Put your mask aside and look into yourself

A young wife was concerned that her husband didn't notice her any more and told her husband.
Well, the next day, the husband comes home and the wife asks him, "Do you notice anything about me?"
The husband looks her up and down and says, "You've had you hair done."
"No," says the wife.
He thinks for a bit and says, "You're wearing new shoes."
"No, you gave them to me last Xmas."
He thinks again and says, "I know you've had your nails done."
"No," she answers.
The husband gives up and asks, "Well I don't know, what's different?"
The wife replies, "I'm wearing a gas mask!!

Everyone of us wears masks to make ourselves presentable to the people around us knowing pretty well that we are playing a hoax on ourselves. We refuse to take off our mask lest the others consider us to be nerds. We want acceptance from society, we are constantly on the look out for their approval, and so we are desperate in our attempts to please them. Have you ever thought about why you are doing what you are doing? "But that comes naturally," say some of the smart ones, "Aren't we supposed to be one among the crowd?". Not necessarily. All you need to know is what you are doing and why you are doing it. And it is not an easy thing to do. It may be easy to earn a million dollars, but it takes a tremendous amount of intelligence to find out about the simple answers to life. And only meditation can make you aware of your life's existence. All you have to do is sit silently and observe the flood of thoughts that take you hostage without reacting to them. Slowly, the thoughts fade away into the background leaving you with an unbounded joy. From that silent space springs forth a life that is devoid of all the trammels of society. And it is that that makes a life worthwhile. Not your power, not your prestige, not your loads of money or fame. The day man realises that, he truly becomes a human being from a human doing.

All my efforts at cycling those hundrends of thousands of miles over the years has been an effort to create that silent space inside me. Cycling and meditation? What a weird combination, people ask me. But they forget to realise that when I go on a long bike ride, my body and mind are so tired that they stop their rebellious ways and give in to my soul. And a natural calmness descends of me which is beyond words. To achieve the same state, it takes years in sitting meditation, because the body and mind are not in tune with each other.

Went on a long 25 mile bike ride yesterday, after more than a week. It was a mindblowing experience, and the silence that had descended on me is too good to explain. I was simply a buddha, pure and unadulterated. That is what the buddhas has been saying all through the ages. Everyone is a buddha, only some of them realises it. And everytime I go on these marathon bike rides, I become one. So keep biking and keep healthy and happy.