Fred Rohe was a regular runner for more than four years when he wrote The zen of running
. This short book, published in 1974, combines beautiful black and white photographs with poetic prose. In short, it reminds us that running can be fun, and a way not to get somewhere but to find yourself.
Lao Tzu wrote the book Tao Te Ching
about 2500 years ago. The most fundamental textbooks on the philosophy and methodology of spiritual development questioned the very idea of getting somewhere. Things may happen, if one simply wait. It sounds like passivity; however, it’s really a quiet receptivity, a subliminal maturation.
All you need to find yourself is to look inside and listen to your body. Lao Tzu easily put it, <<At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are, and you know what you want>>. The zen of running motivates us to experience accepting small rewards and overcoming our ego to meet a goal in running and in life.
Don’t overdo it, underdo itYou aren’t running becauseYou’re in a hurry to get somewhere.
It’s your choice of whetherto run to punish your selfor to experience your selfif you choose, with me, the latter,then every run can be joyful.The key words are,Take it easy!create your self as a runnergradually, patiently, relaxedly.
you see,it’s quite a relative and individual thing,the distance question.how old are you?how long are your legs?how much do you weigh?what imaginary distancedo you feel comfortably with?
What do I mean calling this running“a newly discovered form of meditation”?Isn’t meditation done sitting cross-leggedon 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 sothan when sitting Buddha-like.
From the experience of running meditativelyI learn that potentially my entire lifecan be lived meditatively,and it seems to me I should learn to live it soto me this means that I will be calmly, courageously, alertly, intelligently, energeticallypresent for each moment of my livinguntil life is done with this body.