined other monks in greeting riders at every rest stop with encouragement, appreciation, and dharma. I was also struck by the presence of sangha on the ride. One of the three jewels of the Buddhist world along with the Buddha and the dharma, sangha points to the importance of the community of practitioners. The BBP is a convergence of two wonderful sanghas— the community of Buddhist practitioners and the community of bike riders. Inherent to both groups is a fundamental dharma principle: we don’t do it alone. We don’t practice alone and we don’t ride alone.

In other words, we need one another for the dharma or the biking to reach fruition. As part of our understanding and awakening, we recognize that when we enter the world of biking or dharma—or simply an awakened life—we partake of a community that started long before us and will continue beyond us. We see that whatever we have learned is not separate from what others have done before us.

The Buddha’s awakening is still reverberating throughout time and space along with the lives of all the practitioners who followed him. The joy and adventure of the first cyclists continues as it is expressed in our own love and happiness as we ride today. Dharma means that we see from the big picture; we see how things are. This maturity of vision implies our comprehension of the great net of interconnectedness, the universal sangha that holds us on the bike, in the dharma, and in all of life.

Eugene Cash (Center) and BBP Riders at the Gates of City of Ten Thousand Buddhas (Day 2)

This article was originally published in the San Francisco Insight Sangha News Vol 7 No 2, May 2008.