Wholistic Fitness

“On the withered tree,
a flower blooms.”
– DT Suzuki

As we continue – at our own Level and Willingness – our Journey toward Wholeness, there is nothing that we won’t face. Among the dizzying depths of years of strength training, cardio training, yoga, meditation, mastery of food, and of course the constant in-our-face Lifestyle Principles which constitute our 9-Limbed Path of Wholeness (Navanada Yoga or Wholistic Fitness®), each of our human qualities will arise. More troublesome than the stiffest of knots, within our cellular bodies are energy cysts filled with stunningly potent gumption gathered from eons of us forgetting who we truly are. Don’t take feeble ilg’s word for it; just do a hip opener for 8 minutes. or go for a long, hilly run in the high wind. sit still for 40 minutes without flinching. Quit gossiping. Brush your teeth with your Non-Dominant Hand while in yogi squat…do any of these WF yogas and just watch the emotional parade begin; Jealously arrives. Boredom. Annoyance. Skepticism. Doubt. Fear. Anger. It’s all in us. In buckets, usually. As we do the Practice and learn to run or pose or lift ourselves through our inner storming qualities, transformation happens. Slowly.

The sourcing of our human suffering comes from clinging. Attachment, the Buddha and Yogi Christ would say. We hang onto our perceived problems; the mortgage, the illness, the injury, the self-pity of resentment within our relationships. That’s our ‘stuff.’ That’s our Drama.

Through Wholistic Fitness which has a renown capacity for turning our workouts within, we will eventually arrive at a juncture in our Practice: one fork leads to another less steep, less direct Path of Transformation. we say “adios” to that quirky coach ilg and his Path, his books, his blogs…and that’s okay. nothing inherently ‘wrong’ about hitting the Delete button on a particular Path. yet, in some other time, form, and/or way; you will still run smack up against the very Resistance(s) from which you thought you left.

The other fork? That’s right, the other fork in our WF Path leads us right into the heart and heat of our Drama until we get clobbered over our thick skulls that we’ve been staring at the Truth for a long while:

Our Drama is also our Dharma.

Upon this glorious gift of Insight, our breathing deepens and we begin to feel the immense divinity and sacred joy that makes us quiver with excitement toward our life and our death: as our Breath deepens into our multi-discplined Path, we realize that there is NOTHING we cannot consume as kindling for our unique Awakening and Enlightenment.

Recognizing The Kleshas – turning our Workouts within

“In the process of Awakening, there is only one challenge and one victory: the challenge is to Real-ize we’ve forgotten our Highest Self; the victory comes when we re-identify with our Atman…our Soul Force.”
– coach ilg

Each of us confronts the Science of our Human Suffering according to our etheric gearing…our karma. Here is where we find the Kleshas or the ‘afflictions’ which keep us mired in forgetfulness of our Divine Self.

The Kleshas are five behaviors and conditioned beliefs that keep you and i mired into our lower selves:

1 – Avidya (spiritual ignorance)
2 – Asmitta (“I-ness”)
3 – Raga (attraction)
4 – Dvesha (aversion)
5 – Abinivesha (clinging to life and fear of death)

i was Taught them in this order because, supposedly, number one (avidya) causes number two and so on down the line.

not only has our vision of what we consider to be ‘real’ been infected by these Kleshas, our delusion has deepened due to the ‘training effects’ of trusting so hook-line-and-sinker into them. the training effects from our Klesha-poisoned lives are as follows:

1) Our belief in the permanence of objects
2) Our belief in the ultimate reality of our body
3) Our belief that our state of suffering is really happiness and our reality is Real.
4) Our belief that our bodies, minds, and feelings are our True Nature.

you might be able stand under why i have been coaching you all these years to “do away with belief,” and “to treasure emptiness,” and “to be nowhere even as you stand,” and the rest of my counsel to keep whittling away belief structures wherever you find them for belief, as Krishnamurti taught, is by definition a limit and in spirituality there are no limits. for most of us however, we don’t buy into this until our own Bardo Entry moment when the sudden crash of this house of illusion begins to occur at hyperspeeds of confusion, fear, and massive sadness for not Practicing deep enough the Art and Skill and Science of Suffering while we were ‘alive.’

tomorrow i will Teach the WF Way through the Kleshas. Warning: the terrain is typical of WF: upward and inward. buckle up.

until we can meet and gather again like this,
and do this Inner Work…
may your Daily Sweat be purely motivated for Higher Ascension,
and may your Daily Stillness be Ascending toward divine motivation…

your faithful friendly warrior along the Inner Workout Way
abbaji

photo by Ananda; coach belays a student at Vertical Relief