I am in Hong Kong (not anything like it in reality) and I am in a hotel (like the Adelphi Hotel that I stayed in in Liverpool recently) then walking across the flat roofs of buildings and I climb into the window of an attractive young woman that I am about to initiate into some sexual practice. As I look out again I have the impression that the buildling is moving quite quickly sideways. I jump out onto a nearby roof and realise that there is a huge earthquake about to happen and that this is going to be the end of the world. There is something hidden just beyond the end. A huge light falls apparently from the sky and I just avoid it as it smashes down onto the roof. Someone goes by on the road riding a motorcycle with sidecar. I pray and realise that afterall, the end of the world is a religious event and that I still go for refuge to Christianity.
biking
The cause of suffering is attachment
Last week my cranky old bicycle that I found ages ago that now has a broken saddle, wonky bottom bracket and dodgy gear changer and which I left unlocked outside my house was taken away. I was mildly annoyed at the inconvenience. Yesterday evening I came home to discover the cover of my new motorbike had been moved and my neighbour told me that she had disturbed someone fiddling with it. An hour later the whole cover had been removed. Clearly someone was casing it to see how easy it would be to steal and probably whether it was worth it. The result of that for me was intense anxiety and a strong sense of vulnerability and, today, one more lock on it and I moved it even closer to my front door.
The Buddha once asked a king how he would feel if a member of his family experienced distress or disgrace. The king replied that he would suffer intensely. the Buddha then asked him how he would feel if someone in his kingdom that he did not at all know were to experience distress or disgrace. The king replied that it would have little impact on him. The Buddha said that this shows that the cause of suffering is attachment.
Long way down
Tomorrow night BBC2 shows the third in the latest series of Ewan McGreggor and Charley Boorman driving large BMW motorbikes from the top of Scotland down to the sounthern tip of Africa. The previous series showed them driving from London across Asia to Alaska and the US to New York – an impressive trip. One recurring theme from the earlier trip was their annoyance at being recognised and treated as celebs when they were yearning for anonymity and just being the two ‘mates’. This time, we see them with t-shirts with their names writ large and clear on the back, not the best route to anonymity. Its a shame the style of these shows is unmistakably ‘reality tv’ because this genre insists tediously on making more of things than there is. The usual way they do this is by talking up some personal tensions between the people they are filming and there is a liberal helping of this spread across Long Way Down. It makes Charley and Ewan just come across as spoilt: having set up this venture with large sponsorship and filming deals, we see them complain about the schedule, the support people, etc etc. The fun part, for bikers at least, is the challenge of the journey and some vicarious thrills about the lovely kit, but you have to survive the other stuff for a few minutes of that kind of pleasure. I wonder whether I will get through to the end of the series. The BBC website on the series is good with some nice links to the BMW site.
My bike
Here it is outside my house. I’m still not quite sure what all the knobs do and have odd anxieties about the chain wearing a groove in something. I also still need to get better clutch/throttle control – its different to the Honda I learned on. Its fun though. this pic makes my street look terrible. Also its too big…..
Motorbikes small and big
Now that I am the smug holder of a full motorbike license I have been obsessively glued to ebay looking to start practising this pastime. Having not won a reasonably priced machine (Bandit 600) partly through inept bidding, my sights drifted toward a 1200cc Bandit in Hitchin, in an optimism that I could cope with the weight and power. But the insurance premium is over double the price for a 600cc machine so maybe not. Maybe the hike in premium reflects a hike in claims…
But the fading summer, and the end to my holiday on Friday, has put some urgency into this but I think patience and focus probably are the way to go. I’ve also ordered some interesting looking books: one is Noble Eightfold Path: Way to the End of Suffering by Bhikkhu Bodhi. Others are Adventure Motorcycling Handbook by an author I can’t remember and Ted Simon’s Jupiter’s Travels, about his biking around the world in the early 1970s.
passed
passed