The Search For Enlightenment

If you missed all the signs in the last few days, I embarked on a mini marathon of a bike ride today, cycling from Poole, in deepest Dorset, to Hanham in Bristol, partly to visit my girls, their men and my grandsons, but partly to test my physical and mental strength by riding a distance I haven’t attempted for years.

I’ve been riding a lot over the last few months, as you know, covering over 1100km since I started recording the data back in June. So I have a few miles under my belt and my level of fitness has risen, as my weight has fallen, and I was fairly confident that it wasn’t a ridiculous target.

But having faith in yourself and your ability, and knowing that you can reach your goal can be two entirely different things. So as I set off for Bristol, with all the preparations leading me to believe in myself, I knew that only reaching that destination would prove that my belief was founded on sound principles.

I made it, not without a fair amount of sweat, but happily no tears and my faith in myself proved to be well founded.

The parallel between this trip, and my journey along the path to enlightenment, to me, is really rather striking. Each hill, or challenge along the way, has to be confronted, each step takes energy and determination and there is always a degree of pain and maybe some doubt that the summit will be reached.

But with each challenge conquered, each hill surmounted, grows an ever stronger belief, that what you are doing is right, that the principles are sound, and that they won’t let you down.

My path to enlightenment presents me with challenges all the time, but as my confidence in my own strength and ability to ride a bike has increased with this little victory, so my faith in my Buddhist Principles grows each time they show me the way to overcome the next hurdle.