Sometimes you find yourself in a strange place, and then try to figure out if there’s a deeper meaning to be found in the experience. So it was when I found myself in the motorcycle charnel grounds on the second floor of The Cycle Den in Columbia.
It was a depressing place, as I imagine the charnel grounds in Tibet are with the giant vultures, but depressing in a different way. I looked at those old machines and saw the people that once owned and loved them.
These now decaying bikes represented freedom, adventure and escape. I remembered the quote by Hafiz: “Stay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive.”
It is said that the Buddha encouraged his students to meditate in the charnel grounds as a way of releasing the ultimate attachment: the attachment to one’s body and to this life itself. So despite the overwhelming sadness, I stayed to reflect on the impermanence of all things, and how the pursuit of pleasure is a paradox.
Dan Aykroyd once said: “You do not need a therapist if you own a motorcycle, any kind of motorcycle.” This may or may not be true, but having sold mine last fall I am now back in therapy.
I drive there in my SUV with the radio on and the feeling of safety that comes with four wheels and airbags. It’s as close to feeling alive as playing virtual golf, with a virtual caddie and drinking a virtual martini.
I love the photo. The text goes with really well with it.
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Thanks. There were some real beauties up there, old Harleys, BMWs and Indians but the florescent light messed me up. Not everything looks good in black and white.
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It seems that bike gave you a feeling of danger or something like that. Where cam you find it now?
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Most of the time just getting out of bed is a challenge. Not quite like going 75mph around turns on a Suzuki but close. Do you know that you’re one of the few people that will ever read my older posts? Thanks!
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I just discovered your tag “depression”. I didn’t notice it before.
Challenge and feeling some extreme are different things, aren’t they? Challenge is about I have to do it and extreme is about wow, that’s cool.
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I knew you clicked on the depression tag! Yes, the same with anxiety which can be felt as a feeling of excitement or fear depending on our thoughts which have no reality other than what we give them.
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I wish you to change your thoughts then, Mike! Life can be an exciting journey, not just frightening bad trip.
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We cant change what isn’t real Alena, its more a matter of not believing our thoughts.
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How then cognitive therapy works then? 🙂 It’s all about changing thought patterns.
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Its about recognizing thought patterns and how they screw us up. Although you’re the expert, I think. 🙂
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Recognizing is a good thing but not the only 🙂 I work in gestalt therapy but I use some things from CBT too.
Maybe you will find here something interesting:
https://www.therapistaid.com/therapy-worksheets/depression/none
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So you must be familiar with Fritz Perls who said to suffer one’s death and to be reborn is not easy.
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I’m surprised that you know 🙂
It’s not easy, did someone tell you it is?
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No its not easy. I’ve been studying psychology and philosophy since I was 12 to find a way out of my mind. A man walks into a bar looking for change: https://photographyocd.com/2018/04/05/can-you-change-yourself/
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Well, there’s things to accept and things to change. I tried to change myself and it led me to self-destruction. I tried to change the way I communicated with the world and it helped.
What did you try to find there (in psychology and philosophy)?
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I tried to find out why I make myself miserable by examining my thought patterns. They told me to drink heavily which was bad advice.
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You coped with it somehow, Mike. And it’s great I think. I’m glad you are alive. I have a person to talk with.
Examining yourself can be a torture and sometimes it’s just not needed.
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Thanks Alena, I agree that too much introspection can be like self torture and is unnecessary.
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