Wholistic Fitness

pic by HP Yogini Dawagahti Lee:  your feeble teacher of nothing, “Off in search of a great perhaps,” beginning a 4-mile descent on my mountain bike after riding it up and stashing it at 12,378′ to peak run/scramble the seld(om)-visited summit of Three Needle Peak (13,491′) on Sunday, errr, yesterday. see my personal FB page for pics and video 

as a lifelong Practitioner of Wholistic Fitness® one of the Highest and most Blessed Teachings of living this Path is that by constantly exposing our weaknesses through our multi-disciplined Pathway, through exposing our negative tendencies through our multi-disciplined Pathway, and through exposing our habituated patterns and bringing those weak links to the forefront of our Training instead of the predictable path of just focusing and exploiting at what we are ‘good at,’?

we get Humble.

Over, and over, and Endlessly Again;  Over!

and ilg doesn’t care what Tradition, what Religion, what Ever you bring to Wholistic Fitness®?
the Masters are All-Ways saying, “Humility is the hallmark of the Awakened Warrior/ess.”

if we suck at yoga?   GO THERE!

if we HATE cold weather?  move to where it is COLD!

if we ‘hate’ cardio?  GO THERE!

if we despise Big Cities?  MOVE THERE for at least 6 months to a decade as did my Teachers make me!!!

if we are a ‘gym rat’?   GET OUTTA THERE for a bit and mix it up with some yoga, cardio, meditation…

Wholistic Fitness® remains the only The Path mandates we prioritize our WEAKNESSES as our Priority Training.   No Other Path does this.  It’s kinda weird.

In Bodybuilding, for example,  the young ones are taught to focus on their Weakest Bodypart.  Because the Judges will judge you on your weakest bodypart.

Somehow, that wholistic philosophy is not embraced throughout the athletic world where sport-specfic athletes are paid the most money,  whereas the most wholistic athletes (say, pentathletes as a very sorry example of what could be) are basically dog food scraps from the other sports.

I recall, must have been s(om)ewhere in the mid-70’s.   i attend a 8-week intensive Zen training in Jemez, NM.   the Monks there were truly incredible….all beaming bright with chi and appropriately fierce in their instructions.

i was hurting from the get go.

for certain.

here, you try my curriculum, see how far YOU get on the Rinzai Zen Path:

wake up at 4:45 am.  personal hygiene.  in Zendo and sitting in Zazen by 5:00am.  sit solid without fidgeting for 45 minutes in an unheated Zendo with your legs crossed in the most excruciating manner into which you can possible fold your cold, stiff legs.  5 minute KinHin (walking meditation, try standing up let along walking on numbed legs) around the outside campus (some mornings it snowed on us).  Repeat 2 more times.  Breakfast in Silence, in Posture.  Just tea and some sort of Asiatic crumpet?   Cleaning Duty.  Personal Time for 1.5 hours.   Lecture while Seated in Meditation Posture.  Work Study.  Lunch.  Not Much;  i recall dikon pickles and rice.  a lot of pickles and rice.  actually?  not a lot at all.  weird how simply sitting can invoke a ravenous appetite.   after lunch; more endless Zazen patrolled by Monks with sticks to whack you if you lose focus until you either quit and got the hell outta there, or suffered in your best version of  Lotus Posture until the freakin’ bell finally chimed.

ilg has climbed many of the most technically ferocious and highest peaks on Turtle Island.  Most under winter conditions.  ilg knows cold.  ilg knows discomfort.  ilg knows insecurity, doubt to survive, and the dream of a hot shower worth more than ANY $ in the Outer World.  ilg has claimed more endurance podiums across more sports than most ever try (OUTSIDE Magazine said that about me in one of their two Cover features on your humble teacher of nothing).

yet?

without a doubt?

sitting Zen over 8-weeks?

nearly, nearly, NEARLY cracked ilg.

yet, s(om)ething happened halfway into my 8-week Zen Intensive that forever changed and empowered my lifework of Wholistic Fitness®…

i noticed that these Monks repeated a predictable biomechanical pattern that c(om)pletely invalidated everything that They taught!!!

{COMING NEXT: PART 2…Off In Search Of A Great Perhaps)