A run with a view

I feel I am running to a better spiritual place. My super-light and extra-padded shoes are carrying me swiftly to a state I want to be in.

No I'm not surfing some extra powerful surge of runner's endorphins. Or "running with the dolphins" as my lovely little person says. I'm pretty sure it's not the sweat dripping into my eyes, or the sun over-heating my brain, that's changing my view of stuff. I'm assuming it's the shift in me from chanting, as it's the real only variable in action, if we were to adopt a scientific approach to this latest development.

It all started as I was pacing to go for my much-anticipated morning run on the wilds of Wimbledon Common. It's a fabulous and much-wooded space - a runner's paradise with leafy and car-free paths. I was ready for a heavenly hour with only the ipod and the gentle breeze for company.

As often happens when you finally get to run, your mind is free to download. Your legs may be busy pumping and de-stressing, but your thoughts are free to roam un-hindered. I got to pondering on some of the amazing events of my last week.

Apart from starting this here blog, on automatic pilot and with a surprisingly effortless flow of words into the cute posting box, it's been crammed full of changing karma and poistive steps. I am so grateful to my new Buddhism, and the power it seems to give me from within.

And I'm grateful for my chanting-related personal insights - of the type that apparently one can have this way. Does it really give you such sense to see what your stumbling blocks are, and the strength to correct what you can? I'm beginning to realise that this might be the extraodinary gift, and one that can really move you forwards. It's the empowering thing I suppose.

So back to my sun-drenched morning run. First one and then a second track comes on from my borrowed iPod, and they both resonate to my very inner core. They are sounds from the 90s, a time when I think I was last truly happy. A fee discreet British tears snuck down my cheeks - my reddening eyes mercifully obscured by sunnies. Then I am engulfed by some rather big home truths about my ex-husband and his behaviour, my current bitter and never-ending fight for my child, and some hurtful ties back to my original blood family. I'm not going to go into the whole messy affair here - I'm saving this for other ears. But it all make complete and utter sense, as if I'd suddenly had the plot to a play explained to me.

Needless to say, I am a tad taken back by these unexpected insights. A little lying down in a darkend room was had, and a few cups of warm herbal tea. Then a restorative hot bath with fragrant lavender oil and a nurturing plate of noodles with veggies. Nothing like my usual bouncy post-run self at all.

And all this from my first proper week of chanting! I am half-anxious about how much more might shift, and when it all might stop. Hopefully, there's just one biggish block in my spiritual plumbing to flush through, and then service will be resumed as usual.

Now here's the theory bit.. Chanting the name of the most important Buddhist verses, the Lotus Sutra, is a route to find the wisdom and joy naturally in you. It's the way to become the bestest kind of person you can be. This is what is meant by "attaining your Buddhahood". All life lived in tune has "a condition of absolute happiness, freedom from fear and from all illusions. The development of this inner life state enables all people to overcome their problems and live a fulfilled and active life."

No witty sign-off line is required I feel.Just Nam myoho renge kyo.