Runner:
I am at a crossroad of understanding of my running.
I understand that it is what I do, what I love. It gives me a pure form of being, of freedom, of losing the mind.
Then, the way I “train” is counterfactual. I count the kilometres, to push to a particular number. I train splits and speed. I “push” myself with a particular routine – this seems unnatural.
At the same time, I am not at the understanding of running yet, where this would not be needed to improve my performance and effectiveness. I understand that I still lack the understanding of where the performance is coming from.
Teacher:
Your entire perspective is confused. You speak of freedom, purity, and losing the mind—and then you speak of kilometers, splits, routines, and “pushing” yourself. You have created a prison for yourself, under the pretense of freedom.
You do not run—you chase numbers, you chase outcomes. The very fact you think performance comes from counting kilometers or pushing your body shows how little you understand about running.
Performance does not arise from a schedule, from a routine, or from counting anything. Performance arises from the abandonment of these very things. You speak of “effectiveness”—effective toward what? If your running is truly pure, then effectiveness is irrelevant. If effectiveness matters, your running is impure.
If you genuinely want to explore running at its deepest level, forget kilometers. Forget splits. Run to run—not to achieve. Performance, if it arrives, will arrive precisely because you have stopped chasing it.
Your confusion is a result of a mind chasing two contradictory things at once. Drop the numbers, drop the measurements, and run purely, truthfully, entirely free from your compulsive chase. Only then will your running—and perhaps your life—move beyond the superficial.
Runner:
Hmmm – but you work with athletes, performers, and help them in their pursuit.
I don’t think all that you have said applies to me. I both enjoy running with freedom of mind at times while at the same time I have indeed compartmentalized running to push performance.
But if there is no training routine, how do You guide the athletes to reach their potential?
Teacher:
You have not understood.
You assume that athletes become great because of “training routines,” because of the endless obsession with numbers, because they “push themselves.” This assumption is fundamentally flawed.
Athletes do not become great because of training plans. They become great in spite of them. The athlete who reaches the pinnacle is never one who is obsessed purely with routines, splits, and schedules. The true performer—the rarest of the rare—arrives at greatness because he understands something beyond these superficialities. He understands the source from which greatness arises.
You compartmentalize your running because you are uncertain, because you believe that if you do not keep yourself accountable through structure, you will fail. You are a prisoner to fear and uncertainty. You chase two rabbits simultaneously: freedom and performance. Thus, you catch neither fully.
To guide an athlete, I do not burden him with more structure. Instead, I strip away the useless complexity he already carries. I point him to see clearly the place from which greatness emerges. When he truly sees this, training routines become secondary. They happen naturally, effortlessly, because the athlete has found what is fundamental.
You are asking how to maintain a cage while seeking freedom. Such thinking is sloppy and confused. Your performance is not being held back by your lack of a perfect routine—it is held back because you still believe a routine holds the key.
Understand this.
Runner:
But I disagree.
My routine does not need any commitment at this point. It does feel natural, arising naturally as I understand how it leads me to achieve what I seek.
Nevertheless, I wonder if thinking about the numbers (which I do think your athletes also do) is a major hindrance.
Teacher:
You claim your routine “arises naturally,” yet you admit you wonder if thinking about numbers hinders you. You contradict yourself. If it truly arose naturally, the question would not even exist. You would not wonder.
Your statement that my athletes “think about numbers” is based on assumption and ignorance. Do you believe a master golfer counts his swings, or a master sprinter obsesses over splits as he performs? Numbers may appear; they may even be noted afterward, but the obsession with them—the constant chasing—is poison.
Numbers are superficial; greatness is fundamental.
If you truly saw the essence, the numbers would be irrelevant. They would lose their power over you. The mere fact you question this reveals that you have not yet understood.
You say your routine requires no commitment—this too is untrue. Every routine, no matter how subtle, demands psychological commitment. If your goal is genuine freedom and true mastery in running, the obsession with counting must dissolve—not forcibly, not as a “discipline,” but naturally, as a consequence of seeing clearly what is true.
Stop fooling yourself.