Wholistic Fitness

Moccasin Wisdom

by coach steve ilg, cpt/ryt/uscf

“Do not judge another man until you have walked a mile in his moccasins.”
– Native American saying

Do you deserve your Pain? You might be surprised at the answer.

How long has it been since you performed an UnAssisted Shoe Placement and Removal? The WF Master Student never uses chairs, beds, or walls to put on or take off their shoes. Leave it to Wholistic Fitness to climb into every compartment of our life that we have chosen to ignore (thus accumulating avidya). photo; coach ilg, one of Turtle Islands most prolific and enthusiastic promoters of the Yogi Squat, still relies each day upon this ancient, tribal movement as a form of an interactive ‘wheelchair’ to vent his chronic lower back and pelvic Pain from a mountaineering ‘accident.’

You can tell a lot about someone by the manner in which he (or she) puts on their moccasins.

When was the last time you performed an Unassisted Shoe Putting On, or for that matter, an Unassisted Shoe Taking Off? Below, I am going to ask you to explore the harmful repercussions of living in a Shoe Addicted Society.

Most of us have lower back and pelvic imbalances which are the Root Cause of most, if not all, our afflictions.

What we might not be as quick to Realize the Real-Lie of our Pain.

Okay, I will give it to you straight up. Hold on, cuz it is a jagged little pill along the Path of Awakening;
We deserve our back pain, or whatever other Pain radiates like daggers into our lives.

We DESERVE the Pain, Coach?

Yes, yes we do.

Why? I am pretty good chap. I mean, I do not go around robbing banks and mugging people. I even try to keep fit, yet the Pain is allWays there. Why do you say that I DESERVE this Pain, Coach?

Because of what yogis term; Avidya. Spiritual ignorance.

Oh geez, here we go again. Another year of Coach tweaking my little Life so that I constantly have to look Upstream, Up the mountain, and Into myself. Awlright, whatever. Sign me up. I will bite. Now, Teach me about this Spiritual Ignorance As The Root Of My Pain, Coach.

Well, since you asked.

Let me begin this Teaching by instilling our own WF Temple favorite: The WF Word Choice Guru. This Guru, as my Online Students know QUITE well, teaches us to pay attention to our Word Choice; essentially this Technique of Awakening requires the yogi to Question Everything that we utter. Begin to See from where our Words came. Who was it that Taught us these Words, both spoken and thought, that mold unlike anything else, our inner and outer realities?

HELLO, MAY I DE-SERVE YOU?

I just Taught you that we deserve our Pain.

Question that Word Choice which I used: deserve.

Let me write it another Way; DeServe.

De-Serve.

De = Not

Serve = To devote oneself fully

You see, Oh Noble Seeker of Wholeness, we have not done a very go(o)d job of devoting ourself to our Pain. In fact, many of us refuse time and again to listen, accept, embrace, use, and transform ourselves through our Pain.

Instead, we more often than not, choose to consciously or cleverly, run away from our Pain – which, by the Way, usually begins as simple Intensity; a concentrated vortex of accumulated tensions begotten from body and mind. Smoke a joint. Have some wine. Glue yourself to incoming data and noise. Go ahead, numb yourself from the Pain.

Yet, the Pain will not go away. It will accumulate in karmic loads which will require from us an ever GREATER workout than what is already on our spiritual plate at the moment.

ADHESIONS ARE STUCK ON ME CUZ I AM STUCK ON ADHESIONS

Perhaps early, early in our childhood, we unconsciously grew into our set patterns or habits. In yoga, such mechanical grooves of mental flux are called, samskaric adhesions. What is being adhered? Consciousness is being tethered to Unconsciousness. Let me give you an example with which you may be familiar; putting on your shoes.

First of all, How did we come to be so addicted to shoes, Oh Fellow Tenderfoot? How many hours, okay minutes, per day do our naked feet dance upon Mother Earth? Not many, eh?

By fueling our Shoe Addiction, we stop Serving the natural connective tissue health of our feet, ankles, and knees. This chronic dilapidation of our feet (read; our ENERGETIC ROOTS) causes biomechanical serial distortion. Soon our pelvis is out of balance and we notice that our Knees (forward movement in our projected reality) hurt. Our back (spiritual foundation) goes out. Our neck (our Bridge between body and mind) is more gnarled than a Bristlecone Pine.

Hec, once the pelvis is out? We might as well check in our Passes for Enlightenment In This Lifetime cuz, the pelvis is the Abode of Kundalini; the Cosmic Energy Within. Trust me; an Awakened Kundalini from Imbalance is NOT the Wise Way.

Yet most of us reading this Teaching, have or will experience – or could be living one right now – an imbalanced Kundalini Awakening.

I will Teach again on this topic later.Right now, there is beautiful,fresh snow falling and I hear my cross country skis calling my name.

Your WF H(om)eWork

Until we can Gather again, do the following WF H(om)eWork:

*) Do not rely upon a chair, or bench, or bed, or whatever else to put on or take off your Shoes today.
Instead, i want you to Serve your Shoe Guru and practice Conscious Attention to what is usually an UnQuestioned, UnConscious every day action; the putting on and taking off of your Shoes.

Let me know what Observations, inSights, and Questions arise from your WF H(om)eWork in the WF SanghaLounge in the “Appropriate Action” Cave. I have started a Thread there called; SHOE GURU. Based upon your input, I will continue this Teaching appropriate to your sincerity to Study. No input.
No more Teaching. I don’t want to waste as much of my Time this year with lazy students. YOU will dictate the pace and quality of my coaching.

Leave it to Wholistic Fitness to climb into every compartment of our life that we have chosen to ignore (thus accumulating avidya).

Leave it to Wholistic Fitness to reStore purity of mind through Conscious Attention to everyday lifestyle actions. Restoring EveryDay Zen, my fellow Traveler along the Upwardly Inclined Way, is known as Earning Spiritual Merit and Untying Karma.

I want you to allWays remember, Oh Noble Yogin;

One moment of concentration is one moment of Purity.

And our lives are simply linked chains of moments.

So, Pay Attention to the moment.

Remember, there is an entire OM in a mOMement.

i love your Higher Self and remain Devoted to the cultivation of Her.

the mountain yogi