The Tao of Distance Running - #31

Peace is his highest value.
If the peace has been shattered,
how can he be content?

                                                   *

~
Nothing leads to peace - our steps are the means of revelation. No matter the
terrain - our course is always an inward quest to
remove false layers of self and meet the world exposed in our
true expression. We run with a peaceful heart - certain only of change and the
one thing alone that remains changeless...spirit.

• Running centered in peace means bringing awareness to the still point within while cultivating a sense of detachment from the outer conditions that surrounds our run. It's a gentle nod of acknowledgment that while certain issues are bound to happen and to affect us - they certainly don't define us. The truth, our true nature is the witness that remains unaffected by the (all too) seemingly real illusions of life. We suffer for our wish for things to be other than they are - it's the grasping nature of the mind to seek pleasure and to hold it dear. When the mind finds no lasting pleasure then it repels what it once cherished and seeks again something new. It's an endless cycle. Until we learn not to take it all so seriously. Until we remember to smile and simply enjoy - resting in the awareness of life's fleeting nature. Every run seems to consist of separate steps - and yet each step contributes to the stride that delivers us to motion. Peace is found in the knowledge that no single step lasts - but our stride belongs to the infinite. We allow events and circumstances to bring us pleasure and often pain. That's the way of time and steps. Yet we run free in the peace found in our endless stride. That's the way of the infinite.  

Peace,

Eric

*Portion of the Tao Te Ching translated by Stephen Mitchell