Who We Are

Whether your run today is fast or slow, good or bad, press on.

The major philosophical message of the Bhagavad Gita, one of the most beloved Hindu scriptures, can be summed up in the following line from Shakespeare's Macbeth:

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair"
-Act 1, Scene 1

In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna reveals himself as the Godhead to a warrior in anguish. The crux of what Krishna explains to the warrior is that he must perform his duty with no attachment to the outcome. He must fight because he is a fighter.

Whether the fight is fair or foul is of no matter; in fact, "fair" and "foul" are both illusions. The only reality that exists is the Ultimate Reality -- which is eternally One, transcending all categories. The meaning of life is to seek and find it.

We have that Reality inside of us. The Islamic mystic poet Rumi writes of it as a field:

"Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing there is a field. I will meet you there."

Similar to Rumi, medieval Christian mystic, ecologist, and musician Hildegard von Bingen describes eternal reality as the "greenness." When we feel ourselves, our breath, and our energy in sync with nature, we arrive there.

Krishna, Rumi and Hildegard summon us to do whatever we can in the space of our little lives -- in our fields, in our fighting, in our actions, and in our hearts -- to submit to the Great Mystery. In so doing, we will find ourselves.

Should our egos get too involved in our running, we'll always be struggling with the outcomes of our performance. Instead, we should run for the sake of running, because that is who we are. Implicit in the sound of our heartbeat and breath is that we are echoing a universal rhythm.

I am a slow runner. At my pace, I would never win a race. On days when I can accept this, I feel like I can run forever. On days when I want to be faster, I lose my focus and get frustrated. Either way, I run. My blood circulates with vitality. The grass grows, and the world moves on.