Dear Dad,
yesterday evening, squatting among the caddis flies next to the Sacred Animas River with Grandmother Moon rising …i concluded my final Bardo Meditations/Prayers/rebirth Visualizations for my you…
Ride Stats:
date: this morning, July 3rd, 2011 with my chi-ldhood best friend; Greg.
type of purification: mountain biking
effort: 36 miles, 4,600′ of climbing, all on double & singletrack from elevation ranging from 8,000′ to 11,750′ with a technical grading of 4+ bike skills and significant will power
Reflect on this: The realization of impermanence is paradoxically the only thing we can hold on to, perhaps our only lasting possession. It is like the sky, or the earth. No matter how much everything around us may change or collapse, they endure.
I remember how people would often come to see my master Jamyang Khyentse simply to ask for his guidance for the moment of death. He was so loved and revered throughout…
{PHOTO FOR TRIBAL BROTHERS AND SISTERS ONLY}
my Dad’s Bardo Entry, one week ago today…my left hand is on my M(om) curled next to him, my sister was on the right…my little brother took this pic…i’ve never shielded any component of WF Practice from you before, and the Deities will not allow me to begin now…a yogi just live his or her life out loud, naked, vulnerable…the highs and the lows all the in-betweens…that’s known as Wholistic Fitness.
i’ve said it from the beginning; if we are not training for our own Bardo Entry…and those of All Beings Everywhere, then truly, how wholistically fit is our fitness training?
our Highest Workout begins when we can’t take our next inhale…train for it wisely, Noble Ones…train for it wisely…
Often, i end my HP Yoga™ classes with a sutra line from one of my Precious Tibetan Teachers, Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche:
“If I die tonight, i will have no regrets…”
soon, i’ll expand on that during Part Two of my “Osama” Teaching…
if you wish to read the entire Prayer, see the bottom of this Teaching or go to the YOGA Cave in the WF SanghaLounge where it resides among the other 3,000+ Teachings of my Body of Work…
“If I die tonight, i will have no regrets…”
see, that’s the line that comes to me when i walk through my front door of my humble casa here in Durango and see my daughter’s (obviously wealthy) stash of shoes lined up as if soldiered; waiting, seemingly breathing to be worn again by Dewa’s constantly hopping, dancing, running feet.
However, how do i make it okay to lose my daughter today and then die myself tonight “without regret”…
here’s how…
“Whatever comes, let it come…
Whatever passes, let it pass…
Have no need for anything.”
– ancient yogic scripture
i took this photo of Dewachen Ilg, yesterday at a family Easter gathering in New Mexico…whenever i see Dewa blowing bubbles, i see the bubbles as the quaint, temporary, and countless lifetimes we’ve all chugged through…then, POOF! Gone in an instant…just like our current incarnation. That’s why in WF we do our best to balance ‘entertainment’ with ‘inner-attainment’…the following Teaching really brings this h(om)e to me…may it help you as well…
There are those who look on death with a naive, thoughtless cheerfulness, thinking that for some unknown reason death will work out all right for them, and that it is nothing to worry about. When I think of them, I am reminded of what one Tibetan master says: “People often make the mistake of being frivolous about death and think, ‘Oh well, death happens to everybody. It’s not a big deal, it’s natural. I’ll be fine.’” That’s a nice theory until one is dying.
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Photo of Coach and daughter Dewachen, living the Path (upside down!) by www.jamesqmartin.com