Wholistic Fitness

” Quite simply, a Bardo Realm is a Transition Realm.”- Coach Ilg. Coach, racing through a 111-mile Bardo Realm during a course record at the Furnace Creek 508 race in Death Valley.

Most of my favorite pics on DL last year were what i call, Bardo Pics. Those utterly sincere snapshots of those moments when our ego has been beaten down to non significant pulp…like after doing Intervals as WF Online Student Lees shows us above. I love humans most when they are in Bardo Realms…we are must pure when in a Bardo.

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Because WF is a Spiritual Path that uses a multidisciplined fitness approach as its “Dharma Vehicle,” i have been obliged to introduce to many of you through the years, the notion of Bardo. Quite simply, a Bardo Realm is a Transition Realm. When we are in between Pull Ups and our Doubt is doing battle with our Confidence as to whether we can crank off another rep or not? Dat’s a Bardo Realm. The more intense the Bardo, the more difficult it becomes to maintain Consciousness. Think here of the extremes; trying to maintain your ‘developed’ consciousness during a sexual orgasm. Dat’s a Bardo Realm. Now, flip to the other side; invoke an image of Yogi Jesus Christ on the cross…still cultivating compassion for others as He approached His Bardo Entry. Dat’s World Class Bardo Entry, right there.

Usually, however, we can use our physical training within the Five Fitness Disciplines of WF to develop our Bardo Entry Skills.

Like yesterday, for instance.

Yesterday, on a 50-mile bicycle club training ride/race i was starting to get dropped from the lead group on the “Second Step”…the etheric elastic between myself and the stronger riders was beginning to strrrrrrrrretch me off the back…as i dug down deep into my chi reservoirs in a futile, desperate, torturous attempt to hang onto those flying athletes hammering up the hill? Dat’s a Bardo, baby.

Yesterday again; same ride, thirty minutes later. at the turn around, i started back home with five other riders. i attacked them into a head wind along a gentle uphill, next to the howling Lake Mary. head down, spine flat…i was diggin’ again to separate me from the pack…this time for the win! as i was time trialing, focusing on my breath, mantra, technique..i blinked out a contact! sheeeeit! half blind, i kept a’goin…seeking the finish mark…i thought to myself; ‘okay, so i am half blind; it’s Bardo Training…just keep a’going ilg, just like in the Death Bardo; Keep your Consciousness intact!” so i kept going…and then…BLINK!!!!! the other contact flipped out. i could see both lenses now glued not onto my eyeballs, but rather on the inside of my sunglasses!

now, i have to interrupt this exciting Bardo Story to tell you this much; my eye prescription is -5.25 (actually improved through yoga!)

in other words?
Big Time Blind.
{a shot of both my contact lenses glued onto my sunglasses after blinking them out 22 miles earlier!}

I had now entered the REALLY Fuzzy Logic Bardo Realm!…at around 23 mph on a road bike among speeding cars, roaring winds, roadside debris, narrow shoulders, you name it! when that final contact lense plopped ungracefully on my inner sunglass lense, my first thought was go(o)d; “Keep goin’, Vishnu is Protecting you…just keep going and TRUST! WALK YOUR TALK about TRUST IN THE SUPREME!” so i engaged my Ishvara Pradnidhana niyama. i surrendered into my Dangerous, Soaring Blind Bardo Realm and for the next 5 miles until i crossed the finish mark ahead of the others, i kept my Aerobic Pain threshold at my limit and drew strength from my Blindness. After crossing the finish mark safely ahead of the others, i just kept climbing up toward Flag. The cars became blurry whizzes of disconcerting speeding masses. yet, my Trust in Vishnu and my Surrender into the Bardo Realm had produced a quixotic state of Grace. Calm Grace. Protective Grace. i felt like i was peddling along wrapped in a Tibetan Deities Auric Shell. i made it home, through downtown traffic, safe and smiling at just another little spiritual victory within the fabric of my crazy, fun, hard, and Deeply Blessed outer life.

now, let’s listen to Sogyal Rinpoche as he clarifies some of the Bardo notion.

now listen up, bucko (i see that is catching on among some other Blog writers!),
i don’t want YOU to go blindfold yourself and go race your bicycle around in traffic cuz Coach says it’s good for Bardo Training…no sirreee!
however,
today and over the next few weeks, i DO want you to become aware of your tendencies around your own Bardo Moments…those Transitions Realms…it’s like i say in my PROP WORKOUT DVD: “Be FAST on those Transitions!”

Train your Bardo Fitness because eventually, you are going to have engage your Bardo Fitness in your dying embers of this particular life. Train for your death and watch how JOYFULLY DIVINE your life actually becomes!

i bow to your Devoted Practice,

om mani padme hung

coach ilg

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“From the Tibetan Buddhist point of view, we can divide our entire existence into four continuously interlinked realities:

1. life; 2. dying and death; 3. after death; and 4. rebirth.

These are known as the four bardos:

1. the natural bardo of this life,
2. the painful bardo of dying,
3. the luminous bardo of dharmata, and
4. the karmic bardo of becoming.

The bardos are particularly powerful opportunities for liberation because there are, the teachings show us, certain moments that are much more powerful than others and much more charged with potential, when whatever you do has a crucial and far-reaching effect.

I think of a bardo as being like a moment when you step toward the edge of a precipice; such a moment, for example, is when a master introduces a disciple to the essential, original, and innermost nature of his or her mind. The greatest and most charged of these moments, however, is the moment of death.”
– Sogyal Rinpoche