Still Running

When Vanessa Goddard decided to write a book about running and meditation, she knew it would have to be a book about freedom, ease, and the joy of movement. It would be about mind and body and their interrelatedness. It would speak about the power of stillness and silence and the ways in which we can use that power in our lives. We are awake when we remain present within each moment, responding skillfully to what is in front of us. Awakening is also enlightenment or liberation-the realization of who we truly are and what reality is made of. In the 2,500-year-old tradition of Buddhism, the main path to liberation is meditation, or, as it's called in Zen, zazen, seated meditation. First we need to learn to move into stillness to make contact with our basic clarity and wisdom. Then from that stillness, we must move out into activity, letting that clarity inform the way we live day to day. Running zazen-a practice developed by Vanessa Goddard-can show us that fundamentally there is no difference between stillness and movement, body and mind, self and other. And this, the Buddha said, is the realization that leads to the end of suffering. --