The Joy of Sects Ride Report

Yesterday the Bike Temple embarked on it's highly anticipated debut event, The Joy of Sects Ride, a Pedalpolooza ride designed to teach your average citizen a little something about a religion and it's facilities that they possibly knew nothing about.

We started at Colonel Summers Park, allowing a little time for mingling and late-comers before getting started (one great practice I learned from Brad and Heather of Easy Riders is to start a ride 30 minutes after it's posted time, giving those on bike time a chance to show.) At the park The Bike Temple introduced itself and it's intentions to the group, which at it's strongest was somewhere around 40 people. We explained the ambitions and vision of the Bike Temple and answered questions from the crowd, who was very eager to learn about the great things that are coming from this group.

We left Colonel Summers and headed to our first stop, the Metanoia Peace Community, a United Methodist Church that is located in a large, beautiful house in the Irvington community. Many of the members live in the building and help to maintain the building and run the small publishing business therein, creating books that help those facing tragedy and loss. We were greeted by the Pastor, John Schwiebert, who sat us down in the living room and gave us a brief summery of their faith and practices, as well as answered questions from the group. More information on the Metanoia Peace Community can be found on their website.

After Metanoia we headed southeast to the Multnomah weekly Quaker Friends meeting at Stark and 43rd.  A representative named Lew came out to the front and told us all about the history and practices of the Quaker faith, which includes the practice of total consensus when making decisions among other things.  Lew also answered some questions from the crowd and would have taken us on a tour but sadly we ran out of time at that stop.  You can learn more about the Quaker Meeting here.

We then headed to the Dharma Rain Zen Center, where Jyoshin met with us and led us into the building.  We all took off our shoes and sat in the beautiful building while Jyoshin talked to us about the Buddhist practice of meditation and inner vision.  The Dharma Rain Center is open to the public and designed to give the everyday person a chance to envolve themselves in the teaching and practice of Buddhism.  See their website for details and schedules.

From Dharma Rain we headed downtown for a quick stop at the First Unitarian Church and the Beth Israel Jewish Congregation.  Due to some unfortunate and very last-minute events these facilities were unable to provide us with a representative to speak to the group, but we took the opportunity to explore their campuses and talk amongst ourselves about what good could be done within the cycling community by a religiously-focused group like the Bike Temple.  This sparked some great conversation and discussion by some very intelligent and forward-thinking people.  It was a great experience.

For our final stop we rode up to NE to the Lotus Seed Ashram.  The Lotus Seed is a community of residents who practice and teach yoga in a large and beautiful church building that was formerly home to Portland's first black congregation.  The leader of the community, Wren, brought us into the chapel and talked to us about what the Lotus Seed does and it's goals for the future.   It was great to sit back in a pew and take in the light from the stained glass windows.  The Lotus Seed site has more information on classes and event schedules.

It was a great pleasure to lead this ride with such an amazing group of people.  Everyone was respectful and open-minded at each stop, and the questions and discussions that stemmed from them were very inspiring.  After Wren wrapped up at the Lotus Seed many of us stood around outside talking about what could be done next, and Pasture Ted collected contact information and passed out membership forms.  If you are interested in getting involved in projects and events like this, feel free to email us.  

Thanks to everyone who came and all of the representatives at our stops.  This was a very fun and informative ride for us all.

For more (better) pics and coverage see those by bikeportland.org here

Prayers Per Hour - Using Your Bicycle Wheel as a Prayer Wheel

The prayer wheel has long been a tool of Tibetan Buddhists to continually recite prayer. The consistent and even motion is perfect for sending light and mantra out into the world.

As cyclists we have an opportunity to do the same, even as we commute, race, and ride mysteriously at midnight. The process, as explained here, is to get into the rhythm of the bicycle, and envision your wheels shooting out light and good will to the world...

You start off with getting yourself into a basic bicycling meditation. When your breathing is feeling like it is flowing naturally, and your body is relaxed and working smoothly on the bicycle, you can stay there as long as you like -- and you can chose to begin the next part of any of the meditations below if and when you're ready.

In your mind, see the prayer you have selected for this ride on each spoke of your bicycle wheel. If two wheels are too much to track, pick just your front or your back wheel. Imagine the prayers circulate with each turn of each of your wheel.

Now, you visualize light beams coming out of the prayers in your bicycle wheel, illuminating you and purifying you of any ill-health and the causes of ill-health, your negative thoughts and the imprints of these left on your being. Ride for this for a while — this is a good enough meditation for one ride as it is.

If you can, then visualize the light illuminating not just you, but everyone around you. It's often easier to visualize the light to those you care about, so send it to your children, your spouse, your parents, to your friends - all those who you'd like to see be purified and healed. If you can, send out the light to all around you, to your community, and out to the world.

Awesome! After all, isn't that what it's all about? Using the bicycle as a spiritual tool to bless and improve the lives of yourself and those around you?

One could take this a step further and modify a bicycle wheel into a literal prayer wheel, forever spinning Om Mani Padme Hum for the benefit of those they pass.