Wholistic Fitness

“Attachment follows the experience of pleasure –
Aversion follows the experience of pain –
Clinging-to-life is the sentiment which causes its own potency to flow equally even in the wise –
Their operations are to be got rid of by meditation.”

– Bengali Baba’s translation of The YogaSutra of Patanjali, 2: 7-11

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“Attachment follows the experience of pleasure -“

i have Taught you much about Vairagya – or Attachment – in this forum throughout the years.
another translation of this sutra: sukha-anusayi ragah is:
“Attraction is clingling to pleasure.”
the Sanscrit key word here is: sukha or easy (remember Sukhasana or Easy Pose in the asana? a simple cross-legged position?). nowhere in the Sutra’s does Patanjali pass judgment on what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. Here, He is just reMinding us that it is not Pleasure itself that is the obstacle toward Enlightenment, rather it is ‘our’ clinging to it that begets all of our difficulties in liberation of our True Self. remember, we are just DreamWalking in our normal consciousness. what ‘we’ think pisses us off or makes us happy is utter illusion, just like the dreams we experience in our physical sleep. we are only the “seer”…the “experiencer” yet, we are being instructed here that what we think “we are” is merely a rolling along of Awareness that is going to be attracted and inevitably cling to the experience of pleasure. we take a Sleep Aid and we enjoy the pleasurable shutting off of our rattling mind by sleeping. we then look forward to, over and again, this taking of sleep aid. we enjoy the rush from our morning coffee and we want to replicate that pleasurable experience; over and again until we develop a habit. we find out at an early age, the scintillating sensations of masturbation and perhaps, of sex…and we DEFINITELY WANT to replicate that pleasurable experience; over and again until we develop a sex habit. we win a race and we enjoy the clapping from the people below us on our podium; we become so entranced by the pleasure of such accolades that we become addicted in one sport to the harm of our wholistic development and balance in life and relationships. contemplate on the implications of what i am saying here.

“Aversion follows the experience of pain -“
When i went to preliminary schools, there was a Physical Education class. if we caused trouble, we were instructed to “go run five laps.” thus, running became viewed as a form of penance; painful. many kids then equated physical fitness (running) with pain. their obstacle in the spiritual path grew metaphysically into not understanding that aversion is merely the clinging to dissatisfaction. People want to lose bodyfat. They begin running or working out. They get ‘sore.’ Their Addiction to Comfort says, “Fuck that shit…i don’t EVER want to experience that pain again! I will just watch TV and order those Melt-Your-Fat-Away Pills.”

“Clinging-to-life is the sentiment which causes its own potency to flow equally even in the wise -“
There are many, many smart people on this Plane(t). Intellect, however, must be VERY SKILLFULLY used! Intellectual prowness is not control of the mind waves. Most of you reading this are far, far smarter than feeble ilg. If i chose to
go rock climbing with you – without any rope to protect you – you may find your intellect terribly undisciplined as we climbed higher and higher above the ground. the intellectual mechanisms will quickly calculate just how horribly fast you would impact the earth if you made one tiny slip. your fingertips would start sweating at the expense of your intellectual lack of fitness and that would really complicate the meditation. your intellect would also figure out just how difficult it would be to reverse the moves you have already done and thus your clever, undisciplined intellect would probably make one of your legs quiver up and down rapidly like a sewing machine needle, thus adding more complication to what is essentially a very simple, beautiful movement. the Sadhaka never realizes just how in Fear of Death he or she is until faced, unprepared, with the intensities of the Dying Plane(t). Then suddenly, the Seeker begins a cellular (non intellectual) remembering (smrta) of their countless deaths and rebirths and the accumulated intensities are just way too much to cope with. So, even the smarty pants tend to push away death training which, truly, is really, really stupid.

“Their operations are to be got rid of by meditation.”
By literally killing (by way of stilling) the Mind Waves in meditation, the myriad, subtle orchestrations are voided and an indescribable return to the Origin occurs. Thus, the work of Meditation eases and perhaps one day erases our incredibly strong and predictable tendencies. The wise Wholistic Fitness Yogi works on him or herself through a variety of proven techniques that slay the habits keeping our Spiritual Self asleep by way of highlighting our clinging to experiences of pleasure, pain, and fear of death.

To become Aware of our habits and addictions is the first Step in living an amazingly resplendent AWAKENED life!

Today, practice at least one Lifestyle Principle of WF to remain Alert to your ingrained habits, such as Non-Dominant Hand Awareness. Just realizing the deep addiction we have created by constantly using our Dominant Hand will reveal even to the smarty pant people just how deep run our predictable behaviors. Slay predication in your life and ROAR YOURSELF AWAKE!

That is all,

Om So Ti

coach

photos by Ananda:
1) beating the Dharma drum to affect my vibrational status before meditation in the Tribal Zendo.

2) preparing to take a WF Student rock climbing as a teaching tool toward meditation ; unless Risk is present, our meditation attempts are soothed and thereby diluted. the intensities of dying are of unimaginable amplitude, thus meditation must be as fierce as possible to prepare for the Bardo Intensities.

3) using WF Lifestyle Fitness principles; using a yogi squat to tie my shoelaces and attempting to reverse the way i normally (unawakenedly) tie my shoes. try it.