Motorcycling, Then and Now
Motorcycling, Then and Now
Once upon a time, a man named “Art” believed that he was made of flesh and bones. It certainly appeared to be the case; for he–as were you–had been conditioned to believe the lies of his senses. Due to his forgetfulness about the Reality of his Being, he, therefore, assumed that the apparent highs and lows of life were real as real. He enjoyed life immensely when all was going well and suffered terribly when life was going poorly. He was deeply attached to his family and possessed by a strong drive to succeed. As so often happens in stories, life suddenly delivered a blow (divorce) that shocked Art to his very core. The family that he had loved so dearly was no more.
As part of his healing journey, Art set out upon ride after ride on Scout, his beloved Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 motorcycle. He intuited that the freedom afforded by the open road would be good for his spirit. Travelling by motorcycle also felt far less lonely than sitting by himself in an empty car. Several years, and thousands of kilometers, rolled by. Art rode west, north, south, and east in a futile attempt to leave the pain related to loss behind him. He rode long hours upon the saddle and stopped only briefly at sites along the way. Such was the apparent then part of the story.
***
Through the Light of Grace, awakening happened; which basically means that The Absolute, Universal Consciousness, knowingly re-cognized that It never had been Art–not now, nor ever. Art was merely a mind character in Lila, the play of Life. All of his apparent history–of marriage, family, career, and those long-distance rides on Scout–occurred only in the placeless place in which anything actually can take place: as a dream in Consciousness. Thus, it was also learned that Art (as he had assumed himself to be) was never the doer. This is the now part of the story; right here, where we awaken to All That Is Real, and discover that anything else is only apparently real.
***
I deliberately used the used the term then to refer to Art’s historical perspective; but please know that I am aware that any apparent motorcycling (and anything else that appears to occur for you or me) can only seemingly take place now. For those dear readers who may be wondering if it’s time to dial 911 and summon help, I offer the following quote from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and his spiritual classic entitled I Am That:
“Both sleep and waking are misnomers. We are only dreaming.True waking and sleeping only the gnani [knower, sage] knows.We dream that we are awake, we dream we are asleep.The three states are only varieties of dream state. Treating everything as a dream liberates.”
I also offer the following few sentences from Open Secret, by Wei Wu Wei (Terence Gray):
“Our dreamed ‘selves,’ autonomous in appearance, as in life, can be seen in awakened retrospect to be puppets totally devoid of volitional possibilities of their own. Nor is the dream in any degree dependent on them except as elements therein. They, who seem to think that they are living and acting autonomously, are being dreamed in their totality; they are being activated as completely and absolutely as puppets are activated by their puppeteer. Such is our apparent life, on this apparent earth, in this apparent universe.”
I’ll wrap up this article with a quote that is attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha:
“Events happen, deeds are done, but there is no individual doer thereof.”
If you, dear spiritual brothers and sisters, are going through your own apparent trials and tribulations, please take heart. Contemplate what has been shared within the lines of this article. The true YOU is divine, immortal, and untouched. Are you really only name and form…or so much more?
Dare to dream (and care for one another).
With heartfelt regards,
Art
Copyright © – 2021 – R. Arthur Russell
P.S. Please share this article if you enjoyed it. If you’d like to view my latest book (This Taste of Flesh and Bones–released September 8, 2020), press here. May it help you in your spiritual journey. 
“Thank You” & “Note to Publishers”
