Wholistic Fitness

“The great problem is bringing life
back into the wasteland,
where people live inauthentically.”

– Joseph Campbell

Tonight, Ananda and i are going on a moonlight cross country ski with some fellow yogis. Merging into my most treasured sound of ski across snow, we’ll each reflect on the past year before returning to our tiny town hunkered at the foot of the Sacred Peak to watch a “Giant Pinecone” drop from the historic Weatherford Hotel at the stroke of midnight into a small droplet of humanity gathered to watch, to wonder, and to welcome a new year coming. A far, welcome cry from when i once got beaten and knifed in NYC after watching the Apple Drop in Times Square. Oh, life!

What a Year of DL’s it has been!

Can you even begin to recollect all the Dharma Transmissions that we have shared?

And can we even begin to measure how each one of those DL’s has now assumed appropriate vibrational residence within our cells, preparing us for our Journey Higher? Where else can the near daily dosage – each one unique and original – of such body/mind/spirit effort be found?

Nowhere ‘cept right Here Now, oh cherished Sisters and Brothers!

Oh sure, 2006 carried with her the usual flotsam; new students throwing temper tantrums and even seasoned, once devoted students name calling and doing litigious things, et. al. Such is the predictable low chi tactics from those who cannot yet grock the Live Wire of this contemporary DharmaPath gifted from the Ancients. In the last few weeks of 2006, Shiva was dancing upon my Temple as if on Ecstasy or something; hec, even certified WF Teachers took Leave from the Path they once held so devoutly to their breasts and Served so nobly! Can we blame them for not holding up the WF DharmaSwords any longer? Hardly! Each of you know how terribly Steep and Direct the Path of WF is to practice, right? Well…

you Try making your living by Teaching IT! Trust me, those DharmaSwords get Real Heavy, Real Quick. Soon, all sutra studying and WF Sweat that you can spill comes up short when the Lower Chakras of Survival start getting tickled Rosy Red and Hot by Teaching this Iron Hot Plate of Dharma!

Through all the Snake and Student stressors, the Light of this Path glows ever more brightly. The Sacred Preciousness and Divine Amplitude of Chi and Insight and Wisdom is more powerful within my sport performances and practices and most importantly my Meditations then ever before. I reAwake more and more often to Receive that which the Holy Trinity – Creator, Destroyer, and Sustainer – download to me in multidimensional pathWays. All i ever get is new Imports of OM in various layers conducive to my Serving You.

So, as 2007 dawns upon my 45th year, and the 26th year of WF as a Service, my Temple finds itself once again a “mom and pop” Path of Karma Yoga. How utterly in tune with the Scriptures; “Out of the many there will be only a few.” This Temple has allWays remained most Powerful this Way. Only my beloved, amazing Ananda and myself remain at the humble Helm; small yet fiercely Devoted to Serving and Protecting The Dharma in the Way of the Ancient Masters; one student by one student. Our conversations center upon you, your Practice, your Chi, your willingness to trek Upward toward the Highest Summit. When you choose to support us by purchasing a product or sending a tithe as in the Ancient Traditional Way, we embrace and kiss and We Know That This is a Go(o)d Road.

DL, due to her IMMENSE VOLUME, will be shut down for a while as we attempt to create a new version of her for the next year. Blessings to WF WebMaster, Hakado Ru as he rolls up his sleeves this holiday in order to Serve you through the Temple Maintenance of enhancing DL’s capacities. You will soon hear the Temple Gong ring as loud and clear as a Wolf’s Howl on the winter’s Solstice announcing another new year of DL CHI and TEACHINGS and TRANSMISSIONS!

Coming up at the front of 2007 DL? I will announce the 2006 WF Online Student of the Year plus introduce to you a very, very Precious Dharma Gift for your Practice in 2007!

Of course, the WF SanghaLounge will be up and cranking as ever; currently, my DL on iPods+Nike is drawing a wonderful exchange; check it out and contribute!

In closing, i give you this passage from Joseph Campbell that was dedicated to me and my LifeWork of Wholistic Fitness by new Student Bill.

And so, to all of you i bow my head,
i open my heart,
i give you my Path to share for another Year
so long as it still feels go(o)d and helpful in your Self Cultivation…

HAPPY NEW YEAR from your Tiny, Powerful Temple Beneath the Sacred Peak!

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!!!!!!!!!

om so ti,

coach ilg and Ananda

***
For Coach Ilg for ‘coming back again and again to his Students’ and for helping my own Brother as well as my family and myself so powerfully and lovingly.
– Student Bill

“Bringing back the Gift to integrate it into a rational life is very difficult. What you have to bring back is something that the the world lacks – which is why you went to get it – and lacking it, the world does not know that it needs it. And so, on the return, when you come with your boon for the world and there is no receptions, what are you going to do? There are three possible reactions.

One answer is to say, “To hell with them, I’m going back to the woods.” You buy yourself a dog and a pipe and let the weeds grow in the gate. You have come back to the world with your gift, and people look at you with glassy eyes, call you “a kook,” and so you retreat. This is refusal of the return.

The second way is to say, “What do they want?” You have a skill. You can give them what they want, the commercial way. Then you have created a whole pitch for your expressivity, and what you had before gets lost. You have a public career, and you have renounced the jewel.

The third possibility is to try to find some aspect of the domain into which you have come that can receive a little portion of what you have to give. You try to find a means to deliver what you have found as the life boon in terms and in proportions that are proper to the world’s ability to receive. It requires a good deal of compassion and patience. Look for cracks in the wall and give only to those who are ready for your jewel.

You do not have a complete adventure unless you do get back. There is a time to go into the woods and a time to come back, and you know which it is. Do you have the courage? It takes a hell of a lot of courage to return after you have been in the woods.

When the world
seems to be falling apart,
the rule is to hang onto your own bliss.
It’s that life that survives.

Freedom to pass back and forth across the world division…is the talent of the master. The Cosmic Dancer, declares Nietzche, does not rest heavily in a single spot, but gaily, lightly, turn and leaps from one position to another.”

***
photo 1) the Sacred Peak, yesterday from the Temple back garden by coach
photo 2) Ananda goes down while breaking fresh tracks two days ago during a ski/snowshoe duathlon workout. by coach.