Wholistic Fitness

“Go Silent!” commanded one of my formative Zen Teachers…

i sat.

i listened to the silence.

sat some more.

listened to the silence some more.

in conventional American Fitness Training, we are not trained to listen to the Silence.

in fact?  in conventional American Fitness Training?   we are trained to drown out the tiniest crucible of Silence.   usually this chronic severing of Silence is creepily and omnipotently achieved by such mainstream conveniences such as iPods.  i saw and warned you all of this spiritual beheading when the Outer World introduced to our Fitness World a quirkey, cumbersome gadget called back then, “The Walkman®”.

only a few of you Listened to feeble ilg back then…

today, a relative handful of you will Listen to me now when i once again attempt to In-Courage you away from Outer Distraction and into Listening To The Silence.

if i ask you;   “What do you hear when you listen to the Silence?”

how do you reply?

take five minutes right now.

sit in your most elegant meditation posture and LISTEN TO THE SILENCE.  go.

so,  what did hear?

***

it’s more important to live your life fully when you are young.

sadly,  most American’s are inculcated like sheep to;

1) go to elementary school
2) graduate high school
3) graduate graduate school
4) get a high-paying job regardless of the cost to your spirit (if you still have a spirit by then)
5) climb the corporate ladder until you make sooooo much money that you can now pay for all the luxuries that you feel you and/or your family require to “be happy and secure.”
6) read an article in OUTSIDE Magazine which has a top ten bucket list of THINGS YOU NEED TO EXPERIENCE BEFORE YOUR FIFTY (was if 50 was the same as Death).
7) said article sparks a mid-life crisis and you are thrown into the expensive realization that:

a) you don’t have enough $ or time to check off even a couple, let alone TEN of the OUTSIDE MAGAZINE’s TOP TEN BUCKET LIST OF THINGS YOU NEED TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE (or turn 50..same thing).
and…
b) you realize that you are sooooo out of shape that you cannot even do ONE of  the OUTSIDE MAGAZINE’s TOP TEN BUCKET LIST OF THINGS YOU NEED TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE (or turn 50..same thing) let alone all TEN of them!

8) you begin to regret all those younger decades you squandered in academics instead of LIVING YOUR TRUE LIFE!!!  your FREE LIFE….no matter WHAT!

9) you pick up a copy of one of my old books that you thought you threw away and begin perusing and find yourself pausing at my sideabars, pics, and writings about living a full, whole life instead of a fractured, specific-based life.

***

what ilg hears in Silence?
the ujjayi roar of the Sacred Animas felt within Visshudha Chakra…
birdsong dancing the airwaves among the Mancos Shale riparian bliss surrounding our home

i hear the Teachings of my Teachers,

and the Frogs singing their Cleansing Songs beneath the Carrizo’s west of Shiprock

and the sound of skis across sacred snows

and i hear the image of Dewa and myself dancing across alpine meadows, serenaded by the collective chi of a million wildflowers…

when ilg sits still and istens?!
i hear the Dance of the One Poem (UniVerse)
and wonder to myself…
What a beautiful life this is…
may it remain so for the Precious Daughter Who Chose To C(om)e through me…

Blessed be thy sweat,

SACRED BE THY STILLNESS…

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