berts

I have started a form of meditation about 2 years ago and am still developing the "art".


I wonder how many other cyclists from our generation are involved in some sort of meditation.

brigadon

yes

DnvrFox

Not specifically, but on my long, nature-oriented (Away from traffic on a beautiful uncrowded bicycle path) easier rides, I approach something like meditation.

Faust

I started meditating about twenty years ago. The best means of centering I have ever found is the Rajneesh mirror meditation utilizing biofeedback between the eyes and a candle. With practice, this meditation eventually brings the wandering mind to absolute center. The effect is startling and profound; real meditative absorption with insight can then progress.

bmike

I'm not in the 50+ category... but I aspire (yes, aspire, try, want, wish) to sit zazen. It comes and goes throughout the year, depending on the seasons...

Comparing to other things would defeat the purists and anyone serious about Zen, but I find there is a similarity to cycling - especially spinning hills or putting my head down in the big ring on a flat. I didn't realize until sitting at the Zen center one afternoon that I would mentally count my cadence or my breaths while riding, very similar to beginners' exercises to control thoughts and breathing.

bernmart

I've been doing Transcendental Meditation for more than thirty years. Before I began I suffered from headaches and constipation. Both went away within a couple of months, and have never recurred. More important, since beginning to meditate I've done most of the adventurous, life-affirming things that I value, including cycling.

Serenity is tricky to define, though, as it is to achieve: most people would say I'm as big a pain in the ass as ever.

cc_rider

I've always refered to my bike rides as my "rolling meditation."
I focus on breathing while riding. I try to put my focus on the "now", fully mindful of the present and everything around me. Works best on solo rides.

Out side of riding, I do Ki breathing leaned in Aikido. Also visulization excercises. Sometimes do guided meditations with others, but not often.

berts

I started practicing Falun Gong. The physical practice includes 5 exercises the last of which is a sitting meditation in lotus position for one hour. It seems to provide some kind of benefit which I may describe most succinctly as increased "inner strength". Ability to practice seems not to have any relation to actual physical strength however after practicing, physical strength seems to improve.
Getting back to biking, it seems to me that biking presents the opportunity to practice "rolling meditation" and in fact this may be one of the factors attracting bikers to bike and the desire to meditate or remove oneself from reality may in fact be a common character of many cyclists. Riding up a 6% grade at 15 mph today I concentrated on nothing in particular and attempted to remove the thoughts of suffering, which I successfully did for a couple of minutes. Should I be able to do this for several hours - who knows TDF 2008 here I come- at the age of 57. Of course pure meditation should not be related to such banal objectives.

Your Therapist

I went to a Vipanassa Yoga retreat 20 years ago. That was 10 days of meditation for 8 hours a day. The first 2 days were brutal. Then it became much easier. By the time the 10th day arrived, I didn't want to leave.

I have since returned to Pune, India 4 times for similar retreats.

I can't say that I meditate every day. But I do practice it at least once a week for an hour.

I wouldn't call it an art though.

ohiorider

Sorry guys but I personally think this 'off topic' subject would best be placed on a "Religions of the World" cycling forum.


Ohio

Digital Gee

Ah, but meditation does not equal religion. Two different beasts. So to speak.

foggydew

Sorry Ohiorider but I have to agree with some of the other posters. When I reflect upon my life as a cyclist AND a meditator, the BEST cycling and the BEST meditation occurred together. It was as if they were driving each other. The more I cycled the more I meditated; the more I meditated, the more I cycled. And as I progressed, expanded in each of these very personal disciplines, I reached a state that I can only describe as a calmness in my soul. So for me, and obviously many others, meditation and cycling are interconnected, and thus a VERY relevant topic in this forum. This is NOT religion but just one state of being human...

bernmart

Me too. The meditation I practice has Hindu roots, but I'm not a Hindu by any means. And there is a connection between activities like cycling, running, backpacking, archery, etc. and the calm centeredness one seeks through meditation. foggydew described the interplay between meditation and cycling perfectly.

bmike

Well put.

I had an incredible summer last year cycling, meditating, and working in my shop. Everything seemed to compliment each other. Aspects of this life have become so interwoven that its not easy to seperate how working with my hands, cycling, meditating, and getting a good xc ski, snowshoe, or hike makes me feel.

Those feelings of being "in synch" come and go - but the more I do any of them, the more I realize life isn't easily put into little boxes - and training is life - be it a ride, a spiritual practice, or an artistic endeavor.

Life is grand here in the Green Mountain State...

pgoat

I agree meditation and religion are 2 separate thingys - make yoga #3 on the list....I am too hyped and nervous these days to meditiate (a shame since that is exactly what I need!), but I am doing some simple beginner's yoga postures 4-5 days/week minimum and they have really helped, mentally, spiritually and physically - I can get much more aero on the bike. Just helps me get 'centered' on a regular basis...just my 2 cents.

Blackberry

For me it's not "Meditation and Cycling." It's "Meditation IS Cycling."

foggydew

...or Cycling IS Meditation.

aabcdelight

This site describes a meditation that is not self-hypnotic (mantras and such). Anyone with problems like smoking ,drugs etc. can drop those easy without effort. Careful because this exercise pulls one back from being lost in feeling and thought and old forgotten traumas can bubble up. Thats actually a good things because that how they leave. Seeing them objectively without reacting to them renders them harmless and they just burn off.


https://mysite.verizon.net/chromotome1776/

Road Fan

I learned TM perhaps 33 years ago, and have practiced it off and on since then.

Road Fan Ken

indiadream

Hi There,I think meditation and bicycling can be parts of the same experience,if not that experience in itself. Just like when I used to motorcycle,that could also be a very meditative experience,partly because of the rapid hypnotic pulsing movement rushing by,but also because of the feeling of losing the sense of myself as I became the consciousness of that experience. I especially find it more meditative now when I am pedaling up a steep exhausting hill,because it is easier to forget my tired exertion as i become the experience of bicycling. Charles