As Is

As is - our steps greet the path in its perfection. Only the mind perceives otherwise. And this is why we suffer. Just as easily the path receives each step as belonging to its own perfection. Without thought the earth accepts as one. And so we are - One - no runners existing of their own accord but simply an extension of all that is expressed as motion. To run like this - as is - is to be at ease with all presented within a given moment. Everything is and everything will change and through it all we will accept and be as runners - graceful in our motion.

Peace,

Eric

Revealed

revealed as infinite - we now go

further in our

travels

~

No distance is that far - running is only measured by the mind. Our bodies know steps and rest and their repeated fashion. Our infinite nature knows travel. Distance is an expansive game we play against no one. The singular goal is to know ourselves as greater. Running is our means to play. In this regard distance can't be measured.

Peace,

Eric

Here - Now

 and so it is - each step proclaims the

moment

while distance spreads as

our arrival

~

From here - there's not much more to be said. We are exactly where our steps have brought us. Running is the art of this acceptance.

Peace,

Eric



Seasonal Answers (Sometimes)

I ask the Spring
leaves -

"Why do you cling?"

And the answer later falls to
me...in Autumn shades of
wonder.

~

It's that one last step - the one questioned and voiced concerned before completion. It's one step more again. There is no immediate answer on why we give ourselves to what seems like endless steps. Yet distance is it's own reward - and an answer sometimes follows.

Peace,

Eric

This Allwoing Place

this allowing place - now stretched to reach

our very steps.

distance unfolds as our becoming.

~

Everything is fine. Everything is fine because we allow things to be as they are without the interference of wishing otherwise. Runners know suffering. There is no escaping the certain ordeal that we will experience the rise of pain and just as sure its disappearance - very often in subsequent steps. We learn to abide. Yet this is not a passive state - it's alive with tenderness and the grace known from holding ourselves with care. It's this healing calm that allows for us to take the next step and perhaps the one after.

Peace,

Eric

The Experience Of One Reality

turn within - the Infinite flows in all

directions.

~

Running is a bridge between worlds - or a better truth told - it is the world experienced in original unity. It's not air pressed against skin and steps lent to ground but a breath drawn to life and expressed as motion to the world. One thing yet told in parts as our reality. In certain steps we find the direct experience of this functioning One.

And that's what draws us on.

Peace,

Eric

Distance

and not just distance -it's the virtue gained by effort given and then released. It's the grace of letting go and then becoming in the space we're left to follow. Distance is the chance to rest duality - and simply be.

Peace,

Eric

Simply Love

love allows expansion - and is the presence pressed

against all boundaries

~

Running as love - devotion cast against limits held and each step the allowance of just a little more ground covered then the step before. Distance is the unfolding awareness that here too we belong - and never once losing presence of previous steps that touched the ground. We find ourselves in this expansion. It's love awakening to itself in the form of steps against the earth.

It's simply love - expressed and accepted in return.

Peace,

Eric

It's All Okay

No departure and no arrival - only a

singular awareness in the

nature of our

travel

Be at peace

~

Trust the body, believe in the fitness gained through training and have faith in the strength of will and mind. Relax. Surrender any desire for a particular result to the greater cause of spirit. We run our best by simply Being.

Peace,

Eric

Here

A single step contains all distance - and our reach is but an expression of the infinite itself. Running does not take us anywhere. We are travelers on an interior plane. Yet certainly our bodies are engaged in motion. The paradox is that for all the motion granted - distance remains always on the tip of every stride. The infinite remains our reach. We are always touching that which we seek. The gift of running is that we are here - and the world has stretched to find us.

Peace,

Eric

The Measure Of A Run

distance is defined only by the

infinite - and the steps we

take to add our

measure

~

Every distance run is a measured illusion - there is no set point belonging to an infinite world. As our own true essence is matched to the endlessness of reality - we are in fact running in place. Of course the body will tire and the mind will fatigue - that's why we play this game. Yet knowing this truth allows us a higher vantage as well. It's simply not possible for spirit to tire. Watch and tend the body. Observe the mind and the thoughts that cascade. But know your truth. And run from there.

Peace,

Eric

Doing

Expansion - running is awareness given to steps and breath and the stretch of ground before our stride. Our world becomes larger in the singular aspect of our doing.

Peace,

Eric

Now Taken

distance can't really be told of - but only

expressed in steps now

taken

~

If awareness is centered on these steps - each present step and its placing on the ground - then distance unfolds in the wonder of the moment. There is no need for focused concentration-  just a gentle nod of recognition that one step contains the whole.

And nothing more is needed.

Peace,

Eric 

Devoted To Ourselves

We meet ourselves in distance - a landscape found of steps laid against earth and soul. Running is the revelation of all we are not. It's the great dismissal of a false reality - that we are somehow a body carried by will and not spirit fully immersed in form and motion. Distance strips us bare of all illusions. Our steps are just given and given until we are empty of all save the devotion of our giving. And here we find ourselves - devoted to the pureness of our Being.

Peace,

Eric

The Zen Of maroon/The Zen Of Hills

There is no maroon...
Only thoughts that are
steeped in the wine
of color.
Until the moment offers the
blue of its expression.
And then...there is no blue.
Only the cobalt nature of
the thinker.

~

And so it is with running - there is no distance and nothing more to measure. A hill is first experienced by the mind and followed by the body. Yet before and during there is always and only the witness to the experience. We are the witness and the more we relate to this reality the less we struggle with the struggle of a hill. The body runs. Infinite awareness smiles at it all.

Even the hills.

Peace,

Eric

Be

Running is easy. Our very nature is the play of motion brushing stillness - two sides of our existence acting as a life's caress. Running is to extend the metaphor of our being even further. Our infinite nature is given form to sweep the earth in steps and breath. We are only here to love. And distance offers room for our caress.

Go run.

Be.

Peace,

Eric

Giving

absorbed - and now our steps

become the path

~

Giving - running is the constant exchange of subtle force. Our breath is given back to air and again received as life. Each step is a measured gift to distance and in return we gain the world. Running is our giving path. Watch as our movements are absorbed back into the fold of life. This is our existence - to simply give and be alive.

Peace,

Eric

Alone (And Yet...)

alone - yet touched by all that

distance holds

~

Running is awareness held through motion - our scope is narrowed to steps and smaller views yet at anytime we can expand our vision. What would we see? No boundaries - only the seamless stretch of how things are.

Peace,

Eric

Perfect

It's where we are - and the fullness of

existence brings joy to

every step.

~

It's not the finish line - it's the moment of each step touched against the ground. Perfect. There is no need to wish for more.

Peace,

Eric

Beginning

Beginning - yet no steps taken. Distance is a stretch of mind and always starts with a measured thought. Until that point it's void of all but possibilities. We can always return to the beginning - even with ten thousand and more steps taken. Simply pause, look again. It's a new distance. And the world is just beginning.

Peace,

Eric

All Distance

All distance is a promise - and every step the

means of it's fulfillment.

~

Running is simply form measured within the infinite - all starts and finishes are arbitrary lines against the endlessness of our existence. We have pinpointed our awareness to a limited view yet we are free to expand our gaze at any moment. Running is the slow allowance of more - a greater perspective of being comes into play with each step and the sense of breath drawn from air to lungs and returned to sky expands us even more. We are no longer contained by bodies. We are promise itself - fulfilled.

Peace,

Eric

Not (always) Obvious

it's not the ground separate to the step - but a

continuous stream of being flowing as

earth and stride.

~

We are connected in ways not obvious to the eyes

alone.

Peace,

Eric

For Motion

All distance contained within a step. The infinite drawn

with every breath.

The world exists for

motion.

~

We move as prayer - a grace offered and found in return of motion.

Peace,

Eric

Belonging

it's our belonging - a sense of earth and

air open to our steps and breath

~

Running is our means to caress the world and to feel the brush of earth and air offered in return. In each caress there is a forgetfulness of separation - two objects merge on point of contact. No less for every runner. We need only remember - we belong.

Peace,

Eric

In Pleasure

our joy found in steps against the

ground - and in return

the earth revolves

in pleasure

~

Peace,

Eric

Faith Displayed

Least effort - runners give themselves to a step and the fall that follows. We trust the earth will meet against the foot and nothing more is needed. Distance is faith displayed.

Peace,

Eric

Earth Again

We are the stuff of earth breathed to life - a divine essence in grounded form. With every step the world resonates with our return. Earth again and sky kissed against skin - we are at once the path and the garden waiting at the end.

Peace,

Eric

In The Absence Of A Runner

To disappear within a step - aware solely of earth and sky and the sweep of all things passing. There is no runner - only motion. And so it is with every step.

~

In the absence of a runner we find ourselves as unbridled awareness swept as motion. Absence means that we no longer fully identify with the trivialities of what we think while running. The thoughts may still flitter across the screen of mind -yet they are weightless in their drifting. As well, we tend with care to the body's concerns yet we know we exist beyond its form. It's the simple measure of opening to the endless sky after years of being clouded in - we come to know our original nature. The contemplation of any object or thought along with the self-inquiry of searching for the observer will shift perspectives to new awareness. Distance running provides us time to go beyond the thinker and the runner. In the absence of a runner - only awareness remains.

Peace,

Eric

Settled

Our return - steps given to the ground that once was our flesh and again to sky that holds our spacious nature. Running is the practice of merging briefly and then a flight of rebirth. Distance is simply the play of life against earth and air in measured form. There is no step that doesn't deeply in its passage - and in that truth we are less traveler and more settled in the reality of always being home. No matter the distance. Every step. Home.

Peace,

Eric