Wholistic Fitness

“…Sacred Joy is in every moment, it travels from the inside to the outside…
which is why WF trains us from inside toward the outside…”pic of your coach during Solo Early Morning Practice

After ringing the Tibetan tinksha bells to open tonight’s HP Yoga™ Slow Flow class,  i re-Minded the gathered students that the yoga cave is one place where we must leave aside all competitive thoughts.  That there is no need,  no reason to make a contest out of anything having to do with yoga.  As perhaps America’s most experienced yoga teacher as athlete and teacher of athletes, ilg realizes it requires a categorically different teaching style, dialogue, cuing, technique and restraint when working with endurance athletes of world, national, and regional class levels which tend to make up the majority of my studentship.  Oh sure,  ilg understands that there is a movement underway here in AmeriKa to make yoga a competitive event.   If the leaders of such a movement would be wise enough to ask the one person who pioneered yoga for athletes here in Turtle Island in 1981?   Ilg might just say, sure, go ahead…make yoga a competitive event but here is how the winner should be judged:

•) by the breadth, dimension, and intensity of their Halos and,
•) by the courage of following their DreamSpeak; no matter what.

if confused,  revisit the Halo’s and the sheer, as still unmatched competitive records set by MahaYogis Jesus Christ and of Buddha.

you see, Noble Sangha working toward Wholeness,  it is not necessary to demand that life be a certain Way and then be unhappy when it is not.   just ask Ananda about my level of feebleness as my life shifted from being America’s Outdoor Athlete/Yogi to being a new Daddy when Dewa was born spontaneously from the pranic ethers emanating from Doko Oosliid in Kinlani.

true Chakra Cleansing is often deeeeeeply dark, frightening, confusing…however, unhappiness is not a requirement toward Wholeness…unhappiness, anger, frustration – regardless of circumstance or of environment – are just training effects from wanting something other than what is.

so, if you – and this is what i told my class tonight – find yourself suffering because you are in some drama that you don’t want?   if you can feel love and compassion for yourself within the suffering?  guess what?
you will cease to suffer.

this is as true trying to hold onto a wheel in front of you as the peleton goes berserk up a steep climb as it is with suddenly becoming paralyzed as i was.  Friend, listen;  it’s not necessary to be frustrated or angry, or anxious or sad.  People are.  ilg certainly is at times.
yet, we don’t have to be.

what ilg has found (and continues to find) through my decades of crazy riches juxtaposed with impoverished struggle?  as long as i kept my sadhana (spiritual/physical practices) strong,  i found that i continued to really deepen love for myself even through the deep, dark, unhappy times.   which, ironically, made them NOT deep, dark, or truly, unhappy…at least not to my inner, Higher Self.  i still chose to Love outwardly through my work, through my Path, through my Practices…and ilg could not imagine a life spent without the deep painful circumstances of this incarnation!   Dealing directly with ongoing pain is what decreases our egoic tendency toward looking for things we don’t like about everything.  It shifts us toward an attitude of sacred Gratitude!

and, it did not take too long for me to realize that, as the Buddha and Yogi Christ taught:

we only suffer because we Cling.

say, “Yes” to It All?

and we Fling

into the Divine Arms that push us from the inside toward the outside with the strength and loving devotion of Hanuman.

so,  whoever you are,
wherever you are…
keep Practicing…
and like a bee attracted toward nectar,
seek only the Joy within each m(om)ent
and Bec(om)e that m(om)ent…

here is a WF Teaching Blog Assignment:
See if you can find or remember finding Sacred Joy in doing something you’ve told yourself is hard, awful, stupid, etc.
and Share it in the Comment section below…i’ve added one to help get you started…

until we can meet and gather like this again,

How Blessed Are We Who Seek Wholeness?

head bowed,

know nothing, going nowhere, been noplace

ilg