Getting hit by a car is a rite of passage in the cycling community.  Obviously, it's not something that anyone does on purpose.  But if one spends enough time riding in the streets with cars whipping past, accidents are bound to happen.

In 2015, there were 45,000 reported bicycle accidents in the United States and the number of fatal accidents increased by 12%.  The problem is so bad in Denver, CO that cries of, "Stop Killing us" have sprung up from the cycling community in response to a mother of two being killed by a dump truck.

I've been a full-time bike commuter for roughly 4 years; either walking or riding my bike to get to work, pick up groceries, meet with friends, etc.  And I've had my share of crashes and close calls in that time.

Recently, I was doing a 60-mile ride to a nearby city when my life flashed before my eyes.  I was traveling through a ritzy neighborhood where all the houses looked like they came from a magazine.

As I was riding, I noticed a woman inching towards the edge of her driveway as she checked traffic in both directions.  When I was about to cross in front of her car we made eye contact, and then she pulled out into the road so quickly that her tires screeched.  I had to swerve to avoid being hit.

In the moments that followed anger bubbled up within me.  I imagined my bike breaking under the weight of her tires.  I visualized my head cracking against her windshield.  And I wondered if she would have called an ambulance if she 'd hit me; or if I would have been one of the countless cyclists killed each year by hit-and-run drivers.

But I couldn't dwell on the past.  What that lady did was objectively wrong.  I had the right-of-way, and I know she saw me before her foot hit the gas.  But I still had to get where I was going.  So, I let go of my anger and focused on pedaling down the road.

When Buddhist teachers speak about non-attachment, students often think they should stop caring about life.  The implication is that if we're truly awakened, our minds won't differentiate between the friend who says, "I love you," and the drunk who throws a bottle at our head.  This is incorrect.

Rather, the practice of non-attachment is the practice of acceptance.  We accept that life is suffering. We accept that things go badly from time to time.  And we choose to let go of our suffering when it arises.  Instead, we deal with it in the moment; fix it if we can, and then we continue down the road.

This is a simple practice in theory, but it's difficult to master.  Our minds naturally want to hold on to painful experiences.  For example, as I continued on my bike ride, thoughts of the near-collision kept popping up in my head.  

My feelings ranged from sadness at another person being so unkind to anger at her disregard for human life.  And each time I reminded myself that I couldn't change the past, but I could choose to not carry it with me.

With this in mind, I focused on the road ahead of me and pedaled a little faster.  By the time I got where I was going, I felt right as rain.  This is the art of cycling; the art of pressing forward when things get hard.

It's also the practice of non-attachment.  It's the practice of letting go of the things that hurt us time and time again until we learn to stop picking them up in the first place.  Because we can't ride our bikes without dealing with cars.  And we can't live our lives without suffering.  Be we can choose to not carry these things with us as we continue down the road.

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Non-Attachment and the Art of Cycling