The Tao of Distance Running - #38

Therefore the Master concerns himself
with the depths and not the surface,
with the fruit and not the flower.
He has no will of his own.
He dwells in reality,
and lets all illusions go.

                                               *

~
We run with spirit. And in this depth of being we have reached the
limitless stride of our true pursuit-  the absence of
self. In this purity we are grace expressed as
motion and even suffering holds itself
as a gift for understanding.
The world now opens before us and our steps pull in the
singular direction of an inward
journey.


We run - and allow the path itself to tell us where to go.

• Speed, time and distance are all means to plumb the depths of why we run - why we truly run. The reason we run is expressed as uniquely as each individual runner and yet is as common as the ground we run together. There is something silent, still, and peaceful that waits on the other side of thought and feeling. It is our essential self and it is beyond all means used on the path to reach find it - and still it is not separate from the means. It's all things. We're all things. Distance strips us of the illusions of I, me and mine. The path no longer unfolds before us - we unfold as the path. We may still take great pleasure in performance and competition - but we are unattached to the final outcome of all finite games. Running has delivered us to the infinite...and now nothing else will do but run in recognition of it all. 

.

Peace,

Eric

*Portion of the Tao Te Ching translated by Stephen Mitchell