Bike Jog and Bluebirds

Date: Mar 3 Sat
Mileage: 11.5 (Bleriot)
March mileage: 27.5
Year to date: 467.5
Ipod- urbandharma.org

I could have gone out for a mega ride this morning, as the boys weren't basketballing until 12.00. I instead enjoyed the comforts of home: hot coffee, blankets, toast, garden shows, good company. Late in the a.m. I sprinted out for a "bike jog", eschewing cleats and tights for sweatpants and Target shoes. It was a wonderful morning in the mid-30s F, with big, fat, fluffy snowflakes dancing around. A couple times I sat up and put my arms out and sort of swept it all in, the cold, the wind, the snow, the essence of the moment. Damn good!

Another highlight of the ride was the view of an Eastern Bluebirdin and around Beargrass Creek in Seneca. Wow!! How brilliant was its blue plumage against the greys and neutral browns of the late winter landscape. Isn't it the case that every bike ride has some insight like that, some peek of the real world that you would miss in a metal coffin. I admit to driving more of late b/c of tennis, but I relish the stolen, no, found moments like a beautiful bluebird in a creek-side thicket.

On the listening end, I enjoyed two parts of podcast from Reverend Kusala and urbandharma. Today's discussion included that of the 8-Fold Path. What struck me was his presentation of one aspect of the path. (The problem I have sometimes with Buddhism is that I simply forget within what "list" I heard something). This concern Skillful Thoughts as part of #5 Right Effort. He frames intentions or thoughts NOT as 'good' or 'evil', but rather 'skillful' or 'unskillful'. That encourages the notion that ALL people can turn it around, so to speak. No one is inherently evil, but rather each person has within them the possibility of changes by becoming 'skilled'. Now, many a folk would say a Hitler, a Jeffery Dahmer is an inherently Evil person. O, don't forget Saddam Hussein who is blamed for having gotten our nation where it is at the moment, no the other imperialist who actually should take the blame. I won't worry about them but rather about myself and my own thoughts, where my own mind is.
Right effort implies a simple category of the mind:

• Unskilled or Skilled
  
• Anger/Hatred or Compassion
• Lust or Love
  
• Greed or Generosity
• Delusion or Wisdom

Can our decisions be so simple as to be categorized according to these simple dichotomies? Do I dislike the driver that cut me off or do I show them compassion? Do I lust after that hot chick or do I show her the love of the Buddha as opposed to objectivizing her? Can I give freely instead of hording whatever it may be, food, bikes, clothes, stuff? These are so simple, but these dichotomies touched me. I think it IS this simple. Now can I adhere to such simplicity? That isn't such a simple question.