Wholistic Fitness

PURITY OF INTENT

{a MTB Warrioress enjoys riding through a canopy of giant manzanita on
“The Secret Trail” one of my backyard trails here in LA}

last week in DL (what a week it was!) i spoke about Seriousness Of Devotion and Purity Of Intent…
Sogyal Rinpoche offers this beautiful story which illustrates, i feel, just how valuable it is to appreciate
our workouts. I have always said that “Sweat is just another name for Holy Water,” and if we can be
brave enough to sweat through our negative tendencies and unAware habits, a Buddha like Light will
soon illuminate WF Lifestyle Principle Number 3: our most Appropriate Action within the moments of
our lives. Are you grasping, or are you concentrating? I love you all for choosing the Higher Path
to your Fitness, your Herbs, and, most of all, yourself!

enjoy your Sun-Day,
i’m off to ride my bike in the Santa Monica Mountains…the wildflowers are, well, WILD!
here is another shot of the Secret Trail with Santa Monica Bay and LA hovering in the distance!
We are all SOOOO Blessed to be able to sweat and sing within God’s Noble Playground; Mother Nature!

namaste,
coach ilg

ps: photos by WayneWillamsStudio.com

At the time of Buddha, there lived an old beggar woman called Relying on Joy. She used to watch the kings, princes, and people making offerings to Buddha and his disciples, and there was nothing she would have liked more than to be able to do the same. But she could only beg enough oil to fill a single lamp. However, as she placed it before Buddha she made this wish: �I have nothing to offer but this tiny lamp. But through this offering, in the future may I be blessed with the lamp of wisdom. May I free all beings from their darkness. May I purify all their obscurations, and lead them to enlightenment.�

That night, the oil in all the other lamps went out. But the beggar woman�s lamp was still burning at dawn, when Buddha�s great disciple Maudgalyayana came to collect the lamps. He saw no reason why one lamp was still alight and tried to snuff it out. But whatever he did, the lamp kept burning.

Buddha had been watching all along, and said: �Maudgalyayana, do you want to put out that lamp? You cannot. You could not even move it, let alone put it out. If you were to pour the water from all the oceans over this lamp, it still wouldn�t go out. The water in all the rivers and lakes of the world could not extinguish it. Why not? Because this lamp was offered with devotion, and with purity of heart and mind. And that motivation has made it of tremendous benefit.�