Wholistic Fitness

click on pics to enlarge

For those of you following my daughter’s Dharma Journey, the “Om So Ti’s” continue to rack up in the most exquisite array of snychronistic, auspicious Signs…however, the Key is; Consciousness…feeble ilg wonders at just how many more miracles pass before me without me realizing them due to my afflicted, clouded mind…what follows is a true story which took place last Sunday at the Hopi Festival here in Flag. then, later, an exchange of dharma pulled from that most precious, amazing Tribal Treasure House of Love known as, Te WF SanghaLounge, please, if you haven’t been in there recently, GET IN THERE and spread the WF Love.

May this DL be of Benefit to your sadhana…

your loving coach

***
before taking Ananda and Dewa to the Hopi Festival last Sunday, i made sure i conducted an appropriate Preparation Ritual For Receiving Native Grace within my own Sweatlodge (the body). I did a 30k mountain bike ride and along the way received the Gift of three Deer Beings, two Wapiti Beings standing absolutely motionless in the forested altar of A-1 mountain, one of my backyard mountains, and, an equally motionless Great Blue Heron standing so magnificently poised in the shallow waters of a forlorn stock pond near a prairie where i often nordic ski in the winter.

i took such beautiful and powerful Animal Medicine as a positive sign of my purification ride.

now, when ilg goes to such events as a Hopi Festival, i consider them quite a Blessing. long ilg has held a Connection with the non-forked tongue and gentle, enduring warrior spirit of the southwestern Tribal Beings. ilg just empties and
honors and holds no expectations.

in some ways, it’s easier being empty as a New Father. the ongoing logistics and emotional/spiritual priority of being a Father helps in an odd yet easy way of diminishing egoic machination.

Ananda and i let Dewa set the agenda…we just follow and trust in her Connection with purity to lead us through the Festival wherever we ‘need’ to be. First off, She led us to some unbelievably artistic jewelry whereupon i met “Ruben” who turned out not only to be a Hopi Runner who knew my Hopi Father and Running Coach, yet also is the Director of a planned Mexico City through Hopi Land to the Dakota ultra-endurance run as a show of Unification among the Native peoples of those lands. i asked if non-Natives were allowed to participant. Ruben said, ‘yes…although you are the first non-Native i’ve told about this event.”

put that one down on the Calendar…ilg running with the Hopis from Mexico to the Dakota’s….yeah baby! Thanks, Dewa.

it was only an Indian Dance later than Dewa met her Hopi Sister, Navan (above).

get this; Navan means, Nine, in Sanskrit. that is what WF is known as in the East; NavanYoga (due to our 5 Noble Fitness Disciplines + 4 Lifestyle Principles = 9).

and, out of the blue…i mean, it wasn’t raining or anything, Navan appeared for Dewa carrying, of all things, a Red Parasol*! i admit, i was moved nearly to tears upon this Om So Ti!

yet, that was not all…

we were leaving the Festival a bit after it had closed to the general public because Dewa and Navan were playing together and our families were just chillin’ a bit. Ananda and i were telling them about the double meaning of “Dewa”…in Tibetan, Dewa is “Moon” and – unbeknown to us for two years – it meant “Sun” in Hopi. so, Dewa means “HaTha”…as in Hatha Yoga (sun and moon union). eventually, as we took leave of the grounds, Navan’s family was moving some of their jewelry back to their vehicle in this big, wooden box. on the box, was a tiny carving. as soon as Dewa saw this symbol, this little 21 month-old Rinpoche called out; “HA!” and pointed to the carving. Of course, “Ha” means “Sun”…and Dewa has, if you have been following the Dewa Dharma thread in this blog, always spoken Ha to Sun and THA to moon. yes, Dewa especially goes crazy over Grandmother Moon…she always has. that’s right, ilg is the proud papa of a Luna-tic.

as soon as Navan’s family heard “Dawa” (which is how the Hopi spell ‘Dewa’) exclaim “HA!” at the symbol on the box, they told Ananda and i very matter-of-factly;
“Oh yes, that is our symbol for Grandfather Sun.”

Ananda and i just looked at each as i felt a chi shiver rocket with Divine Force through my left (Ida/Lunar) arm and leg. it took my feeble Awareness and siddhis over two years to find Dewa’s symbol from her Tibetan and Hopi aspects. yet, now, i had found them!

it’s a sad thing when we, as parents…as people of this Great Mystery…do not cultivate enough wholism in our life to look upon our daily miraculous life from the Higher Perspective of Relaxed Awareness. we miss so many things about Reality, don’t we? How many Dots there are to Connect that we miss due to us being caught up in what Covey called, “The thick of thin things.”

ilg is pleased that i was empty enough to
Have trained to purify my Sweatlodge which enabled me to:
Let Dewa Lead Us,
Allow the Auspicious Omens to Arise with clarity enough for even feeble ilg to Recognize them,
and
maintain the gratitude of such Signs to write about them to you, my Precious Sangha. ilg has no idea what you may think or feel about such entries as this,
yet,
i know it’s important to
let parents and all Practitioners to do just that:
Practice Conscious Parenting
of self,
of outer world,
of inner world,
of chi-ldren…everywhere.

Om So Ti.

– coach

* Red is the color of Amitabha Buddha, the spiritual head of WF Lineage
* a Parasol is Dewa’s birth symbol…research Dewa Dharma in the DL Archives for more.

photos by steve ilg

TEACHING NUMBER TWO EXTRACTED FROM THE WF SANGHALOUNGE

Bantu,

Namaste. Very moving words. Particularly your last paragraph…
“There, I would again have had the opportunity to define myself through my actions only. For setting out into the mountains is like sitting alone in a cave, beginning a long, dark, inner journey: you know that everything within you will be measured by what lies ahead.”

Truer words have never been spoken though they apply to much more than setting into the mountains. You have the highest of all mountains on which to define yourself through your actions only and he’s right in front of you. Raising your son is the journey of all journeys, sometimes dark, more often light, and in allways rewarding. For those that live life without a foundation of breath and posture that produce World Class mindfulness, parenting is about teaching their children. The parent warriors in the Sangha know and Coach has written about and I have come to see that it is we, the parents, that gain eons worth of knowledge in 5 minutes with our children. Extrapolate that over a lifetime and that long, dark, inner journey doesn’t have to happen alone in a cave, but can happen, and will happen with your son….if you let it.

I bow to your inward gaze and the honesty with which you read your soul like you read the rocks you love so dearly.

Here’s to life…

I crossed a difficult bridge yesterday and spent much time in TAF mode to find my way. Hopefully the next time I’ll remember the way…

As a Father Warrior of two beautiful girls I know that in every conscious breath they are first and last, the beginning and the end. This is conscious parenting as EC has written about and I devote all my energy to. I have friends who have chosen a different path of parenting, letting their chi-ldren sit in day care while they have ‘their’ time or sticking their little ones in kids care at the gym so they get ‘their’ workout in (not choosing to go while their chi-ldren are in school, because that’s also ‘their’ time) and so on. I’m baffled by this, but I don’t judge, talk down, or criticize their choices, as it’s not my place and as Yogi Jesus taught us all “Judge not, that you not be judged”.

Our path, that of conscious parents, is not an easy path and I encountered this yet again yesterday. I had the opportunity to ride with some friends that I haven’t shared time with on the bike in a long time, in the evening. I wanted to join them, but as an Office Warrior I had spent all day at the office and hadn’t seen my lil monkeys all day (they were asleep when I left) and as I tell my wife, not seeing them in a day is like not breathing the air. So I made the decision to go home and be with my family, at which point my wife took the opportunity to go to a spin class. I was not 100% on my decision (strike 1) to go home and her choice to go exercise worsened my state of mind (strike 2). So my mood took a turn for the worse and I wasn’t the ‘Papa’ they are accustomed to be with; I was short with them and had little patience and let little things get to me (strike 3, grab some pine).

When all was said and done I was angry at myself for many reasons, so I layed in bed and looked inward….

This path I’ve chosen IS steep and IS direct, it’s not easy and it never will be. The unconscious parent wouldn’t think twice about taking ‘their’ time, after all, what’s one day without seeing your kids, right? They won’t notice, right?

I liken it to choosing a long, steep, direct trail up a mountain versus the gradual, well paved road. The trail gets us to the top, but it’s a bitch getting up there, along the way we’ll struggle, we’ll fall, we’ll sweat, and we might even shed a tear, but when we turn those cranks to make it up that last bit, we don’t regret one second of it. On the summit we say a prayer, meditate, and thank God. The ride back? A steep, rocky, jagged single track that tests ever fiber of our muscles, spirit, and will. When we get to the base, we don’t know if the ride up or down was tougher, only that it was and all-ways is Go(o)d…

The road gets you up the mountain, but not to the top, instead to some parking lot where everyone else who took the road all stop, get out, look around for a sign or monument, take some pictures, drop some trash, then go home. The ride back? Just as easy if not easier because “it’s all downhill from here”….

I realized that my ego was in need of validation. Validation that I’m a good father, husband, employee, etc. and that my choices are good choices. In essence I was playing the martyr to myself, passing on things for the good of my chi-ldren.

Damn that ego.

More conscious breath and posture this morning and I TAF that true validation lies in my mindful approach to all things, conscious living. I don’t need to hear from anyone that I’m anything…

I’m nobody, I am nothing, I am nowhere.

When I am with my chi-ldren, that’s the only place I am, 100%.

I bow to all Father and Mother Warriors in this noble Sangha. May our practice along our path of parenting be conscious, noble, and mindful.

Here’s to life,

Yogi RC

WF Yogi
RC