My Goalless Goal

The truth is - I'm not looking for the edge of my endurance or to face the abyss that holds my fear and darkness. This may happen and of course it is an option for runners who desire to stretch past limits and still keep reaching. Distance is certain in its challenge. My quest is more subtle and perhaps equal in the profundity of its nature. My wish is to lessen myself and join my steps with the earth and breath to air. I simply want to be a traveler on the path of all things. No identity - if only for a moment. A quiet mind of spacious allowance to all that passes. To be no-thing is my greatest challenge. I am fought by goals of the ego. Surrendering to a distance greater than the thoughts I hold is surrender of the fight as well. In letting go I cease to become and settle in the simplicity of being. There are no goals, no challenges and nothing to seek. Only running - and that's enough.

Peace,

Eric



Travelers

In fact, we are interior travelers - the distance we run a projected landscape of thought and quiet moments of the soul. We seek no more than the exploration of self through an outward journey. We wish for no less than the expansion of heart and soul.

Peace,

Eric

Further

With every step...our world

expands a little

further.

Peace,

Eric

Effortless Action

As if birds…surrendering to
The air –
We dance in the flight of
Our own imagination.

~

The Tao Te Ching calls it "effortless action" and it is simply surrendering to a higher wisdom. No effort is required to run - although it may certainly seem so. The struggle is the internal dialogue of doubt and expectations. We battles stories told of what has never happened or took place long ago. No story- no effort. Only action mindful of present needs. The real story is told by breath and steps and a smile. It's not complicated. It's running.


Peace,
Eric

A Most Powerful Prayer

Perhaps the most powerful prayer is the simple phrase: I am. What follows these words is no less then the declaration of our existence. We may claim our freedom or bind ourselves to conditions that no longer serve. The prayer is impartial to all but intent. A runners prayer is motion. Yet often it is clouded with statements that don't serve our purpose. Fear, fatigue and discomfort are all observations of passing a phenomenon - they don't exist outside the mind. Note them. Correct them. Release them. Honor the body and its message yet believe in more then a temporal truth. As a runner, as spirit residing through a body - we are grace and ease and fluid in thought and motion. Before each run we pray: I am...and then give ourselves to truth our existence.

Peace,

Eric

Complete

We are at once the far end of spirit and its true beginning. We are circular in our existence. This realization puts running in a different perspective. Before our first step we have arrived. Our journey now becomes one of singular recognition - we are complete.

Peace,

Eric



The Path Is The Journey

Each step is our awakening - but still we

dream of a distance yet to

come.

And so the path itself becomes our journey.

~

It's all just play - the pretend sleep of day to day and a great awakening. We chose this path. There are no real surprises - only joyful remembrance and a chance to learn. Running is the display of life in linear form. Our journey is the run itself and the destination is but a single step repeated. We have arrived. Indeed - we never left at all.

Peace,

Eric