Nov 24
2009
On the Road to Enlightenment
Sitting cross-legged, facing a wall. Counting my breaths. One. Am I doing this right? Is my posture correct? Straighten your back, pull your shoulders back. Two. Was that a good breath? Should I be breathing deeper? Three. My leg hurts, my foot is falling asleep, maybe I should readjust. Four. How far do I have to go tomorrow? 22 miles, ok, not bad. Five. Ok, how long has it been? 5 minutes. That’s it? 10 more minutes, I can keep this up for 10 more minutes, I walked for 8 hours today for crying out loud, I can handle 10 minutes. Six. Ok, this is tougher than I thought. Try to think of something. Wait, I’m not supposed to be thinking of anything. Seven.
I’ve decided to give this zen thing a chance. I’ve been reading a lot about it since I started the trip, but never sat down and tried it. In the books, zen masters describe a feeling of one-ness with your surroundings, and they call this experience enlightenment. In our minds, most of us see and experience daily life as us versus the world, not so much a struggle or competition as that may sound, but just that our mind and body is a separate entity from everything around us. I really can’t explain it much deeper than that since I myself haven’t experienced it, but I do know that before I started this journey I knew there was something I needed to discover about myself or about the world, and I believe this may be it.
As you can probably tell from the first paragraph, I still have a long way to go, but at least I am on the path. Reading about Zen Buddhism is pretty interesting, it can sound so simple and yet so complex at the same time. Maybe I’m still trying to wrap my head around it, so I’ll give it some time. I’ve also been reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. It’s quite amazing to read a Roman emperor’s words that sound just as applicable today as they were nearly 2,000 years ago. He talks a lot about how to accept different people for who they are, and how to keep your mind and emotions under control when dealing with difficult people or circumstances. It’s hard to separate one good quote from his body of work, but here’s one I particularly like:
When people injure you, ask yourself what good or harm they thought would come of it. If you understand that, you’ll feel sympathy rather than outrage or anger. Your sense of good and evil may be the same as theirs, or near it, in which case you have to excuse them. Or your sense of good and evil may differ from theirs. In which case they’re misguided and deserve your compassion. Is that so hard?
That’s funny – it is hard to shut your mind off or even to stay focused on something or somebody when your supposed to. Every day there is a time when I should be listening to someone when they are asking/telling me something and I find my mind is totally focused on everything but them. I found that it does take a lot of discipline to tell myself to pay attention – especially when I have to tell myself several times to pay attention in the same minute and then I’m telling myself to pay attention and not paying attention……..hmmm??? Let me know when you get it and then you can teach me
. We’ll sure miss you at Thanksgiving this year but we will all be thankful that we have such an incredible ‘nephew, son, grandson, uncle, brother and friend’! Hope you find somewhere to eat turkey and pie….LOVE YOU!!!!
Joe,
Keep up the great work and I believe you will find your enlightenment. I am beginning to believe that this journey you are on is as much for your sake as for a wonderfull cause. Keep up the good work and remember ” The only way to eat an elaphant is one bite at a time.” You will find the finish line one step at a time.
Take care,
Michael
Hey Joe,
New fan here, and I’m so glad to learn of your journey. Thanks for your posts and sharing the adventure with us. Stay strong, be healthy and know that you have many folks sharing your every step.
Hey Joe, It’s great to see you’re still going strong. I don’t know how relevant this is since I don’t know where you’re planning on living when you’re done with your run, but there’s a great Zen Buddhist Temple in Ann Arbor that you may want to check out. – http://www.zenbuddhisttemple.org/locations/annarbor/index.html
I did yoga there while I was living in Ann Arbor and they were probably the best yoga lessons I’ll ever attend. They also have meditation classes.
Good luck with the rest of your journey!
Yo Joe,
Hope all is well. Keep it up! Next I’ll join you for the naked streak across the country. Raise money for breast and testicular cancer.
Good post it. I’ve actually heard the opposite of meditation, that you’re supposed to let all of the thoughts go into your mind, quickly notice them and release them.
It makes more sense to me because our brains are made up of billiions of neurons which are just firing ideas, and thoughts at a very quick rate…it seems that trying to stop this natural flow of thoughts may be counter-intuitive to our real rhythm.
Then again, who am I to give advice on this? Kuai-Chang Kain?