To Move Together

Runner's Prayer for All Souls Day (Nov 2):

That we might feel the spirits of our loved ones with us as we run toward the greater Love.

From Adrienne Rich:

...to move openly together
in the pull of gravity, which is not simple,
which carries the feathered grass a long way down the upbreathing air.

From from the Lauds Divine Office (morning service) at Mont St. Michel, a beautiful singing of Psalms 148-150:

Lord, It Is Time

Day in Autumn by Rainer Maria Rilke : Poetry Magazine

“I feel more like myself when I’m out running. I’m a good animal.”
-Julia Chase-Brand, quoted in a NY Times article today about the strides she has made (and continues to make) for women's running. Bravo, Julia!

The Impalpable Mist

I'm a slow runner, and I like being a slow runner getting passed by old and young alike. But in running and exhaling, I become part of that which is impassable: the air, the water, and the mist. In that way, I become immortal.

From Carl Sandburg:

"The Mist"

I am the mist, the impalpable mist,
Back of the thing you seek.
My arms are long,
Long as the reach of time and space.

Some toil and toil, believing,
Looking now and again on my face,
Catching a vital, olden glory.

But no one passes me,
I tangle and snare them all.
I am the cause of the Sphinx,
The voiceless, baffled, patient Sphinx.

I was at the first of things,
I will be at the last.
I am the primal mist
And no man passes me;
My long impalpable arms
Bar them all.

Hurry by Marie Howe : The Poetry Foundation

Hurry by Marie Howe : The Poetry Foundation

I wish I had played more today.

From Mary Oliver:

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?

From Rumi, a poem reminding us that less is more.

You are now the Sun -
what need have you for a crown?
You have vanished from this world -
what need have you to tie your robe?

I've heard that you can barely see your soul.
But why look at all? -
yours is now the Soul of Souls!

Words of wisdom from poet Nikhil Parekh from his poem, "There Were None":

But there were none on the trajectory of this Omnisciently wonderful Universe; who didn’t uncontrollably burn in the fire of immortally consecrating love; at every single stage; at every single moment; at every single breath; at every single footstep; and at all times; in the tenure of their inevitably destined lifetime….

O Clouds, Unfold!

I'm thankful that I will not have to live a year of years, as Enoch did in the Book of Genesis:

Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years (5:23),

but it would be nice not to have to die, which Genesis also implies of him:

[He] walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.

The Torah is vague on what happened to Enoch, but unlike anyone else in Biblical history, he did something extraordinary: he "walked with God" for almost 400 years.

About Enoch, I have so many questions, but one thing seems clear: he had an intimate relationship with the divine that achieved mythic proportions among those who remembered him.

It's possible to assume that Enoch never lost his way, since he walked with God. To examine Enoch's life from a Zen Buddhist perspective, however, the opposite would be true. The Zen experience of Enlightenment is called satori, which basically means to get irredeemably lost from everything familiar and thereby find the path toward true understanding.

Enoch achieved eternal bliss in his lifetime, perhaps, because he lost himself entirely. By abandoning the ego, he achieved the Zen goal of waking up from the illusory duality of life and death and accepted the embrace of the Eternal. All that an ancient Hebraic mind could understand and record of this miracle was that God took him away.

Knowing I will neither achieve the length of Enoch's life nor the miracle of his end, I will content myself with the sleeping fool's journey, putting one foot in front of the other and struggling to wake up. Running shoes on feet, I will press on with a laughable intensity, hoping not for Enoch's exit but Elijah's (2 Kings 2:11), going out in a blaze of glory. As William Blake writes,

Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight...

Until the Water is Clear

I ran an easy 5k today, focused and relaxed. The opposite is true of my run two days ago, in which I was a mental disaster. The difference between Sunday and today is that I wasn't expecting anything this time.

From the Tao Te Ching, Chapter 15:

Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action arises by itself?

The Master doesn't seek fulfillment.
Not seeking, not expecting,
she is present, and can welcome all things.

Lao Tzu refers to the Tao as the Great Mother who sustains us and is present in all things. In honor of Her, here's a song from one of my favorite Malian singers, Habib Koite:

My child
what is wrong?
Your mother hasn't gone far
She will be here any minute

House of Love

Meditating today on my favorite verse from the Hebrew Bible:

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. -Psalm 23:6

But what is the House of the Lord? Rumi writes,

This is the house of Love, which is without bound and
end.