Wholistic Fitness

of all the amazing photography that has Graced the Dharma Vehicle of DL during 2005, this one simple and candid shot of me by Ananda, performing a Morning Ritual; Zen Sweeping – seemed to touch the hearts of DL Readers the most. Like our attitude to the year 2005, it is vital to, as Teacher Blanchard taught me, “Feel everything, attach to nothing.” When i sweep, be it my garden walkway or just sweep my thoughts with a conscious breath, i recall that Teaching.

Tonight, we sweep away yet another Year of Practice. I trust 2005 will be remembered by you as a stellar year of Training for what matters most; (y)our Enlightenment. This DL is my humble Gift to 2005. I bow to 2005 and wish all those who cared about my humble Teachings the Highest in my Loving Appreciation. And, to all those people who did NOT understand my Teachings and basically were mean to me or attempted to take things from my Temple…? Well, I bow to you even DEEPER in appreciation! …for in your Lack of Practice, you strengthened my own like never, ever before! As the Dalai Lama teaches, only our “enemies” can truly deepen our Practice; be those enemies our negative tendencies, our ignorance, our unwillingness, or our outer worldly relationships.

In other words, it’s all One.

It’s all Yoga.

It’s all Wholistic Fitness�…the interruptions, the enemies, the fatigue, the doubt…it’s all Practice. Yet, our difficulties will never appear to be worthwile Practice until we steady that one most Brave, Simple fitness component: Meditation!

One reason why Meditation is one of my Five Fitness Disciplines is because to practice Meditation is to, in a sense, practice dying. When we meditate, we are slowly suffocating our ego…our sense of “i-ness”…and along with that “i-iness” will also go the baggage of our “i-ness”; pride, arrogance, sense of separation and superiority, too low or high self esteem, guilt, shame, timidity…and so on. As the baggage of our “i-ness” falls away, we feel more Light, more Empty.

More Still.

“Be Still,” taught Yogi Jesus Christ, “and know that you are Go(o)d.”
“Be Still,” taught Yogi Jesus Christ, “and know that you are Go(o)d.”
“Be Still,” taught Yogi Jesus Christ, “and know that you are Go(o)d.”

There is one thing that you and i have in common with all other beings;
Death.

Even tonight, many of us will watch the Apple drop in NYC (or, if you live in Flag, we gather to watch a giant Pinecone drop from the Weatherford Hotel!) or in some other way, we will wish a Happy Death to 2005 and move forward into 2006.

Everything dies; even years. The older you get? The faster those years seem to speed by. Then, it will not be just “years” that die. It will be our elders, then our peers, then our family, then our “i-ness”. That is the intimidating part. The part we can get stoked about lies within the example of the MahaRishi’s…the Great Teachers. For in Their Enlightenment, the Masters have proven that just like Food Mastery, Sleep Mastery, Performance Mastery…we can, They say, become Masters over Death. {Ma, the great “Hugging Saint” of India.}

How?

Meditation.

“Meditation is the glue that binds my Fitness Disciplines together.” I wrote that way back in 1982. Where there is Fitness, there is Breath. Where there is Breath, there is Pran. Where there is Pran, there is no death. Meditation develops our pranic constitution so that the Pran rides the filament of our Consciousness. On such a well conditioned filament, we will, if we Practice hard and steadfast, become Masters of Death.

Now, let’s listen to someone who knows a Whole lot more on this subject than feeble “i”. I give you Sogyal Rinpoche:

Sogyal Rinpoche on DEATH FAMILIARITY
“Men come and they go and they trot and they dance, and never a word about death. All well and good. Yet when death does come�to them, their wives, their children, their friends�catching them unawares and unprepared, then what storms of passion overwhelm them, what cries, what fury, what despair!�.�.�.
To begin depriving death of its greatest advantage over us, let us adopt a way clean contrary to that common one; let us deprive death of its strangeness, let us frequent it, let us get used to it; let us have nothing more often in mind than death.”

Today, i might be the only one in the Nation to wish you this Perspective, yet my Practice of Satya deems it appropriate to say..

Today,
i wish each of you a very, very Happy Death Year!

I trust that, for nearly every day during 2005, you have found a breath of fresh, inspiring air through these DL’s. They are a lot of LoveWork, let me assure you! And, i further trust that you have found them to be potent enough to keep in your Spiritual Quiver as i move DL to a Subscription Format in 2006 to protect the Teachings of WF Dharma which i am going to ramp up as i myself, grow older and closer and closer to the point where i leave my public life and take the Teachings to my own Enlightenment. Please, stay on board our humble Dharma craft as we sail
ever onward,
ever upward,
and endlessly
inward.

it has been deep honor to Serve your Practice through DL in 2005.

May all Beings Everywhere realize the utter importance and necessity of everyday sweat and stillness as a vital Way toward Awakening…

“We do not know where death awaits us: so let us wait for it everywhere.
To practice death is to practice freedom. A man who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave.”
MONTAIGNE

Here’s a toast to 2005, baby! i bow in wow of your many and poignant Teachings…

and to each of you, my Precious DL Sangha…i bow to you…

that is all,

your humble mountain yogi beneath the Sacred Peak,

coach ilg