Andersen

Davyn Andersen
Aaron L. Gasper
Health 1240-02
October 18th, 2014
Bicycling
Beneath an opaque black of a Saturday nights skyvacuous of any objects external to
the earthI rode my bicycle through the utilitarian and unwashed glow of the citys streetlights.
These lamps above, which noted in rhythm the ends of each darkened interim, fixed their circles
upon the paths below, dolling them a cloudy orange. That is, until I reached the incandescent
entity of an automobile dealership, whose white gleam, though still separated, gave out a unique
aspect. There, within each lights shine, I noticed my shadow. Peering downward as my
silhouette grew and dissolved while passing each post, I focused on the shape of my front bicycle
tire: it began as nothing, stretched at a backward angle into the shape of a spinning disk, and then
tilted forward and inward into a near nonexistence. This building and falling circle I compared
to the concept of samsra: the cycle of birth, life, and death, followed by reincarnation. And,
though I do not own the belief of any religion that contains a deity or complex explanation to the
cirlce of rebirth, it is my opinion that it is the true structure to existence.
So, with the given instance, I must claim that it is during these occasions where I am in
motion and my abstractions are central to my thoughts that I truly feel the effects of meditation.
I must also state that, though I usually enjoy the ornanmenation and scenery within the walls of
temples, I would rather feel more alive outside and beneath the open sky. And no greater
instrument allows me the opportunity to both think and act and do this than my bicycle.

Andersen

While meandering through the city on my bicycle, I am given a wide variety of things to
view and meditate upon: the people, the advertisements, the buildings, and all things natural and
unnatural that surrounds the areas of my location. Unorthodox to the common sitted meditation,
a simple bicycle ride allows me to take an unexpected amount of elements and guide them to
new directions in my imagination. While anchored with my eyes shut during traditional
meditation, I am unable to obtain the same amount of items as when I am alert, riding my
bicycle, and inspired by everthing within my vantage. Navigating along a river path from the
opposite side of the valley to the center of the main city, I observe a number of items of interest:
a snake rubbing its belly on the gravel to forward itself across the way; birds darting and
weaving within the surrounding trees whose foilage only half shades the concrete pass;
pedestrians, fishermen, picnickers, and other bicyclist who share the enjoyment of the trail;
monuments, parks, restaurants, trains and railroads, and all the myriads of ventures of human
prosperity; and plus the pollution and the whole of shambles of abandoned structures where a
likely failure occured. Within these changing tones of squaller, success, and that which
intentionally evolves to where it should be, my mind connects all my chosen items of interest
and forges new narratives involving them into something that, though ranging from unpleasant to
pleasant, is comforting in a manner of fact that I got lost in my own creation.
As I balance my bicycle and rotate its petals, I feel an addictive tension in my muscles.
Its a feeling that often wouldnt be considered relaxing, but given the physical achievements of
long distances, it allows me solace in my capabilities. There is health and grace in the entire act.
The volumes of blood and air circling my lungs and heart renew the cells of my body, impressing
upon my mind a general condition of well-being. My form maintains a climbing potential,
helping me to perceive a joy in accomplishment: a life not weighed by inactivity.

Andersen

A cycle often arrives in philosophy with the sequence build, preserve, and destroy: a
genesis, an existance, and an apocalypse. In Hinduism these ideas are personified by the deities
Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, each who adhere to the cavalcade in speaking. I margalize such
figures to mere symbols, as I do to the many beings forged from a history of imaginations,
although some will consider them existing and sacred. In actuality, the imaginations who forged
such fictional persons should be the powerful things revered, or possibly villainized, over those
characters that were created of them. They are the ones that produced and updated a different
world through the introduction of their ideas. Though not as achieved as others, I hold my own
imagination to the same great importance: I build my thoughts, attempt to preserve them, and
possibly let them be forgotten. For this I provide my own developed maxim: Imagining is the
act of creation, remembering is the act of discovering that which exists, and forgetting is the act
of not existing.
It is not only necessary to use and better an imagination, but to maintain one free of
burdening information. Thus, it is essential to find something healthyusually based on ones
own amusementto help keep a balanced mind. I bicycle to feel a cleaner mind, or find
something else that pushes my body to an enlivened state in hopes that my mind will follow. I do
this in the desire of liberating my mentality from what wishes to weigh it down. Such oppressing
and unnessary elements are needed to be freed also, as nothing of worth will be made of them if
they stay. And I will aspire that my mind, while I am in physical motion, will release to a proper
form in which all my thoughts will focus towards that of value. Although, creation is of grand
importance, it can produce both great good or evil; therefore preservation is the highest of
acheivements, and there is no better way to preserve than to maintain ones health by staying
active. I bicycle and celebrate the act all for these reasons.