Thursday

This morning is turning out to be a pleasant surprise. It's warm and sunny. Quite different from the forecast last night. As the miles pass I reflect on how riding feels good, even now, after 14 straight hours in the saddle.

As anyone who travels on a motorcycle knows, riding is so much more than a system of transportation. It's more like a state of being. It induces an altered perspective through which we perceive common everyday life using a different mental and emotional filter. At least it does for me.

It's clear that riding heightens most experiences. From a physical point of view, our total senses (smell touch, sight, hearing) are greatly stimulated. Anyone who has ridden in the cool, brisk, autumn air knows how good the coffee tastes at the upcoming stop (whether or not the coffee is actually good).

And it's more than that. It's the state of mind and emotion that riding puts me in. When riding, I find myself more open to the world and anything going on. More available, better disposed. And it often puts me in a state of what I call reflective meditation. Of being more grounded in the moment, more aware.

Of course I've done my share of multi-tasking and burning the candle at both ends. Was even proud of it. The pitfall is that, by definition, multi-tasking means we are never fully focused.

We delegate as much as possible to autopilot as we allocate fleeting parts of our attention and hence fail to fully live the moment, any moment. In fact, we can become sufficiently good at multi-tasking that we multi-task our lives away. Goal-attainment becomes the goal.

I'm reminded of the old Buddhist monk who was asked how to find nirvana. His simple reply was: "When eating, eat. When sleeping, sleep." In other words, focus fully on experiencing what I'm doing, without distracting thoughts (of what was or what is to come).

In time, I've found side benefits that result from tuning in to being more aware. For one, the opportunity for pleasure and a state of well-being increases dramatically.

My understanding is that each of our lives contains both obvious and more subtle pleasures. The obvious ones, by definition, are easy to identify. Any major good thing that happens to us qualifies.

However, the more subtle ones are sprinkled throughout our lives and not apparent. They lurk behind clues, waiting to be uncovered (or discovered).

So for argument's sake, what if God (or whatever you deem your higher power to be?) decided he would sprinkle happiness throughout our lives and announced to us that he would leave clues. But nothing obvious.

As we chase what we consider to be happiness (the obvious events), we may pass by countless subtle clues and not recognize them.

My sense is that these clues are delicate and fragile, like flower petals. They cannot withstand our ceaseless heavy-footed trampling as we multi-task away while answering pager and cell phone calls even as we are at the bathroom!

It occurs to me that we already tune in this way when we participate in competitive rallies. There are certain bonus points that are obvious and other, more subtle ones that require more attention in order to identify.

I wonder. Might life also be like that?

Bruno
Montreal, Canada