🎭 ramoneando

please remember that the point of your running
is to help you become
healthy, happy and wholly you .
consider also accompanying
your breath with
a prayer (like "God's Grace")
or a mantra (like "Love")
or a question (like "Who am I ?")
or whatever you like --
it's a private affair --
breathing it in and out
to your own private running rhythm
(for remember, this is your discovery) .

what do I mean calling this running
"a newly discovered form of meditation ?"
Isn't meditation done sitting cross-legged
on the floor with closed eyes ?

I mean that meditation is a state of being,
not a physical position .
I can run in a state that is just as meditative,
perhaps more so
than when sitting Buddha-like .

a certain lady whom I love,
and for whom I have an immense amount of respect,
read what I have written
and said that it is beautiful .
but, she said, there is something missing .
do you really mean, she asked,
that it is always joyful, always fun ?
no, it is not .
what do I do when I don't feel like running,
when I feel more like just lying around ?
sometimes I do that, I just lie around .
and see that about myself .
but then, sometimes I push myself out there to run
even tho the predominant feeling is ,
I don't want to .
and see that about myself.
because there is more than one side
to this group I call "myself".
there is no single permanent "I"
rather there are many.
one "I" wants to quit .
usually I keep on running
because it's a faster way to get back
to where I started from . anyway, the "I" that
wanted to run will appear again soon .

The troubles with the other books
I've seen about running
are two :

1. they have a mechanical approach,
   telling us how far to run
   how often, how fast
   as if we are all the same,
   like a fleet of two-door sedans

and

2. by making it
   a mechanical practice
   the spirit is missing --
   there is no fun !

if there's a beach or a park without a lot of broken glass, do your run barefoot . this gives you a foot massage which stimulates all the nerve reflex points in the soles of your feet , which in turn stimulate all the organs of your body . by being barefoot you also get grounded, this direct contact with Great Mother Earth meaning that electrical equilibrium is established between you and the planet .

you can be victimized
by your imagination
if you imagine yourself
astonishing your world
with your progress and prowess .
we know this mechanism as Ego ,
we know this state as Ambition .

being Great Runners
is not the attainment we need .
it is self control .
without it, ego forces us into ambition
and the price of ambition
is pain .

let's not be egotistical ,
let's take it easy .