Working Out

Aldous Huxley: "There's only one effectively redemptive sacrifice, the sacrifice of self-will to make room for the knowledge of God."

Those who really understand working out know that you are not really trying to gain anything, to alter your bodily form from what it is now from what you think it aught to be. You are centering fully into where you are. You are trying to experience life to its fullest in this moment. It is a spiritual experience. No different than any mystic in the throws of deep prayer. But the difficulty is that we do everything, even religious self-imposed religious suffering like Lenten fasting, under the assumption that it is all being done to get us somewhere better. With improvement as the motivation we miss the opportunity to do it. Change is the result of doing one's best at experiencing the emptiness inside in this moment. Improvement is a byproduct. Once it becomes the focus it is missed and no number of gains will make you feel more fulfilled. The ironic thing is that focusing on the improvement can be exactly what's keeping you from it. No, we tear ourselves down when we work out, so that we can be closer to the source of our being, be closer to nothing.