December 31, 2006
Final DL of 2006
"The great problem is bringing life
back into the wasteland,
where people live inauthentically."
- Joseph Campbell
Tonight, Ananda and i are going on a moonlight cross country ski with some fellow yogis. Merging into my most treasured sound of ski across snow, we'll each reflect on the past year before returning to our tiny town hunkered at the foot of the Sacred Peak to watch a "Giant Pinecone" drop from the historic Weatherford Hotel at the stroke of midnight into a small droplet of humanity gathered to watch, to wonder, and to welcome a new year coming. A far, welcome cry from when i once got beaten and knifed in NYC after watching the Apple Drop in Times Square. Oh, life!
What a Year of DL's it has been!
Can you even begin to recollect all the Dharma Transmissions that we have shared?
And can we even begin to measure how each one of those DL's has now assumed appropriate vibrational residence within our cells, preparing us for our Journey Higher? Where else can the near daily dosage - each one unique and original - of such body/mind/spirit effort be found?
Nowhere 'cept right Here Now, oh cherished Sisters and Brothers!
Oh sure, 2006 carried with her the usual flotsam; new students throwing temper tantrums and even seasoned, once devoted students name calling and doing litigious things, et. al. Such is the predictable low chi tactics from those who cannot yet grock the Live Wire of this contemporary DharmaPath gifted from the Ancients. In the last few weeks of 2006, Shiva was dancing upon my Temple as if on Ecstasy or something; hec, even certified WF Teachers took Leave from the Path they once held so devoutly to their breasts and Served so nobly! Can we blame them for not holding up the WF DharmaSwords any longer? Hardly! Each of you know how terribly Steep and Direct the Path of WF is to practice, right? Well...
you Try making your living by Teaching IT! Trust me, those DharmaSwords get Real Heavy, Real Quick. Soon, all sutra studying and WF Sweat that you can spill comes up short when the Lower Chakras of Survival start getting tickled Rosy Red and Hot by Teaching this Iron Hot Plate of Dharma!
Through all the Snake and Student stressors, the Light of this Path glows ever more brightly. The Sacred Preciousness and Divine Amplitude of Chi and Insight and Wisdom is more powerful within my sport performances and practices and most importantly my Meditations then ever before. I reAwake more and more often to Receive that which the Holy Trinity - Creator, Destroyer, and Sustainer - download to me in multidimensional pathWays. All i ever get is new Imports of OM in various layers conducive to my Serving You.
So, as 2007 dawns upon my 45th year, and the 26th year of WF as a Service, my Temple finds itself once again a "mom and pop" Path of Karma Yoga. How utterly in tune with the Scriptures; "Out of the many there will be only a few." This Temple has allWays remained most Powerful this Way. Only my beloved, amazing Ananda and myself remain at the humble Helm; small yet fiercely Devoted to Serving and Protecting The Dharma in the Way of the Ancient Masters; one student by one student. Our conversations center upon you, your Practice, your Chi, your willingness to trek Upward toward the Highest Summit. When you choose to support us by purchasing a product or sending a tithe as in the Ancient Traditional Way, we embrace and kiss and We Know That This is a Go(o)d Road.
DL, due to her IMMENSE VOLUME, will be shut down for a while as we attempt to create a new version of her for the next year. Blessings to WF WebMaster, Hakado Ru as he rolls up his sleeves this holiday in order to Serve you through the Temple Maintenance of enhancing DL's capacities. You will soon hear the Temple Gong ring as loud and clear as a Wolf's Howl on the winter's Solstice announcing another new year of DL CHI and TEACHINGS and TRANSMISSIONS!
Coming up at the front of 2007 DL? I will announce the 2006 WF Online Student of the Year plus introduce to you a very, very Precious Dharma Gift for your Practice in 2007!
Of course, the WF SanghaLounge will be up and cranking as ever; currently, my DL on iPods+Nike is drawing a wonderful exchange; check it out and contribute!
In closing, i give you this passage from Joseph Campbell that was dedicated to me and my LifeWork of Wholistic Fitness by new Student Bill.
And so, to all of you i bow my head,
i open my heart,
i give you my Path to share for another Year
so long as it still feels go(o)d and helpful in your Self Cultivation...
HAPPY NEW YEAR from your Tiny, Powerful Temple Beneath the Sacred Peak!
SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!!!!!!!!!
om so ti,
coach ilg and Ananda
***
For Coach Ilg for 'coming back again and again to his Students' and for helping my own Brother as well as my family and myself so powerfully and lovingly.
- Student Bill
"Bringing back the Gift to integrate it into a rational life is very difficult. What you have to bring back is something that the the world lacks - which is why you went to get it - and lacking it, the world does not know that it needs it. And so, on the return, when you come with your boon for the world and there is no receptions, what are you going to do? There are three possible reactions.
One answer is to say, "To hell with them, I'm going back to the woods." You buy yourself a dog and a pipe and let the weeds grow in the gate. You have come back to the world with your gift, and people look at you with glassy eyes, call you "a kook," and so you retreat. This is refusal of the return.
The second way is to say, "What do they want?" You have a skill. You can give them what they want, the commercial way. Then you have created a whole pitch for your expressivity, and what you had before gets lost. You have a public career, and you have renounced the jewel.
The third possibility is to try to find some aspect of the domain into which you have come that can receive a little portion of what you have to give. You try to find a means to deliver what you have found as the life boon in terms and in proportions that are proper to the world's ability to receive. It requires a good deal of compassion and patience. Look for cracks in the wall and give only to those who are ready for your jewel.
You do not have a complete adventure unless you do get back. There is a time to go into the woods and a time to come back, and you know which it is. Do you have the courage? It takes a hell of a lot of courage to return after you have been in the woods.
When the world
seems to be falling apart,
the rule is to hang onto your own bliss.
It's that life that survives.
Freedom to pass back and forth across the world division...is the talent of the master. The Cosmic Dancer, declares Nietzche, does not rest heavily in a single spot, but gaily, lightly, turn and leaps from one position to another."
***
photo 1) the Sacred Peak, yesterday from the Temple back garden by coach
photo 2) Ananda goes down while breaking fresh tracks two days ago during a ski/snowshoe duathlon workout. by coach.
Labels: Appropriate Action, WF News, WF Teachings
December 30, 2006
In Memory of CD
The Associated Press today titled their story:
Body found on Chinese mountain ID'd 
That body belonged to my old climbing friend and mentor, Charlie Fowler.
I could tell you a number of heart thumping and heart warming about Charlie, as could any number of Colorado climbers that tied into a rope with Charlie. The man, now a snow-covered body on a remote mountain in China, was a singular climbing tour de force. His first ascents, his photography, his travel diaries across the world on both rock and ice will continued to be enjoyed by hundreds and thousands of future generation climbers.
I suppose what i am saying is,
"Charlie, your Mountain Spirit will live on, my friend."
I'm going up to the nordic area.
CD, i'll ski a few kilometers on this day of days for you.
it's gonna be okay for you in the Bardo, my friend;
you got this Lead, no worries mate.
for you have trained and performed your entire life to summit that which is often UnSeen.
CD, thank you for living and sharing so fully that which you love to do.
Om Mani Padme Hung,
your ol' bro from back in the day
Links:
Mountain Madness
Charlie Fowler
***
footnote: throughout the late seventies and eighties, i was a sponsored rock,ice, and high mountain athlete. having lived to age 30 when, at 16 i never even imagined i would survive that long, i kept a promise to myself to stop high level climbing and work on other sports, disciplines, and internal arts if i did mange to live to 30. i did. and i kept that promise to myself. that is why i am sure i am still alive to help others through Wholistic Fitness. Sport specificity - the imbalanced Nature of it - inevitably catches up with you.
Especially if you are a world class mountaineer.
Labels: WF News
December 28, 2006
iPod + Nike = SacReligion
So, i understand that Nike has merged with iPod and has thus begun a marketing
(read spirit-deconditioning) campaign to convince the UnAwakened masses
that to go for a run without being 'plugged in' is soooo uncool.
feeble ilg wonders,
"Would Steve Prefontaine train and race with an iPod?"
whatever happened to running while listening to and nourishing one's own Divinity!?!
am i the only one left on the planet unable and uncaring to find my iPod before a Cardio workout?
what the hell is so terribly bad about listening to the music of self, of breath, of ones own measured footfalls
with the sacred breast of Mother Earth?!?!???!?! i pause and wonder what the Ancient Himalayan trekking Yogis or
or own Ancient Native American footrunners
would think of wearing an iPod while on pilgrimage among the Sacred Peaks?
now, i reflect on all the runners and cyclists that nearly
wreck into me or are startled like electronically buzzed sheep when i run or cycle upon them while they
are so "plugged into" their cherished, expensive, and idiotic iPods.
did Nike* forget or did they just conveniently choose to ignore their roots;
the deeply seated wire-to-wire full best effort by a simple, humble Warrior named,
Pre?
Pre wanted to win, sure.
Yet, he Knew that how he chose to race
mattered far, far more.
"Racing is not about winning,
it's about knowing ourselves."
- coach ilg, 1985
WF Warriors,
we live in dangerous times...
so quick to forget our Root Teachers,
so quick to run toward the next more Imaged Thing,
so quick to sacrifice our Soul Nature for Outer Worldly things and circumstances.
i tell you this, Oh Seeker Of Union;
Stay True To That Which Scares You Most...
even if it means running wire to wire as fast you can
or climbing a rock with no rope to catch you...
for in doing so,
not only will you cultivate your Higher Self,
you will find your Higher Self again
and again
and endlessly again
along a humble, steep, windy Path
attacking a Direct Line up the Highest Summit of all...
a Tiny, Bejeweled Proven Path known as: Wholistic Fitness.
Keep it Real;
Keep it WF.
i love you all, beyond the present incarnation...
coach ilg
* i was one of Nike's first sponsored extreme athletes in the eighties when they launched their
ACG line. dined and wined by Nike for three years was great; basically a helicopter came by my
home in Colorado and dropped off a huge box of high tech, prototype outdoor sports gear
that i was to train in and provide feedback. i did. they dropped me when their ACG department
fell off in favor of providing a more Ghetto Feel for their basketball department.
Temple Note: coach ilg has held podiums and course records in running distances from 5k to 50 mile trail races.
Labels: Appropriate Action, Cardio, WF Teachings
December DL's...creating the "momentum to be there"
Hi Steve,
A steep path indeed my friend. I had dinner with {a fellow WF Online Student} tonight. We talked and talked about the WF Path, the grade, the positive effort, and the mystery that is Ilg.
I thought it might bring a smile to el coache's face to know that we up here in the NW think of you even when we aren't out sweating somewhere on a lone trail.
One of the topics that we explored a bit was the idea that every flight of stairs, every trail terminus, every peak, and every time one arrives back at home or the car and begins the process of peeling off layers, that perhaps that IS the podium that some of us aspire to. The ones with no other humans around and only one judge... oneself.
Every time I go out my door I am setting records. The trail may twist and turn, the path may disappear from view at times, yet I always arrive at the finish line in time to cheer myself for having the momentum to be there.
Holiday Cheers to you and your family,
student chreist
***
Blessings to you Coach on this G(o)od day,
As has been My Blessing for these past 4 plus years, I take sacred time towards the end of each month to review all your DL postings. Re-read them and make notes in my WF Yoga Journal. Sometimes I must reread a line or posting over and over again to GET it----never pass a word or Teaching until I TAF I have at least got an inkling of its Teaching. December was chock full of JUICE----caffeinated high test fuel for my Practice and Journey......Thank You.
My heart-felt Thanks to You and Joy for your time, attention and generosity in keeping the Sangha heading Inward and thus Upward. I love you both and send heart to heart hugs in this m(om)ent.
student shel
PS---since you haven't announced on-line student of the year yet maybe you are accepting nominations? I nominate Student Shawna who not only made it to the Sacred Peak.......she kicked "arse" in SR volume and presents us with such wonderful photos.
Labels: Student Testimonial
WF Warrior Secrest Breaks World Ultra Cycling Record!
My friend Michael Secrest from Scottsdale, AZ whom some of you WF Devotees may recognize from my books, just broke the World Record for 24 hours of continuous cycling on October 22, 2006. The Two Wheeling Warrior rode 534.75 miles at an astonishing average speed of 22.28 mph! He set the mark at the Home Depot ADT Event Center in Carson, CA.
I crewed for Michael when he set the 24-hour World Record in 1996 at the Dominguez Hills velodrome in CA. This time, he somehow managed to bear through the excruciating pain of non-stop hammering for 24-hours on a tiny indoor track!!! i drew MUCH inspiration from Michael when i supported him in '96. Talk about Dharana! I doubt if there is a Studio Yogi living that can even comprehend the mental frame of concentration required to do what Michael does. Since he refuses to stop for ANYTHING, Michael uses a catheter to go to the bathroom without scrubbing any speed.
in an era when most people are addicted to comfort and "make it okay" to "feel good" about being obese*, at least our WF Tribe is still out there in Kali Yuga; being the ROCKY BALBOA's of the Inner, Focused, WARRIOR WAY!
when i asked Michael about his new Word Record, he wrote back, "Not bad for 53, eh?"
not bad a'tall, my Brother Warrior, not bad a'tall!
read more about Michael's record and...help support his next attempt in the spring of 07 as he attempts to go 550 miles in 24 hours on an indoor 333.3 meter track in MOSCOW! He needs OUR support! tell him, "coach ilg sent me!"
UltraCycling
Click on Secrest's Record WARRRIOR UP!
* see another ultra cycling legend and WF favorite: Ron Jones's homepage for the Ragin' RJ TRUTH on this:
RonJones
December 27, 2006
Coach In Yoga Journal? The Rumor is Settled NOW!
Is this coach ilg now appearing in Yoga Journal? Below, i settle the rummor once and for all!
A handful of Alert WF Warriors wrote in to ask if that was me in the February, 07 issue of Yoga Journal.
"I don't know," came my reply, "i don't subscribe to mainstream magazines. And Yoga Journal sure as hec never asked my permission."
"I'm sure it's you..you are in Vrkasana balanced on tree roots by a lake. You are in your capri's and your WF Training Mala is on your left wrist."
"I don't remember doing a photo shoot like that," i told another who wrote in.
"Dude, no yogi has a backside like you, it's you. i know it is," wrote one more.
then, Most Noble WF Online Student NWSM took it upon himself to cut out the picture and send it to me. It arrived yesterday.
i will officially end the rumor:
Yup.
dat's me, awlright.
It was taken a few years ago when i still lived in LA.
Mike Powell, a WF Student and former bike racing teammate of mine took that shot. Mike - of Sports Illustrated fame and photog veteran of 3 Tour de Frances as well as the photographer for THE WINTER ATHLETE strength training shots - got that pic of me near Malibu Lake up in the Santa Monica Mountains during a day-long shoot with several top yogini models (yup, that was a Blessed Day indeed!) for Getty Images. During the walk back to the Getty trailer, Mike yanked me aside as his mind created this shot and said, "Ilg, scramble down this embankment and do a pose while standing on those tree roots, the light is great right now...hurry!"
"No worries," i said, dashing through the bramble. the moment i merged with the Tree Energy i recalled my years of doing "Touching Soul Of Tree," in the Ai Imawa Taoist Yoga Postures. Immediately sensing a wonderful union with this cherished Sycamore, my body just went into Tree Pose (Vrkasana). Mike's talent took care of the rest.
Throughout the years, many stock images of your ol' coach doing all sorts of sports and fitness activities have been caught floating around in various books and magazines. Keep your eye out and maybe one will catch you with your Spine Straight and your Breath Conscious.
Great Awareness Tribal Warriors!
December 26, 2006
Wholiday's Continue
"Where are you between two thoughts?"
There is no Practice quite like Holiday and Family Practice!
The yogi is trained to participate fully in the family and Outer World
yet maintains his or her Inner World as the true and steadfast Source of
"Christ's Mass".
Immersed in the Holiday Practice, relying on Early Morning Ritual and the WF Lifestyle Principles...
i Trust that you are being radiant and strong in your Wholiday Practice as well!
Online Students: Ananda and i are back in the office tomorrow...
love,
el coache
top photo: L-R; my nephew Mogius, me and my new Norwegian World Cup Nordic Ski Cap (thanks Santa!), mi madre, and my niece Ella. photos by Ananda.
Labels: WF News, WF Teachings