Running again

Three full weeks since I felt well enough to run. Today I ran a comfortable five kilometers and could probably have managed more, but I didn't want to overdo it. This virus had come back a couple of times after I thought it was over.

Tomorrow I'm off to Taraloka on the border of England and Wales for a short retreat, during which we will celebrate Wesak, the anniversary celebration of the Buddha's enlightenment. A small group of Berliners are flying tomorrow afternoon to Liverpool John Lennon airport, from where we will travel to Taraloka by train. All being well I will participate in another half marathon very soon after I return. Due to the break in training, I will be happy just to jog along the course to the finish, rather than aim to break any records.

Today I received the official results magazine of the Berlin half marathon, and discovered that the fastest man in my age group ran over 30 minutes faster than me. Well, that's something to aim for, though I can't quite imagine it is a realistic goal.

Old age, Sickness and Death

Its almost two weeks since I started getting ill, and I still don't feel able to restart training. It takes it out of me to climb the stairs to my flat, although I am managing to get about by bicycle again, despite the weather. Patience is a spiritual practice that everyone who possesses a body can practise, especially as one gets older. It was his realisation of the facts of old age, sickness and death two and a half thousand years ago that provided the spur for Siddhartha to pursue the spiritual quest to its ultimate conclusion of Enlightenment when he became the Buddha. I will try to patiently accept my condition while hoping to be fit and well enough in order to take part in the half marathon in Potsdam on 6th June.

BIG 25

The BIG 25 km is underway right now. In fact the winners have no doubt completed the course and maybe even received their prizes in the Olympic stadium. On Friday I collected my number - 4749 - with my running mate Harald, although I was pretty certain that I would not be well enough to run. For the second year running I have fallen ill just before this run and couldn't join the fun. It would have been my longest run yet, but last year I came down with flu the evening before, and this year I started sneezing non-stop on Thursday morning, and I am just now over the worst, but am still weak and breathless. It is enough climbing the stairs to the flat, never mind running 25 km. Next year.....

The number I would have had.

Reading

Yesterday I finished re-reading Moving Against the Stream, the most recent memoirs of Sangharakshita, the founder of the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order / Triratna, the Buddhist movement of which I am a part. In this book Sangharakshita describes his return to the West in the early sixties after two decades of living and practising in the East. The situation in the small world of British Buddhism at that time was quite different to that of the present, and I marvel and rejoice in the fact that Sangharakshita not only managed to survive those very difficult times, but also managed to found a new Buddhist movement that quickly grew and spread throughout not just Britain and the West, but throughout the world.

At school I don't remember ever having actually read a book from cover to cover, I simply couldn't see the point. It wasn't until about the age of twenty, having been working for five years on the roads, asphalting, mixing concrete and laying kerbstones, that I read short biographies of John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix, and soon discovered the books by the adventurer Thor Heyerdal, who became an early hero for me. I soon devoured all of his books, and thereby thankfully developed a broader perspective on life.

Later I studied philosophy and politics and therefore read quite a lot in these fields, although I rarely really found much inspiration or enthusiasm for these topics. A couple of names I remember from this time, of people whose writings really spoke to me, are Bertrand Russell, who was another great hero for me, and Jean-Paul Satre. I also dabbled with Kafka and Dostoevsky.

Having discovered the teachings of the Buddha in the early nineties, I am always happy to bury myself in Dharma books, especially primary sources, from the Buddhist canon, and books by Sangharakshita, of which there are many.

Nowadays, on account of my teaching English, I also get the chance to read modern novels with my students, which is something I never really got into before. Over the past four years we have read a very broad range of books, from The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole to Hanif Kureishi's Something to Tell You. Currently we are reading In the Kitchen, a novel by Monica Ali, though we have only just begun and it is therefore too early to comment.

I went for a leisurely 9,5 KM run this morning along the canal. There were fewer people around than on Sunday, when it was rather too crowded. Below is a map of my route.

During the last couple of weeks, to complement my running, I've visited McFit four times, including my introductory session, working out on the diverse fitness machines and dutifully following my 'personal training plan' (which doesn't seem to differ very much from Satyasthira's plan). A couple of days following my first session, I had a bit of tingling in some of my chest and leg muscles, not quite stiffness, but I was aware that my muscles had been active. So far I've enjoyed the newness of the situation. It is a very different world from anything I've known, and the body-builders, busy with the weights and frequently checking their contours in the mirrors, has a kind of fascination. We'll see where it all leads, though I certainly have no thoughts of becoming a Mr. Universe contestant myself. There is a very funny clip from a Mr. Universe contest here.

This weekend I will be joining Vidyagita from Essen as representatives of the FWBO at the AGM of the German Buddhist Union, which is taking place at the Rigpa centre here in Berlin.

Getting used to Triratna

Last week on Wednesday, the 42nd anniversary of the founding of the Western Buddhist Order, members of the Order in Berlin celebrated a short ceremony marking the change of the name of the Order to the Triratna Buddhist Order, or in German Buddhistische Orden Triratna.

Triratna is Sanskrit and means the Three Jewels, the three jewels being the Buddha, the Dharma, the teaching of the Buddha, and the Sangha, or spirtual community. It is to these three things to which Buddhists go for refuge, therefore signifying the three most significant values for all Buddhists, around which they orientate their lives. More about the name change can be found here.