Running to Ecstasy...

I don't know about you but my running, when I'm running that is, goes far beyond that of running for fitness, for an increase in pace and speed or to get that endorphin fueled high; that feeling of well-being that comes after a good run or training session. My running, as described in my earlier blogs, is about moving through nature, about using the five senses; to touch, taste, smell, hear and see all that might be along my path. There is a sixth sense in operation sometimes too; a sense of joining, a sense of being part of nature's wider community, an expansion of consciousness, if you will, that allows the mind to become still and enjoy new horizons. There is a beautiful description in the Katha-Upanishad that I like to apply to my running, especially as it helps me to remember that 'I am not my body'. To quote: 'Self rides in the chariot of the body, intellect the firm footed charioteer, discursive mind the reigns. Senses are the horses, objects of desire the roads'. Yogi's say that: 'When the five organs of perception (the senses) become still, together with the mind, and the intellect ceases to be active: that is called the highest state. This firm holding back of the senses is what is known as Yoga'. Yoga running then, is perhaps what I do when I am not caught up in the world. Although I like miles, miles are not really what matters on my journey; it's what unfolds along the way that counts. To use a quote taken from Ursula Le Guin's feminist science fiction book, The Left Hand of Darkness, 'It is good to have an end to journey towards but it is the journey that matters in the end'. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a downer on training runs, in fact I am quite good at training; all those recovery runs, the thresholds, the Kenyan hills, the Sunday long runs and the cold baths afterwards, I do them all. Talking about miles reminds me of my little penchant for ultra running. Ultra running brings its own peculiarities to the body/mind arena; hallucinations for one and moments of bliss for another. Personally speaking, I find it far less painful to run 54 or 62 miles* than to run a flat out from the gun 5K. Some ultra runners cover the miles for the express purpose of seeking out spiritual ecstasy; to lose sight of their everyday world and to bathe in inner harmony and to be one with their God. Sri Chinmoy for one set up the Self-Transcendence series of races to promote spiritual growth through sport and uses distances from 2 miles to 3100 miles to do this. Other ultra runners have set up communities expressly for the purpose of running extreme miles in their quest for spiritual ecstasy and fulfilment. Divine Madness are one such community and, seen as a cult to some, their methods are much talked about. When these guy's arrange to meet up for a run, they think nothing of running 30 miles or so to the arranged meeting place and then they run some more before going home again. 'Divine Madness', what a running club name that would make. I think I'll set up a UK branch just to get the T-shirt but I won't be doing those extreme miles, I can tell you!

* Reference to the Thames Meander and the Mongolia Sunrise to Sunset 100K

When I pull a face...

I'm in that 'when I pull a face' place again, this time because of the escalating use of violence and terror being used against many Iranians' by their so-called religious Supreme Leader and his hard-line clerics; in fact, when I see or hear the words 'ayatollah', 'cleric' or 'mullah' these days, my flesh creeps. In my view, these people, by their words and by their actions, occupy the lowest order of humanity and their extremist violence clearly demonstrates why secular governments are the preferred option to those organised on religious grounds. Our own history is full of examples of the brutality that is the dark-side companion of theocracy; to quote from GlobeNewswire's report on Frazier Park's new book, Theocracy Throughout The Ages: Victory or Catastrophe?, 'This book clearly enumerates Christianity's long history of crimes against humanity, extending back nearly two thousand years. As observed, religious interference in secular matters resulted in a cruel, authoritative control over population with little regard for rights of the individual; testifying to the evils of theocracy. Publication of the "torture memos" documents what can happen when religious radicals gain control of government'. What we are witnessing today then, is the continuing evils of theocracy as demonstrated through a man, merely a man, who claims devine power over all the millions of people that make up Iran.

I'm also pulling a face over the burqa issue. In my daily interactions with other people, the visual clues and signals I receive and send out play an important role in the communication process between myself and the other person(s). If the other person is obscured from me, then I am at a loss as to what their intentions maybe; just seeing their eyes is not enough to determine what is going on. I also happen to believe that the burqa is a weak man's tool for oppression and that it has nothing to do with religious belief. The Muslim Council of Britain believes otherwise and as stated in the comments section of the The Sunday Times it says that, 'It is patronising and offensive to suggest that those Muslim women who wear the burqa do so because of pressure or oppression by their male partners or guardians'. The opposite view is given in the same article by Taj Hargey, chairman of the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford who says, 'that in his opinion the mullahs fail to tell their flocks that nowhere in Islam's transcendent text is there any mention of the word burqa or niqab'. Usma Hasan, a reformist iman in London points out that the Koran advocates that 'Muslims should respect local customs'. So, a local custom here then, is that a burqa or niqab is not worn and that is how it should be.

On this and that...

Yesterday the papers (Daily Mail/Daily Telegraph) reported on the fact that UK pensions are the lowest in the whole of Europe and are set to get worse. Last night on BBC Radio 2, there was a report about the fact that the UK has an estimated 1 million cocaine users; the highest in the whole of Europe and rising. We also have the highest rates of teenage pregnancies in the whole of Europe and believe it or not there are whole area's of the UK that attract EU funding because of extreme poverty. We also have the highest knife crime rates in the whole of Europe and we have a growing problem with street violence. Because of these knife crimes, the street violence and the fact that our government is ineffectual when it comes to protecting us from the terrorists and extremists, who live in our community and who seek to harm us every day, this country of ours(?) has been labelled as dangerous to live in or to visit. The rise in teenage pregnancies was a growing problem before New Labour got into power but under their governance the numbers have just got bigger and bigger. Cocaine was a problem before New Labour got into power but under their governance, cocaine abuse has got bigger and bigger. Both knife crime and street violence have grown under their governance and under their governance corrupt MP's and a rotten parliament have been allowed to flourish. Pensions were flourishing before New Labour got into power. Gordon Brown, as Chancellor, wrecked the pensions market and Alistair Darling, the current Chancellor is wrecking it even further (a nation on nation conspiracy perhaps?). Having said that, I do have to acknowledge that the pensions of MP's, MEP's and EU commissioners are not affected by these negative actions, as they all have access to healthy multiple pension funds (ref: Kinnocks), that are paid for by the tax payer, by you and me; by those who's own pension plans have been reduced to rubble. This government of ours, constantly bleats on about how 'we', the public must actively plan for retirement but I say to them, how can we, when you actively disempower us from doing so? In my view, all of the above evidence's the unhealthy state of our nation; we have governmental and corporate greed, we have low grade politicians, we (still) have Tony Blair, we have political interference in our private lives, we have a major economic downturn, struggling infrastructures, lopsided health provision, an angry and unhappy electorate and we have the rise of the BNP. And still the message is not getting through to Gordon and his cronies; the message that they should call an election, go away, leave office and disappear back to whence they came and take Mr (whispering) T Blair with them. Who and what would replace them though? I shiver at the thought.

Note: Again my rantings are inspired by what I've read, seen and heard. Nothing written in this blog is then, 'my responsibility'.

Byeee.

A rest day...

Taking a rest today, so thought I'd post somebody else's thoughts on life. What follows is taken from the all spirit inspiration group that I subscribe to and is about 'the essence of Life'.

On the Essence of Life

From: 'When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times'
by Pema Chodron

"We think that if we just meditated enough or jogged enough or ate perfect food, everything would be perfect. But from the point of view of someone who is awake, that's death. Seeking security or perfection, rejoicing in feeling confirmed and whole, self-contained and comfortable, is some kind of death. It doesn't have any fresh air. There's no room for something to come in and interrupt all that. We are killing the moment by controlling our experience. Doing this is setting ourselves up for failure, because sooner or later, we're going to have an experience we can't control: our house is going to burn down, someone we love is going to die, we're going to find out we have cancer, a brick is going to fall out of the sky and hit us on the head, somebody is going to spill tomato juice all over our white suit, or we're going to arrive at our favourite restaurant and discover that no one ordered produce and seven hundred people are coming for lunch."The essence of life is that it's challenging. Sometimes it is sweet, and sometimes it is bitter. Sometimes your body tenses, and sometimes it relaxes or opens. Sometimes you have a headache, and sometimes you feel 100 percent healthy. From an awakened perspective, trying to tie up all the loose ends and finally get it together is death, because it involves rejecting a lot of your basic experience. There is something aggressive about that approach to life, trying to flatten out all the rough spots and imperfections into a nice smooth ride. "To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-man's-land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again. From the awakened point of view, that's life."

Quantum healing for body/mind...

Well, I'm reading, or more like pond dipping, another three body/mind books that I have found on my rather dusty book shelves. They are, Quantum Healing by Deepak Chopra MD (Bantam New Age Books 1990), Journey to Freedom by leslie Kenton (Thorsons, 1999) and The Way of the Shaman by Michael Harner (HarperSanFrancisco, 1990).

Quantum Healing is about exploring the body/mind connection with a view to gaining an understanding of the principles that underlie physical reality and that create our everyday environment; in particular the environment of our own bodies. Deepack Chopra goes on to explain further: 'Quantum healing is healing the bodymind from a quantum level. That means from a level which is not manifest at a sensory level. Our bodies ultimately are fields of information, intelligence and energy. Quantum healing involves a shift in the fields of energy information, so as to bring about a correction in an idea that has gone wrong. So quantum healing involves healing one mode of consciousness, mind, to bring about changes in another mode of consciousness, body'.

Journey to Freedom is a practical workbook offering 13 quantum leaps for the soul by exploring and using the power of shamanism. leslie Kenton says: 'This book is about freedom - not as an idea but as a living experience. It centres around a thirteen-week integrated programme of practical tools and techniques designed to enrich the experience of freedom in your own life and then keep on expanding it. The process has been developed out of a marriage of the most ancient techniques known to man for expanding consciousness - shamanism - together with leading-edge physics, biology, systems theory and the rapidly developing science of consciousness itself'.

The Way of the Shaman is again a practical workbook offering ways of achieving and maintaining well-being through the application of shamanistic methodology. Michael Harner goes on to say: 'In shamanism, the maintenance of one's personal power is fundamental to well-being. The book will introduce you to some of the basic shamanic methods of restoring and maintaining personal power, and using it to help others who are weak or ill, or injured. The techniques are simple and powerful. Their use does not require 'faith' nor changes in the assumptions you have about reality in your ordinary state of consciousness. Indeed, the system usually does not even require change in your unconscious mind either, for it only awakens what is already there'.

I like that last statement in particular; 'for it only awakens what is already there'. I think that's what I am experiencing right now in this body/mind journey of mine; this awakening, this recognition of 'what is already there'. I have been aware for some time that something has been prodding me, poking me, telling me to take notice and it seems that it took a shattered joint in my foot* to do that. This awakening also fits with my earlier body/mind discoveries, as taken from Helen Shapiro's book, Your Body Speaks Your Mind - lets hope I don't go to sleep again. There is also further evidence of this awakening, as demonstrated in my blogs, some of which have a strong shamanic theme running through them - i.e. An audience of trees, Do you ever, A flute in my garden etc. These blogs then, are where I write down the messages of my soul, messages that have risen up from the deep and are now down on paper (metaphorically speaking) for all to see, for all to read and for me perhaps, to act upon. I guess I have to act, as it appears that my inner-being (my true self?) got so frustrated with my long standing cognitive shortfall, that it arranged for me to have a little running accident - i.e. it broke my foot!

* To quote from Helen's book: 'Our feet also indicate how we feel about where we are going. If, for instance, there is fear of what lies ahead - perhaps due to old age, illness, or insecurity - then toes may curl or the feet become sore so that we cannot walk easily. This stops us from moving forward, as if we are trying to stop the future from happening. Or it may feel as if there is nowhere to go, so why bother'.

Note: My first 'real' experience of shamanic culture was at the 2006 Mongolia Sunrise to Sunset 100K footrace. The race was (and still is) based in Lake Hovsgol National Park in northern Mongolia and it is where shamanism is still the main belief system. You are so close to nature in this place, you can't help but become part of it.

When I pull a face...

When I pull a face, it usually means that I have had a negative response to something that I have read or heard about and which invokes disapproval in me. This disapproval rises from my own life experiences, in particular my experiences with main stream religion, and in one case, not so main stream religion. I love the peace and quite of a church or cathedral; I like the sacred space. I like church music such as that written by John Tavener, Thomas Tallis and Claudio Monteverdi; I even like some of the older style church hymns. I like church architecture; from beautiful stained glass windows to the dazzling geometric shapes used in the mosques of Islam. What I do not like, is the human part of it; the preaching, the proselyting, the 'subjective truth' of those who think they offer 'the one and only way' and are thereby judgemental and dismissive of those who think differently. I acknowledge that not all behave this way but certainly there are a lot who do and I don't want them knocking on my front door, thank you very much. Only recently I was reminded of my distaste for this sort of thing when watching news reports on the current Iranian election problems and where the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali khamenie, said in support of President Ahmadinejad, that he would not be responsible for any deaths and injuries sustained by protesters from his police and militia because they (the protesters), in ignoring his 'divine' directions, have brought this state upon themselves. Throughout history theocratic governments have come and gone and most, if not all, seem to leave a bad taste in the mouth; not necessarily because of the religious belief itself but because of the human(s) who use it for his/their own ends; to gain power and to have unrighteous control over the masses*. Over you and me! So, to my way of thinking then, the Iranian situation is an example of how the few, through the use of religion, control the many even though the many want change and want a say in how they are governed. It all makes me pull a face.

* An exception to the rule would possibly be Tibetan Buddhism.

An audience of trees...

When you are out there running a thousand trees can pass you by and you won't one hello or a cheer. This is not because the trees are ignoring you, it's because you can't hear them. How can you if you are caught up in the constant comings and goings and doings of everyday life. If you expanded your world, if you escaped from samsara for a moment or two, you could go talk to the trees and find out just how powerful and important they are. Mind you, you had better do this alone or perhaps with an understanding friend, otherwise the other samsara dwellers will think you mad! There is a woodland that I run through from time to time and deep within it, there is a small glade of mature beech and hazel trees that stand waiting quietly for the world to end*; you would never notice them unless you knew they were there. As I approach the bend on the trail that turns me into their presence, I am already looking forward to seeing them once more and when I do, I acknowledge them all. These trees have been here for a long time and the scars they carry, scars that I can see in myself, bear witness to the storms they have endured over their life time. Standing close to the edge of the path, there is one tree in particular that I am drawn to and when I lean into its massive trunk, I can feel tree energy flowing from root to leaf and in giving myself up to the tree, becoming one with it, the energy flows through me too - at least that's what I like to think! You may think this questionable behaviour but I am told that, 'To see beauty and solidity in a tree is to see these qualities in yourself' and that to me says, 'I'm okay'! Just to give you an indication of how important trees are, the Essene Teachings of the Dead Sea Scrolls include a poem that tells us all to recognise and acknowledge the mightiness of trees. This is the first verse from that poem:

TREES

As translated from the Hebrew and Aramaic text

by the late Edmund Bordeaux Szekely

Go towards the high growing Trees,

And before one of them

Which is beautiful, high and growing mighty,

Say thou these words:

Hail be unto thee!

O good living Tree,

Made by the Creator.

Trees occupy a special place in folklore; if you have ever said 'touch wood', then you have invoked the Tree Spirits of the Druids and Celts, who also happened to believe that a person's nature was governed by the nature of the tree which corresponded to their date of birth. My tree for instance is the Hazel (05/08 - 01/09) and the nature of the tree and hence my own nature is described thus: 'Hazelnut Tree (Extraordinary) - charming, undemanding, very understanding, knows how to make an impression, active fighter for social cause, popular, moody and capricious lover, honest and tolerant partner, precise sense of judgment'. These are not my words, they are the words according to the h2g2 project; the guide to Life, the Universe and Everything. A word of warning. In trawling the Internet for information about trees and dates of birth, I found quite a lot of conflicting views about which tree corresponds to your date of birth. On some, my tree was listed as the Pine, in other's the Hazel. Some of the attributes given to both of these trees I recognised in myself; others I did not recognise at all. So be careful if you decide to take a look for yourself. Trees are also associated with healing and they can and do influence our own and our communities well-being. To quote from The Healing Power of Trees by Sarah Anne Edwards, 'People are more satisfied with their neighbourhoods if there are more trees on or near their property. They describe their quality of life as safer, more pleasant and more satisfying than people living in homes without trees nearby'. The psychoanalytic physchologist, Michael Perlman takes things further in his book The Power of trees: The reforesting of the Soul, suggesting, in response to a newspaper article about Hurricane Andrew, that trees can matter more to us and mean more to us than we realise' and he goes on to say that, 'Trees are important in many ways. Their ecological and aesthetic importance is often recognised but this book explores something less tangible - their psychological power'. So, the next time you are out there running the tracks and trails just be aware that you have an audience, an audience of trees... and say hello.

*Given that this woodland is a 'managed' woodland, I guess that a chain saw could bring a violent end to their existence at any time but lets hope the land owner is an enlightened being and knows a bit about the life of trees.