What's the link about zen and running?
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Zen and the art of running: cover and description

Simplified introduction  to  zen

Zen and the art of running: chapters

Interesting Zen links and notes

In July 2001 Editoriale Sport Italia  printed my book " Zen and the art of running ". A brave idea for a specialized technical publisher, that for the first time printed a "philosophycal" book. Success decreed by runners has given force to the message, so synthetized:

" How to train amusing, in harmony with our body and soul, getting wiser. Without any limit. "

Here is the beautiful cover, studied from Marco Sbernadori.

And here is the presentation published on the back:

The emotion of athletic gesture, seen with an original sight, was the basis for this book, rich of cues that everyone will be able to run step by step. Autobiographic episodes, practical suggestions, technical advices, and small and great cues of reflection, constitute the way suggested by the author in order to approach to hard work, and to the exaltation of running in a completely different way: watching within us, pointing to the deep center of ourselves. With tests, stories, questions and reports, the author touchs all the topics interesting the runner looking for a new interiority. The book touches all important topics for runners: from nutrition to zen meditation, from breathing techniques to race tactics, from race motivation to instinctivity of the athletic gesture, from dietary supplements, to doping, injuries and diets, in a book that will generate discussions, and will not leave anyone indifferent. A large bibliography, a zen glossary, and the most recent Internet links on the topic, complete the book, maybe leaving some question without answer. Or better indicating possible answers, in order to let everyone the pleasure to "bite the apple" without external help.   THE AUTHOR My name is Luca Speciani. I was born in Milan 6 August 1962, where I have lived for 27 years. Here I have moved my first steps like athlete, beginning 8-9 years old, and then to the mythical Giuriati field, then still in fine coal. Fourteen years old I joined the Riccardi Athletics, in which I have run practically until the withdrawal from contests (1983 approximately). There I had a good activity like Junior, arriving 10° in Italian cathegory championship on 3000 m. at the age of seventeen (8’34”), running also with a remarkable 5’51” on 2000 steeples. As a Senior I got 3’54” on 1500, 14’40” on 5000, 30’37” on 10,000 and - veryverygood - 9,01 on 3000 steeples. Then, total stop for seven years. Total refuse of races, engagement, work, family, and all things that keep a man far from tracks. Twentyeight years old, already father of a child (Maurizio) I decided to resume to run again. And, after one year of suffering, I recommenced to mill kilometers. With the necessary pauses, today I succeed to train three times every week (eventual race is one of the three), and in 1998 I had the satisfaction to mark 2:36’ in Cesano Boscone Marathon, and 1:10.43 on Locarno (Switzerland) half marathon. Ambitions: to still improve a little, until the age allows it. Even if my attitude towards the race is changed very many, leaving space to fun and joy, cleaning off every tension or obligation. I will not gain Olympic Games, ok, but... better so. In compensation in the years I have changed one wife and a pair of professions, so today I work with flowers (I’m Ph.D. in agrarian sciences) and I have three marvellous children, not just all blood of my blood but nearly: Maurizio twelve years old, and the two "twins" Nadina and Alberto of seven. News more detailed on my job (and on me) can be found on http://www.vivaioclorofilla.it . But the place where I write all about my running is http://www.vivaioclorofilla.it/zen.htm . Beyond plants and flowers, I am interested in omhoeopathic medicine and natural feeding, and I’m a careful student of zen buddhism, than often I practice... in race. About this interesting subject, I wrote a book (published in July 2001 by the magazine “Correre”, the most sold (and historical) running magazine in Italy – a sort of italic RW) whose title was “Lo zen e l’arte della corsa” (that sounds like “Zen and the art of running”). If someone is able to read Italian, or interested to translate it for USA, it can be ordered calling the magazine “Correre” at http://www.sportivi.it . This book has been a good success (the editor was very surprised, not me) and now in Italy zen-running is considered fashionable, and many runners find their moment of meditation during their races or their daily training. Following the success of the book, the editor wanted to give me a space every month on the magazine, whose title is “Mente, corpo e zen” (that in English means “Mind, body and zen”). The pieces written for the magazine are published (in Italian) on my site about a month later. But my life is not only running, working and writing. I like very much reading. I use Internet very frequently (for job and fun). Sometimes I swim (if it rains), or I go in bicycle (if I’m injured). I play football with my children (when I succeed), and I’m very curious to test me on ultramarathons (I ran some 50 km and a couple of 55-60). My companion is a wonderful woman, and I can say, without fear, to be a happy man.

This photo appears in the cover back     This, instead, is one of the tests in.black and white. Tenebrous and evocative...

A SIMPLIFIED INTRODUCTION TO ZEN RUNNING

What’s the meaning of “zen running”? Maybe a new fashion, or a mystic way to approach long distance races? No. It’s only an enjoyable and concrete way to learn how to be happy when jogging. With the aim to reach a good balance between behaviour, thoughts and feelings of every marathon lover.

In order to realize what zen running can do, it can be useful to read this exhilarating story.

In the 80’s I was sent by my team to an international athletic meeting in Merano (Italy), for a 5.000 m race. A prerequisite for acceptance was a personal best of 14’40” I never achieved. However my team convinced me to run the race despite my 14’59’’, mainly  because there was a place in the car (ok, running was a frugal sport in the 80’s….).

My legs trembled when I saw the other personal bests. A German runner had a p.b. of 13’30”, and others had times a little over 14’. Indeed I was scared to be doubled! But I was in good fitness condition and I had a great desire to enjoy the race.

What’s more, you must know that Merano’s ring is only 350 m long (instead of the usual 400). Thus you run completely without chronometrical control. So, having nothing to lose, I ran the first 1000 m in 3’, and with great surprise I realized I was in ‘pole position’.

Well. Slow race, I thought. They wanted the youngest to be the pace-maker. Ok.

After 2000 m (in 6’) I was still first, and the same after 3000 m (in 9’).

Now, try to be in my shoes: 18 years old, international athletic meeting, flying legs, night lights in the stadium, soft red tartan ring, alone at the head of the race… I couldn’t think of anything more: rhythm, personal best… nothing. I was pure pleasure of running, joy to be racing, emotions deeply striking my heart.

After 4000 m, although my rhythm was very regular (always 3’/km), nobody had  taken my place as of yet. So I said: let’s go!

My legs started turning the way they had never done before, and I ran the last km in 2’42, with only  the German runner beating me in the final rush. I had left all the others behind.  None of the other runners  had managed to reach me, even though their  personal bests much  lower than mine.

Today I realize that such an astonishing performance (17 seconds faster than my p.b.!) was strictly due to the particular situation I lived. My body worked completely free of  mental conditioning. In other words I had “run zen”, completely aware of what I was doing, without any mental suggestion, totally “there” in the moment of the race.

Zen is an oriental mystical practice (indeed one of the many branches of Buddhism), whose aim is to reach the awareness of the moment, by practising meditation. This way it’s possible to see life exactly “as it is”, free from all the mental structures we always build on it.

Meditation (key idea of all zen practice) is a full encounter with ourselves, with our deepest side. We can reach it with an instinctive perception of our being, by liberating ourselves from the crowd of the conscious thoughts that are usually on our mind (please read these concepts a few times until they become familiar).

Zen running to me means to enact the meditation process, which is usually performed in a sitting position, on the run.  Whether you’re racing or training, the  important thing is to be completely free from conscious thoughts, letting yourself go to the deep freedom of your running.

Do you have an idea of the amount of power springing from such a game? Do you have an idea of what your body can express, if only you succeed in cutting all ties? Did you never feel such an intense desire to melt body and soul in what you’re doing? Well. Zen running gives you all this, and much more.

A lot of recently published scientific works confirm the positive effects of meditation on body and health. On runners it can reduce the intoxication from lactic acid; it can also improve the monitoring of heart rate, and so on.   But more than through any scientific research, the only way to realize the meaning of zen running, is to do it. Bite the apple and feel the taste, as a zen teacher would say.

About this interesting subject, I wrote a book (published in July 2001 by the magazine “Correre”, the most sold (and historical) running magazine in Italy – a sort of italic RW) whose title was “Lo zen e l’arte della corsa” (that sounds like “Zen and the art of running”). If someone is able to read Italian, or interested to translate it for USA, it can be ordered calling the magazine “Correre” at http://www.sportivi.it . This book has been a good success (the editor was very surprised, not me) and now in Italy zen-running is considered fashionable, and many runners find their moment of meditation during their races or their daily training. The place where I write all about my running and zen is http://www.vivaioclorofilla.it/zen.htm

Following the success of the book, the editor wanted to give me a space every month on the magazine, whose title is “Mente, corpo e zen” (that in English means “Mind, body and zen”). The pieces written for the magazine are published (in Italian) on my site about a month later.

The future is within us, not out. Don’t let it go away without biting our apple.

Luca Speciani
www.vivaioclorofilla.it/zen.htm 

Zen and the art of running: chapters

Some chapters, just to taste a little the flavour of the book....

INTRODUCTION

ONE AMONG (POSSIBLE PATHS, POSSIBLE WAYS)

“The clearest way into the Universe, is through a forest wilderness” (John Muir)

 
Speaking of running and zen we might think requires at least a smattering of  the basic concepts of Buddhism and zen. That could actually be true according to logical thought. Anyway the beautifulness of zen is also to be found in the understanding the intuitive reality that is beyond logic. Such reality can be sensed if we learn to live each day at a time (not dwelling in the past or the imagined future) and fulfilling ourselves in the direct experience of the way things are. I will then use this introduction to give some important hints about the subject, saying first that whoever wanted to skip it straightaway, getting up soon to the first chapter, he won’t be blamed.

Of course, reading these lines will make easier to understand all the rest but, as the title of the well known book by Shunryu Suzuki: “Zen mind, Beginner’s mind” reads, don’t worry at all and start reading from anywhere you like. Maybe you’ll review all later and will figure out in truth and depth every word .

The zen master who was asked by his pupil: “What is zen meaning?” replied: “When I eat, I eat. When I sleep, I sleep”. And to the student’s protests, as he was unable to understand, claiming that he already did this, the master made the concept clearer saying: “It is not true, you fools! When you eat, you think  to everything else, and  when you  should sleep, you relish in a thousand thoughts. And you are NEVER completely present in all your actions!”

So please, don’t mind, and start reading from where you like, instinctively. Provided that once you have decided to read, you just read.

When we hear about Buddhism or Induism, influenced as we are by our cultural background, we use to think of some exotic religion, perhaps worshipping idols or human sacrifices, or of some weird superstition like meat refusal or the worship of statues and animals. So we put  voo-doo, Indian totems, fakirs and hermits together into the same brewing of  naïve and childish beliefs.

Then, candidly, we go reading horoscopes or pleading some saint to solve our problems. It could be just time to make the alarm clock to ring. In recent years Buddhism has won a certain number of followers, thanks to the unintentional sponsoring of a few VIPs, among whom the football champion Roberto Baggio, the TV host Marco Columbro, the actor Richard Gere, who have re-created around the subject an atmosphere of curiosity and mystery. But what Buddhism really is and where zen gets to, few people know and yet fewer people are able to live by those principles.

It’s neither easy nor immediate to understand what Buddhism is all about.

Hence, we can imagine how difficult it would be to understand the way this may affect our running attitude. But trust me, the two things are, for us athletes, closely related. Will philosophers and theologists forgive me for the necessary simplifications. In addition, it’s curious the picture that many people have got of the man Buddha as a fat man, explainable by the existence of certain statues representing him that like.

That image is totally antithetic to that reported (for example) in “The little Buddha”, the movie with a slim Keanu Reeves, or to the evidence that there are few fat Buddhist priests. Surely the man Buddha, free of any relationhip with anything at all, could hardly have been tempted by the elementary one of food.

Let me say then, to clarify, that although in a few historical periods the worship of saints was expressed through pictures of what during that time was considered beautifulness and wealth, that doesn’t mean those pictures represented true life. Thinking of Buddha like a fat man, lazy and apathetic, comes under those convenient explanations that drive us to superficially think that our religion is the only one  ‘right’. Let’s get rid of any picture of Buddha, beautiful or ugly, fat or slim, and let’s start listening instead.

If for a Catholic is easy to understand the Muslim or Hebraic religion, both monotheistic and with quite a number of similarities (God or Allah, prophets, scriptures, saints, sins, paradises, penances), less easy can be to understand the figure of Buddha who doesn’t claim to be God, neither to be his son nor his herald, but only a man.

Perhaps he’s closer to the figure of Gandhi, or Socrates, or Saint Francis or Mother Therese. How then could we construct a philosophical system on somebody who claims to be only a man? Because things that Buddha did and said during his life are so special, that can be worth building on them part of our path. Then if this is religion, philosophy, whatelse is not much important. There’s quite a lot to learn, to apply, and quite a long way to understand how to feel well within ourselves and the others.

Buddha (in the world Siddharta Gotama or Sakyamuni) lived in India in the sixth century B.C. and, son of a king, left the court life to devote himself to investigate the causes of suffering in life. He went through different experiences: poverty, ascesis, till he attained Enlightenment (Buddha comes from ‘budhi’ that is ‘to awaken’) and began to teach what he had deep down learned. I’ll try to develop a short synthesis of mine, with no pretence to be complete, about Buddha’s thought.

First of all Buddha points out that suffering is caused by wanting and clinging. Clinging  to things, to people, to goals and personal expectations.

His suggestion is to ‘let go of them’ (we would say: ‘to fly high’) that is to accept life and things in their ISness: without forcing them, without trying to endorse and advocate our worldview onto everyone else. Also he preaches the respect of every living and not living creature.

He invites us to follow a few precepts, better not to investigate here (but that don’t lay down either celibacy or abstinence) and that anyway represent a means not an end. He preaches up pity, that must permeate all our actions. He invites us to count only on ourselves to face our problems and to not ask for external help, not even by prayer.

According to Buddha everything flows, everything is fleeting, sooner or later it will disappear or will change: from the littlest anxiety to one’s lifetime. Clinging to what is impermanent we get false views of the surrounding world. If, on the contrary, we liberate our selfness from all the fog of our egoism, from the slavery of words and the constriction of logic, of our continuous expectations, then we’ll be able to ‘see’. The right view of the world ‘as it really is’ can be achieved through meditation which is not a mental activity but a ‘no thinking’. It leads via an ever-growing consciousness of what we are and do, to the Enlightenment, that is the clear view. And through the clear view, we get world experience no more like the dualism good/evil, nice/ugly, life/death, spirit/matter, but as a whole which we are part of.

He preaches all this with the Buddha’s smile, still, kind, pacified, awaken, detached, full of compassion and love. The living sign of the fruits of enlightenment: peace, love, mindedness, respect, attentiveness, liveliness. Is that all? You’ll say. That’s all. However we are talking of a ‘that’s all’ so revolutionary to win a huge number of adherents over, and a very large following over the ensuing centuries.

First in India, then in China and Japan where zen is born around 600 B.C.

In China where Taoism and Confucianism prevail (two religions very pragmatic and focussed on everyday life) Buddhism loses most of the ritual and speculative aspects (though already pared to the bone), and zen is born like a current of thought still more attentive to gesture instinctiveness and spontaneousness.

Zen, which doesn’t contradict at all the theoric principles of Buddhism, places at once itself in a critical position, a priori denying the value of scriptures, the rigour of precepts, the mental speculations and any symbol (think only to that zen quote reading: “If the Buddha be in your way, kill the Buddha”, that is, be independent and cling to nothing). It gives then the highest value to experience and intuitiveness, emphasizing the importance of meditation sessions as a means to evolve and attain enlightenment.

Everyday practice, then, in contrast to doctrine, prayers, rites, theoretical study of texts and theological problems. It’s exactly this rejection of hierarchies, authority, dogmatism, and structures that makes zen the ‘black sheep’ of Buddhism.

A heresy that could survive the orthodoxy thanks only to the greatest oriental quietism. In the West (where we erected stakes for those who were doubtful about some dogmas) probably, it would last just a few weeks.

Zen art, for example painting, sculpture, or poetry is completely immediate, and is expressed through straightforward and spontaneous strokes, just as they come, to capture the beauty or the poetry of an instant.

These concepts you are reading, believe it or not, in addition to the content, were also written in zen mode, that is, instinctively, following the inspiration and (with the necessary changes) transforming it in written words. Perhaps the work will lack a bit in unity but the freshness of the contents (if present) will irresistibly emerge.

Hoping the message I want to give will be got intuitively, rather than rationally.

Instinctiveness in zen art is simplicity and immediateness. A flying bird, according to zen, is a flying bird. When we try to reproduce it , to stuff it, to depict it or just to think of it, we make it a dead thing. The only way to perceive it is to capture it in the very instant. And to get the instant we need consciousness and right view. No theological interpretations, no ecclesiastic hierarchies, no long descriptions, no faith mysteries. Bite the apple, instead, and taste it.

A very beautiful poem by Ikkyu underlines the idea:

 ”That stone Buddha deserves all the birdshit it gets.

I wave my skinny arm like a tall flower in the wind”.

Symbols have no value. What is real is life, my skinny arms in motion.

That in their simplicity have the beauty of a flower driven by the wind. Infinitely truer than any other sacre or profane image.

Within a few hundred years zen spread in China and in Japan (where it becomes the main Buddhist practice) while in India and Tibet Buddhism maintains more orthodox characteristics.

Today due to the silent Chinese invasion of Tibet, Buddhism in China is persecuted and misrepresented by cult appearances, patronized by the Government. On the contrary, many Japanese zen schools developed in the United States since early sixties, finding important testimonials (Alan Watts, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg), and nowadays you won’t find an European big town without a more or less frequented zen temple.

Anyway because of its total non-violence and lack of any will in converting followers, the Buddhist presence (and much more the zen one) is always discreet, little noisy, and respectful of other people’s beliefs.

I think that an aspect of high importance to talk about here (which I find perfectly natural in the oriental thought) is actually that no zen follower would ever dream of imposing his own ideas and beliefs to anybody else using power (or plagiarism, coercion, imposition). In contrast to many other religions, which in the course of centuries have been guilty of the greatest atrocities, thinking to please their gods.

Further, zen doesn’t set as a specific goal to make proselytes or to increase the number of followers. If this happens is because the compassion of every adept promotes the diffusion of these concepts which first off , help us to feel well within ourselves and to find greater interior harmony.

The intimate conviction of adepts (as they profess to be tolerant of other beliefs, and not to cling to one’s own) is that zen doesn’t represent THE path, but ONE AMONG possible paths, ONE AMONG possible ways towards ourselves and towards the understanding of life.

Of course, in my opinion, a wonderful path, an exciting way.

I’d like all the suggestions and explanations (mainly those related to running) we’ll discuss in these pages (although passionately presented) be taken from this point of view.

But what are the relationships between zen and sport activity specifically between zen and running?

They are quite a lot, and much closer than we can imagine, for both the ultra-marathoner and the one just beginning to become interested in running some steps.

It’s surely worth understanding them one by one.

BODY AND MIND LIKE ALLIES OR ANTAGONISTS: ALL IS ONE.

“To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower
Infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.” (William Blake)

In that beautiful book titled “The man who became God” by Gerald Messadie’ (who forms,  from historical sources, the hypothesis that  Jesus had not ressurrected but just survived)  Jesus, after his resurrection, gets back to the Apostle Thomas and tells him: “Thomas, Thomas, don’t be deceived:  body and soul, it’s all one”. This having been said by the one who throughout the whole book had defied death with the words “my kingdom is not of this world”, is worth some remarks.

Each of us has thousands different ways to approach running. Some people does it to relieve some tensions, others for just spirit of competition, others want just to stay in shape.

Other people want to cultivate human relationships in a friendly background, or to be fashionable or to win a bet (I’ll do the New York City marathon!).

Somebody else needs to let out  their own aggressiveness, or to build their muscular tone, or they choose running as a preparatory activity to other sports (cycling, swimming, triathlon, Nordic skiing, football, tennis). Definitely we all go running and most of us love doing it. We run in the town or in the middle of  a wood, on a highway or in the snow.

There are days on which we are dying for a run, on other days we have to put ourselves on a leash because it’s raining, it’s cold or terribly hot. Our mind (a runner’s mind) is always in touch with our body. Whether we are top level runners or the latest ones arrived just before the cleanup, doesn’t change that much.

A runner is a little different from anybody else because he is used to deal with his body. As in the well known spot (“Runners, yeah we’re different”) where you see a man in the queue at the bank office doing kneebendings. We, runners, are used to recognize all the sensations our body goes through.

We know what to be tired means. We know what it means a 200 pulse rate. We know what  an excessive sweating implies. We have experienced hunger (almost starving) during a triathlon or an ultramarathon. And we can do mental associations between mind and body, since in some circumstances we personally experienced that, for example, tiredness and hard training mean injury.

We know that demotivation implies poor performance in a competition. We also know that in presence of  pain we must slow down the pace. And sometimes we regretted having run in the too cold or too hot, suffering then bronchial disease, cough or flu.

It might seem obvious to anyone. But it’s not always like that.

If,  instead of listening to us and heeding our body advices, we follow the logic of  removal, to get rid of  the annoying symptoms, we can be sure we’ll get the opposite result. According to the usual logic of external aid, too often we think that a medicine will clear up whatever problem we have. If we have a sore knee we get an anti-inflammatory. If we have and headache, here we are an analgesic. And we don’t realize that doing this is like switching off the alarm of the anti-theft device while thieves are inside our house.

Body actually sends us warning signals: “You are tired, be careful!”. You can’t stand that pace, that tension. Your head’s spinning. We should grasp those messages and take a fully ten hours rest. But not:  let’s swallow an analgesic and rush to work. And on lunch time, hard repeats, there’s a race in 20 days. The body then rebels against us sending deeply inside the symptoms (with an allergy, an insomnia, a tachycardia, a depression), so we go to the doctor’s and tell him: “Doctor, what’s happening to me, still I eat so well…”. “Stupid fools!” would say a zen master dealing a stick blow on our back “you who disregard body messages, so valuable!”.

Equally wrong, of course, is to suppress a tendinitis or an articular pain with an antinflammatory. If  the body notifies us that we need a stop that is because it really needs. If we swallow a pill and upon that we afterwards go to run a marathon, we are stupid fools twice.

Because that tendon or that articulation requesting us a break, will be on the contrary overexerted. And as soon as the effect will be over  we’ll find us with a double damage. Perhaps we’ll be forced to stay still for a few months or to wait until rehabilitating  from some microfracture.

My father, Luigi Oreste (one the founders of  Psychosomatic Medicine in Italy), used to say that recovery from any disease would always imply the acquisition of greater wisdom. Maybe a two months break will teach us the body has his own way more often than our brain. And we have to listen to it even when we don’t like much what’s telling us. We know that the body won’t accept any suppression and its symptoms are but warnings.

When we’ll finally understand, like Thomas, that an unheeded body will rebel, that body and soul are one only thing and that after all, it’s all one, we will get a bit closer to zen.

The mind, as it is, it’s indisputably useful in the basic logic processes.

It’s raining, I would better take an umbrella. Less useful when our decisions involve the body, its expressions, our perceptions. Shall I join the race or shall I not? Shall I pull ahead the group or better stay covered  for yet some kilometer? Shall we do another repeat? In these cases the body has to be inquired, and from it we have to wait for answers to come.

Jader Tolja, co-author with Francesca Speciani of the beautiful “Thinking with body”, says that it’s useless to bound our thinking within our brain only, since a few squared meters of body surface are available to us  for transmitting us a continuous flow of messages and information as provided by thousand years of evolution. Yet thinking with our body it’s not free. It’s a skill that must be obtained. It must occur to us that tiredness, charge, difficulty in pushing up, little pain, heart bounces etc. are signals.

We need to sense that body and mind are not antagonists, but friends, allies. We sometimes should be able to change the verb ‘have to’ into the verbs ‘can, wish’. To acquire these abilities it’s necessary to make room to the expressions of body sensations. We must release from our mind the too many thoughts affecting it. For example with a little practicing zen meditation.

FREE FROM GOALS: RUNNING FOR FUN

“When we are serious that’s the right moment to play. But it’s when we are really playing that indeed we feel like to do it seriously.”

My friend, Paolo De Zordo, follower of the Dead Runner Society, devised a very amusing play to train  with his 8 years old son. Basically, along a trail (the 6.8 km long ring of Milano Idroscalo) the kid cycles with his father running by his side. The father taps on the boy’s back and soon after sprints ahead to not be caught. After a while the father is reached and ‘touched’. At this point is the father’s turn to be off and give his kid on bike the chance to catch him again. And so on. In the end a very hard workout comes out and of an high lactacid value that yet can be adjusted depending on the participants’ will, age or naughtiness of the kid, or the wheel diameter. What is sure is that the time will fly and at the end of the workout everybody will collapse simply because our legs won’t be able to carry us anymore.

Some years ago Pizzolato suggested a new version for adults, still mixing running and cycling, in which two athletes took turns at one bike, exchanging it on courses of variable length, depending on the runner’s value. And it’s quite understandable that one who won twice the NYC marathon has always to come up with something new to find a running mate. But then who has never done the game to catch up with a slower runner (maybe in a popular free start race) betting on the time required to reach him?

On track, very often, funny competitions are held: ‘couple’ relay races, regularity races, elimination races, mixed relay races of all kind. Sometimes we happen to notice to our astonishment that results achieved during these informal competitions are more brilliant than those gathered in more official contests.

Moreover, how come a child today grumbles if the p.e. teacher asks him to run a complete lap, while  he runs for two hours in a row if asked to do the relay race on the war-path? Exactly.

When we play we automatically concentrate on what we are doing. We are self-possessed and nothing can distract us. Our energies therefore increase out of all proportion and we can do, playing,  what we would not be able to achieve simply using our mental efforts.

When we are fully aware of the excitement of a gesture (play in this case), we are practicing Zen, we are opening up to reality and life. It’s not by chance, it’s a choice.

As it is not casualty that the best Olympic successes of the Norwegian and Finnish long distance runners, since the 30’s till the more recent 70’s (from Paavo Nurmi and Pekka Vasala to Vainio) originated from running for fun. This is in fact the literal translation of the word “fartlek” which was the training approach adopted by the Nordic athletes.

Fartlek in fact consists of a free run in the woods, among climbs, slopes and hill crossing, done at variable paces on variable distances with no chronometric means.

Practically, you run (after the warming-up) a rather fast course (uphill for example) then you proceed at an easier rhythm without stopping at all. After 3-4- minutes you sprint again (up to the road sign).

And so forth for an hour, an hour and a half, as you like. A training method like fartlek appeals of course to our ability to listen to ourselves and to recognize our sensations. With the chrono off, we are forced to feel our fatigue and if desired,  to verify our limits. But always having fun, relaxing. You can’t think of fartlek run in the woods in tireness or bother. If it’s not playing, it won’t be fartlek.  Nordic athletes anyway found out that ‘playing’, they could work seriously. And getting rid of the burden of chronometric schedule they have seen their track performances to improve on long distances thanks to their attained ability to stand lively paces for very long.

Today, when speaking about fartlek we divide it into short, medium and long, with repeats of one, two or four minutes, without realizing that doing so we deprive it completely of its playful character, typical of  ‘running for fun’.

If we really want to go running Zen we must be able to rid ourselves of all goals. That doesn’t mean we have not to rejoice at a good result : it simply means to not consider that fulfilment the necessary condition for our satisfaction.

Agam Bernardini mentions a personal anecdote in which he applied the Zen idea of play in a football match with his daughter and a few friends of theirs.

Everybody seemed to be amusing but the inaccuracy of the goals (they were made, as it usually happens when the ground is just grass, of overcoats and t-shirts) was a frequent source of trouble in the proper awarding of points. And complaints came in thick and fast: ‘It was goal! No, it was out!’ with the consequent bad mood of them all.

At a certain point Agam decided: they would have tried to score goals but no more points would have been recorded! Everyone at first were a little puzzled. Then little by little they got over the new rule. At last his daughter told him:’Dad, that was the more amusing football match I ever played!’.

The Zen power, the power of a free mind. Can you imagine what could it be of the thousands of hotheads fighting weekly at the stadium if such a rule were applied on Sundays matches?

When we run we must forget the verb ‘to have’. We don’t have to say ‘I have to’ but ‘I can, I like’.

Our body is able to deliver a performance that can carry on to a certain extent. Beyond that point we can hurt ourselves .

Our mind, so powerful, can charge us with paces and times that the indivisible whole of our self is not able to bear . And in some way we then risk to pay our reckoning: no concentration on job, becoming irritable, being taken ill more often, getting injured, getting into overtraining or falling into depression.

We are something much greater than our mind only and also something more than just our body. The two as a whole make something more different than their simple sum. Let’s try to remember it . Running having fun can be a very pleasant way to do that daily.

THE ANTI-ZEN RUNNER:  DIFFERENT FROM US BUT VERY ALIKE

There is no difference between an enlightened man and an ignorant one. What makes the difference is that one realises it, while the other is ignorant of it.  (Hui-Neng)

As soon as we'll start getting under way in the world of zen way of life, we surely will happen to notice how a few people are completely poles apart of this view.

Nevertheless we must feel pity for their weakness and clinging that unfortunately will probably bring them unhappiness and grief. Let's try then, just to be able to critically identify some of these faults in ourselves, to sketch a portrait as much faithful as possible of the anti-zen runner that is, the one whose ideas are at the exact opposite of oriental philosophies.

First of all the anti-zen runner has a lot of clinging: to things, to people, to ideas. Clinging doesn't mean passion or commitment. It means instead to attach too much importance to things, turning them into something they are not.

An example of clinging to one's partner is what begets jealousy. Love can begin only in full freedom and trust. If we feel pathologically dependent on somebody, we'll experience ill feelings and we'll suffer. Jealousy will be joined by diffidence, desire of revenge, grudge, meanness, mistrust.

So our relationship will change into a living hell causing sadness and disappointment.

As my companion uses to say: "It's nice knowing to be like a balloon: free to fly in the sky, but firmly anchored to you by a solid cable". A cable that is evidently made of trust and honesty, not of clinging.

It's not only to people of course that we can be attached the wrong way. He will live an unpleasant situation also that runner who will be morbidly seized on the score got in marathon. He will get himself bound to that result to such an extent that he will identify with it. And when he will fail to get to it he will feel a loser, disappointed and spent. Moreover, he will also have wasted so many energies trying to achieve it that they will procure him stiffness, tenseness, useless efforts.

Clinging is the outcome of the never-ending mind work. Don't let us be conditioned.

Another characteristic of the anti-zen runner is plaintiveness.

To the anti-zen runner nothing goes off well. There's always somebody conspiring against him. And even if it is raining (who can be blamed?) he will probably suppose that an adverse fate is going to knock him for some mysterious reason.

The marathon course will always be longer or uphill. Antagonists will have hindered him or shoved off, or set a too much or too little steady pace. In the month preceding the race he won't have been able to train properly due to his work, family or health problems, or for bad weather.

Thus this person's lifetime will be devoted to trouble and suffering. 

The joyful acceptance of life “just as it is” is totally unknown to him.

Father Anthony De Mello in one of his famous books about eagles and chickens says that for these people is as if, in a crash on a river with an empty boat going adrift, a boatman got mad with the (nonexistent) crew of the other boat.

It’s nonsense getting angry or railing.

The boat is ALWAYS empty even when we get the impression it is full.

The anti-zen runner will also have a peculiar way to solve his own problems from outside only. He will never take in consideration to question his actions or to pay attention to his inner self.

If he gets flu he will suppress it straightaway with an antibiotic and if he feels tired he will get ginseng or royal jelly (at best) instead of some rest.

If he gets problems due to some injury he won’t agree to miss neither a couple of workouts rather he will expect arch supports, anti-inflammatory measures, massages and a number of therapies. But it will never occur to him that working at himself (and perhaps at his will to run) he could achieve some result. Other people will always have to solve his problems. He, from inside, will never try.

To somebody’s advices he will always and invariably reply: ”Yes, but I…” because his situation is always completely different than anybody else’s, so much selfishly he is absorbed in himself only.

Despite his being clearly always angry, unhappy, unsatisfied,

(a smile will never be hosted by his face), he keeps passing terrible judgments on all other colleagues of his. 

One doesn’t understand a blessed thing, that other one is long-winded and boring, the third is so rude, the fourth, he knows well why his wife left him and the fifth, for heaven’s sake, don’t let me say a word.

The idea that judging other people actually means judging ourselves would certainly catch him unprepared.

Judgment is son of a huge ego making us to feel at the center of the world whatever we do. What we don’t get is that for the others we are absolutely not at the center of the world, and if in human relationships we take on that side, fight will be inevitable.

Rather than to start listening, to understand, to look at other’s point of view that could help us to grow up, we stick at ours being left standing.

The enormous ego of this kind of a person tends always to come out.

In any debate the stakes will never be to learn something more or to take together a step further, but constantly to have one’s own way and the last word.         

At the root of this behavior  (that, if we think of, stops any chance of a positive dialogue) there is a huge sense of superiority that spoils every attempt to put oneself in others’ place.

There is a conviction, supported by our catholic, scientific and western education, that our way of thinking  is the only one right, the only one infallible, the  only one with the seal of authenticity.

I remember a classmate of mine at high school who, annoyed by my chattering about homeopathy as alternative medicine, had replied to me: “But can find nothing about in the book!” this meaning to him (top of the class) that thing did not exist.

And I still remember the arguments at home about other cultures and religions, always marked by the idea that those others (poor people) indulged in nonsense rites or in childish superstitions.

Until we keep thinking that only our way of life, our culture, our nationality, our science, are true, we won’t be able to discuss about anything with anybody. We’ll only be dealing with our granitic beliefs.

It’s likely to find at field somebody talking about the latest training techniques rather than politics or doping.  And it’s easy to identify immediately who wants to force his point of view on us without any possibility of discussion. He’s the one not realizing the aggressiveness of his discussing: he’s an anti-zen runner.

Of course, the problem is not related to the passionate defense of one’s own opinion or to being deeply convinced of a concept.

The problem is identification with one’s own thought, so that we feel ourselves questioned when our thinking is being criticized.

When identification disappears, ego disappears, and with that our fear to be questioned as individuals.

How often have you heard flat sentences imposing you to do this or that: “If you run two marathons in a month, you’ll suffer throughout the year!”, “If you don’t hold fast paces, your condition will decline mercilessly”, “Who won’t train at least once a day can’t think of completing a marathon” or also “If you don’t do stretching  sooner or later you’ll get injured” or “Without dissociated diet you’ll lose 10 sec in marathon”.

All flat statements said by the expert in turn as if they were absolute truths. To be honest we know very well that theories keep getting confirmations and denials, and indisputable truths, in this matter as in many others, are really few.

Let’s mistrust who wants to impose on us his univocal point of view: about abortion, cloning, or uphill workouts, discussing, having confrontation, means stepping aside and listening. Thinking together. If we start thinking to identify with a thought, we’ll be defeated from the very beginning . 

Our opinion, as qualified as it can be, will always be ‘one’ of many.

We can recognize an anti-zen runner from many other characteristics.

His lack of awareness of the moment (that is his not being self-conscious  while living)  causes him to be unbelievably superficial in everything. In human relationships like in chats or training sessions. Things will never stop inside him but will only travel through him. You’ll find him the same even after ten years, as no element of inner growth can really affect him.

Sons, divorces, graduations, world records, will be for him like checks of a chessboard which will never get a complete meaning.

His competitiveness will be exaggerated and twisted.

Missing a goal he had set will cause him a crisis of identity.

Therefore he won’t hesitate to use all means to get what he wants, due to his identifying with the goal itself.

When he will talk about his workouts he will lower by a number of seconds the times he actually achieved, and will do the same with races. His 3 hours and 37 minutes in marathon, will be soon turned into 3 hours and a half. But as this has been got in muggy weather, and up some climbs, it’s as if it was 3 hours and 20. And if the ensuing marathon is enough far off, keeping nattering, his prospective time will draw near three hours. This will of course mean that then, during the race, he’ll have to accomplish it really.

It’s no use saying he won’t be able to run the zen way due to those premises.

He will then resort to every ingeniousness to lower his time, always for his childish identification of his personal value with his value in marathon. He will cut across the course if he has the chance, he will take illegal or doping substances to go faster, he will look for any kind of (external) miraculous  remedy to achieve that result so important to him.

When, obviously, he will fail to get the desired result, he will develop feelings of revenge and retaliation. He will charge somebody or something (or at worst misfortune) of his failure.

He’ll unleash his angry. He’ll experience a sense of impotence and hard feelings toward everything and everybody. And he will be considered just a poor soul by whom is able to understand his intimate predicament.

Is it so hard to understand that this vicious circle can be broken back to its origins stopping to identify with one’s own results? For the anti-zen runner it undoubtedly is.

According to his psyche every act must be a trading object. Everything is being commoditized, and nothing can be done just for pure pleasure. The idea to carry out a workout that has no bearing on his programme or is not strictly useful for some race to prepare can never cross his mind.

Running for fun, to take pleasure in feeling the wind in hair, or muscles being strained, do not belong to his wealth of experience or wishes.

Luckily they do to ours.

Actually the anti-zen runner lives a deep gap between his body and his soul. He’s fully ruled by his thoughts with which he identifies completely and he’s ridden by his own and others’ judgments.

His mind is totally unable to get body signals and in fact is often in the grip of injuries which are just provoked by his blind resolution to carry out hard works even when his body is not capable to bear them. Other times he tries to hold in race or at field rhythms he can’t stand thus getting frequent cramps, contractures and so on.

If he breaks off in mid hard training session, though, will always be somebody else’s fault: dinner of the previous evening, the osteopathy specialist who doesn’t understand a blessed thing, his run mate who pulled him too much ahead.

Don’t let us make the mistake to laugh too loudly at these little ‘field’ portraits in which we’ll have certainly recognized Tom or Dick. On the contrary, think about that somebody else may have recognized us or some side of ours in there. And for once let’s try to understand that the other is us. The other is us.

On his interior growing (as on ours) can depend world destiny. Our actions modify thoughts and behaviors, affect gestures and impressions. We have got an immense power we are not aware of.

Let’s make good use of it. Now.

A sister of mine years ago told me it’s as everyone was bringing a knapsack on his shoulder. A bag, containing other people faults, was always in front of our eyes. The other bag, instead, hidden behind our back, was containing our faults. And that was awfully bigger. Let’s try not to forget too often this image. Our own faults are often totally invisible to us, but they are very visible to others.

Even though his mind controls his life with his thoughts, his wanting, his clinging, the anti-zen runner too senses, nevertheless, his profound loneliness  and unhappiness.

And in those few occasions he gets in touch with himself to realize to find only straw it makes him to feel down and unsatisfied.

The solution he uses to apply is that of making a resolution for the future. He will say: “Today it is going this way, but tomorrow if I apply myself, I’ll be able to improve little by little”. A very good intention that almost always has just the function to postpone to the day after what on the contrary could and should be done today to not self condemn one to sadness and low spirits.

Krishnamurti says that while chronological time has a meaning (today is happening this, tomorrow that), psychological time is completely devoid of it.

That is, it’s no meaning saying: “Tomorrow I’ll be better” or “Starting next month I’ll be kinder with people”.

When this kind of assertions are being made it’s just to account for our laziness, our indolence, our inability to change our life.

There’s only one moment when we can act to change us. And it is here and now.

American runs 
(by Giorgio Pogliano)

Philadelphia (Usa/Pennsylvania) - April 28. We landed here from Italy last
night. We rented a car and drove to our cousin's home, a few miles from
Philadelphia. More than a home it is a mansion, built around the turn of the
century. It's a fabulous place, surrounded by acres of land.
I get out at seven in the morning, cross a lawn full of daffodils and
aimlessly follow a line of sycamores. I'm in America again, after a year.
Three days ago - a lifetime - I ran the Pisa Marathon and, three weeks
before, the Turin Marathon. Yesterday, as we had a drink on the veranda, a
little deer, a bambi, showed up on the lawn, and our host recommended that
we scan our daughter for ticks before putting her to bed. Deer ticks are
very small and they carry a terrible infection called "Lyme's disease".

My muscles feel the two marathons I just ran but, overall, I'm not doing
badly. I stop for some stretching and work on my hamstrings on a fallen tree
trunk. There are no human noises, just the sounds of the woods.

Our cousin has been fighting cancer for seven years. She had
self-transplants, chemo cycles, radio cycles. Even yesterday she had a bout
with chemo and then quickly came home to make dinner before we arrived.
After dinner we talked and I was impressed by her philosophy. "Forty years
old" - she said - "a good age. I'm happy I got here. Now I live a day at a
time... turn forty every day...".

We ought to learn life from her. I try to picture life through her eyes. How
green is this meadow. How blue is this sky. How strong are the smells in
this woods. How beautiful life is. How hard it would be to leave it.

I ran a loop and now I'm in the entrance lane again. She planted a line of
cherry trees with her own hands. I read somewhere that those who do not
believe in God don't believe in the future either... and plant no trees.

The book is published by Editoriale Sport Italia in Milan (Italy) Via Masaccio 12. It's about 200 pages long, and a cost of 17 Euros (about 19 Dollars). It can be ordered for postal way to the magazine "Correre". It will be delivered in few days.

Per further informations e-mail to clorofilla@vivaioclorofilla.it 

Interesting zen links and notes 

You can find a lot of interestig books about:
Zen
Meditation
Psychology
Mind and body
Running
Nutrition
Neurobiology
Scientific basis
Zen tales
ecc.
in the commented bibliography (in italian) of the book.

These links are all in english language:

An interesting english article about zen swimming was found at:
www.totalimmersion.net/articles/zenlike.html 

You can find a lot of interesting running zen suggestions in the site mastered by Austin "Ozzie" Gontang at:
http://www.mindfulness.com/mr.asp

www.runtheplanet.com
The place on the web where every athlete can find new running paths in every world corner.

www.runtheplanet.com/pages/refer/rtpcaffe.php
Giorgio Pogliano english tales. Eyes opened, some poetry, and a good amount of tenderness.

www.roadrunnersports.com/cgi-bin/rrs/rrs/rrHome.jsp
A lot of good advices about all running shoes sold in the USA. The site contains also critical opinions about simple users, written without any filter.

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