ChiRunning, The Tanden, Carlos Castaneda and Star Wars

Running...a pursuit whose motivation is physical...can it be more like a spiritual experience?

First of all ChiRunning...what is it?
ChiRunning is a method of running developed by Danny Dreyer based on the principles of Tai Chi, to harness the invisible energy called Chi, and to use body lean to use gravity for forward motion, with the feet not grasping at the ground and “toeing off” but simply lifting off the ground as you move along.

It is a whole philosophy of motion which I have been trying to practice in my running (with varying degrees of success) since 2011 to recover from and prevent running injuries of which I had been plagued: a case of Runner Heal Thyself!

Using an invisible energy may seem darn screwy yet the Martial Artists highlight how much the body can achieve in the application of the Mind through certain spiritual practices, breaking concrete with their foreheads for example or the Shaolin Monks of China, or for that matter the intense Mind over Matter practiced by Buddhist Monks from Tibet to Japan. We might think of the Jedi knights of Star Wars. although science fiction, fall into this sort of thing - the metaphor is still relevant. The mind controlling the physical.

ChiRunning thus involved centering our minds and using this Universal Energy for our own needs, which might be running 10k, a half marathon even a full marathon. But as Dreyer points out in his book "ChiRunning: A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless, Injury-Free Running" most runners and most training methods involve Power Running – a muscle building “no pain no gain” attitude,  – the opposite of the ChiRunning “go with the flow” attitude which explains, Dreyer says, why 15.6 million runners injure themselves every year in the USA. With ChiRunning Dreyer can "run 50 miles without it being a big deal or harmful to the body".

What has Carlos Castaneda got to do with ChiRunning? 
Well nothing actually, or at least not directly. Although if you believe what McDougall says in Born to Run, that the Shaman mentor of Castaneda was a Tarahumara then there may be a link. Juan Matus the Brujo and teacher of Castaneda makes long treks across the Sonora desert and often remarks that Castaneda is fat slow and stupid like a bull, with a roll of fat across the neck...perhaps there was some ultra running involved...

Castaneda brings to us the same concepts that George Lucas would later use as the basis of the Jedi religion in Star Wars. In fact Castaneda stresses, among other things the importance of Personal Power an energy which dictates how a man lives and dies. He makes it clear that Native American Shamans collect this Personal Power (like The Force in Star Wars) and to effect change by the power of intent and to be "perennially fluid" so as to be able - at a moments notice - to seize a quanta of energy that he called a "cubic centimeter of chance"

Chi, Ki Etc
Such a discussion of power and universal energy reminds me very much of the Japanese energy of Reiki.
Reiki is a Japanese folk tradition for self development but purporting to be  a healing therapy. It’s seriousness as a healing therapy is belied by its transmission, through day courses, and in its contemporary application – often as an adjunct to beauty therapies or within health spas. In it is original scheme it is something like an adjunct to the martial arts and a process of self-change and self-healing.

Like the martial arts one of the important things about Reiki is using the Tanden, a point just below the navel from which energy builds and is projected. In Tai Chi, and in ChiRunning it is called the Dan Tien and Castaneda also speaks of it in terms of energy from the abdomen.

According to Castaneda;

 “the [Native American] seer sees that every man is in touch with everything else, not through his hands, but through a bunch of long fibers that shoot out in all directions from the center of his abdomen.”

In fact I recollect reading that in one of the Castaneda books, a shaman called Genaro uses the threads of energy from his Tanden to scale a perilous ravine and jump to a ledge...real Star Wars stuff...

Back to running...

Can we apply this shamans/ Tai Chi / Reiki philosophy to running?
According to Dreyer Yes We Can! And if barefoot running has taught me one thing it is the power of fluidity. The moment that the spine becomes engaged in the running, and releases the energy like a coiled snake, this Chi energy, this invisible energy, is released.

A fluidity of thought as well as muscles, the ability to relax and go with the flow.

My training in Reiki has caused me to review my ideas of energy and intention, and whilst I do not agree with the contemporary presentation of Reiki the use of the Tanden is really fundamental and applicable to many things...much like the Shaman Warriors of Castaneda’s books, being "perennially fluid", and this also seems to link in with the concept of using Tai Chi principles in ChiRunning.

It is certainly something to aspire to...not for competition or even beating a personal best, but for a greater potentiality. As Castaneda once wrote:

“All the faculties, possibilities, and accomplishments of shamanism, from the simplest to the most astounding, are in the human body itself.”