Achieving Balance in the Modern World
For Rebecca
First published in the UK in 2012 by
Leaping Hare Press
210 High Street, Lewes
East Sussex BN7 2NS, UK
www.leapingharepress.co.uk
Text copyright © Ben Irvine 2012
Design and layout copyright © Ivy Press Limited 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording or by any information
storage and retrieval system, without written
permission from the copyright holder.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library
Print ISBN: 978-1-908005-47-2
ePub ISBN: 978-1-78240-027-1
This book was conceived, designed and produced by
Leaping Hare Press
Creative Director PETER BRIDGEWATER
Publisher SUSAN KELLY
Commissioning Editor MONICA PERDONI
Art Director WAYNE BLADES
Senior Editor JAYNE ANSELL
Designer GINNY ZEAL
Illustrator SARAH YOUNG
Colour Origination by Ivy Press Reprographics
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
A Balanced Mind
CHAPTER ONE
The Greatest Invention
CHAPTER TWO
Freewheeling
CHAPTER THREE
Round the Block
CHAPTER FOUR
Round the World
CONCLUSION
A Balanced Life
Index
Further Reading & Resources
Acknowledgements
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Above all, a huge thank you to Rebecca Watts. Her advice, attention to detail, creativity, and all-round support made this book so much better and writing it so much more enjoyable.
Thanks also to Mark Powell and Daniel James Paterson, who read my drafts and advised on technical matters relating to cycling and Einstein’s work.
This book wouldn’t have been possible without Cycle Lifestyle, a project that has involved numerous contributors; I am grateful to them all, especially Dominic Tyerman, Gareth Jenkins, Adam Copeland, Jon Haste, David Amos and Morris Lautman at Barclays Print, Matt Dettmar, Rose Stowell, Richard Lawson and Stuart France.
I am also grateful to the publishing team at Ivy Press for giving me this opportunity and being so personable and helpful throughout, and to Mark Williamson for putting us in touch.
Finally, thanks to the authors Walter Isaacson, Robert Penn, Richard Layard, Jonty Heaversedge and Ed Halliwell for writing the books that, more than most, inspired mine.
If I tell you that riding a bicycle can make
you think like Albert Einstein, you probably
won’t believe me. Einstein was one of history’s greatest
scientists. Riding a bike is as easy as – well, riding a
bike. What if I remind you of the famous photograph
of Einstein cheerfully pedalling along? You might
wonder whether wearing trousers that are too short
or a buttoned-up cardigan can make you any
more like this enigmatic genius
than cycling ever could.
Great thinkers are often as mysterious to us as the mysteries their pioneering work helped explain. Einstein was no different. His life was full of eccentricities, surprises and contrasts, and at first it’s not obvious we can learn much from them.
EINSTEIN WAS A REBEL (or a ‘lazy dog’, as one of his college professors put it), and took nine years to get an academic job after graduating – yet in one legendary ‘miracle year’, while working as a patent clerk in 1905, he published four astonishing papers that revolutionized physics. He was a committed believer in truth and the mathematical structure of reality – yet he declared that ‘imagination is more important than knowledge’, and loved to play the violin. He valued simple, homely pleasures, preferring to help local children with their homework over adopting the gaudy trappings of his success – yet he became a global celebrity, a self-styled world citizen, and an impassioned advocate of international government. He was a scatterbrain who often forgot to wear socks and eat lunch – yet he campaigned unflaggingly for democracy, racial equality and pacifism.
I thought of that while riding my bicycle.
ALBERT EINSTEIN (1879–1955), ON HIS THEORY OF RELATIVITY
A socialist who championed freedom, a loner who cared deeply for humanity, a non-believer who saw the universe as God’s handiwork – Einstein was Time magazine’s ‘person of the century’, yet also the inspiration behind E.T. and Yoda. On his deathbed he was still scrawling equations.
The wonderful world of Einstein contains all this, and more. What a jumbled-up genius! Or so it can seem; but one man’s jumble is another man’s blend. Just as Einstein’s theories spied unity in the diversity of nature, his own life was more coherent than a first glance suggests. The local and the global, the individual and the social, the creative and the practical – in Einstein’s world each was perfectly harmonized. None was sacrificed for the others. His worldview was balanced. And that’s why Einstein and cycling belong together.
This book is about how cycling can help us all achieve the same mindful balance that Einstein managed – between local, global, individual, social, creative and practical ways of living. In the modern world it often seems as though we have to choose between each of these, but on a bicycle we don’t, because cycling threads them all together, into a glorious feeling of wellbeing. Local sensibilities meet broad horizons, expansive freedoms meet friendly communities, buzzing imaginations meet useful skills. Just as Einstein scaled intellectual peaks and saw previously unseen and wonderful patterns, the humble bicycle can help us rise above our hectic lives, shaping our views of the world and of one another for the better.
‘There are two ways to live life,’ Einstein once remarked: ‘as though nothing is a miracle, and as though everything is.’ Living mindfully is like experiencing everything as a miracle. If you’re curious about what that means, then in a way you already know.
IN EXPERIENCING EVERYTHING AS A MIRACLE, Einstein didn’t go around constantly proclaiming ‘It’s a miracle’ and dropping to his knees. He was simply in a state of wonder – being curious. He was keeping aware of things around him, paying attention to what he saw, and observing little details. Rather than cruising through life on autopilot, or ignoring the world as though it were a car alarm unnoticed in the background, Einstein remained alive to his surroundings and the amazing secrets they might reveal. He lived as if constantly enthralled by the flickering flames of a fire.
I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.
EINSTEIN
Meditation isn’t just for hippies trying to connect with another dimension. Usually people practise meditation – whether Buddhists or businessmen – for the thoroughly down-to-earth reason that mindfulness is a practical skill we can improve in, with benefits proven by science. It’s like exercising. Just as we can build up our muscles by going to the gym, we can become more mindful by meditating, actually altering our brains in the process. Through disciplining our curiosity, we can learn to focus better.
We might discover a lot more about ourselves and the world around us if we were able to pay more attention to the present moment, right here and now.
FROM ‘THE MINDFUL MANIFESTO’
DR JONTY HEAVERSEDGE & ED HALLIWELL, HAY HOUSE, 2010
Although the goal of mindfulness is to approach everything curiously, meditation usually begins with being curious about ourselves. This isn’t because meditators are self-obsessed – quite the opposite. Meditation, like charity, begins ‘at home’, since this is where we get distracted most easily. We get caught up in our thoughts, sensations and feelings, either trying to suppress or vent them or worrying about their origins and consequences. Being mindful of ourselves in meditation helps us avoid these struggles. Instead of judging our thoughts, sensations and feelings, we become curious about them. We simply witness them passing through the present moment like clouds in natural formations. In using one part of our minds to calmly observe another, we allow the contents of our inner lives to find their own balance, and we become more curious about the world outside.
Sometimes when performing a task mindfully, we enter a state that psychologists call flow – also known as being ‘in the zone’. We become so focused we lose ourselves, that is, we forget about our own minds in whatever we are doing – whether playing sports or music, creating an artwork, knitting, doing the gardening, or writing a book. Although mindfulness and flow are seemingly very different experiences, there is an intuitive connection between them. Our minds drift into flow whenever we’re fully at peace with our thoughts, sensations and feelings.
Being in flow is one of the greatest human pleasures. The more we experience flow, the happier our lives are. Maybe that’s why Einstein, who had legendary powers of concentration, was so cheery.
Most probably, though, his happiness was a cause as well as an effect of his prolific output. We commonly hear that geniuses are tortured souls, but surely this isn’t entirely true. Even tragic figures like Vincent van Gogh, Friedrich Nietzsche and Samuel Beckett were able to stop agonizing for long enough to get on with their prodigious labours – and, in general, the more contented we are, the more productive and creative we are. ‘Be regular and ordered in your life,’ advised Flaubert, ‘so you can be violent and original in your work.’
MINDFUL BREATHING
One of the aims of meditating is to learn how to be. This may sound peculiar, but that’s because most of us are more familiar with doing than being. If we’re not racing around busily, then our minds are. There’s always something to worry about.
Beneath all this agitation, one part of us keeps a steadier pace – our breathing. We can use our breath as an anchor, to remind us to stay in the present for a while. We don’t need to worry about breathing. We do it automatically. It is the basis of our being, the gentle rhythm of our lives.
Find a quiet place, and a firm surface to sit on. Try to sit as straight as possible, perhaps cross-legged on the floor, or upright on a chair. Keep your lips slightly apart, and just breathe naturally. As you begin to settle, notice the in-and-out rhythm of your breath. Don’t try to control it. Let it be. Place your attention on the paths of your breath – through your nostrils, past your lips, into your throat, and in and out of your chest and abdomen. Observe all these sensations.
You’ll find that your mind keeps getting distracted. That’s utterly normal. The aim of meditation is not to have an empty mind. Simply notice your thoughts and feelings as if they were spots of rain on a windowpane. Rather than getting caught up in them or shielding yourself from them, just bring your attention gently back to your breathing. Over and over again, return to your breath, a base-camp for your wandering mind.
Try this meditation for ten minutes, and you’ll have experienced your first taste of mindfulness – some breathing space, in a hectic modern world.
Recent times have seen a lot of interest, including scientific research, into how we can live more happily, and various themes recur. Happiness, it seems, has multiple causes – including learning, giving, exercising, supportive families, caring communities, job satisfaction, financial stability, security, health, values, political freedom, flow… and mindfulness.
Being mindful is arguably the most important of these. For one thing, it helps us avoid being unhappy. Through being aware of ourselves – the way we think, the way we act, the way we react – we can avoid getting caught in the negative patterns of behaviour that are characteristic of anxiety, depression or addiction. We can learn to let unwanted impulses go, and relax.
Mindfulness also promotes the other causes of happiness. Sometimes the connections are quite specific. For instance, being mindful strengthens our immune systems, and has been proven to have a positive effect on illnesses such as Aids and cancer, as well as psychosomatic conditions and chronic pain. Being mindful helps us to learn, by making us curious. It helps keeps our finances stable by costing nothing, and by encouraging conscientiousness in all areas of our lives.
This example hints at the most general connection between mindfulness and happiness. In learning to be mindful we become better at understanding ourselves, noticing how our behaviour makes us feel, and being aware enough to make changes. We nurture ourselves, becoming our own mentor, and choose to fill our lives with things that bring us happiness.
If this still sounds a little self-obsessed, then don’t worry – many of the causes of happiness are very sociable. The most obvious example is giving – being kind, helpful or generous towards others. Giving is more likely to make us happy than selfishness is, as counter-intuitive as that may sound. The same goes for having moral values, through which we aspire to give others the treatment we would want to receive ourselves.
Mindfulness, too, is sociable. At the very least it helps us pay more attention to others; but, more than this, understanding ourselves helps us to understand others better too, so we develop a heightened sense of empathy and compassion. We approach others in the same non-judgemental way that we approach ourselves, which makes us less critical and defensive in our interactions. Mindful people tend to be better communicators, and have relationships that are more satisfying and less troubled by conflict and stress.
The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving.
EINSTEIN
When our families and communities are built from these kinds of mindful relationships, our lives are enriched with ‘social capital’ – all those friendly and useful social engagements that occur within groups of people. Economists often think of social capital as a resource, equivalent to possessions or money, but that’s only part of the story. What we notice most when we are lucky enough to have a lot of social capital in our lives is not the increased efficiency or profitability of our days, but the warm sense of belonging each day brings.
You may be thinking that it’s easy to be mindful when you’re sitting by a mountain stream, happy when you’re enjoying good company, or compassionate when you’re a nun, but it’s not always so easy for those of us in the modern world. Being mindful is hard when we’re bombarded with distractions. Advertisements provoke desires we didn’t know we had. News reports shock us with catastrophes, crimes and controversies. Bombastic celebrities make the calm seem dull. Our inboxes fill up too fast for us to bail them out. Then, of course, there’s the internet: the ultimate distractor.
Being happy is hard when our lives are so stressful. Long working hours and gruelling commutes make us unwell, and we still struggle to pay the bills. We’re too tired to exercise, so we put on weight. We buy flashy clothes and possessions, but we still feel insecure, and there’s no time left for us to learn or be creative, or even hang out with our families and friends. To relax, we reach for the bottle.
Being compassionate is hard when everyone else is so hardened. From corrupt bankers and politicians to criminals and benefits cheats, few seem to deserve our sympathy. Meanwhile, social capital can be hard to come by – we’re all too busy watching TV, playing video games, and suing each other. Many of us don’t even know our neighbours’ names. Values seem like luxuries in tough economic times.
Much of modern life is mindless. But that’s no reason to give up. As the American politician Charles W. Tobey once said, ‘The things that are wrong with the country today are the sum total of all the things that are wrong with us as individuals.’ This means that if we want to live in a more mindful, compassionate society, each of us must become a more mindful, compassionate person. The only question is how.
Developing mindfulness is like developing any skill, such as playing a musical instrument, performing surgery, or flying a lunar module – the idea is to build and consolidate our capabilities in a controlled environment before applying our learning to real-life situations.
WHEN WE CULTIVATE A SENSE OF CURIOSITY in meditation, we are hoping the effects will apply throughout the day and beyond. Alas, the bedlam of modern life sometimes overwhelms us and dulls our senses. Even people who regularly meditate may find it hard to stay mindful all the time. Wouldn’t it be great if we could actually live more meditatively – practising as we go, on the hoof, with no distinction between the rehearsal and the performance?
This is where the bicycle comes in – a dream machine that blends meditation with movement; curiosity with velocity; mindfulness with mudguards. On a bicycle, you can achieve in a few weeks an art that Buddhist monks spend decades learning, and which the great Einstein encapsulated effortlessly: mindful living. No wonder the bicycle is often called the best invention in history – it’s a simple, easy-to-use device that can inspire us to wonderful psychological heights. Now that’s what I call a miracle. This book will explain how it happens.
A dream
machine that
blends meditation
with movement…
There’s only one thing wrong with bikes, and it’s the one thing they have in common with Daleks – they can’t go upstairs. So, alas, we can’t be on bikes all the time. But we can