Tibetan Buddhist Lama On Running Meditation
After recovering from my injuries I have returned to my marathon training with a fresh focus and strengthened purpose. I started slow. I ran a two miles on Sunday, May 31, then two miles on the following Tuesday followed by a two and half mile run on Friday and ran nine and half miles yesterday afternoon. I am following sitting meditation instructions and adapting them to my running practice and find that it enriches my experience. When my monkey mind wildly drifts, I bring my focus back to my breath and body. I don’t get caught up in the discomfort, but I don’t run away from it either. I bring my body back to the present moment and keep my eyes focused on the path before me. I suspect other runners have been using these techniques without calling it meditation.
During the past few months I have been trying to find discussion on the internet about meditation as running. There isn’t a lot out there, but I found something the other day that caught my interest. A Tibetan Buddhist Lama is training for a marathon. Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche is the eldest son of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and head of the Shambhla Buddhist lineage. Check out the video below and let me know what you think.
A very cool post, I have been trying to meditate, still mind and all of that, on my runs…not very successful…yet….
Thank you. My mind is never still during my runs either, but applying meditation techniques during a run has been helpful, particularly when I start thinking, “this is too hard” etc..