Table of Contents
Part I — Talks and aphorisms
- The outer running and the inner running
- A great champion
- 3.
- The inner runner
- 5.
- Running and the life-game
- 7.
- We run, we become
- 9.
- When the New Year dawns
- 11.
- The whole man
- 13.
- Who is the winner?
- 15.
Part II — Questions and answers on running
- Question: Why is it so difficult to progress or excel in sports?
- Question: Is there a limit to any record?
- Question: How much importance should we give to physical exercise in comparison to our regular work?
- Question: How do you feel about bicycle training to improve running?
- Question: What is a good exercise to strengthen the legs when they get tired from standing all day?
- Question: If one is in generally good health, what would cause pain and aches in the body?
- Question: Why do we get injuries for no apparent reason?
- Question: Always when I become very interested in the physical and playing sports, I injure myself to the point where I have to stop completely. Why does this happen?
- Question: How can we spiritually heal injuries?
- Question: How do you run through inner pain?
- Question: When I run I sometimes get a slight knee pain. Should I stop running at that time?
- Question: Sometimes I feel pain in my foot, and I start worrying that if I keep running, I might get a stress fracture. This happens even if the pain is not that bad and I know that probably nothing will happen.
- Question: Should we run even when we are extremely tired?
- Question: How can I go faster? I find it so uninspiring to run slowly.
- Question: Recently, in a mile race, I ran the first two quarters on my pace, but in the third quarter my concentration went.
- Question: If someone is near me, I find it easier to maintain the speed I want to maintain. But if no one is in front of me, I find it difficult to concentrate on speed.
- Question: Do people really need more sleep when they are training for athletics?
- Question: What time of day is best to run?
- Question: How do you keep your enthusiasm when you start to get tired and exhausted during running?
- Question: How would you describe it when someone "hits the wall" during a marathon?
- Question: Why is a short run sometimes less comfortable than a long run?
- Question: If your goal is to run fifty miles per week, is it better to run seven miles a day or to vary the distance?
- Question: Sometimes for days on end I don't feel like running, even though I know it is good for me. How can I overcome this reluctance?
- Question: Sometimes when I start to run I get angry, even furious.
- Question: Sometimes I feel like going out for a run, but something inside holds me back. It's like an inner battle going on. Yet when I do run I feel very happy.
- Question: How can we sustain enthusiasm and freshness in our training and keep it from becoming tedious and boring?
- Question: I find that sometimes I go through a period of making very good progress in running: increasing my mileage, feeling great, getting good speed. And then after some time everything falls apart and my running goes downhill.
- Question: Some days I run much better and faster than others. How can I remain cheerful about my running on days when I cannot run my fastest?
- Question: How careful should I be about choosing a running coach? What qualities should I look for?
- Question: I find that during races my aspiration varies a lot, sometimes going up, sometimes going down. Is there any way that I can maintain my aspiration throughout the whole race?
- Question: Before a 400-metre race I am full of anxiety. I feel afraid of becoming too exhausted, even though I know from experience that this fear is baseless. Why am I so anxious?
- Question: How can our outer smile help our running?
- Question: What should my attitude be when someone else wins a race I am running in?
- Question: What is a winning attitude?
- Question: What do you think is the best attitude for an athlete to have during training and during competition, and how should these two attitudes work together?
- Question: During training an athlete sacrifices a great deal of time, and yet on the race day itself he may not be able to do well. What do you think is the attitude he should have towards this sort of thing?
- Question: Does an athlete who has spiritual purity have greater capacity than an athlete who does not care for the spiritual life?
- Question: Many great athletes tell of having experiences of higher consciousness in the form of visions of their performances or oneness with the elements. Where do these experiences come from?
- Question: What should athletes do, from the spiritual point of view, to increase their performance?
- Question: Does the concentration that athletes use help them in any way spiritually?
- Question: Is it better to concentrate or meditate when running a marathon?
- Question: Suppose a race is very close and the capacity of two athletes is the same, but one of them is aspiring. Does God's Grace let the one who is aspiring win?
- Question: How can we effectively channel physical energy into spiritual energy?
- Question: Why do some runners love running while others hate it?
- Question: What are the best qualities of running as opposed to playing tennis?
- Question: I consider myself a tennis player, not a runner. On the one hand I get more joy from playing tennis, but on the other hand I get more satisfaction if I run a marathon. Why is this?
- Question: How can we benefit spiritually from training for and running marathons?
- Question: Does the triathlon have any spiritual or symbolic significance?
- Question: Sometimes I feel that running a marathon is like the struggle of life.
- Question: Why do you encourage your students to participate in and to organise endurance events like triathlons or long-distance races?
- Question: What is the spiritual purpose of competitive sports?
- Question: Does the spiritual life actually change the physical form?
- Question: How important is it for a spiritual aspirant to remain physically fit?
- Question: Is the practice of sports contrary to spiritual tradition?
- Question: Would you say that today people are turning to running as a kind of supplement to their spiritual lives?
- Question: Does running increase the spiritual purity and speed even of unaspiring persons?
- Question: How can running help me overcome my spiritual weaknesses and impurities?
- Question: Can running help get rid of frustration and anger?
- Question: Does inner running help our outer running?
- Question: For a serious runner, is there any difference between aspiration and ambition?
- Question: In running it is helpful to have a coach. Do we also need a coach for inner running?
- Question: Did God really intend everyone to run?
- Question: Do both activity and meditation form the essence of your teaching?
- Question: What does your slogan mean: "Run and Become, Become and Run"?
- Question: How does your philosophy of self-transcendence, in which you state that mankind should strive for progress instead of success, apply to the up-coming Olympics?
- Question: Why are athletes so appreciated in today's world?
- Question: If a person is already very good in any one field, say in sports, should he spend all of his time in that field or try to broaden himself, even though that may sacrifice his athletic capacities?
- Question: How can an athlete who doesn't have any artistic ability develop it?
- Question: Why is long-distance running becoming more popular in America these days?
- Question: You say that America is interested in speed. But sometimes I think that America is running without knowing where it wants to go.
- Comments about the World Masters Games
- Question: Do you feel the World Masters Games will ever become as popular as the Olympics?
