Wholistic Fitness

“A common obstacle in a Western student’s grasp of yoga and spiritual work lies in the mistake of Teachings for Transmission. Teachings and Transmission are universes apart. To receive the Transmission of a Teacher, one thing has not changed in the course of several thousands years of Yoga; the Student must take private Pilgrimage to the Teacher every now and then. No matter what. In the WF Path, we offer Transmissions through two ways; a WF Private Intensive and, on a smaller scale so each WF Student can afford a Direct Transmission, our Blessed Mala Beads.”
– coach ilg

we pick up Student Cerame’s most noble Pilgrimage to the Sacred Peak during Day Two whereupon Father Sky gifted most Cherished and Dedicated Student Cerame with a MOST auspicious and snowy April shower…

appropriately, to balance the searing, red hot energetic Transmission of Mula Bandha into Student Cerame during a morning Meditation in the Zendo…”Father” cooled us off with an opportunity to gulp falling snow…

“There is no other task but to know your own original face.”
– Yen-T’ou

then, it was time to take the energetic new imprint of Mula Bandha and, in typical WF Style; apply it in hard core test fields; we take Student Cerame – not known for his love of heights – to the climbing wall…it will be within the chambers of his Fear that i will coach Mula Bandha application along with other more conventional performance techniques…

“Habit, laziness, and fear conspire to keep us comfortably within the familiar.”
– Jane Hirshfield

Student C “pulling plastic” baby…

as i belay him to the vibe of the Beastie Boys…yeah baby! CRANKIN’ in the Vertical Temple!

what happens when you push yourself THROUGH your Limiting of the Unlimited?!?!
BOUNDLESS JOY, baby!!!!!! look at those authentic smiles! push through fear, doubt, and laziness and find the Other Side of Unified Field of Love and Laughter! God i love teaching this Path! I love my WF Students…we who are not fooled by other Paths of Glitz and Marketing…go for the Sub-Stance of Mind/Body Training; go for WF!

thus, with pumped forearms and blown adrenal glands…i knew it was time to intensify the planted Transmission…

After an hour of climbing at soaring heart rates, Student MC remarked between gasps, “I have never seen anything as beautiful.”

“I should be content to look at a mountain for what it is,
and not as a comment on my life.”
– David Ignatow

Breaking the 11,000′ level…hey, can you see that speck down there? that is another Mountain Yogi; Ananda cranking upwards and…ever inwards!

“What is in the mind of the spring wind,
blowing day and night in these groves and gardens.
It never asks who owns the peach and plum trees
but blows away their petals without a word.”
– Ch’i-chi

Ananda escorted us to the snowline; from here on upward, the Path will require Kahtoolas�…
http://www.kahtoola.com/

…a fantastic mountain yogi invention that i have set several Course Records with…these mini-crampons for your running shoes are made right here where we know how to have world class fun in Mother Nature; Flagstaff!

kickin’ steps…attempting to follow the Master’s footsteps can be frightening…this is part of Warrior Training. at one point in the ascension of this steep ravine, i had to have Student MC dance yet another dimension of his Fear and allow him to climb solo and attempt to ‘track’ me up the Sacred Peak…”I will follow you anywhere, Coach,” were Student MC’s last words before i left my Beloved Student perched like a beautiful Glacier Lilly on the steep snow before moving upwards at my own pace. It was a terribly difficult moment for me personally, yet as a Teacher of the Dharma, i was Told that in his advancing Practice with me, this forced solo ascent would be important spiritual work for him, Bardo Training. “When Coach took off, there came a place where i simply could not see ANY of his tracks! I did not know where he went! I thought to myself, ‘Damn, Coach IS good! He is Levitating up this mountain!’…when i got confused on where to go, i knew Coach was preparing me throughout the Intensive for this moment, he kept saying,’When in doubt, go Higher.’ So, i just kept going up! Suddenly, he appeared smiling at me…beneath me!”

Attainment of summits for me have always functioned as a Transpersonal sparkplug for attaining the summits within.
Here, my Noble Shishya tops out on his own summit with Mt. Humphreys, still another 1,000′ feet higher, looming in the background.

Though my View is as spacious as the sky,
My actions and respect for cause and effect are as fine as grains of flour.
– Sogyal Rinpoche

Noble Online Student Cerame gazes across the Southwest from the ceiling of Arizona while in his new Personal Self Propelled Altitude Record Yogi Squat; 11, 500′!

“All of us are watchers –
of television, of time clocks,
of traffic on the freeway –
but few are observers.
Everyone is looking,
not many are seeing.”
– Peter Leschak

What goes up?
Must come down…running down 29% mountain slopes with crampons…that is fantastic stuff! Student MC’s smile never wore off as he gamely struggled to find the technique and art of mountain yoga…he did GREAT and it was during the descent that his Devoted Practice was again to be Gifted by Father Sky as most exquisite rush of snow began to blow like a cosmic Ujjayi through our Appreciation of breathing and moving.

“Beyond all dualities,
we WF Warriors sing our humble song of
sweat and stillness…”
– coach ilg

This DL is devoted to Beloved Student Cerame.
Many of the quotes above were contributed by HP Yogini Leslie.

May all Beings be thus inspired to find their workouts within.

that is all,
coach ilg…the mountain yogi

***

WF Private Intensives are usually booked several months in advance. Do not live one more day without scheduling this unmatched experience for the strength of your own Practice and the memories of this lifetime! Each Intensive is deeply designed and customized for your own ability and temperament. Coach has been doing these Intensives his whole professional life and he always gives his utter best for those willing to take Pilgrimage. Available through the Tribal Catalog at www.WholisticFitness.com

***
DL DharmaSummary:
I use the Vehicle of climbing as a Dharma Teaching to vitalize the role of Ascension to the yogin.
Notice the Coaching Choreography of just one day during Student Cerame’s Intensive with me: First, we meditated and cemented intellectual and practical application of the Nuts and Bolts of Enlightenment, in this case a maturation of Student’s current understanding of the pivotal Mula Bandha Root Lock. Then, in a macrocosm of the Kundalini ascension, i used a Guided mixed disciplined climbing adventure to integrate and vividly impress upon my student the notion of overcoming fear in the spiritual realm. From sport climbing and bouldering to the Sacred Peak, we worked with applying his new Mula Bandha Transmission and his adjusted/refined Pranayama Practices in the rarified pran of the High Peaks. Thus, from the most specific and ‘urban’ version of mountaineering (indoor bouldering and sport climbing) we merge into the Grandfather of all climbing disciplines; mountaineering, Student Cerame lived by Direct Experience what is best about Wholistic Fitness; start with the Inner and apply to the entire spectrum of a sport. WF IS a Dance of Versatile Diversity using the Inner as the Anchor to the Flight of Self.

May this benefit the solidarity of your own Practice and perhaps encourage the contemporary crop of new Yoga Teachers to use the Ancient Teachings of Mountain Yoga to forward their own Path of Service.

– coach ilg