The Tao of Distance Running - # 25

The Tao is great.
The universe is great.
Earth is great.
Man is great.
These are the four great powers.

Man follows the earth.
Earth follows the universe.
The universe follows the Tao.
The Tao follows only itself.

                                                          *

~

Run with the faith of perfect order - our steps are sure and find their

place in this perfection. The ground is present and constant in its

reception. There is grace in the giving of our stride and the

patience of the Earth.

We are left with the simplicity of the run.

• We are singular - yet part of something so much larger than ourselves. Distance running is the reduction of our singularity and the emergence into the universal. We merge into the infinite when infinite steps are taken. It's mysterious and at once the natural process of being. We let go of ego at the point where it simply can't sustain us - the miles have worn and shaped us to the spiritual curves of a stream polished stone. We don't resist the current - we surrender ourselves to the motion. And so we become more than runners - we enter the stream of a new current that carries us far from simply doing. We are motion now. We are the polished stones of being. 

Peace,

Eric

Portion of The Tao Te Ching translated by Stephen Mitchell