Wholistic Fitness

WF Temple Cat Jasper often keeps a Four Legged Eye of Wisdom on Teacher Ananda’s work with her Online Students to make sure our WF Online Teaching is not too Intellectual! photo by coach.

Over at HP Yogini’s Karen’s blog:

http://pastkarmona.blogspot.com

she quoted from perhaps the most disrespected yet highest spiritually evolved culture from which WF was borne; the Tibetans*.

today, i wish to piggyback on Yogi K’s quick entry and i quote it entirely here:
“Because in our culture we overvalue the intellect, we imagine that to become enlightened demands extraordinary intelligence. In fact, many kinds of cleverness are just further obscurations. There is a Tibetan saying: “If you are too clever, you could miss the point entirely.”
Patrul Rinpoche said: “The logical mind seems interesting, but it is the seed of delusion.” People can become obsessed with their own theories and miss the point of everything. In Tibet we say: “Theories are like patches on a coat, one day they just wear off.”
-Sogyal Rinpoche”

***
Karen adds, “Dude!”

i’ll say.

as a young spiritual athlete, i remained bewildered in my contemplations at why the Masters and even my own Tibetan Teachers kept pounding into me the fact that Intellect is a ‘klesha’ (affliction). the Intellect, i was taught, must be watchdogg’ed and kept in its place, “…just like one of your competitors that you have passed, you still must try very hard to stay in front of him,” advised one of the Lama’s working with me who knew i was a distance runner at that time.

of all the human qualities that can dwindle and sabotage spiritual wisdom, it is – ironically enough – our cherished Intellect or what we recognize in yoga as the energy structure of “buddhi” (along with buddhi’s cohort in spiritual ignorance “ahamkara” or the countless layers of ego accumulated over lifetimes), that spells disaster for our Ascent up the arduous and narrow Path of spiritual growth.

even if we are a world class Rocket Scientist, that does not mean that our Intellectual prowess makes us a wise and caring and skillful husband or wife or caretaker of our own rocket (our body).

those who pride themselves on being “smart” or “intellectual” certainly must point (confess?) to logic as being the Vehicle of their smarts. to understand why logic is a very incompetent companion along the Way of True Wisdom, one only needs to reflect on how poorly Logic performs in the escalating energies of having an argument or during sexual intercourse or during extreme sports performance or in artistry or in, well…anything that truly nourishes our Soul (atman). if we attempt to rely on our Logical Aptitude during any of those very human and precious spiritual workshops?

we are boring, sterile, weak, and tepid.

such adjectives are not apt descriptions for what is required along the Endless Inwardly Turned Awareness.

who are we?

who carries this body?

not the Intellect. the Intellect develops and we begin to learn to be un-human; we learn, as Bankei said, “…to develop habits from others and our own personal mental habits merge, and the Buddha mind is turned into a monster because of self-importance. We argue, lose our temper, muse over useless things, repeat the same thoughts over and over again and again…It is darkness to darkness in an endless cycle.”

as i have Taught you for many, many years; the Intellect is a habit. and by definition, a habit is mechanical and thus keeps our Spiritual Self asleep. in WF i do not coach habits. i teach Awareness gained through a multi-disciplined Path of Yoga (aka; Wholistic Fitness).

May your Practice in the Wholistic Fitness Path today help erase Intellectual Pride to something more manageable, more helpful to you and others…like, for instance, a knowing smile across your precious face.

om so ti,
the mountain yogi

NOTES: special thanks to Lama Karma Rinchen, Yogini Leslie, and my mountain biking Sensei…”Tattoo Bob.” i came up with this DL while my Sensei of the Singletrack spent 3 hours with me yesterday up on the forested woodland church of the Sacred Peak, pushing my technical mountain biking skills to new Levels. i bow to all who recognize Daily Sweat as Holy Water.

Photo 1) Preparing my “Church Clothes” before a session with my Sensei of the the world-class Singletrack. the “Kachina Wilderness” across the street is my Temple wherefrom the unmatched ‘crazy wisdom’ of WF and these thousands of DL’s continues to stream. photo by Ananda.

Photo 2) coach with his parents; Father Sky and Mother Earth in the Grand Canyon. photo by Ananda.

*please contribute to the Tibetan Cause and help them regain at least their country from the Chinese, since the ongoing genocide of the Tibetans is not able to be regained. we are quick to quote the deeply earned spiritual wisdom of the Tibetans, and are just as quick not to acknowledge their desecration at the political/economic might of the Chinese.
for over half a century, rape and murder of both the Tibetan people and their stoic land, continues unabated. to help them, see my website LINKS.