Swing

To transcend the endless cycle of death and rebirth, what the Buddhists call samsara, you’ve got to eliminate desire.  

Easier said than done, and there’s also that tricky paradox of how go about eliminating the desire to eliminate desire.

But the toughest nut to crack, if you ask me, is that it’s not just a matter of addressing the desire to avoid pain; what’s really difficult is overcoming the desire to grasp for what feels good.  

Equanimity means that we’re equally unmotivated by both pain and pleasure.  We’re able to sit in the middle of either and simply observe without running away from the former or running towards the latter.

This is why I’ll probably be back around for another go at it after this lifetime.  In spite of all my efforts (and effortless non-efforts), I just can’t quit all the delights that are afforded to us in our human forms right here on planet Earth.

Chief among these are those made available via the bicycle, which include, but are not limited to seeing your shadow animate on the railing of a freeway bridge as you soar over eight lanes of traffic on a perfect summer evening in the upper left-hand corner of the continent.

Or arriving, thanks to the kindness of compatriots with better navigating skills, at a lakeside grotto that not only makes possible the summertime holy grail of water and fire combined, but also affords ingress into submersion via a rope swing, just like in the movie version of life.

Or having more watermelon than can be consumed, even though it’s presented for consumption in multiple ways, including as a globe for individual teeth-sinking in one’s own favored longitude and latitude.

All these (and more) are why I’m pretty sure that at the instant of death or soon after, when faced with the opportunity to merge into the Oneness of All, I just don’t see how be able to pass up one more ride.