Wholistic Fitness

Namaste PEACEFUL Warriors!

we�re not going to war.

we are retreating from peace.

stop forwarding me email spam about the �War.� i don�t care about it.

i am more interested in the delightful antics of an �Audubon�s warbler� that has recently been playing around my office birdfeeder. he is very cute. i love him. he seems quite nonchalant about the piffles of our warring ways.

he must be a yogi warbler.

you see, to a yogi, war is nothing but extreme discomfort manifested through spiritual ignorance or �avidya.� the opposite of war – extreme luxury – is another manifestation of avidya…it�s spiritually ignorant to crave and hold onto material wealth far beyond one�s spiritual and physical needs.

yogis are devoted to Practice self cultivation without attachment to what Krishna calls in the Bhagavad Gita, �the fruits of our labor.� Yogi�s don�t get too caught up with the Drama of the World�s Storyline because there is enough Work to do by being of helpful Service to others quite nearby.

if we go to war and are going to be killed, then the Highest Way to enter the next Whatever is to enter it Consciously and while engaged in compassionate, helpful Service. if we don�t go to war and continue to elevate the luxuries of life then the Highest Way to enter the next Whatever is to enter it Consciously and while engaged in compassionate, helpful Service.

see? no difference. our inner Work remains the same; stay Present, baby! when i meet you during peace, i bow to you in Namaste. when i meet you during war, i bow to you in Namaste. no difference. same Work, different stage. our Last Exhale as we see Father Sky ignite in a nuclear holocaust, should be no different than the exhale which follows this sentence; As Conscious As Possible. no difference.

remove yourself from the Wag The Dog Drama and do your yoga of treading and nourishing the Middle Way…the place between the highs and lows of life; regardless of the caliber of dramatics. like stars unseen during the day, each moment shudders with brilliance. we just miss the miracle of the moment, because of avidya…we think too much…we are stuck in our lower mind (what yogis observe as �manas�). it�s our inability to See that creates wars. the actual fighting is nothing but our own karma slapping us across our collective souls, trying to get us to Awaken.

like yourself, i have preferences for this body. i would prefer not to be sitting in an enemy�s concentration camp next to President Bush telling him, �See….see…you SHOULD have been practicing YOGA and you probably wouldn�t have gotten our country into this situation!� But, sometimes, until something really, really hurts us…we just don�t care enough to get the spiritual teaching. we prefer the superficial intellectual gymnastic s of the ego. we all do it. Bush is not different than you or me. Neither is Saddam. Poor guy. I sure would not want to be him or Osama for that matter. Let us feel compassion for those three men. Allison Manheim says that her yoga teacher put it this way, �Sometimes if you need to learn something, you will hear the message whispered in your ear. If you still don�t get it, you will feel a tap on the shoulder. And if you still don�t get the message, it will break your arm.�

the yogic principle of ahimsa or non-violence is a tricky one. there are many Layers to being non-violent. the best qualities to practice non-violence are tolerance and neutrality. it�s like your hamstring muscle. you don�t want a hamstring to be too tight or overly loose. you do yoga to make your hamstring feel �just right�.

apply that inner Teaching to your outer life.

don�t get too tight worrying about the war or you�ll miss the majesty (and Teachings) of the moment and your child or plant or coronary tissues will pick up on your stress and you will be damaging y(our) UniVerse.

do you See how worrying about War contributes to it? do you See how worrying can be violent? tricky, huh?

but, don�t get so apathetic about the outer World that you miss an opportunity to be Noble with your life! Be Brave with your thoughts! think Higher and with more metta (lovingkindness).

make your thinking about the outer World �just right.�

a peaceful hamstring, a peaceful life, and a peaceful world all begin with each of us becoming more Conscious…more Awake.

in WF, we do this by constantly returning over and over again, our chattery minds toward Conscious Breathing and Posture.

coming up tomorrow in DL:

i give my

Emergency WF Technique for Dying

for those who are unsure of how to die

because we might need it the Way things are going.

WF Warriors are trained to

prepare for the worst

visualize the best

and

utterly

enjoy the present…

love,

coach ilg