Wholistic Fitness

by coach ilg, ryt/uscf/cpt

If only the Western “scientists” that came up with the word, Aerobic Training or CardioVascular Training would have been yogis!

Just think of the spiritual headway we ALL could have made by now, if “They” would have called “CardioVascular Activity” what is truly is; a form of Pranayama!

I mean, really, is it not absurd? Let’s say we go out for a run. Running is a typical form of what these modern experts call, “Aerobic Activty” or “CardioVascular Activity.” I don’t know about YOU, however, when i lace on my running shoes and head out the door for a run along Rocky Ridge Trail, it ain’t just my “Aerobic System” or worse, my “Heart-and-Veins System” that is being trained! My leg muscles are firing with millions of neural input, my brain is being nourished with a jump in oxygenation, the concussion of my joints upon Mother Earth starts secreting joint fluids and my endocrine system, my digestive system, my immunology, my ocular fitness, my sense of kinesthesia, and most obvious of all; my entire relationship with the Prana-vayus ; the currents of Life Forces within and without me are directly being trained! Why the hell must the infantile sciences of the West go and start trying to Limit the 6,000 year old science of Yoga by attempting to re-invent the Dharma Wheel?

Oh well, since They foolishly did, it is up to us Protectors of the Dharma to attempt to limit the Damage done to our Souls by such sophomoric approaches to the Wholeness Principle that has produced Enlightened Masters since before the first Scriptures of Self Development were etched into pre-historic palm fronds.

Thus begins my commentary on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras II/50-53 as gained through my Mountain Bike Race Day preparations last Saturday.

May it Help…

om so ti,
coach ilg

“The modifications of the breath (life force/prana) are either external, internal or stationary. They are to be regulated by space, time and number and are either long or short.”

II-50 Yoga Sutras

The skill development of your breathing known as prana vrtti begins by cultivating and then managing the duration, rhythm, frequency, and precision of the exhales (bahya vrtti), the inhales (antara vrtti) and retention (kumbhaka). What most athletes chalk up as a “stomach cramp” or “nausea” or “headaches” are often more a case of breath-mismanagement.

The yogin should know the intimacies of the breath throughout all forms of pilgrimage; strength training, cardio training in as many forms as possible, kinesthetic/outdoor sports, lifestyle, pre-sleep, post-sleep, eating gross foods, asana, and pranayama (meditation). Only through regulation of the breath does become the regulation of prana in all her ten wardrobes (vayus). Without such knowledge of the multidisciplined breath, tranquility of mind during intensity cannot be attained, thus continues the soul swimming in the oceans of samsara (death, life, pain, rebirth,etc). To limit knowledge and breath control to one area (such as structured pranayama or asana sessions) limits the Unlimited by self-imposed limitations.

***

“There is a forth kind of pranayama that occurs during concentration of an internal or external object.”

II-51

Here Patanjali smiles at the Wholistic Fitness yogin. He is saying that when we concentrate upon an outdoor skill such as mountain biking a challenging trail or getting higher and higher above our last piece of protection while rock climbing, or when skiing a triple-diamond gully, our minds are so firmly established in dharana (concentration) that a particular modification of our Life Force (prana) arises spontaneously. This is why elite outdoor athletes that travel fast and light across nature, are firing on more astral cylinders than say a hiker or worse, a six-pack toting ATV’r. When an athlete is in a state of concentrated performance,
his or her lower mind (manas) achieves a state of ekagraha (one pointedness). In fact, often, the outdoor athlete does not know where the Breath is when he or she is about to fall over the handlebars or take a screamer off a cliff. The breath (prana) is thus suspended. This suspended breath, says Patanjali, offers the yogin a spontaneous state of ‘seedless’ (nirbija) pranayama. Such a suspended state of being fires the energetics of kundalini like no other. This is why i have always in-couraged my Students who do not already come to me doing them, to do outdoor sports – preferably solo sports close to nature such as trail running, climbing, mountain biking, nordic skiing, etc. Given the higher percentage of prakritic prana (nature’s life force) coupled with the mathematical odds of increased likelihood for nirbija pranayama or at least ekagraha made necessary to ward off possible injury…i have found Students to be offered Divine Gifts of inSight and authentic Transformation much more quickly and profoundly than if the Student is asked to keep concentrating on the breath during say, asana or ‘meditation.’

Thus, the “external object” of which Patanjali speaks here can be the BattleDance of the outdoor athlete; rocks in the trail, the lip of a ski jump, the rear wheel of the bicycle in front of you in a peleton, the swim stroke, the foot or pedal cadence, the glide of a nordic ski, the poling action of a nordic skier, etc, etc., etc.

The “internal object” can be breath, internal locks, mantra, or energywork visualizations.

***

“As its result, the veil over the inner Light is destroyed.”

II-52

Once again, like Meditation itself, the Truth is not “attained” by effort. Freedom is never gained, Freedom (mukti) just happens as a result of training. As i have Taught you many times, Meditation is not something you can “do.” Meditation (dhyana/absorption) is a training effect from dharana. Thus, our work remains forever the same; learn to sustain our concentration! If we can seamlessly link our concentrative skills from one task to another until there is no one really doing anything; Meditation happens.

Same with the arrival of Truth. Pranayama allows us access to the Oneness that is, as John Muir put it, “…hitched to everything else in the universe.” Pranayama, because it erases breath-by-breath, the clutter of the egoic structures (manas & ahamkara), purity and mental nakedness arrive. Where there is Clarity, Truth arises spontaneously because Truth, like the Sun, never wavers…It’s allWays there.

Of all Personal Fitness Disciplines, certainly, pranayama is most Sacred and Potent Spiritual Weaponry. Pranayamic Fitness cuts through all restrictions of body and mind to impart what the Ancient Enlightened Ones called, Mahavidya (Great Wisdom).

Thus, i created “At-Sink Pranayama” specifically for Westerners. Why? Because we are too lazy to do what is required to sit in a firm meditation sitting posture to practice breath control. I tried for years to get my Students, even my most sincere ones, to sit in Pranayama regularly. No go. Since the advent of At-Sink Pranayama, however, my Students have catapulted the velocity of their Inner Power and continue to strengthen their ‘nuts-and-bolts’ of Transformation thus empowering and re-Fining their unique engine of Enlightenment.

***

“And the mind becomes fit for concentration.”

II-53

Classic!
God i love this rascal, Patanjali!
For the preceding 50-some sutras He has been setting us on this unique
blueprint for Awakening our Life Force, right?
now the Master says,
“Okey-dokey, Smokey! Now…IF you can manage to regulate the intricacies of
your breath throughout an endlessly changing paradigm of dynamic waves of
the UniVerse, then, and ONLY THEN is your mind fit enough to PERHAPS sustain
one-pointed concentration capable and equipped one day for the REAL DEAL: Meditation!”

humbling Sutra, don’t you think?

It really does not matter however, for should the aspirant gain access to the refreshed illumination and inSight afforded to the Warrior by steadfast practice in Pranayama, then all the effort to get out of bed and do Cardio (pranayama) and other Practices is replaced by an ever-acclerating gumption for Self Knowledge.

Thus, motivation is never an issue from this point inward.

As the veil of spiritual ignorance is blown off the roof of the ego by Pranayama, then only the Dance remains…and what a beautiful, seductive Dance it becomes; each moment of life enkindles new opportunities for MahaVidya…essentially, at this point, the Warrior is firmly Hooked on Enlightenment and shall never look back.

This ends my commentary on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras II/50-53 as gained through my Mountain Bike Race Day preparations.

i will let you all chaw on that for a bit.
that should keep you off the streets for a while.
me?
after my Mountain Bike Race victory, i am returning to the streets tomorrow;
i’m off to go get clobbered in the Arizona State Road Racing Championships.
send me a spiritual tailwind, okay?