Greg Webb - Running with the Tao

RUNNING WITH THE TAO

An Exploration of Inner Fitness

by

GREG WEBB

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Note from Greg: I would like to acknowledgemy family, my friends, and my many wonderful teachers I could nothave written this without you. I would also like to thank all thosewho have supported and followed my blog You gave me theinspiration to follow through with this effort.

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ONE

Tao 15/Day 1

Do you have the patience to wait

till your mud settles and the water isclear?

A feeling overtakes me as I run today Ican make it if I just keep putting one foot in front of the other.I have no reason to justify this feeling. Im still way too out ofshape to think my fifty-year-old body can finish 10Ks on thisbeautiful wooded lakeside path. -But the sun is shining, the air iscool, the snow-capped mountains are shimmering in the distancebeyond the ocean straits, and I feel it just the same.

My labored breathing finds a calmer rhythm.Less and less do you need to force things. says the Tao Te Ching.I stop forcing my breathing. I stop forcing myself to go forward,and instead find a slower, more natural pace. Out of the blue, Imaware of my eyesight. Or rather, the fact that Im quitenearsighted.

Its a reality Ive always thought of as adefect, but now I deliberately remove my glasses. Soften yourglare, says the Tao. Instead of squinting to see further down thepath, I allow my defective eyesight to give me a perfectexperience of what it means to soften my glare. I become completelypresent as a practical necessity. I can see clearly only as far asthe distance it takes to keep putting one foot in front of theother. - How many other aspects of my life have I labeleddefective that need instead to be honored?

My breathing slows and deepens. My kneesstart to ache. Im faced for a moment with a decision to eitherstop so as to not push my luck, or to grit my teeth and forcemyself to finish. But then a third option springs up from somewheredeeper. It says, Dont force it, but dont stop. Instead, allowlife to increase your capacity for it.

I suddenly feel like the top of my head isgone. Allow LIFE (not my ego) to increase my capacity for it. Atevery stumble, every setback, every ache and pain, every laboredbreath, every step Life is increasing my capacity for the task athand to the extent that Ill allow it to do so. I dont need to tryand force one of my egos intended outcomes. Life is fully capableof accomplishing far more than I could ever dare hope or dream ofif I can only accept, embrace, and persevere in its naturalprocesses.

- But that requires more slowing down. Andpatience. This is the way my mud will settlenot when its beingconstantly stirred up. - Why have I constantly stirred up my mud?(or allowed others to stir it up for me)? I suppose the answer hasoften been just because its mine. Not only mine, but me. Yetthe Tao Te Ching says that it is only when my mud settles that THEwater is clear.

Why is the mud mine but the water isnt?Perhaps because the water is Life itself. When It becomes clear,something amazing happens. My experience of who I am changesradically. No longer am I just my mud. I am the water too. The Taohas a place for everything. My mud settles in its natural place andin its natural state and the water is clear. The Way becomesclear.

And so my third run (after literally yearsof inactivity) has become much more than I could have ever imaginedbefore I began. I just keep putting one foot in front of the other,and eventually I do finish. It feels good. It feels like a placethat I havent been to in quite a while, but a place that has neverreally been lost either. Its a place that feels a lot like home,and I now joyfully realize that I will finally be able to return toit over and over again -- as long as I prioritize, like today, theinner path first, then my outer steps.

TWO

Tao 69/Day 6

When two great forces oppose each other,

the victory will go

to the one that knows how to yield.

The afternoon presents an opening. Its thelast thing I feel like doing, but my wife and kids are at thecircus for a couple of hours, and its now or never (at least fortoday). I swing out my front door and head for the lake.

Its about a half-mile or so from mydoorstep to the end of Pipeline Road and the entrance to the path.Somewhere along this stretch I tweak my left knee while attemptingto dance away from a rather large dragonfly suddenly eyeing myshins. The word that comes to me as I slow down even more toaccommodate this thorn in my flesh so soon after starting ishobbled. Many of the facts of my life seem to be hobbling me.This knee is just the latest nuisance, and I wonder if I shouldcontinue.

This pity party is partially put aside whenI enter the path and the word magic instantly arises. I cantimagine ever tiring of the magic of this placeyet how much of itcan I consistently experience if Im consistently hobbled? Muchmore than if you werent. Surprised by such an immediate answer, Iunconsciously ask why. Just as swiftly, the two words that havecome to me today come together. Hobbled magic.

Hobbled magic -? But what does that mean?And then it hits me. By yielding to the forces that seem to opposeme, I am in fact guided into a mindset and a behavior (in thiscase, embracing slowing down) that magically guarantees my success.By any measure I shouldnt be close to running around these lakeseven once, much less twice in less than a week.

Suddenly I am aware of this process in manydifferent areas of my life. I think of how my work sometimesrequires me to provide a picture of myself. Last Friday I got newpictures taken for the first time in nearly ten years. By nottrying to look ten years younger, by instead yielding to the forcesof time, it became my best shoot ever.

The kilometers click by, and other examplescome forward with greater and greater depth. My wife had a verydifficult upbringing. Yet it is exactly her refusal to deny it, hertotal yielding to her own painful past reality, that has given heran incredible capacity today to heal the physical and emotionalsufferings of others.

Even St. Paul supposedly prayed ferventlyfor the removal of some thorn in his flesh that was neverthelessnever taken away. Could it be because the Way requires continuousyielding in order to experience continuous victory? And what aboutthe father-son team of Dick and Rick Hoyt that has now raced anunbelievable number of triathlons together, Dick pushing andpulling and carrying his immobilized son the entire way? Driveninitially to bring joy to Ricks hobbled situation, theirteamwork became the very thing that gave Dad the fitness to latersurvive a heart attack. Their story inspires all who see or hear ofit.

What are the great forces that seem tooppose my idea of what my life should be? Whatever they are, toyield to them, and embrace yea celebrate - their hobbling createsan experience of magic along a path of victory. I finish withbreath to spare.

THREE

Tao 53/Day 8

The great Way is easy,

yet people prefer the side paths.

Its Sunday morning. Ive been seeking achurch or at least some kind of spiritual community for my family since we moved, but for some reason its been hard to find a fit.Perhaps thats to be expected. I grew up Southern Baptist, my wifegrew up Catholic, both of us stepped away from institutionalreligion years ago, and both of us carry conflicting feelings aboutimmersing our children in similar situations. Yet were equallyconflicted about our own capacity to personally provide asufficient context for their spiritual development when so much ofthe rest of their world will ignore it entirely.