January 18, 2004
Namaste Noble Warriors!
�To me, Fitness is only as fun as it helps others. Keeping fitness all to yourself is not only not very spiritually conscious, it�s boring. It�s like getting all dressed up with no place to go. Share your fitness. The rebound benefits are fantastically motivating and empowering.�
- Coach Ilg
�
A Mala Bead
Oh Mighty Armed Astral Sailor, please use your fitness to navigate your life well, for more often than not, the seas are rough. And as you and i will eventually one day lose sight of the shoreless shore, we must train very wise indeed.
As you read this, my friend, Mala, has entered the final pulses of the Bardo dying realm. His took his last breath in my home two days ago. A good Death takes a while to complete. Remember, Jesus�s Resurrection didn�t happen overnight. Either will yours.
A personal trainer, if he or she is true to their Service, has - in my sense of the occupation - a moral duty to include wise preparation for death. For is not death that defines and refines health and fitness?
According to yogis, the part of Mala which never dies (the Atman) will take residence in another body. From this perspective, no one ever really dies. We just shape shift, if you will. From Form into Formlessness back into Form. Etc., etc, etc. The yogins that have made the podium in their human life, were the ones who trained wisely enough and long enough to, if you can imagine this; consciously enter their death navigate the dying (Bardo) realms to create an even more beautiful and beneficial re-incarnation. Working hard on yourself in this lifetime creates an even better and more helpful Form the next time around. This going around stuff (Samsara) continues until you have completely erased the veils of Supreme Reality and become, well, God. Remember the Bible�s advertising campaign for meditation: �Be still and know you are God.�
Mala will still be dying for a while. The process of dying is a highly scientific one. But you, being Western trained, probably have not heard that particular notion yet: that Deathing is a training component. That learning to die consciously is like learning anything else; there are Teachers and techniques from which to learn. Then there is the perseverance to stay committed to the techniques and Teachers.
It�s the perseverance that gets most everyone. It�s easier to watch SuperBowl Playoffs that it is to come to the HP Yoga Studio and sit zen. It�s easier to do yoga and fitness workouts until you get a good body (Form) and then just sweep that the spiritual stuff (Formlessness) under the rug until...well, you die.
I met Mala as he lay limply in the arms of my friend Joy. Mala might have been 6 months old. He was a kitten. Evidently traumatized (perhaps from getting hit by a human driving a car) and severely dehydrated, his greasy, stinky, matted fur masked a frail body that covered a symphony of pain and an experience of hardship that you and i will never know.
Or, perhaps we did know it in a former incarnation. Perhaps, you and i took the spiritual steps, to Rise Above somehow, our condition of suffering. Eventually, maybe over the course of millions of lifetimes, we got Here Now. We got to be a human instead of a flea-bitten homeless, parentless kitten who gets run over in an underground parking lot of LA and nobody even cares. The Buddha tried to get it into us...just how damn precious it is to be a human. But few people these days seem to care. You can tell by our ingratitude and our obesity. We just don�t care. Well, YOU care. I care. And that, my Noble Warrior of Conquered Egoic Desires, is vital. The Path is narrow. All know the Way, but few are fit enough to trek it ever Higher.
I accepted Joy�s request to give Mala shelter. Having just finished meditating, I was still half immersed in the Pranic Field and could easily feel the flickering of his Life Force. We prayed over Him as He died that same night, curled in the nest of my downstairs shower. I have helped many beings die, human and other Forms. It is never easy sailing. It is funny how we humans often choose to bring animal companions into our lives, knowing full well the animal�s life span on this Realm is shorter than ours. It�s like we unconsciously set ourselves up for the pain of seeing Loved Ones pass over. A re-minder, perhaps, of just how precious our life truly is?
I bow now to the Formlessness of Mala. May your Bardo Journey be easy and your new life more secured in happiness. Mala; you did what it took to die in a yogi�s home. Mala, you did what it took to die with two yogins visualizing and praying for your safe Way Higher.
Mala...you have done more in your six months of toilsome life than many humans will in eighty years of unawakened living.
Mala, thank you for dying so beautifully and so nobly. I will Practice harder because of your strength and warriorism. I can do better to help others. I now return to my Practices with renewed vigor because of you.
Is there Buddha nature in a shattered kitten?
You tell me, oh Peaceful Warrior of Lifestyle Fitness...you tell me.
Where are you looking for Buddha nature?
I close with this Rumi poem dedicated to Mala:
�
You Embrace Some Form
you embrace some form
saying, �I am this.�
By God, you are not this
or that or the other
you are �Unique One�
�Heart -ravishing�
you are throne and palace and king
you are bird and snare and fowler
like water in jar and river
are in essence the same
you and spirit are the same
your every idol
prostrates
before you
your every thought-form
perishes
in your formlessness
translated by Daniel Liebert