Wholistic Fitness

Are Malas worn next to Leather harmful to a Yogins quest for Enlightenment? A DL Reader questions my choice to wear leather.

Every several months or so, i will test the sensitivities of my DL readership in order to keep this Dharma Vehicle grounded in the roots of WF Tradition. DL is a reflection of the infinite embrace of a ALL THINGS that is the Source of WF… thousands of words of Dharmic Insight and Inspiration are poured through the DL Dharma Channel. Testing the DL Readership Waters keeps my piloting of DL on track without condition. i take the time with a polite, inquiring fan below and attempt to clarify what Yoga truly means; the pushing away of no-thing. Not leather, not Enlightenment. All Karma is God. Buckle up; this ain’t your typical personal training forum, you know! in-Joy…
coach ilg

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Hello Steve Ilg-

I have been following your DL for some time now. It has been a positive influence for me. Thank you.

I do have a question for you though�. Where does your leather jacket fit into your vegan stand against cruelty?

Not looking to jump on you, but the question came to mine. You speak freely on other subjects, so I figured I�d ask.

Happy Holidays.

Doug H.

Coach Responds:
thank you for your inquiry, and i am pleased to hear you find DL a worthy part of your Practice. That is what matters most. WF has allWays functioned as a Consciousness LightSwitch. Many people cannot hang with this Steep and Direct Path of Transformation committed to Enlightenment in this Lifetime. However, many people get major spiritual “a-Ha!” moments while reading or practicing WF…then, they go along on their own Path, having been Touched in profound Ways by my humble Teachings of very, very common natural sense.

1) i am not a vegan. and i do not take a ‘stand against cruelty’…in fact, true compassion must come from a well-trained Warrior whose fitness knows cruelty by Direct Experience.

i eat both physical and spiritual nutrition in the Ways of WF, clearly outlined in my most recent book; TBT.

you see, i have never met a true Vegan.

a true vegan would be effectively paralyzed in today’s society since so much cruelty is associated in the manufacturing of cars, homes, kids and all their material needs during childbirth and raising, roads, water, clothes, food, contacts, toilet paper, toilets, faucets, etc, etc., etc.

All such ‘common things’ bestow unimagined sources of suffering for countless mineral, plant, feathered, and four legged Beings. to be a vegan in today’s society would reduce a Human Being to all the actions inherent to a…a…potted plant (given that the pot was hand made by an Enlightened Jainin Yogic Monk and even such a pot would still carry within its molecular structure vast eons of ‘cruelty’; survival of the fittest). the Human Being did not evolve to the point of reading DL by innocence. most people who are so purposed on “innocence” are themselves fat or unfit in many ways, thus contradicting their Talk in their contradictory way of Walking.

Noble Tribal Brother who is Awakening,
We got here by what WF Teaches like no other; The quest of absolutely Balanced Body/Mind/Spiritual Fitness!

Survival of the most Wholistically Fit Human monuments the Being that evolved…and we can only imagine how much ‘cruelty’ we absorbed into our Cells along the Way.

besides SUNRIDER Herbs and Plant Beings, i also dine upon the corpses of Fish Beings.

my acceptance of eating my Fish Brothers and Sisters came only after training myself to be able to catch trout in my bare hands in the San Juan Mountains, with my Wolf Teacher, Apache, looking curiously at me as i stood for hours barefoot in frigid alpine creek water. “Pain past is pleasure,” and to this Day, I still feel go(o)d about eating fish…in the same Way i feel go(o)d about the UniVerse eating me one day. i just wish to leave an Elegantly Conscious and Helpful Song to the UniVerse while i work on my own Enlightenment.

No Movie Star Make Up Here! my first WF Teachings for Ananda was to balance her City-Addicted Perspectives with perspectives gained from living nakedly next to Natural Earth Energy. Above; Ananda early in her WF Teacher Training getting the Natural Chi hit from Indian Creek in a remote canyon of Utah.

Because my whole life has been a public Service Vehicle, people who do not live WF or study Her Ways formally, attempt to press both myself and my Work into compartments, labels, and easy to judge characteristics. as we come to know WF by Direct Experience, we realize just how Unconditionally Accepting are WF Warriors of Outer Worldly qualities and confusions and contradictions. I don’t care how Grand of a Yogi Master you might fancy yourself, all of us – through our Actions often contradict the very things that philosophically we may be dead set against. Speak to me of Global Peace, yet, do not so without seeing violence within your own family and Way of Being.

2) Cruelty in wearing leather.

ah…Cruelty is in the hand of the Be-holder. please see my counsel above.

Historically, our Tribe would wander vast distances, forced into arduous cardio epics, regularly, combined with fasting until we found more herbs or animals to feast upon. along such treks, our Tribe would encounter a carcass of a hide animal. as our children were freezing in the sub zero temperatures that ravaged our fragile skin barrier, we would drape our child in such leather garments, smiling.

Don’t you re-Member, yogin?

in the Dhammapada, Buddha taught,
“Those who put on the saffron robe but remain ill-mannered and undisciplined are dragged down by their evil deeds. It is better for an undisciplined monk to swallow a red-hot ball of iron than to live on the charity of the devout.”
22;307/308

..whether i choose to wear leather or whether leather does no longer feel go(o)d to me should be left up to myself al(one).

you too!

it’s just that i reMember my first, first, first time wearing the skin of an Animal Being…a long, long, long time ago. and it felt go(o)d and Sacred to me then,
and it feels go(o)d and Sacred to me today on the rare occasions,
i drape my well conditioned self
into the Skin of Animal…
consciously.

if i have one leather garment in my closet, it must feel as go(o)d to me as do my Tibetan saffron robes i wore as a Student of Contemplative Arts.

our Conscious Choices each day are as vast as the Escalante of the southwest…we once traveled across such vast distances, hungry, cold, and seeking. Functional, stout fitness was not an errand to fit into our Practice…it was a necessity of living. We have forgotten this in our “modern” society and thus remain confused about fitness, nutrition, and philosophy. WF keeps it simple; Sweat and Stillness are used to elevate our Natural Wisdom and regain our Tribal Perspective to Guide our conscious choices.

What we Are
is Gods gift to us…
What we are Be-c(om)ing
Our Conscious Choices…
ah…!
That is our Gift to God.

i will trust this DL helps you and i bow to your Awakening Practice
and i would love to see you join our Online Training Path…you have what it takes;
Questioning Everything
and Testing your Teacher(s)…
make sure that ALL your Teachers walk their Talk.

that is all,

the mountain yogi