Wholistic Fitness

blessings my El Coache and thank you for your wisdom,

A question. mental cleanliness? I am taking your teaching that mental cleanliness precedes other states like calmness to mean something akin to “the body follows the mind.” Mental chatter, busyness , distraction, confusion all lead to those states in the body as well. Is this what you mean? Thank you

clean living and loving,
ss
photo by www.waynewilliamsstudio.com

COACH RESPONDS:

“Yes! Most of us want to meditate, we really do. We have an Intuitive Wisdom that KNOWS, beyond a shadow of doubt, that we must ‘be our own best friend,” and to be our own best friend, we must tackle that crazy thing known as our Unenlightened Mind. The ONLY way toward Enlightenment is Meditation. There is no other route for those of us who have taken a body (Form).

So, we sit down, cross our legs, straighten our spine, and resolve to “meditate.” That is our Noble Intent, right?

The Practicality of the situation is something quite different! As we attempt to “fall into a meditative state,” that everyone seems to be bragging about these days (just pick up a recent issue of YOGA JOURNAL or something similar and man, it seems like EVERYONE is “A Master of Meditation”!)…in our own Inner World, however, things could not be worse when we attempt to meditate!

First of all, there is the Body Obstacle preventing our meditative bliss; our spine hurts when we attempt to keep it elegant and uplifted. Our legs and feet go to sleep…kinda hard to be in “bliss” when we are grinding our teeth in pain trying to out endure the pins-and-needles stinging our legs!

Secondly, there is the Ego Obstacle. That iron clad silk veneer of “I” and “mine” that holds our True Self (purusha) captive from the Boundless Light (prakriti). Though the pain of the Body Obstacle in meditation is hard to overcome, the Ego Obstacle will more than likely take most of us the rest of our lives (if we are lucky) to overcome. It is the Ego that prevents the Mental Nakedness from enjoying its true Nature of Diamond-like Reflection and Clarity. It is the Ego that identifies our purusha with the Body pains and the mental chatter like, “Oh shit my legs hurt, this sucks!” or “How long have i been doing this crap, can i stop now?” I will tell you something about the Meditative Process; if 5 minutes seems like an hour to you, you ain’t meditating!

On the other hand, on those rare and beautiful occasions when you do your Warrior Best and stumble once again into your Zendo or sacred sitting place and sit down to concentrate solely on your assigned Meditation Anchor from your Teacher (counting the breaths, for instance, or a mantra) then suddenly your Sitting Alarm goes off and you say to yourself, “Wow! 20 minutes has already passed!” then, my Friend Along The Path, you actually DID fall into a bit of a meditative state! Concentration (Dharana) requires efffort. Meditation (Dhyana) is effortless. Dhyana cannot precede Dharana. Dharana must precede Dhyana. Gruntwork required before bliss. Get used to it. There are no shortcuts.

Remember, Meditation is not something you “do.” Meditation (Dhyana) is a Training Effect from Concentration (Dharana). That is why it is so important to CONCENTRATE whenever you are doing your Fitness Practices! That is why i do not use iPods when i run or cycle. That is why i set my Breath & Posture Beeper Gurus for myself throughout the day. That is why i use my Non-Dominant Hand Assignment…all of these WF Teachings are designed to achieve one thing for us; A More Conscious Life…a more Aware Life…a more Awake and Concentrated Life….

Most of us do not need to “meditate.”
Hell, let’s be honest here…most of us do not HAVE THE CONCENTRATION SKILLS YET to actually meditate!

Most of us need to learn how to sustain our Concentration. i call this effort in maintaining more Concentration throughout our workouts and daily life, Dharanic Fitness.

As the quality and purity of our Dharanic Fitness develops, then our Higher Mind grows more clean, less cluttered by the distracted, dis-eased, disjointed thought patterns that create turbulence (rajas) and ignorance (tamas) to the naturally sattvic (illumined state) mind.

One moment of concentration is one moment of purity. Increase the moments of purity (concentration) and sure enough, our Mental Cleanliness produces an ongoing state of Mental Peace, Serenity, and Clarity.

I designed all of the WF Lifestyle Principles to produce Mental Cleanliness.
I designed all of the clever WF Strength Training, Cardio, HP Yoga, Early Morning Ritual, etc., to produce Mental Cleanliness.
Mantras produce Mental Cleanliness.
Pranayama produces Mental Cleanliness (very effectively!).
Just focusing on being Sattvic (radiant and happy) produces Mental Cleanliness.
Ishvara-Pradnidhana produces Mental Cleanliness (see TBT).
Non-judgmental Awareness produces Mental Cleanliness.

You, Oh Noble Shishya, writing me a Mindful email about Mental Cleanliness practice
produces yet another Smidgen of Upward Movement for you toward Mental Cleanliness and eventually an ongoing Meditative State.

“By lessening the natural tendency for restlessness and by concentrating on the infinite, posture is mastered.”
II-47 Yoga Sutras

“Thereafter one is undisturbed by the dualities.”
II-48 Yoga Sutras

May this help,

om so ti,
your loving coach