Wholistic Fitness

ILG AS ALTAR BOY…NO EXPECTATIONS; Three Teachings

I was raised Catholic. I went to mass every morning – EARLY MORNING – before school. I was an Altar Boy. On Saturdays, often the priests assigned me to serve a funeral. Great fun stuff for a boy who just wanted to run around in the high country with his wolf. On Sundays, i had to return to church with my mom for obligatory Sunday Mass, a big event in a small town like Durango, Colorado was those days. If you weren’t seen at Sunday Mass, preferably dressed to the nines and saturated with perfume or cologne, then you ran the risk of small minded rumors circulating about your lack of piety.

Your humble coach when he was a ‘lace clad angel’ more West than East, yet already attuned to the Divine beyond the cassock**

I recall at my 6th Grade Graduation, all us students got little plaques with biblical quotes on them. They were pretty cool. As i opened my plaque with great anticipation, my eyes fell upon the following Words whence cometh my second “Sartori” experience. The quote was not from the Bible as were all the other kids. Though my chronological years may have been young, when i read the plaque, a zen moment arose; i recall seeing the tiny wrinkles in my upturned palms juxtaposed with the handsome, well veneered wood. I read the words intellectually, yet my Soul just ‘got it’ big time…i intuitively understood the profound wisdom of this diminutive plaque;
“Blessed is he who expects nothing
for he shall never be disappointed.”

I hate to tell you, yet, that ain’t Cathlolic. That there is about as Taoist/Zen/Buddhist as you can get! How it arrived in my little hands that In-Lightful morning was, to my mind, an act of God.

The Enlightened Masters stress that to stabilize meditation, it is essential, first of all, to accomplish regular practice in a special environment of retreat, where all the favorable conditions are present; amid the distractions and busyness of the world. In WF Online Training, we actually use the warmth and quietude of a bathroom in the early morning hours for our ‘special’ environment. When i lived next to the University of Colorado campus in a very rowdy, party-addicted duplex with six roommates, i created in those years, my Early Morning Practices…done, yup, you guessed it! In the bathroom. You don’t need a whole room doused with incense and adorned with a clutter of arcane statues toward which you have no real affinity. Here is what you need for Spiritual Growth in this humble, powerful Temple of WF; a bathroom! you got a bathroom? Good…then you got yourself a Temple.

Second, though there is no difference in WF between meditation and everyday life. This might not start clicking for you until you have done the grunt work of cultivating some degree of emotional stability through doing your Teacher-assigned Practices in consistent sessions and using the secret herbs (see the following DL!) so you have cellular Clarity and Energy that Vibes at a High Level. Essentially, you will not be able to integrate the wisdom of meditation into your daily life experiences until you do the Base Work of learning to first, concentrate (dharana) and then sustain that concentration (dhyana). There is a flawless approach to Enlightenment that has been around for several thousand years…you just gotta git to the inner Workouts, there pardner!

Third, if you are unable to continue the flow of your meditation at all times and in all situations, mixing your Practice with everyday life, it will not serve as a remedy when unfavorable circumstances arise and when you encounter your Bardo Moment (the final exhale into the Dying Realms). Without using your Daily Life as a place to apply your Practices, you will be led astray into delusion by thoughts and emotions in daily life and you will be unable to retain the subtle yet everlasting filaments of Higher Consciousness throughout the Bardo Realms.

Oh, and another thing i will coach you in for no extra charge; In this day and (dark) age, any ‘teacher of yoga’ or ‘spiritual guru’ who attempts to pitch you spiritual growth or yogic advancement by saying that all you need to do is ‘release’ and ‘surrender’ into the Grace of Life and that everything about Enlightenment is just hunky dory is a fool and is trying to fool you, too. I won’t let that happen to you, not under my wing! Spiritual Growth requires tonnage of sweat and fierceness and iccha shakti (have you been reading this week’s DL’s?!) in order to go INTO your negative and lazy habits as ongoing inner workouts.

Noble WF Warriors,
Expect nothing today;
and watch how free you truly are.

Freedom is a nature of mind;
watch your mindstream, look for the spaces between the thoughts and enter your Freedom there.

that is all,

om mani padme hung,
coach ilg

**From Chapter 12 of the Society of St. Pius X:
Chapter 12

on Altar-Boys:

“At Holy Mass you must remember to show courtesy to the priest, particularly when he speaks to the congregation from the pulpit. His task, already a responsible one, is made more difficult when he looks down on a congregation of glazed eyes and nodding heads. No matter what his powers as a preacher may be, he should not be subjected to the bad manners of those who openly yawn, or consult their watches

Those lace-clad angels that wriggle and bounce around our altars are privileged beings -more privileged than most of them seem to realise. An altar-boy has an important and necessary part to play in the liturgy of the Church. Approaching as closely as he does to the altar and the most solemn ceremonies he should be outstanding for his spirit of reverence and his faithful attention to his duties. Good training backed up by mental alertness and a spirit of faith will ensure that he rises to the high standards expected of him in performing his duties. He is charged with a share of the responsibility of carrying out the rubrics of the liturgy, and the rubrics themselves may be regarded as age-old gestures of heavenly courtesy which emphasise the solemnity of what the priest and his attendant boys are doing.”