The Sakyong Jamgon Mipham Rinpoche - News and Articles
Meditation Meets Marathons
Boulder Daily Camera - July 10th, 2007
Michael Sandrock
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche will lead a program called \"Running With the Mind of Meditation\" later this summer.
Boulder is home to world-class athletes of all sorts, from Olympic gold medalist runners and cyclists to world champion triathletes to pioneering rock climbers. It is also home to Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, considered one of the world\'s leading teachers of meditation.
Sakyong Mipham is head of the Shambhala Buddhist lineage and the son of Naropa University founder Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. He is the East-West bridging author of \"Turning the Mind Into an Ally\" and \"Ruling Your World.\" Sakyong Mipham is also a marathon runner, and in September, he will be elaborating on the connections between running and meditation at the second annual \"Running With the Mind of Meditation\" retreat. The program is set for Sept. 13-16 at the Shambhala Mountain Center, an hour northwest of Fort Collins near Red Feather Lakes.
\"We are excited about the weekend and are lucky to have Rinpoche (an honorary term translating as \"precious one\") available, since he travels so much teaching,\" said Shambhala\'s Jon Pratt, who assists in the weekend, along with local yoga instructor Misty Cech.
\"Rinpoche was delighted with how well the program went (in 2006), especially with how much enthusiasm people showed for understanding the benefits of meditation and learning the practice,\" said Pratt. \"I know one of the highlights for him was doing the group trail run with everyone.\"
That trail run was a point-to-point run that wound its way through some of the bucolic national forest land that surrounds the 600-acre Shambhala Mountain Center. The run ended up at the stupa — a Buddhist shrine — that is the centerpiece of the Mountain Center. There the runners, led by Sakyong Mipham, circled the structure three times to finish off the run and the weekend.
\"It was a great experience,\" said Boulder\'s Darcy Africa, a top trail runner and recent winner of the 2007 Everest Award.
That was the response of several people who attended last year\'s inaugural retreat. Attendees ranged from champion runners such as Africa and top ultra runner Stephanie Ehret, to nascent joggers with little meditation experience. What they experienced was a rare opportunity to spend time with Sakyong Mipham, an erudite man whose easygoing nature belies his status as one of the world\'s top Buddhist leaders. For those unfamiliar with the Buddhist world, the weekend can be compared to a hoops fan hanging with Michael Jordan for a couple of days.
\"Last year, the program went by very quickly,\" said Pratt. \"Two days seemed too short a time for people to integrate what they had learned, so this year we have expanded it to a three-day program. So we expect this year will be even better than last.\"
At last year\'s retreat, Cech, herself an accomplished marathoner, gave yoga sessions based on Anusara, which embodies principles of alignment key for athletes. There were also two in-depth meditation sessions led by Sakyong Mipham, as well as lots of healthy food and time to socialize.
Pratt said he and Cech were \"caught off-guard\" by how those on the retreat responded to the combination of yoga, trail running and meditation.
\"I wasn\'t surprised that the program sold out or that people appreciated the teachings and being at the center as much as they did,\" said Pratt. \"I really expected those things to happen. But I didn\'t expect that people would open their hearts during such a short period. There was so much joy and connection. It was very moving for Misty and me.\"
For those of you new to meditation, Pratt gives the following explanation of how runners can benefit from the practice:
\"What surprises some people is that meditation is very much a body-oriented discipline. It is not about leaving your body and entering some celestial realm. It is about relating to the here and now which we experience through our five senses. So in meditation we learn to let go of our thoughts and come back to our body. Running and meditation are perhaps the most energizing and ultimately, joyful, activities in my life. Bringing them together is about as good as it gets.\"
Added Pratt: \"The practice of meditation has brought freshness into my running because when I have a meditative mind I am fully in the moment and fully in my body. I am more relaxed and more joyful. When I have this attitude every run is a new and exciting experience.\"
