A Cyclist's Ears

You wish to see, listen then. The ears are a step in the direction of vision.

Bernard de Clairvaux

Enlightenment is not just enlightenment, it's the hearing of Nature in its estrangement.
 
Horkheimer & Adorno, The Dialectic of Enlightenment
 
Cycling is the path to enlightenment. Cycling is not just a form of flying and a revealing of the undrelying fabric of the cosmos (that of universal inertia and travelling without moving as in freewheeling) but a way of listening to, of tuning in to, and of hearing (Nature).

And it's not just the ears that hear. When you're on a bicycle, and have been for some time, you realize that the whole body hears. And it doesn't just hear but see. This is the real discovery of the cyclist: the ears see (and the body is just a large ear)! Anyone who has cycled as a way of life (and not just to lose a few pounds at the weekend) will know this: that the ears are the main sensory organ, not the eyes. That's why it pains me whenever I see cyclists with the rattle plugged in, or helmets on. Because it's the ears that tell the eyes where to look. Only a moron would seal them up behind distractors and dampeners. The ears are the director for the actors that are the eyes. When you seal the ears up, those actors become distractors if not detractors from your enlightenment. They no longer act for you, since there is nothing now to direct them, but distract and detract from you.

Thus, the cyclist animal (like all wild animals), as opposed to the domesticated and distracted human, doesn't just see, but envisages, envisions, (pro)vides and (ad)vises...

It is this immediate and unmediated 'vising' that renders all animals (and cyclists) 'wise'.