Running As A Meditation
I am on my balcony again; but now it is the evening, the day fading - rain has just tipped down again for a few torrential minutes and then left as fast as it came leaving a rainbow arching up from the trees across the road - soon we are off to the gym…
I have been writing, writing, writing because I have been asked to write a piece for Osho News on running…
Osho was a teacher who encouraged his followers into self-exploration and meditation; I was first attracted to his words, his truth, his wisdom in 2001; I had a sense within that I was needed another teacher of truth… I was in New York to attend the marriage of two friends…
A day of so after the wedding I was wandering around a huge New York book shop and came upon Osho’s book ‘Courage – the joy of living dangerously’ I read much of the book standing in the bookshop, knowing in the first paragraph that I had found my new teacher; his words resonated with all I thought and taught myself…
I knew I wanted to go and meet him and grieved there and then on turning the book over to read that he had already left his body some ten years previously, so instead I read all I could of his work…
When I met Anadi I discovered that he had spent a lot of time at Osho’s ashram in India; and that he had become a Sannyasin, which means a ‘seeker of truth’ and been given his Sannyasin name by Osho - Swami Shanti Anadi; the meaning of this is Swami : master of oneself, Shanti – peace and Anadi – without beginning and without end….
Osho liked to run and I can remember being delighted to find his words on running as a meditation…
“When you are running your breathing naturally goes very deep and it starts massaging the Hara - which is in fact the center from where meditative energy is released…’
And now fifteen years later I am writing a piece for ‘Osho news’ on ‘Running as a meditation on the move…’
From a very young age I have run to experience transcendence of myself, and I have known that when we allow our creative flow its full rein then it is perfect as it is; it is a very debilitating thing that human beings do in berating their efforts and deeming them not good enough; it creates tension and distress….
Whereas if we are willing to be vulnerable and to open to seeing - to finding out then connection happens…
Also if we are less critical of ourselves we will find ourselves embracing the efforts of others and encouraging rather than saying ‘it is rubbish’
One of the key phrases I learnt as a therapist was that is we do not particularly like a book or some music or a television series or a show or an actor or a comedian; instead of saying ‘it’s / they are not good’ It’s / they are rubbish’ to instead say ‘It’s / they are not to my taste – or my preference’. Speaking this way is something different – it allows us to recognize that were we putting ourselves ‘centre stage’ to be ‘Judged’, how much we would prefer that our audience and our critiques were kind rather than cruel…
I recognize that playing on insecurities seems to be something that has become prevalent to ‘sell’ and ‘create good television’, but I believe that the kinder we are to ourselves, and to one another, the more creativity can flow and blossom.
And so I have written 2.400 words about running for the Osho news - they have asked for 1800 so some editing is needed! But it is a joy for me to be writing about running as a meditation, as a space to discover and to find out; a space of self inquiry – a sacred space…
Last night we were in the gym and Jay – a physio and trainer, who I later discovered competed in the 2012 Olympics in the boxing ring, was watching me doing my left side rehab exercise and general stability of right Achilles… I have improved massively since Rodja connected me back to my wobble and is helping me stabilize…
Jay saw where I am unstable and suggested lots of leaping exercises on both legs…. Including lateral hops and forward and backward hops and one legged squats and more…
So in the middle of a gym full of big strong men training hard he had me leaping and wobbling and falling and being exposed and vulnerable…
And I celebrated my weaknesses being revealed to me so that I can go deeper into stabilizing them.
If we can be vulnerable together and all reveal ourselves and then support one another as we clear and heal and become whole…
Then the world will change….