Running with a Koan

“Where am I?”

Ask yourself the question as you run. Don’t expect the answer to be handed to you! Investigate your experience as you push your body to its limits.

Where is the I? In the soles of your feet? The beating heart? Definitely not in the head. Can you even feel the shape of your head?

Are you a single point in the grand vista of your vision? Or is vision also contained within the I?

You may be looking meaningfully at the sky searching for an answer, and perhaps something mundane such as the traffic lights will draw your glance. That red, amber or green exists within you and not “outside” in the “real” world. In fact all colours; the blue of the sky, the green of the leaves, the grey of the tarmac, are your subjective experience. As are the abstract concepts of the sky, leaves and tarmac.

And what about that sound you just heard? Does it originate over there and travel to you, as a matter of experience? Or does it simply appear and hint at the extent of your awareness?

"Where am I in all of this?"

"Where am I?"

 

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