“Ride on and don't look back. You can't change what's done. Drive hard for greater glories. You all must be someone. So don't show let the life fever go. The world is yours you know.
You've got to ride to live, live to ride. Feel the flames burn inside. And though you know you ride to hide, you ride to live, live to ride.”
These immortal words of the inimitable metal writer and singer, Dee Snider, ring true for every rider who loves the open road. In fact, I often tell my loved ones that I wish to die that way. Let me start by acknowledging Snider as an accomplished individual whose book, Dee Snider’s Teenage Survival Guide, is one of the best I’ve ever read on the subject, his brave and inspiring testimony to Congress was one of the best on the sacredness of the Freedom of Speech.
I’ve been riding motorcycles since I was 9. I raced dirt bikes, competed in hill climbs and have enjoyed cruising on my Harley all of my adult life. Nothing in this world beats a moonlit midnight ride with my bride of forty years.
So what does this motto mean to me? Riding inspires my ministry as a teacher of Oneness. As a helpmate to those whom I serve in love, riding brings freedom, and the cool comfort of a moving meditation. When I ride in secret silence, I am moved into a state beyond time and into an eternal center within. For me, riding is like life itself.
So let me break down the words of the song and how they relate to my personal understanding of the Dharma.
“Ride on and don't look back. You can't change what's done.”
To me this means that, while sweet memories are enjoyed, I try to practice not looking back at the past as a problem. It’s simply gone. I agree with the great Tibetan teacher, Milarepa, who said that his religion was, “To live without regrets.” I may repent of something that happened in the past, which for me means to simply change the road I’m on and try not go down the wrong way again. Just that and nothing more. Like the Big Buddha, Hotei, I’ve got to put that bag down.
“So win, don't show. Let the life fever go. The world is yours you know.”
To win and not show means that I try to see every circumstance that arises in daily life as my own private koan. A Zen riddle, that if worked with mindfully, brings new insight and healing action. Letting the life fever go is to live with a deep passion for life, loving freely and giving completely. The last line reveals that only I get to decide what my life means and to live it with a sense of sacred nobility, regardless of what others may think or believe.
“Ride to live, live to ride. Feel the flames burn inside.”
These lines give poetic meaning to my Bodhisattva Way, “The Way is unattainable, I vow to attain it.” I wish to burn like the sun, giving away my life to others and imbibing a moonshine of intoxicating love, leaving a strong scent of incense in my wake.
“And though you know you ride to hide, you ride to live, live to ride.”
I ride to hide means that I can turn within and away, to be in the world and yet not of it. Not unlike the mysterious Sasquatch, whose motto may be “Live to hide, hide to live”, it allows me to do more than survive but to thrive as lovely legend. It’s a time to be serene and know the way of complete contemplation.
So there you have it. This old cowboy’s anthem born of the steel horse I will ride to infinity and beyond. I hope you can dig it. Either way, this is the road I choose to ride.
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