Wholistic Fitness

This morning, the WF Temple H(om)e…any wonder why locals up here at 6,512′ say, “Don’t plant until Memorial Day…” Thankfully, we haven’t.  We’ve got our tomatoes and other plants simmering in pots in the garage with a special lamp waiting patiently to be planted…

“Things Take Time,” WF Training Tenet

“Come rain, hail, sleet, or snow…the Conductor shall SWING!” Taking my cue from Dewa’s fierceness, i readied my ski’s and hopped into Bala for the 25-minute drive up to Purgatory Ski Area…though it be nearly June…i’m going skiing!

“Uh…i’m supposed be bike racing in this next weekend?”

Thank go(o)dness us Wholistic Fitness™ athletes are versatile…to hell with sitting on a trainer or pedaling today…i’m going skiing!   When God gifts us snow?  Dance in it!   Dance in it until you shatter yourself, as Rumi might advise!  And today was perfect for an uphill ski effort among my Sacred San Juan snows…new daddyhood, teaching, and coaching was wearing on me…i needed to feel again the rush of soft while velvet caress my skis again.   As yogi’s we are trained to accept things as does Mother Earth; without condition.  We should welcome difficulty with a soft and open mind, like snow itself.   When our thinking is soft,  we abide in a state of awesome receptivity instead of chronic reactivity.  Such imperturbable thinking is as stable as Shiva yet as seductively fun as Shakti.

so, i clicked into my faithful Mt. Taylor set up…tiny skate skis with skins, and headed up…

…and up…

these other snow warriors began before me, however, with my ultra-light setup i quickly outdistanced them up the snowy slopes…the ASEA Sacred Water is still producing a mind-blowing positive effect on my CV training (and myriad other ways!)…i felt as light as a firefly as i skittled past these other mountain athletes, timing out the Mantra with my Breath…they both just looked at me like i was from another plane(t)…in that m(om)ent? i was!

Wholistic Fitness is about cultivating Big Mind, as some Buddhists have put it.  Big Mind is not about thinking, it’s about expressing.  instead of sticking myself on an indoor trainer or forcing myself to do be on my bike during snow…i relax into the Present Conditions and adapt.  WF yogis adapt and express.  That’s it.  Adapt and Express what Is Already Present. Go(o)d.

Old Lift #2 looking peculiarly forlorn…up here, i skied among spirits…though memories are really only but traces of mental reverberations recollected across brain cell neuronal synapses courtesy of protein enzymes* and minerals (particularly calcium),  they still mean a lot to us Human Beings…memories, that is.  On our Spiritual Journey,  it’s not so much Memories that create problems for our ascent toward Enlightenment, rather our Attachment to them.  ilg recalls countless hours as a child on this lift (we ran alpine ski racing gates from a ski run off this lift) and intuitively flexing and releasing Mula Bandha long years before even hearing the term.

within 52 minutes i arrived at the top of the frontside of Purg, elevation 10,822′.  i reckon this is pretty good Iron Horse Bicycle Race training, don’t you?

(base elevation/start point:8793…you do the vertical ascent math and get back to me…i was just immersed in It All, not bothering about power outputs, heart rates, or other such sterile training factors which bleed the chi from what is most sacred about outdoor sports:  Big Mind.)

….oh,  did i mention that i got to ski down this Nirvana White Silk Road?  all by myself, all by BigMind self...feeling empty, feeling full…emptiness is form, form is emptiness…

You cannot practice true skiing upon ski’s with heels locked down or with metal edges or fancy parabolic technology…Our whole being must be involved in the simple drop lunge of a telemark turn on fragile skis and feeble bindings through deep snow.  Wisdom can’t be learned…Wisdom is an offspring of Mindfulness (WF Lifestyle Principle #2).  Why are chi-dren so wise?  They are mindful…take them on a hike and immediately, they will merge into some eroded hillside 30 meters into your ‘planned hike’ and be content – nay, Sacredly Immersed – in delving into the microcosmic miracles of that eroded hillside.  Same thing with a true ski turn; you get Sacredly Immersed.  Same thing for an Enlightened Mind;  you get Sacredly Immersed into It All!

Blessed be thy Adaptive Sweat and Stillness,

your feeble teacher toward Wholeness

* have you taken your MAP Amino Acids today?  ilg is willing to bet a majority of brain/mental health issues would become archaic if everyone was raised with and stayed with MAP throughout their lives.