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“…Sacred Joy is in every moment, it travels from the inside to the outside…
which is why WF trains us from inside toward the outside…”pic of your coach during Solo Early Morning Practice

After ringing the Tibetan tinksha bells to open tonight’s HP Yoga™ Slow Flow class,  i re-Minded the gathered students that the yoga cave is one place where we must leave aside all competitive thoughts.  That there is no need,  no reason to make a contest out of anything having to do with yoga.  As perhaps America’s most experienced yoga teacher as athlete and teacher of athletes, ilg realizes it requires a categorically different teaching style, dialogue, cuing, technique and restraint when working with endurance athletes of world, national, and regional class levels which tend to make up the majority of my studentship.  Oh sure,  ilg understands that there is a movement underway here in AmeriKa to make yoga a competitive event.   If the leaders of such a movement would be wise enough to ask the one person who pioneered yoga for athletes here in Turtle Island in 1981?   Ilg might just say, sure, go ahead…make yoga a competitive event but here is how the winner should be judged:

•) by the breadth, dimension, and intensity of their Halos and,
•) by the courage of following their DreamSpeak; no matter what.

if confused,  revisit the Halo’s and the sheer, as still unmatched competitive records set by MahaYogis Jesus Christ and of Buddha.

you see, Noble Sangha working toward Wholeness,  it is not necessary to demand that life be a certain Way and then be unhappy when it is not.   just ask Ananda about my level of feebleness as my life shifted from being America’s Outdoor Athlete/Yogi to being a new Daddy when Dewa was born spontaneously from the pranic ethers emanating from Doko Oosliid in Kinlani.

true Chakra Cleansing is often deeeeeeply dark, frightening, confusing…however, unhappiness is not a requirement toward Wholeness…unhappiness, anger, frustration – regardless of circumstance or of environment – are just training effects from wanting something other than what is.

so, if you – and this is what i told my class tonight – find yourself suffering because you are in some drama that you don’t want?   if you can feel love and compassion for yourself within the suffering?  guess what?
you will cease to suffer.

this is as true trying to hold onto a wheel in front of you as the peleton goes berserk up a steep climb as it is with suddenly becoming paralyzed as i was.  Friend, listen;  it’s not necessary to be frustrated or angry, or anxious or sad.  People are.  ilg certainly is at times.
yet, we don’t have to be.

what ilg has found (and continues to find) through my decades of crazy riches juxtaposed with impoverished struggle?  as long as i kept my sadhana (spiritual/physical practices) strong,  i found that i continued to really deepen love for myself even through the deep, dark, unhappy times.   which, ironically, made them NOT deep, dark, or truly, unhappy…at least not to my inner, Higher Self.  i still chose to Love outwardly through my work, through my Path, through my Practices…and ilg could not imagine a life spent without the deep painful circumstances of this incarnation!   Dealing directly with ongoing pain is what decreases our egoic tendency toward looking for things we don’t like about everything.  It shifts us toward an attitude of sacred Gratitude!

and, it did not take too long for me to realize that, as the Buddha and Yogi Christ taught:

we only suffer because we Cling.

say, “Yes” to It All?

and we Fling

into the Divine Arms that push us from the inside toward the outside with the strength and loving devotion of Hanuman.

so,  whoever you are,
wherever you are…
keep Practicing…
and like a bee attracted toward nectar,
seek only the Joy within each m(om)ent
and Bec(om)e that m(om)ent…

here is a WF Teaching Blog Assignment:
See if you can find or remember finding Sacred Joy in doing something you’ve told yourself is hard, awful, stupid, etc.
and Share it in the Comment section below…i’ve added one to help get you started…

until we can meet and gather like this again,

How Blessed Are We Who Seek Wholeness?

head bowed,

know nothing, going nowhere, been noplace

ilg

5 Responses to “We Suffer Because We Cling…”

  1. coach says:

    ilg recalls finding Sacred Joy in the cutting of the umbilical cord connecting Ananda and Dewachen over 4.5 years ago…up until that time? ilg had worked on Zero Population Growth councils, made it amazingly through the footloose and fancy free eighties and nineties without fathering a child…then, came…the BABY unplanned, unexpected, and well…in that m(om)ent of my cutting of Dewa and Ananda’s umbilical cord? ilg found Sacred Joy in s(om)ething which i told myself was just plain stupid if one aspired toward Enlightenment…well, here ilg is…and these days? i’m cutting umbilical cords left and right each day which connect me to my old egoic models of how i once thought my Path Toward Enlightenment ‘should be’. how shall it All play out? ilg has no idea…it’s like my unruly, wild hair these days…i’m just letting it All play out each day…each m(om)ent…no safety net…

  2. Sandra Lee says:

    in Sept 2011, i was laid off from my Foster Care/Adoption job. In Feb of 2011, I left my night job as a Night Manager for a local Hotel. For 7 years I been working over 90 hours a week (day job at Foster Care/Adoption, night as Night manager). my night job required i work every night and only have two weeks off a year. i was financially secure but stressed out, i still worked out in the gym at 4 hours a day.
    when i got laid off in Sept 2011, i got angry at my bosses for letting me go. Although I could never tell them verbally i was angry, i didn’t know what to do with all my time now. i felt worthless, i now had to get on unemployment.
    i recieve letters from unemployment telling me i need to make 7 contacts a week for jobs, letters telling me i will not longer continue to get unemployment. now, i open and read the letters and it does not bother me, i use to go out to dinner every night or buy clothes online, etc etc. but i was not happy.
    now, i am happy just being outside- hiking, running, and drinking water, and learning to breath again and again if i lose focus. all those wildflowers I never knew existed. and i had NO idea how beautiful the budding leaves are in early Spring.

  3. coach says:

    Precious Dawagahti!
    awes(om)e sharing…thank YOU!
    again, ilg is inspired by Who You Choose To Be(come)…

    head bowed,
    ec

  4. /suprana\ says:

    have found the deepest Sacred Joy through the ‘pain’ (read: egoic attachment!) of two ‘failed’ (read: egoic attachment!) relationships, which broke my heart – and left it wide open for True Love to come flooding in…
    they have been the greatest gift in that through them, i have re-membered my True Nature…what more could i ask for?
    namaste /\

  5. coach says:

    Most Treasured Suprana…
    isn’t it just sooo preciously precarious the line between Divine Infusion and Catastrophe and Confusion? Love you…

    own the onward no matter what..,
    ec

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