Wholistic Fitness

“Watching them soar over all the drastically improved asphalt ribbons laced like a doily among all the rocks i used to free solo and lead climb got me TAF’ing about Death…”   pic of ilg by HP Yogi and WF Devotee; Brad Tafoya

Most Noble Sangha,

perhaps it’s because your feeble teacher is all amp’d up over watching the US PRO CHALLENGE crank through my beloved Colorado, however,  i’ve been TAF’ing a lot about death this week.

Oh wait…has ilg confused Thee yet once again within one opening sentence?!   yup…that’s understandable…allow me to back-track…

The US PRO CHALLENGE started here in Durango, on Monday…today, they raced through my old h(om)etown and formal birthplace of Boulder, Colorado racing over all the roads i raced over and coached over with Team 7-Eleven back in the Golden Era of American Cycling.   Watching them soar over all the drastically improved asphalt ribbons laced like a doily among all the rocks i used to free solo and lead climb got me TAF’ing about Death.

Then, again,  Tibetan trained as ilg is,  i’m all-Ways TAF’ing and training toward my own physical death.

Darn,  ilg did it again, didn’t i?  Confused y’all with my mixed bag of wholistic arrows.   More backtracking…

When ilg was a sponsored rock/ice climber,  i had to make it ‘okay to die.’   if i didn’t,  i’d be waaaaay too nervous free soloing all the routes i did.   What my Teachers imparted and what Rinpoche Imparted was,  “at the time of death,  all the components of the body and mind are stripped away and disintegrate. As the body dies, the senses and subtle elements dissolve, and this is followed by the death of the ordinary aspect of the mind, with all its negative emotions of anger, desire, and ignorance. Finally nothing remains to obscure our true nature, as everything that in life has clouded the enlightened mind has fallen away. And what is revealed is the primordial ground of our absolute nature, which is like a pure and cloudless sky.”

Now, that “primordial ground of our absolute nature,”  is known as the dawning of the Ground Luminosity, or Clear Light and must be steadfastly meditated upon, visualized, and pre-navigated during our meditations in this life so that when we cannot inhale again and things get more intense than my bro, Rory Sutherland charging up Flagstaff Mountain in Boulder (which was my ‘office’ as a rock climber; bouldered there pretty much daily) for today’s Stage victory,  we’ve got to relax into the intensity so our  consciousness itself dissolves into that all-encompassing space of truth. The Tibetan Book of the Dead says of this moment:

The nature of everything is open, empty and naked like the sky.
Luminous emptiness, without center or circumference; the pure, naked View dawns.

This morning in typical New Daddy mode,  i felt deeply underprepared for the hammerfest known as the Saturday Club Ride here in Durango.  the route today was Citron de Duex,  a favorite 48-mile test piece involving over 5,000′ of climbing.  i only brought one water bottle and the only water i had in me was my 4 oz of Asea Sacred Water which i always take before and after each workout.  i did however, faithfully complete my Early Morning Ritual (my version of which requires 45-minutes of meditation, kriya, pranayama, and asana).  so i banked on that,  and, i figured;  the ride would be great training for Death…and it was.  i was ‘on the rivet’ for most of the 2+ hours yet stayed with the Lead Group the whole way, even when the dropped Pros/A riders integrated into our group.   we averaged 21.5 mph over the route and at mile 39,  i won the ‘pinecone sprint prime’ from the bunch and finished 7th overall at the finish.   Mostly, the Tribal Mantra slackened my thirst and my Noble Effort kept my mind focused on the wheels in front of me and my heart kept my Higher Self positive, encouraging, and knowing that suffering so hard for so long will certainly pay the most priceless payout when i can no longer breath;  i devoted my effort to the Luminous emptiness, without center or circumference…the pure, naked View dawned from within my commitment to just pedal my bike through God’s glorious day…

Blessed be your Sweat,

your feeble teacher of nothing