Wholistic Fitness

Namaste Noble Fitness Warriors!

�Your work is to discover your life and with all your heart to give yourself to it.�

– Buddha

some WF Dharma follows…thank you for your contribution and support of our humble – but powerful – Path of transpersonal fitness. it is YOUR devoted Practice that makes Wholistic Fitness sing through so many souls…

enjoy, and may all beings benefit from the inner work(outs) that you cultivate each day…

i bow to you,

steve ilg

founder/Wholistic Fitness & High Performance Yoga

�

Coach,

Thank you for another fantastic yoga class today. Listening to Amazing Grace seemed to be the perfect way to end a class on a day when many people are recognizing Mother Teresa, an Amazing Grace to humankind.

There are few people which have been recognized as Saints. One thing is for sure, they come in all shapes, genders, nationalities, religions. Who would have suspected an Albanian girl would grow up and change the world? Her name was Mother Teresa. Last Sunday the Pope celebrated her beatification, the final step on the path to catholic sainthood.

With or without the official title few people devote their lives to help the sick and poor. Fewer see Go(o)d in everyone they meet. She did and I believe she was able to do this because she recognized the power of a smile. On this special day, I will take these words with me as I learn to live my yoga:

�The more you smile at God,

the more you smile at yourself,

and the more you smile at each other,

the (w)holier you become.� Mother Teresa

Namaste,

New Student Mackel

�

Dear Coach,

I bow in humble appreciation of your Monday’s Direct Lines. There are many times that I become discouraged for not having the energy to train the way I would like. Your words and the words of warrioress JK have given me inspiration to keep persevering in my daily walk. Thank you both.

Love,

warrior clay

��

Hey Steve.� I just wanted to thank you for working with me earlier this month and also let you know it has been a fantastic help. I did get a copy of The Outdoor Athlete and found it interesting that yoga was not mentioned in that book however it is in The Winter Athlete.� My guess is sometime in between the two is when you discovered Yoga or it discovered you.�

Anyway my motivation has returned and I have been working out regularly since our time.� Looking forward to your new book.

– BS, OH

Brian,

it was wonderful working with you! you are ripe for mining more spirituality from your workouts through Wholistic Fitness.

as any reader of DIRECT LINES knows, i had included yoga as the third of my Five Fitness Disciplines in THE OUTDOOR ATHLETE in my manuscript. but, back in 1985, everybody including my publishers thought that yoga was the work of the Devil or something. so, my publishers told me to call it a different name. i came up with �Kinesthetic Training� for use with the general public. by 1999, when i wrote THE WINTER ATHLETE however, the opinion had changed and i could call it ‘yoga’ without frightening away readers, especially athletes many of whom have been traditionally scared ‘stiff’ of doing anything close to yoga.

in my next book, Yoga has risen to receive top billing as an instrumental part of transforming a mediocre fitness program into a Path of Self Realization.

you can pre-order my next book today at a discount. go to: Amazon.com and search under Steve Ilg. the book�s title is TOTAL BODY TRANSFORMATION.

thank you for your support and practice of our humble but powerful Path,

i bow to you,

coach ilg

���

Dear Coach –

I was just thinking about you the other day.� How are you? � I am sure that your wonderful studio is kickin’ some serious hiney� YEA!!� Once my humble studio can stand on its own I hope to come out for a long weekend.� I am looking forward to just taking classes and turning off the teacher mind.� Sigh..what a luxury:):)

Here is some exciting news.� I went in for my interview at the Vajrayana Buddhist Center and was placed in the intermediate training program.� I am thrilled…and a little nervous.� I start classes on Nov. 3rd.� I’m one semester behind so I am busy studying to catch up.� We are studying the Heart Sutra this year.� Yes, the most complicated to grasp…on emptiness.� But, I’ve always been known to start out with the hardest:)� After two years I can test for the advanced or teacher training program which is 5 – 8 years.�

So, Steve, take care of yourself and know I am sending good energy. thoughts and love your way.

– Fellow Warrior(ess) R

Beautiful R –

“Whatever is inter-dependent, arising from connection, is without cessation and without birth, without end and without permanence, without coming and without going, without division and without unity of meaning; all conditions fully released; teaching release. I bow to the sacred words of the Perfect Buddha. May there be good fortune.”

– from the Heart Sutra

i used to chant those words in Buddhist centers for hours

years

but my hips weren’t that open as a sat chanting…i fidgeted…so my mind wandered from the chanting…

and my spine was not that straight

and so my nadic system was not capable

of delivering potent energy through those sacred words to my deepest

and Highest cells…

now i chant them with more open hips

a straighter spine

with nadic system more developed

and breath more deeply rooted in chitta

suddenly the words

are no longer what they

once were.

what will the words be five years from now

ten

twenty?

R…

it is fine to go after the Heart Sutra in more advanced

Teacher Training’s

but the most

important

teacher of the Heart Sutra

is your zafu

and the fitness of your body

which sits upon it

year

after

year.

chant

after

chant.

head bowed,

The Feeble One