The Art of Running

As artist we create the world we wish to live in - as runners we use our bodies as a medium joined with the world. We display our art as speed, or gentle stride. The earth shares its art as hills, and stones, trees and air. And so our art mingles with the earth's - we are co-creators in a grand design. Yet the truth of art must remain a mystery. To defend the nature of our run is to weaken it's resolve to be played out with honesty, purity and passion. Our only role is to create, to run, to let the smile of creation play as a mystery on our lips and keep people guessing as to what we're up too. Mystery inspires - and soon our steps will lead others to their grand design as well. Stay centered in our own steps - and the world responds with peace and grace. 



Peace,

Eric

Solitary...Yet Together

Distance reveals our shared nature - a common self that belongs to earth and air. We are joined in a great belonging. Viewed as such the path we run becomes our own self spread before us - eager for our steps to reconnect in exploration. Distance no longer threatens but now invites our steps to remember this holy connection. And our steps caress the ground in a stride of devotion. We are recognized and welcomed and the world opens before us. There is only this...and every runner belongs and no path exist in the absence of our steps.

Peace,

Eric



It's Simple - All We Have To Do Is Run



Every run is part of something greater than itself - it's the earth asking for our presence and each step sings a rhythm in reply. To give ourselves fully to the run - body, mind and soul is to re-enter into a sacred wholeness now lost in everyday life. We can't give away the baggage that we carry, we can only allow the miles to strip us bare of all but our essential self. Spiritually naked, free from the weight of all concerns we surrender to the run. Our presence is given and received. Now we run as the infinite...meeting the world in its embrace. The run itself is the deliverance to this world. We enter by our refusal to fight what is and simply accept one moment at a time. Nothing more. Distance itself will no the work. All we have to do - is run. 

Peace,

Eric

Running With Duality and Beyond

The nature of running is expressed in the duality of motion and stillness - and yet in distance the two give way to one. We are stillness given form in the temporary game of life. We seek to know ourselves through motion and distance provides the template for exploration. Duality ends as our steps delivers a rhythm danced around a quiet mind. Intricate and intimate and soon shattered by thought - yet for moments stretched within a stride - we are part of this One great song.

Peace,

Eric

Running in The Center

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



It's All Okay

There are select things that we can do that will make our run or race a success. Mentally and physically we prepare the best we're able. We fuel and hydrate well. We dress accordingly. Everything that we can account for we see too. And still the run is beyond our control. That's the nature of the world reflected in our steps. To grasp at the intangible aspects of life is too suffer. As runners we focus on our steps collected to a stride - each step brings an ending and then opens to a new world. Our stride contains the seeds of all possibilities - there is nothing to fight nor resist, nothing to grasp or avoid. We abide in the moment, aware of it's passing and grateful for its promise. With that in mind - we take one more step.

Peace,

Eric

Running With What Is And The Art of Acceptence

Distance running is the art of acceptance for what is and the wisdom to know that all change begins within the present moment. The state we find ourselves in now is the result of choices made within previous moments. Denial of what is happening now is a waste of precious energy. We accept, we adjust and we allow the spaciousness of the infinite to open in its limitless potential. It's not for us to decide what the next moment will bring - we act only in the present and draw faith from the perfection nature and knowledge we are not separate from this perfection. We don't control the hill, we simply climb it. We don't fight thirst, we drink when possible. We don't regret the distance run, but embrace the coming miles. All thing happen within the grace of a single moment. Staying centered here, we smile, and simply run. 

Peace,

Eric