June 30, 2006
Coach's Dope on the Doping Scandal
Here i am, nearly dead on my bike, after another year-of-my-life-subtracting-effort in Death Valley while setting a new Course Record at the 500+mile race. the only drugs i used: SUNRIDER WHOLE FOOD HERBS, just like always! i race natural cuz i need to know that my podiums were gained by ME, not some chemical!
***
I have done my best throughout the years to produce visible results across the widest physiologic spectrum of National and World Class Sports one human can possibly achieve - without drugs. yet, my unmatched results and Balanced, Healthy Approach goes largely unheard at the world level of sports. Instead, many pro athletes succumb to Outer Directed Worldly Pressures and take all sorts of chemicals to produce podium results.
When i was an editor for Rocky Mountain Sports & Fitness Magazine, i would write publicly and often about alternatives to taking steroids or other performance or recovery enhancing drugs. Today, a huge Drug Scandal ripped out cycling's two greatest stars; Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich the day before the start of the Tour de France; cycling's shiniest event.
why does cycling always gotta take the black eye of drug abuse while other international sportspeople that compete in sports like bodybuilding, tennis, strongman competitions, football, basketball, and baseball just get their hands slapped?
i mean, it's a sad, sad thing when BASEBALL players feel so impotent about hitting a dang ball that they have to shrink their nuts in order to look like Big Man on the Diamond.
i mean, how go(o)d does it REALLY FEEL to look at a trophy that you "won" while knowing it was not your NATURAL INNER SPIRIT that achieved the Podium, but rather the drugs within you? 
photo by Heidi Snell Photography
{Coach Ilg crosses the Finish Line at the top of the 40+ Podium last month; the only performance enhancing matter in his body? SUNRIDER HERBS and BioBuilde® Amino Acids!}
the very moment an athlete takes a performance enhancing drug, all spiritual merit is lost.
you didn't win SHIT.
you wussed out and took drugs.
all Bardo Training; wiped out.
there ain't no EPO allowed in the Bardo, baby.
you gonna come back as a fucking syringe needle and be jabbed into someone else's ass.
serves you right.
Having said that...
if the Governing Body of International Professional Cycling don't have the Tests to positively 'convict' the individual riders...
then let the motherfucking cyclists RACE!!?!?!
why yank the sports two biggest stars out of the biggest event the DAY BEFORE THE TOUR DE FRANCE!?!
jesus.
you know, Arnold once told me after i asked the King Of Bodybuilders about drug use in Bodybuilding,
"If all the drugs went away,
the guys on top of the podium would still be there...just smaller."
true story...as many of you know, i was a Bodybuilder, Bodybuilding Judge, and emcee of contests. i know ALL about what goes on backstage of not just bodybuilding competitions but all sorts of sports.
Arnold has a great point.
If drugs were wiped out of pro cycling, the Lances and Jans would still be on top of the podium...their average speeds would be lower.
personally, i know from Direct Experience that those 3-Week GRAND TOURS (Tour de France, Tour of Italy, Tour of Spain) are essentially superhuman feats. there are tons of guys druggin' just to stay in the race, not win it. why not shorten the stages to something REASONABLE;
instead of 130 miles every day...
cut it in half; race 60-80 miles each day.
keep the Time Trials.
add another Rest Day or two.
make the Event more human
and perhaps,
more HUMANS would not feel so pressured to take drugs to win or compete in it.
then again,
that would force sponsors and the economic drivers of the sport to actually honor the athlete's...HA!
now THAT's FUNNY!
i cranked off a 1 1/2 hour bike ride with my local bros; Chris and "Sensei" Bob. we climbed 1,200' in 13 miles and averaged 19.4 mph...lemme tell you, that was PUH-LENTY fast for me! Chris came up with a conspiracy theory; The French Connection; he thinks that the French are so goddammned sick and tired of NOT WINNING their own race that they are just like, "Fuck it, kick out the foreign winners...let's return this race to France!" gotta love Chris.
basically, it all comes down to the WF Philosophy and my quote which i first uttered back in the late seventies:
"Racing is not about winning, it's about ourselves."
so,
let's spin to win; WITHIN!
love you guys for choosing the Wholistic Way...it's gonna pay off in the Bardo...what else really matters!??!
namaste,
coach ilg
winner/TOUR de GILA
winner/Sandia HillClimb
winner/Furnace Creek 508
New Mexico State Road Racing Champion
June 29, 2006
An Anniversary of Sweat, Spirit, and TRANSFORMATION...
Hello my EC
I wanted to mention something i did not include in yesterday's e-mails.
As we finish the month of June i recognize that you EC have been my Teacher for 4 years----june is our yearly anniversary. They have been years filled with blessings, challenge, sweat, stillness and a whole lot of fun................ain't been easy........has been simple though. Choose your Teachers very carefully and then trust and do what they tell you! I am grateful and I grow more beautiful, healthy, and wealthy with time and paying attention to my Journey.
A humble simple and heartfelt thank you.........
student shel
{photo of Most Noble Online WF Shishya Shel during her WF Private Intensive last winter at the Temple H(om)e}
DHARMA ARROWS SIZZLING: Secret WF Teaching Due For Student Release
"At what LEVEL are you REALLY WILLING to play the Game?"
- Coach Ilg
I allowed Ananda to photograph me in the early morning hours, while deep in the Pranic Interchange of my Top Secret Temple Teaching; the Rock Vinyasa® - an Early Morning Practice that can heal ANY lower back pain and open ANYONES tight hips. Currently, the Rock Vinyasa® is available only to WF Online Teachers and Students. i am working on a choreography of it suitable for Non Online Students as well.
the Gems fall rapidly and frequently from this Feeble Conduit of Something FAR FAR FAR more powerful than i...this Temple reSounds with the Voices of the Ancients stylized for today's Western Fitness Warrior...
buckle up Warriors; the Dharma Arrows are FLYING in this DL:
okay, you've read all the scriptures, listened to all the CD's, thumbed through the magazines about spiritual growth...BLAH, BLAH,BLAH.
you've taken a few yoga classes, joined the gym, picked up the Dalai Lama's latest book...BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.
you are still stressed.
you are still not meditating.
you are still scared to die.
you are still "more content to compensate for your negative tendencies than to train them," as WF Teacher Ananda says.
you are still addicted to comfort than you are willing to attack your comfort zones.
i'll say it again, Oh Noble Yogin:
"At what LEVEL are you REALLY WILLING to play the Game at, huh?"
You want to know the ONLY thing worth getting stressed about in your life?
It's this:
Getting in your Practice.
that's it, baby.
Getting in your Practice.
NOTHING MATTERS MORE THAN YOU "DOING THE DO" TO GET IN YOUR WORKOUTS: Both Inner AND Outer Ones!!!!!
PRIORITIES YOGIN!!! PRIORITIES!!!
LIFE IS SHORT!
{Photo above by MTB National Contender, Ben Sullivan, who is also a HP Yogi. Ben caught me nearly falling off my bike with exhaustion at 10,400' near the Abineau Trailhead after 17 miles and 4,000' of climbing...DO THE FUCKING DO!!!!!}
i have been willing to awaken in the wee hours, create an Intuitive Self Healing Yoga and Meditation program, and DO THE DO to get it DONE.
people ask me how the hell i healed myself from a fractured spine and smashed pelvis to regain WORLD CLASS fitness...
"You don't want to know," i feel like telling them..."how about reopening every few minutes an open wound by dragging rusty barbed wire back and forth across the oozing flesh for over 13 years?" That is how much Pain i have been willing to accept as PURIFICATION to Self Heal...
people don't want that shit...
people just run to surgeons to hack out the Pain...
then are willing swallow drugs to mask and numb ANY SPIRITUAL COMMON SENSE STRAIGHT OUT OF THEM...
what these people don't realize is that doctors can take away more than mere Pain; they can take away SOUL.
medical prescriptions designed to take away Pain also snag something else far more important: Your SPIRITUAL FIBER!
submit to external crutches for your Pain and Challenges;
and guess what?
you are gonna COME AROUND AGAIN and AGAIN until you DO THE DO!!!!!
here is what my Teachers taught me:
Warriors Rise UP
where the common man falls.
see, everyone falls.
i fall.
even Deepak Chopra and the high and mighty Dr. Phil fall.
i promise you that much.
you probably won't actually SEE them fall (their Marketing Agents won't allow it).
yet, they do. usually in the form of sidestepping around their Challenge Zones.
sidestepping to prevent falling is a form of falling.
just ask any mountain biker or tele skier, baby.
point is:
falling down is part and parcel of the human condition.
what matters is RISING UP.
each day.
in Every Way.
a real life Yoga Question for you:
are you willing to change your occupation and lifestyle to equalize the time/effort spent working for MONEY
with the time/effort spent working for YOUR Self Realization?
"Hmmmm," you are thinking right now, "Good one, el coache...uh...lemme get back to you on that one, okay? See, i've got a family, and a fancy job, and well, i know you try really hard to fit in my Practice around my JOB,
BUT
you gotta understand..."
oh, i understand.
i understand also what Ramana Maharshi said, "If you spent a fraction of the effort that you give to making money to spiritual work, you would be Enlightened in a few years."
Sit with that one.
{another movement from my Rock Vinyasa®...most of my asana fitness pivots on opening up the knots in my ankles and wrists; i have been working on opening my wrist vents for the past 15 years. miniscule gains. most people would give up. i remain determined. it makes me a better Teacher for you.}
WF Online Student Shel writes;
"Your past DL's have been SIZZLING HOT!
I hear you loud and clear.......it has never occurred to me in the way you put it, that the only thing worth stressing about is getting my workouts in. Shift in perspective here for me. And SHIFT happens......."
The above photos are movements from my Top Secret Teaching; The Rock Vinyasa; an Early Morning Practice that i have refined since the days of my broken back. It will cure ANY lower back pain and open ANY tight hips...
it's coming soon in a form suitable for you...
my Noble WF Sangha...
stay tuned and keep sweating and sitting still...
and keep asking yourself:
"At what LEVEL are you REALLY WILLING to play the Game?"
- Coach Ilg
June 28, 2006
Impermanence the only Permanence; the WF Training Principle of "Relaxing into Intensity"
"Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly..."
- John Cage
Coach nearing "Lift Off" in Natrajasasana, the Cosmic Dancer Pose, captured by world famous Marc Romanelli taken near one of my favorite rock climbing areas when i lived in the New Mexico towns of Santa Fe, Teseque, and Pojoaque.
***
"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.
Say we go through a shattering emotional crisis . . . our whole life seems to be disintegrating . . . our husband or wife suddenly leaves us without warning. The earth is still there; the sky is still there. Of course, even the earth trembles now and again, just to remind us that we cannot take anything for granted. . . ."
-Soygal Rinpoche
When i was doing extreme winter mountaineering and technical ice climbing, the notion of my impermanence was as heavy upon my soul as was my backpack upon my back. Through the Study of Wholistic Fitness® i strengthened my back to carry the heaviest of backpacks with agility and might, and - what is more - i learned how to jettison the emotional baggage of worrying about "hanging onto" things that simply cannot be hung onto; life, houses, cars, money, other people, pets, etc. Thus, "Relaxing into Intensity" began to take shape as a vital WF Training Principle. 
One reason why i created HP Yoga® techniques such as the "Hold and Hover" Technique, is to impart upon the nerves a willpower that retrains the neural fabric to "soften" while under physical duress. This is absolutely huge, since the more advanced yogic practices which condition our subtle anatomy - think here of Mula Bandha - begin as mere physical locks, then transform into psychic + physical, before maturing eventually into purely energetic seals which provide the combustion power in the energy of Enlightenment. It's all Trainable...we just have to...
well,
find a wise Teacher
and
PRACTICE!
"There is only one great adventure and that is inwards toward the self."
- Henry Miller
May your Practice be strong and sincere today,
coach ilg
PHOTOS by world-famous photographer Marc Romanelli. These shots were taken near one of my favorite rock climbing areas when i lived in the New Mexico towns of Santa Fe, Teseque, and Pojoaque. As a DL Subscriber, you will see many more of Marc's amazing photos capturing the spirit of WF, baby!
June 27, 2006
Perpetuation of Rationalization; PART II - When Our Spiritual Path Runs Over Bugs
{Yesterday, our Coach...absorbed in contemplation. Not just an athlete whose feats are unmatched, Coach is a philosopher whose unique, powerful Teachings are devoted to helping humanity reMember an Ancient Path of Sweat and Stillness known as 'yoga'. It was Coach's amazing vision, many years ago, to use an unmatched caliber of multidisciplined Path of Yoga known as Wholistic Fitness to re-instill the Passion For Enlightenment and Inner Attainment instead of the current addiction to EnterTainment. i asked him about his natural state of being absorbed in contemplation, he just smiled and replied, "Well...it is hard for me to relate to anyone who is bored with life...to me, especially during these Kali Yuga times, there is always way too much to ruminate about when i am Practicing not-overthinking!" - Temple Manager Ananda}
***
On June 18th, 2006 i did a DL devoted toward a WF Training Tenet:
Perpetuation of Rationalization.
In that piece, i used a Student's philosophical conundrum about killing a bug to illustrate the intensity of the yogic Practice of Ahimsa (non-violence). You may wish to review that particular DL in the Archives, for i reset in it a tough spiritual principle that will break most of our backs; to See all Bugs as our Teachers. In fact, they do not need to be bugs at all, but rather any other creature of endless forms that strike instant Fear in us. Can we accept those "Fear Dragons" as our most benevolent Teachers or deities or gurus; think here of Jesus, Gandhi, God, Whatever/Whomever...could your killing of that spider or snake or mosquito REALLY be compared to you killing the Buddha or slicing the head off of Mother Teresa?
Answer is:
Ab-so-friggin'-lute-ly.
No doubt about it.
"As you sow, so shall you reap."
- Jesus
"Do no harm."
- Buddha
"Do not kill."
- 1st Commandment
{So, whaddya goin to do in this Moment? Leave your yoga on the mat or take your Practice into the handling of this Spider in your bathroom? Will you leave the Spider Being alone or carefully transfer this Spider outside or what? Your "Appropriate Action" (WF Lifestyle Principle #3) may dictate a WHOLE LOT MORE than your ego might wish to consider!}
To ANYONE who has reMembered just a miniscule GRAIN of their Yogic Training or Inner Work, they immediately realize the depth of the first Yogic Yama: Ahimsa or Non-Violence. Squash the bug, kill the spider and you absolutely have no stance whatsoever to EVER SAY ANYTHING OF INTEGRITY about the Bush Administration's war policy, abortion, the raping of Mother Earth, Global Warming, increased gas prices, divorce, the high cost of living (which is continually built upon the high cost of killing), etc., etc., etc.
Very high Jainin yogis would actually sweep or have swept for them, the path ahead of their feet so as not to inflict harm or death upon any little bugs. Taken one step further (forgive the pun), these same yogis would be very critical if you or i just flopped ourselves down onto a chair or couch unconsciously. Why? Well, because, the very fibers of the couch are in a process of incarnation and you inflicting unconscious violence upon their matter harms both yours and the 'couchs' chances for a more Higher Incarnation next time around the Wheel of Samsara!
At what level, oh noble yogin, do you REALLY feel capable of playing the Game?
Regardless of your answer, i will say this to you;
One cannot practice violence in their own personal life and then plead innocent in other matters. Or as the Zen saying goes,
"Behind each jewel
are three thousand
sweating horses."
Or, as i have Taught you in this forum for years;
"All Karma is God."
So, having prefaced it this Way, here is how i answered the Student's question about her killing of a bug and my Gift of several spiritual arrows that she can use in the future to help her and the karmic repercussions when faced with this "workout" next time...
May this entry help you and all Sentient Beings Everywhere...
"There is only one great adventure and that is inwards toward the self."
- Henry Miller
namaste,
coach
***
Most Noble Yogic Warrioress,
first, i bow to your genuine Awakening and Rising Above your Impulsive (egoic) Manas (lower mind) in this circumstance. This is fantastic cihna (sign of spiritual advancement).
there are now millions of Westerners now 'taking yoga' yet many of these students (and even Teachers) may 'take yoga classes' yet leave the very basic tenets of yogic practices in the studio. it seems as if the Yamas and the Niyamas (the ten essential moral and ethical Guidelines of Yoga) end at the edges of our sticky mat. we tend to really dig the cool yoga principles of Ahimsa (non-violence), Satya (truth), Aparigraha (not being greedy), and the other seven yogic guidelines which i have Taught you in my books and DL throughout the years. while sweating away in Trikonasana, we nearly nearly pride ourselves at the Desjardinesque notion that, "We are already wisdom."
{Temple Manager Ananda is a shining radiant example of a WF Yogini; she doesn't just leave the principles of asana within her poses, she brings them forth into every facet of her Daily Living...that my Friends Along The Path, is what matters most about Yoga; not what yoga pose looks like, rather finding the principles of yoga within our day to day circumstances. Photo of Ananda recently in Florida taken by her father.}
yet, when the spiritual push comes to shove in daily life and butts right up against our deepest egoic grooves and heavy duty fears we still may end up doing very impulsive, reactionary, daresay animalistic things such as NOT going willfully into that Fear and essentially running for our (current stagnation of) life. i have endlessly Tested myself, students, and other Spiritual Teachers in each of these areas for many years especially in the Study Halls of fear of death, fear of falling, fear of separation, fear of animals. You may be surprised at just how few truly accomplished Adepts are with us these days. i have witnessed very well known Teachers from many Disciplines just fall apart in the face of Fear or Probable Injury to their bodies. We, if we are fortunate, all know that Sacred Feeling when we get a chill up our spine, right? Well, i will tell you this: that "chill" is in fact, a Nadic pulse through Sushumna from the lower chakral gearing. and whenever we choose not to run into this Fear, we - nearly instantly - start creating options to take us away from that Fear. we start rationalizing ways not to have to go further into the Challenge. i have come to call this predictable Tendency of non-Practicing in the face of intensity; Perpetuation of Rationalization.
We use our clever ahamkara (ego) to perpetuate our rationalization techniques in just about everything from not working out today, to killing bugs to drinking, to hunting, to fishing, to drugging, to eating that which is not needed, to gossiping, to using too much water in the shower, to driving too and not doing Cardio Commuting...the list is as endless as the Lifetimes we have been taking to get ourselves to a Killing A Bug Guru Awakening like you experienced.
Be aware of this tendency, for it is a Beacon toward your next Shift Higher.
***
8 SPIRITUAL ARROWS
let me give you Eight Spiritual Arrows to use next time the Bug Guru visits you:
#1: Before killing the bug/spider/mosquito et. al., recite to yourself, "All karma is God," then, ask yourself, "Is this Being poisonous? (answering this question will require you to become more Learned/Skillful). If the Being is not poisonous, ask yourself, "Is there a way i can let this Being live another hour/3 hours/day before killing Him/Her?"
#2: If i do not kill this Fellow Being, how is it going to effect the quality of my life?
#3: If i do kill this Fellow Being, how is it going to effect the quality of this Fellow Being's life?"
#4: What would Jesus (or Buddha, or Mohammed, or my Teacher) do in this situation?
#5: Before killing the bug/spider/mosquito et. al., recite to yourself, "All karma is God," then, ask yourself, "Am i capable of compassionately re-locating this bug/spider/mosquito, et. al., to another environment that would frighten me less?"
#6: Before killing the bug/spider/mosquito et. al., recite to yourself, "All karma is God," then, determine if you could at least flush the poor Fellow Being down the toilet (many Insect Beings have far more Will To Live than many Two Legged Beings), or some other alternative to Death?
#7: Before killing the bug/spider/mosquito, et. al., say to yourself, "I am yogi."
#8: If you "must" take the Life Force from this Fellow Being, than please, for the Sake of All That I Have Attempted To Teach You, start chanting the WF Tribal Mantra which is also the National Chant of Tibet, "Om Mani Padme Hung" over and over again with Conviction of All That You Know Is Appropriate In The UniVerse as you kill your Fellow Being. It is said that if a yogin chants, "Om Mani Padme Hung," even once in the presence of an Animal Being, an Insect Being, a Mineral Being, or a Plant Being that the Being whose life you are taking will take a Higher Incarnation based upon the strength of your OWN personal Sadhana (spiritual practice).
i wish you well in your future Bug (Fear) Guru encounters and i trust you will recall my Teaching to you;
"My Workout Is Everywhere."
that is all,
coach ilg
***
"Paradise is where I am."
- Voltaire
{photo at Red Mountain Spa, Utah...where Coach and Ananda will present their new workshop; "Lead From The Heart" August 13th and 14th...have you registered yet? Space is filling up...check out the flyer on our Calendar click at the Visitor Cave}
June 24, 2006
Sedona's On Fire and my Heart Is Too...
The Sunset Sky over Flagstaff from the Sedona Fires...
Good Afternoon Coach,
I've been watching the news about the fires in your area...and people wonder why, how...
I just read your Indirect Lines & wonder just what more it will take for the collective "us" to finally get it.
My prayers & thoughts are with you & Joy daily, not just because of the current situation, but just because...
love ya
Trish
www.childersibs.biz
***
COACH RESPONDS:
Most Noble Trish,
i have not spent my life
teaching Dharma...
teaching Higher Consciousness...
teaching Heightened Awareness through Heightened Fitness...
just because of Spiritual Duty...i have devoted my life to Teaching
these qualities because,
most of all...
My Beloved Red Rock Southwest is dying a slow death...
and i need help from a reAwakened National Tribe...
in my life have seen much deterioration of my Beloved Red Earth Family
and it hurts me...
personally.
May All Beings WAKE UP and ROAR TO CHERISH ALL LIFE
and
May Appreciation For What Is
Ring Loud and Clear For Mother Earth....
namaste,
coach ilg
founder/Wholistic Fitness®
native son; American Southwest
author/Pagosa Speaks; A Book Of Regional Poetry
Coach's Three Refuge Prayer For Those Of Us With Tight Hips
I offer prayers each morning to the Three Refuges: The Buddha, The Dharma, The Sangha.
I have been doing this for the past 20 or so years
in Respect of the Spiritual Warriorism of perhaps the greatest athlete of all time;
Prince Siddhartha who would soon renounce all of His Palace wealth,
and train himself to become the fittest multidisciplined yogi on the planet during His time,
and then, knowing that physical fitness is just a stepping stone to the REAL WORKOUT:
this ultra fit yogin had the unbelievable balls to do what no other human being has had the fitness
or the bravery to ever do since:
sit upon the ground,
legs folded in Full Lotus,
spine straight,
and
vow:
"I shall not arise from this position, nor fidget my mind nor body, until I have Realized the Nature of All Things."
and then DID!!!!!
it's easy to quote other poet's words,
it's easy to open a bible and mechanically recite handed down prayers...
to me,
however,
genuine poetry is that which spills forth from your own heart recollected from sweat and stillness
to me,
however,
genuine prayer is that which releases itself with your own words, from your own Beingness and is pelted out into the UniVerse as a cry for That Which Urges Us Closer Toward Enlightenment...
here then,
is my personal Prayer of Three Refuges For Those Of Us With Tight Hips and Painful Lower Backs...
which was inspired when i was paralyzed and could not walk, let alone sit in a yogi squat and pray...
As I Humbly Squat Here Now,
With Head bowed to the Buddha;
may i see and feel the pain in my hips and lower back as undone work from countless incarnations and as i continue to open my hips please grant me an endless chain of Divine Insight, Greater Clarity, Less Anger, No Fear, and Glimmering Guidance of my Next Shift Higher...
As I Humbly Squat Here Now,
With Head bowed to the Buddha;
My Heart opens to the Dharma; may the sound of life around me be Heard as the song of my own Liberation...
As I Humbly Squat Here Now,
With Head bowed to the Buddha;
I devote my Actions today to the Sangha; may my Actions of today Serve my Highest Self, my Highest Occupation, and the Awakening of All Beings Everywhere...
- by steve ilg
{do not republish this Prayer in any form without my consent, thank you.}
{photos of Coach praying to his "Backyard Buddha" during a part of his Early Morning Ritual which includes "Coach's Three Refuge Prayer For Those Of Us With Tight Hips." photos by Ananda.}
June 23, 2006
MA has a fever...FLAG's FOREST CLOSED DOWN! WF Principle of Cardio Commuting not at fault!
ONE MORE BIKE, BABY!!!!!
GET TOUGH and DO CARDIO COMMUTING as a Gesture of Love for our ailing Mother Earth!
Study: Earth is hottest it's been in 2,000 years...
Well kids, the 1.8 million acres of the Coconino National Forest was locked down at 8:00 am this morning; no more trail access, no more forest road access, no more nothing in the forest until the monsoons arrive and shower wet Abundance to my Beloved yet Parched Southwest. Sedona is on fire, we nearly lost our Temple H(om)e to fire last week, and the reason is because of an American Addiction To Comfort: driving too much and not be Aware of the tremendous energy use of our Entertainment-For-Our-Egos lifestyles. 
There is a reason why i incorporated aggressive Cardio Commuting into my Path of Wholistic Fitness® many, many years ago; the reason was to HELP SAVE MOTHER EARTH from greenhouse gases...
The Earth is running a slight fever from greenhouse gases, after enjoying relatively stable temperatures for 2,000 years.
The National Academy of Sciences, after reconstructing global average surface temperatures for the past two millennia, said Thursday the data are "additional supporting evidence ... that human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming."
Our wonderful Bush Administration however, says that the Greenhouse Effect is 'not significant enough' to warrant losing money over.
Ain't life in Kali Yuga, just GRAND!?!??!
Jesus.
THE EFFECT OF SPRITUAL IGNORANCE:
Other new research showed that global warming produced about half of the extra hurricane-fueled warmth in the North Atlantic in 2005, and natural cycles were a minor factor, according to Kevin Trenberth and Dennis Shea of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a research lab sponsored by the National Science Foundation and universities.
THE JOY OF SPIRITUAL AWAKENING:
this should be what our 'dashboards' look like:
If this is not your "dashboard" every now and then, guess what:
you are torching up your own Mother!
May all beings Awaken to the value of Practicing Wholistic Fitness® as instrumental to our Collective Enlightenment...
om so ti,
coach ilg
June 21, 2006
WF is Practical, not Theatrical
Namaste Noble DL Warriors!
This happens every several years...
eventually the Outer Directed World catches up with some aspect of Wholistic Fitness® and
the Mainstream American gets temporarily turned on by the notion of "spiritual work" of some form or another...
Yes, i know that there is now a movie about a fantastic book from my old friend Dan Millman...it is a book that
has been Assigned Reading for my Students of Wholistic Fintess® Online training since the eighties.
The book is called,
THE PEACEFUL WARRIOR...i know there is a movie about it now, so no more emails need to be sent to me about it.
And YES! i encourage everyone to go and support this attempt at "Spiritual Cinema".
My heart is happy that my colleague's effort has gone toward making a larger splash in Higher Consciousness.
Now, for the Real Life "Peaceful Warrior" Path which we have been living since 1982:
remember that Fiction is much easier to write and make movies about than Real Life.
Since 1982, Wholistic Fitness® has provided a multi-tiered Actual Path of Transformation that provides
Practical - not theatrical - Explorations for our Inner Self...for our Higher Self.
So, enjoy the movie...support it!
then use the CHI of the movie to deepen your own Practice of Peaceful Warriorism.
There are many, many ways to engage the notion of Peaceful Warriorism.
My most recent book, TOTAL BODY TRANSFORMATION
has a "WF Sutra" section which outlines a number of ways to LIVE a Peaceful Warrior's life.
Eating innocently is a BIG STEP in Peaceful Warriorism, which is precisely why i have driven myself
on a SUNRIDER® Herb diet to unmatched levels of multi-world championships and podiums across
the physiologic spectrum.
Other Peaceful Warriorism efforts are outlined in my book such as Cardio Commuting and taking brave steps so that how you choose to earn your money (which is just energy currency) comes from your Soul and is benefit to Higher Consciousness.
Remember, you are hooked up to a world class Proven Practical Path of Self Transformation; not just theatre.
WF is the Sweat behind the Sentences of New Age Fiction...
Speaking of World Class Proof of our Path?...
check out what HP Yoga® has done for Student Goldsmith over at the WF complimentary blog:
INDIRECT LINES
http://indirectlines.blogspot.com/
i bow to you from beneath the Sacred Mountain,
coach ilg, ryt/uscf/cpt
author/Total Body Transformation
June 19, 2006
Of Being Alone; of catapulting Isness and a Mourning Dove feather
This DL comes to you...
"...directly out of this Unlimited paradigm of cobalt sky..."
photos by coach, last evening during Brahamuhurti
***
Most Noble Warriors of Sweat and Stillness,
my Teachers Shift me hardest when i am alone.
i have spent much of my life living alone and am nearly painfully thankful for it!
did you know that the word; "alone' is a contractive form of 'All One'?
in case you have not taken notice...the very NOTION of the CONCEPT of actually BEING ALONE literally scares the 'be-Jesus' out of modern men and women. it is as if the very NOTION of actually BEING ALONE is viewed as a penalty. as some sort of sin for a chiefly humanistic error, a penance for having a personality or cosmetic flaw that deviates from the accepted "coolness factor" to attract and behold(ing) a partner.
***
i have done my Deepest inner work alone.
i have felt the fiber of my most sincere joy, fear, pain, anger, love, and Connection To It All
when
i lived al(one).
***
nowadays, when i find myself alone for consecutive days
it is a Treasure for my Soul...
for
an instant Ashram...or more uniquely; an "Ilgshram" if you will...appears...
an expanded degree of inner spaciousness leaps upfront to my Consciousness
at the same time my flesh relaxes
my nerves breathe loose
and my Senses begin preening themselves in new and unencumbered countless Ways...
a predictable tense of Mind Vayu responds to a flick of an etheral switch from the Divine Plane
and suddenly, alone, i am instantly immersed in Teachings Everywhere
Calmness Everywhere,
Inspiration Everywhere,
Captivating if not Catapulting ISNESS
leaps and dances among the windsong,
birdsong,
breathsong,
pulsesong...
i cherish being allOne...
and
quite frankly
i cannot wait until Age 75
when my own Spiritual Teachers allow me to leave my
slugfest of protecting and teaching the Dharma to
"modern" society behind
and i can take these years with you...
my Sangha
within
and unleash with spiritual intent and world class velocity the amplitude of my
accumulated Practice and Experience
just
for
me.
not you.
not my biologic parents.
not my dead Wolf.
not even Ananda.
just me.
that is what Age 75 will bring me...a spiritual deliverance unto mySelf
as i have come to Know Thyself...and
with a bit of Luck; Enlightenment.
i am extracting myself slowly right now,
from this Divinely Imposed "Ilgshram" from the past few days...
my beautiful and loving Ananda returns tomorrow from Florida...
and Temple Busyness will once again joyfully clamber about within these quiet Walls...
and yes,
i will cherish my Beloved's return
yet not at the dismissal of my all-oneness
for this warping of the Time/Space Continuum has brought me BuddhaLights
within
and
a measure of Fearlessness for the continued Fight Upstream
that cannot be weighed by hellos and goodbyes.
a snippet from last evening:
lying in a hammock on Red Fox Deck
i fall into an all too seductive call for silence under
under the whispering sublimity of waving aspens and twinkling ponderosa needles
beneath Father Sky...
my mind calls forth a quote a yoga student delivered to me,
"In royal solitude you walk the universe."*
my mind eases into this graceful walk albeit upon limbs still shaky from an earlier visit to
the Iron Temple**...
i turn my head toward Yab/Yum...one of two ancient Ponderosas that tower over Two Tree Manor...
in her highest of branches...the bare one you can see in this photo on the right...sang a Mourning Dove as if to lure me deeper into the abundance of my Self Worth in this most Wealthiest, Simplest of Moments.
i listened to her song, smiling at It All.
then, sang back to her, as well as i could.
you should have seen her reaction, way up there in that high tree...jerking her head this way then that...attempting to see whom was the poor fevered feathered thing that croaked such horrible Mourning Dove lyrics into the magic of sunset!
she put up with me a go(o)d long while...certainly because she felt sorry for my soul.
then, she flew away.
from her flutter
descended a tiny feather...
right toward...me.
instantly, of course,
i took this as a High, Auspicious Sign...
that was no Dove,
i thought to myself,
that was a Lama, a Deity, a Guru, a Guardian from Above...
in that feather,
so exquisitely backlit from Grandfather Sun,
now dancing toward me just meters away...
was surely a Sign that this feather was meant for my puja table and
perhaps carried Deep Medicine for me and my Tribe of Faithful WF Warriors!
as i began to elatedly lift my feet from their comfy hammock womb,
just then,
in the flicker of a moment,
Tree Swallow snatched that feather
within his beak
at seemingly warp speed,
directly out of this Unlimited paradigm of cobalt sky...
and darted back to his nest
or so i assume.
probably to Gift this precious piece of down
for his own Partner for the upcoming chill of high altitude nights.
and so,
on this Evening of Nights...
like no other that preceded it
nor to come,
i will leave you with one thought more from a poet
and a wish that
all your Al(one) moments be supreme...
"Let us dig our gardens and not be elsewhere;
Let us take long walks in the open air...
Let us bathe in the rivers and lakes...
Let us indulge in games...
Let us be more simple:
simple and true in our gestures,
in our words,
and simple and true in our minds above all.
Let us be ourselves." ***
i bow to all of you who are not afraid,
yet cherish,
being all(one).
i dedicate this DL entry and the Divine Moment which inspired it,
to my Beloved Partner; MahaAnandaMayiMi...
welcome h(om)e my precious gem...
love to all,
Dharma Blessings from beneath the Sacred Peak,
coach
ps; Part II of "Perpetuation of Rationalization" coming soon!
* Wu-men
** WF Lingo; the gym
*** Robert Linssen
WEEKEND WARRIORISM; "My Workout Is Everywhere"
"As a man is,
so he sees."
- William Blake
As we flow into another Week, our life in this incarnation shortens,
As we choose to See our workout everywhere,
our present Life Force deepens with great-full appreciation
for we are Beginning to really See...
we are Beginning to realize "No Separation"
that in our Doing is our Being...
"The forces which move the cosmos are no different from those
which move the human soul."
- Lama Anagarika Govinda
(the above and following quotes contributed by HP Yogini LH)
"The best things in life are nearest.
Breath in your nostrils,
light in your eyes,
flowers at your feet,
duties at your hand,
the path of right just before you."
- Robert Louis Stevenson
Ananda last week ripping one of her best yet mountain bike descents through the Kachina Wilderness. She has just climbed up to 8,852' from our Temple H(om)e at 7,200'. She has just flown down about 2 miles of world-class alpine singletrack and her smile would result in a 'perma-grin' all the way to Florida where she is visiting her dad.
***
"Nothing is worth more
than this day."
- Goethe
Backlit ponderosa infant. here is how much i Love you; i just had to 'slow my roll,' during the kickass 7-mile descent to take this picture and share it with you all. you know you're in Love with your Sangha when you stop during a nirvanic mountain bike descent to take pics! 
"After Enlightenment...the mowing..."
- me
Yesterday at Two Tree Manor, the Temple Grounds were restored to their impeccable grace...using, of course, the Tribal Mantra during the mowing and the WF Non-Dominant Hand Practice...
after stacked days of stacked workouts including a Saturday morning Club Road Ride that saw me up front with three pros and rolling through the 53-mile mark at an average speed of 21.5 mph...i finished the 67 mile workout right in front of another Workout; the Lawn. Thank God for SUNRIDER Herbs...they give me the energy to maintain my workouts plus enjoy dropping into domestic duties with Sacred Appreciation...
i wanted to surprise Ananda when she got back from Florida, so...
My Meditative Spring Cleaning of the Temple Garage (My Workout Is Everywhere!)
included a renovated "Pet Door"
and features easy-access Practice Gear and Bike/Ski Work Station... 
Detail: The Sliding Pet Door leads to the beautiful grounds of Two Tree Manor,
thus the signnage for the Temple Cat Beings reads;
"Ventana de Libertado
para el gatos!"
(Window of Freedom for the Cats!)
On Any Given Monday at the Temple H(om)e;
cycling, yoga, and workout clothing drying on "Red Fox Deck"
"When eating bamboo sprouts,
remember the man who planted them."
- Eastern saying
May this Monday Morning DL help keep your feet grounded
and your breath a delight to be inJoyed and cultivated...
May your Practice Week ahead grant you Great Clarity and Gift you with Inner Wisdom
so All Beings Everywhere May Benefit...
that is all...
om so ti,
your loving coach
* photo #1; LA Times, all other photos; Temple Archives
June 18, 2006
Coach's WF Tenet; Perpetuation of Rationalization-
I was lucky enough to get this action shot of Jesus, Gandhi, Vishnu, Kali, Mother Teresa, and the Dalai Lama all rolled into one Bug. What if this Bug IS, inDeed, your "God" or "Guru" in drag...testing your Sadhana (Spiritual Effort)?
Bugs symbolize "Fear Dragons"...they come in Endless Forms...
to Battle and Transform yourself through your own Fear Dragons,
you might like to start by learning:
Coach's WF Tenet; Perpetuation of Rationalization-
When Your Spiritual Path Is About Ready To Run Over A Bug
**
Dear Coach,
Thank you for your WF Path...your combination of Eastern Teachings plus incredible (well, unbelievable) levels of Western Fitness is amazing.
Due to your Work the other day i had an Awakening because of a bug. As I was walking through my house, I came across a spider. My pulse skipping a beat, I nearly squashed it as i have for years. then i breathed (because of your Teachings) and in doing so I came upon a moment that seemed to 'expand' as you say. An amazing amount of odd, old, and just weird self talk happened in that 'expanded moment'....
I thought to myself, "What would Coach do in this Moment? Wait a minute, a Yoga Teacher the caliber Coach calls me a 'Noble Yogic Warrior' and here i am about to unconsciously kill this spider out of impulse!"
Then I thought more rationally; "But, what if it bit my children?" This self dialogue went on for a while. I finally could not stand the thought of that spider biting my child, so, i hate even writing it...i killed it.
Coach, i want to practice non-violence since you taught me that non-violence is the first Yogic Guideline...but, well, what should i do about dangerous insects and all the mosquitos, and creepy crawlies? What do you do in such circumstances?
your feeble and now karmically )*&^%!-up Student,
- KB
*
Stay tuned right here for my answer to this Student's evident Awakening through the Bug Guru, along with my explanation and philosophy of my WF Tenet; "Perpetuation of Rationalization"
EXCLUSIVELY for DL Warriors, baby!
in the meanwhile, i want each of you to bring more Heightened Awareness to the Way You Choose To Workout when in the Presence of "Bug Gurus"...where is your Practice when time comes to kill a mosquito that is "Bugging you"?
who taught you what you Know about Bugs and your reaction toward them?
do you remember your incarnation(s) as a Bug Being? Can you find your Bug Being shakti within your Cells? within your Sweat? Hey, Spiderman evidently did! And look at how much Go(o)d he has done in his present incarnation (which i must admit is a prrrrretty dang cool one!)!
Think and Breathe with these thoughts...
more tomorrow and may the Bug Guru inForm your Practice ever Higher!
*
click to enlarge
"Wanna know just how many times i have nearly gone down hard 'cuz of my Spiritual Path About Ready To Run Over A Bug?"
- coach dodging lizards, rolly-pollies, capillaries (ooops! i mean, CATEPILLARS), horny toads, and Brahman knows what else as he cranks another stellar Cardio Yoga session along the famous SlickRock Mountain Bike Trail near Moab, UT. Photo by Ananda
June 16, 2006
HeadStand Humor; Unleashed in arms and mind!
Coach in MuktaHastaSirsasana (Free Handed Headstand). Widely pointed toward as one of the most vital postures to set up the inner energetics toward Enlightenment, Sirsasana is highly medicinal from a physiologic perspective as well. Improved blood pressure, enhanced respiration, increased peripheral development of the venous and arterial systems, cranial oxygenation (which is why standing on your head makes you smarter and faster to 'connect the dots' between the physical and metaphysical planes) and an unmatched conditioner for the neural systems, Sirsasana is also used by the Yogin as a superb postural deviation diagnostic tool...at least, that is what i use this pose for! When standing on my head with the inner locks (see DL Archives for Mula Bandha, Uddiyana, and Jalandhara research) activated, i immediately can read the structural distortion nested in my hips; both long term (karmic/birth/adolescence/sport injuries) and short term (as in compaction from recent running, cycling, climbing, etc).
{SCROLL TO END OF ARTICLE TO VIEW ANOTHER PICTURE AND DESCRIPTION OF COACH's HP YOGA® WAY TO GET INTO MUKTAHASTASIRSASANA}
However, i have also noted another interesting component about doing Inversion practices...they make me funny as hell...jokes come to me in my apres-Sirsasana that just crack my ass up!...like this one which came to me yesterday...
"What do you call a bunch of Panda Bears sitting around whining?"
Panda-moan-ium!
Ha!
Now, i got YOU moaning, huh!?!
okay, how about this one..
"How come gossipy people always go for the jugular?"
Because they are so vein.
Hurts, eh? Oh, these things just come in waves to me...
"What do you call a lion that doesn't roar?"
lion down on the job.
ooooof. and to think you are paying MONEY to hear this crap! now THAT's FUNNY!
How should you feel at the top of a mountain?
A little run down.
;-)
i got bijillions of these things...must be a Granthi processing...
Send me YOUR HeadStand Humor...i'll be creating a WF Forum for DL Subscribers over the months ahead so you'll be able to Search under myriad categories of the wide, wide world of WF, SUNRIDER Herbs, and HP Yoga® for all sorts of topics, articles, discussions, haiku, and....maybe even, HEADSTAND HUMOR!
"What do you call a Yogini from Brazil?"
Hardly anythong.
oh geez...i'm going to ride my mountain bike....
here, i will leave you with some coaching clinic proper...
enjoy your Practice and may the Breath Be With You...
namaste,
your loving (and VERY FUNNY) coach
Here is the HP Yoga® way to get into MuktaHastaSirsasana; from AdhoMukhaSvasanan (Downward Facing Dog), slowly lower onto the Bregma or Crown points on the skull casing...this alone can take a few weeks or months to feel comfortable. Once you can hang out in a Head-Supported Down Dog with smooth Ujjayi breathing and relaxed tonality in your muscles, then, balance solely on your Crown, reach back, find and grasp the soles of your feet with your hands. This capture of the feet is big for it now allows you months of opportunity to work the Reflexology and Trigger Points located all around the soles of the feet. Every now and then, begin pressing new strength into the Earth from the top of your hands, eventually floating the legs off the ground with precise control...make SURE Mula Bandha is engaged and take several months to steadfastly lift the legs with control; both at the same time is best. Once you get the double leg lift off, then, it's just a matter of minutes before you can stretch your feet overhead and BINGO! Look Mom! No Hands! No Walls! THAT's THE HP YOGA® WAY!
June 15, 2006
FOREST FIRE YOGA Update; 100% Contained!
THANKS TO THE AMAZING WARRIOR FIREFIGHTERS, CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS, and THE COHESION OF COMMMUNITY OF FLAGSTAFF...
the WOODY MOUNTAIN FIRE
has been declared 100% CONTAINED, baby!
{you may recall this DL shot from this past March...i was cross country ski training right near Woody Mountain which is just a few kilometers from the WF Temple H(om)e...today, these same magnificent Tree Beings are but charred remnants of how they appear in this photo. The Woody Mountain Fire was human caused by humans...another fire across the street was started by a human...smoking a cigarette. May ALL BEINGS EVERYWHERE be freed from Ignorance and Care For Their Mother (Earth) by developing Consciousness Through Daily Practice.}
The WF Temple H(om)e is SAFE,
the Temple Cat Beings, Charlie and Jasper, can now stop bugging me and be allowed back outside,
and
Ananda...you can enjoy your time spent with your Daddy
in full knowledge that your Home and Family beneath the Sacred Peak are just cranking.
As soon as i get my regular computer up and have resettled a bit,
my Coaching Priorities will be as follows:
* attend to all Active Online Student Program Updates and Facilitations
* attend to all SUNRIDER Herbal Warriors Updates and Facilitations
* all other communications
i experienced a fantastic spiritual/energetic breakthrough during this challenging time and i will be most excited to
bring to you this DharmaGem arising out of what could have been ashes...
i bow to your Practice of Patience with our humble Temple Beneath The STILL GREEN CANOPY OF THE GIANT PONDEROSAS!
om so ti,
coach ilg
FOREST FIRE YOGA
The first thing Ananda said to me after we were told to prepare to evacuate our WF Temple H(om)e was,
"Shit, we are not going to be able to teach (HP Yoga) class tonight...i have to call the sangha..."
***
Noble WF Warriors...
Don't send us well wishes,
Don't email us asking if we are okay...
and for Buddha's sake don't call us or leave text messages...
we are fine...we are Teachers of Yoga...and yogis are trained to Adapt to the Moment using the strength of our abhyasa.
to find Yoga through having a forest fire rip through our entire home, leaving no Trace, is superb Practice for the Bardo.
the Scriptures and even my Teachings throughout the years is not just fiction;
forest fires, earthquakes, floods, and other 'natural disasters' are not 'disasters' from any point of view save for those
who do not Practice.
'natural disasters' is just nature (prakriti) being nature. what the yogi does during 'natural disasters' is to do what she or he always does;
Practice.
***
i have Ananda in one of our cars filled with 'important stuff', including - of course - her mountain bike and Marmot jacket. she is leaving to see her Dad for his 60th Birthday in Florida.
i will stay here in Flag and defend our "Palace in the Pines" as best as i can...
internet access will be spotty at best; the "Woody Pines" Forest Fire is only a few miles away from here...with winds predicted to be up to 40 mph, our WF Temple H(om)e can be in Path of the fire within minutes. my job will be to stay here and make sure our Temple Cats (Jasper and Charlie) and the computer(s) and a few Ritual items make it out of the Fire safely to begin Practice anew somewhere else if the Flames feast upon It All.
so that is my "Forest Fire Yoga" update for now...
until we meet again,
keep your Practice strong and Appreciation for the Now sincere and full of awe...
just to be alive is a great Blessing.
i devote this entry to all the Woodland Creatures whose homes and perhaps lives have already been Danced upon by Shiva.
i dedicate my Practice on this smoky day to the heros of the Flagstaff and surrounding Firefighters...i bow in wow. America is amazing...in other countries, our Home would probably have already been burned to crisp.
we love you more than you can imagine...it is a Great Honor to Serve your Practice and i trust we have many, many years ahead of us to do the Inner Work that Needs To Be Done...
however, if the WF Temple H(om)e does burn down and all the "Stuff" goes away...
you will allWays have the WF Teachings from myself in my books and DL Archives...
and
in the End,
it is the Quality of our Practice during Difficulty
that
matters most...
om so ti,
coach ilg
June 14, 2006
Coach & Ananda are safe and on the road
Good evening all.
I received a phone call a few minutes ago from Coach Ilg asking me to let the Sangha know that he will be off the Net for a bit. The Woody Wildfire started this afternoon and is quickly spreading due to high winds. Two Tree Manor is in the path of the fire and the surrounding neighborhood has been evacuated.
Coach wanted you to know that he and Ananda are safe and are on the road. He has his laptop and their mountain bikes, so they're good to go.
They will report in when they can.
Let's all have them, the Flagstaff residents, and the brave hotshot crews in our thoughts and prayers tonight.
Hakado Ru
June 13, 2006
A Heaven Sent Knock Upon My Temple Doors...
Taos Pueblo, New Mexico
i wrote a poem about this place in my book, "Pagosa Speaks"
photo by coach
***
Since i basically "rolled the boulder over the WF Cave" by moving DL to a subscription format
i must say,
i am impressed by the Special Warriors that have Sensed i am throwing down and that NOW is the
time to either Step UP
and either become an Online Student of WF
or
at LEAST join as a Subscriber to DIRECT LINES.
So, from the resultant relative cascade of Applications for Online Studentship
that comes through,
i must give the nod to potential Online Student Tom H who wrote this to me a couple of days after
submitting his Application to Study:
*
"I remember first reading desert solitaire from Ed Abbey way back in 1989, shortly after he died....and I remember his opening poem:
'Give me silence water hope
Give me struggle iron volcanoes...
The path is the way.'"
Now, this shows me several things about Tom H:
1) he has read DL for several years and thus knows that Ed Abbey is spiritual forefather of our Tribe
2) he comes from the Space that says to me as his potential Teacher, "I'm ready to crawl, bleeding through the sage, to Study Under You,
3) I Get It...Accept Me Now.
4) Tom knows that i know by Direct Experience over many years the intensity of the desert's elemental power and allure. He knows that i know by Direct Experience that her intense heat and thunder storms, rock tossed mountains, vast labyrinth-like canyons are at the center of my heart...he knows that i know the American Southwest and has used the Chi Force of another potent Author to give power to his Knock upon my Humble, yet Highly Sought After Temple Doors...
Chances are likely that i like the Way that Tom has Knocked...
If i accept him,
pray for him...
for you know damn well,
i will Test his Spirit
behind his Knock...
fierce love, perhaps the last on Turtle Island and a Love that Abbey himself would smile upon...
namaste,
coach ilg
* that second photo, taken by WF Teacher Joseph "Haku" Sheader of his son, Kerry in the Escalante region of the Southwest, touches my soul...it speaks soundly of the human/geologic yoga that seems so difficult to bridge in many areas of modern day Turtle Island, yet is still so preciously accessible here in the Southwest.
QUOTE OF THE DAY GOES TO: SHISHYA LEWIS!
THE QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"During the intervals, nothing focuses the mind better than potential loss of consciousness. The 15 hard/15 easy splits were a bitch. Much more so to me than the 45 sec on/1 min off sets. I am not sure what I was seeing at the end of the last set because everything was in a haze. Don't know if I should pass out or throw-up? I love it! Oh, and
I love wearing the WF Blessed Mala beads. I am having fun doing Wholistic Fitness®. I am a better person for starting it.
Namaste,
Harry"
***
Namaste One and All...
ain't that great! LOVE IT!
i am here in the Temple H(om)e luxuriating in the post-mountain bike feelings from a 2.25 hour, 21-mile training ride beneath the Sacred Peak in which i FINALLY - after ONE YEAR OF ATTEMPTS - "cleaned" (rode without 'dabbing'/putting my foot down or falling) the treacherous vertical sinewy singletrack known as "Weenie Walk"...cuz if you are a Weenie...you'll be walking your bike up the highly technical, lung bursting 1/2 mile section of the 7.5 mile climb...today..i CLEANED IT, baby!!!!!!! oh HELL YEAH!!!!! ahhhh, the Simple Pleasure from a WF Warrior's life!
anyway, i came home to work on my Student's updates and am facilitating New Student Lewis's Cycle Summation and i get to his input about Intervals above...cracked me up so bad i had to share it with you...see, i about 'lost consciousness' trying to stay upright and keep pedaling up the Weenie Walk trail this morning...so, enjoy!
Congrats to New Student Lewis..a helluva a WF Warrior in the making, baby!
no Weenie in his Walk!
enjoy,
coach
June 11, 2006
PART TWO: COACH'S VICTORY AT SANDIA CREST RACE!
Beautiful, Sacred Sandia Peak towering above Albuquerque, New Mexico. This photo, by Coach, was taken from his "Ai Imawa Platform" near Jemez Dam, a few miles from where his parents still live and where he lived when he wrote the book, THE WINTER ATHLETE, before moving to Los Angeles at the request of his Teachers to bring Yoga and Dharma Protection To The Big City. The summit of Sandia shown here, was the finish line of the Bill McClain Memorial Sandia Crest HillClimb. Coach said after this race, "Racing up this peak on my bicycle proved to me that Sandia Peak is more than a mountain, it is one helluva Yoga mat!"
***
WE NOW CONTINUE OUR STORY WITH COACH CLOSING IN ON THE FINISH LINE TIED FOR THIRD PLACE OVERALL WITH A YOUNG CYCLIST FROM DURANGO, COLORADO WHO HAD JUST CAUGHT UP TO COACH. THE REST OF THE PELETON IS LESS THAN ONE MINUTE BEHIND OUR FEARLESS COACH AND HIS YOUNG COMPANION AS THEY PASS THE 9,800' LEVEL WITH ANOTHER 1,000' OF CLIMBING REMAINING...
FROM YESTERDAY'S DL:
...For the next 3 miles we did just that. I thus gained my second companion in suffering for the day. My new partner and I began to chip away at the tremendous mountain. Our chipping felt a bit like trying to fell a Flagstaff Ponderosa with a Boy Scout Hatchet, yet, the miles eventually passed though the pain never did. I learned my companion was 24 years old, from my hometown of Durango, Colorado via Michigan, i think. That was cool. Nice kid. As long as I beat him at the Finish. We kept in-couraging each other as we stood, sat, and spun our way up the ever-increasing altitude and steepness of the mountain.
Within 2.5 miles of the Finish Line, i had to work through a rather tough "spot of bother," as Paul Sherwyn might put it. I couldn't hang and lost the kid's wheel. Fuck. And I say that with full yogic compassion for myself. It was all i could do to watch his young calves dance upon the pedals away from me...leaving me to my own Inner Practice of breath and posture and positive Self Talk to limit any more attacks from behind. As Roger Federer would say in his French Open Finals loss to the clay-court phenom, Nadal; "I was not able to come up with the shots, so I do not have to worry about it." In other words, a champion learns to stay in the moment and not waste precious energy over what did not work. That is what I now had to do; just keep a'goin, keep a'goin, keep a'goin as the Mountain Paiutes would say.
Fortunately, I was able to keep a'goin at a high enough average speed (around 8.5 mph) to thwart any more young guns blasting my rear end from behind. The Finish Line arrived and I crossed it, chalking up a 40+ Victory for Red Rock Racing and a 4th Overall in the Cat.4 Division.
Coach Ilg flying the RRR colors, PowerBar, and of course, his Blessed Mala Beads at the Finish Line! First Place in 40+, 4th Overall in Cat.4!
This beautiful race, now named for Bill McClain, the Team Director of New Mexico VeloSport (NMVS), should be on your Race Calendar next season. Bill McClain, God Bless His Soul, was the man who invited me to race for NMVS when i lived in Rio Rancho, New Mexico working on my book, THE WINTER ATHLETE. I think Bill was in Heaven on that day two weekends ago, cool and happy as a cucumber, and maybe even smiling as he watched me power up the mountain climb now named in his honor.
I devote my victory to my new team in Flagstaff; Red Rock Racing, and i devote my effort on that day to Bill McClain's Warrior Spirit who sang through my sweat and who will always be near to my heart.
May all Beings everywhere realized the precious nature of being Brave and Elegant in that what they do...and, what they encounter during their EarthDance.
Namaste,
coach ilg
"The Coach That Does", Does It Again; Scores First Victory of the Season For His New Team On A Bold Solo Breakaway!!
Coach Ilg racing for his new team; Red Rock Racers, manufactured a scintillating victory in hellishly hot conditions at the 26-mile, 5,800' Bill McLain Memorial Sandia Crest HillClimb last weekend in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 
Coach, captured here by Heidi Snell/Visual Escapes Photography, exchanged his usually kind and giving nature for the look and performance of a modern day Warrior taking no prisoners. Here is Coach's account accompanied by stunning photos by Heidi. Click on photos to enlarge and be inspired by the Coach That Walks His Talk!
Only on DL; The Tribal Newspaper Rock of Wholistic Fitness®
***
COACH ILG NAILS FIRST VICTORY OF SEASON FOR HIS NEW TEAM and does it in true "Mountain Yogi"Fashion!
At the Start Line, i wore a face that mirrored my Game Plan for the day; ATTACK!! See where i am looking?
See where my competitors are looking?
Focus, baby.
Winning is all mental.
I was on a Mission. I had awoken with that 'special feeling' that i get every now and then. It was the feeling that, well, if i don't win, whoever beats me today is gonna have to really, really, really hurt to pass me. I ain't going down without a helluva Warrior Fight! If you ever see me with the face you see on me above? Get ready, pardner...cuz you and i are going to Dance a Warrior's Dance...
photo by: by Heidi Snell/Visual Escapes Photography
"While cranking up the long hot climb and knowing the entire peleton was right behind me, i kept recalling my training efforts on Snowbowl Road and my favorite long mountain bike climbs in Flag like "Weenie Walk," "Waterline," and "Little Bear." In a sense, I took myself out of the current moment, and replaced it with Confidence borne from Training rides. This is why i say, "You don't get a second chance at your off season." If you plan on attacking an entire peleton, you BETTER have confidence in your Training...fortunately, i KNOW that NO ONE trains like a Wholistic Fitness® Warrior...so, i wanted to lay down the Law on the first hill, baby...i wanted to send out an Invitation to the entire Peleton...
"COME JOIN COACH ILG IN A PARTY OF PAIN YOU MOFOS!
LET'S LET THE SUFFERING BEGIN NOW!!!!!!"
I knew i had to do my best to dismantle the legs and lungs of the peleton before the real steep climbing began, so, i did my best to launch a Lance Armstrong like attack on the very first hill of the course!...It was a 9%, 1/4 mile Roller that i just fucking put my head down gathering up all the AS STILL YET TO BE PROCESSED INNER HELL THAT I HAVE WITHIN ME and PURGED THAT SHIT FROM ME AS I CHARGED UP THAT VERY FIRST HILL LIKE AN ENRAGED BULL! FUCK 'EM! COME AND GET ME YOU MOFOS!
that was about as elegant as my self talk was as i rocketed up the hill like a grenade gone off...at the top of it, i had drawn from the deck of racers one young lad from Gerolsteiner with me who was a climbing specialist.
"You've made a helluva gap, bro...let's work this sonofabitch,"
was all he said as he motored through, taking his first of what would be a seemingly endless chain of him, then me pulling into the wind and over the hills. When i looked behind me on that first pull through, i saw what i had done to the peleton..they were already 40 seconds behind us and fading fast...a New Mexican Balloon Fiesta of colored lycra that I had taken the air out of (literally) on the first fucking hill!...i smiled inwardly...
"WELCOME TO THE PARTY...
THE PARTY OF PAIN HAS JUST BEGUN...YOU LIKE IT SO FAR YOU MOFOS?"
- coach looks around for the peleton on a short downhill before beginning the long ascent up the Ski Road. Note the flat spine from High Performance Yoga® practice and the discipline to keep the elbows bent, dog tilt at the sacrum, and the breath as metronome.
Then, it was back to work....out of our two man breakaway, it was i that pulled the hardest and kept our average speed high over the 11 mile "lead up climbs" of Tijeras Canyon" to the Ski Road proper. i was motivated...i wanted to get to the steep hill section at least a minute or so ahead of the peleton. I know how long switchback climbs can demoralize even more stronger riders than i, and i wanted to make my Great Escape on those upper slopes. Like in my personal life, i would rather die high up on the mountain, alone and exhausted from the effort of climbing, then to die like a sheep in the verdant pastures of Sense Addiction so common to the masses. Fuck that shit; i'm going UP! So catch me...if you can!
Our breakaway was continuously flogged by typically brutal New Mexican stuff; wind roaring in your face, road debris,...and the heat! Jesus!! The peleton was only about 1 minute, 10 seconds down from our two man break when we took the left hand turn onto the Ski Road. From this left hand turn, it's relentless; 15-miles of narrow road climbing up to the summit...classic, classic climbing! Once the really steep climbing began, i could not handle the pace of my breakaway companion, so i wished him luck and went within myself. I used yogic breathing and meditations to just do my best to keep racing and not just surviving. I used a sit and stand style of climbing that i use to keep my average speed as high as possible. When i use a standing climbing style, i used the swaying rhythm of my Blessed Mala Beads to aid my cadence of confidence and pedal strokes.
I was able to get to within 6 miles of the Finish Line before i was finally caught and dropped like a wounded gazelle on the Serenghetti...my capture came all too easily by a young kid that flew up to me from the energy saving speed of the peleton. There was no way i could handle his pace, either. He was too fresh and i too worked from my long breakaway efforts in the wind. Less than 5 minutes later, i heard a heaving behind me. "Oh shit," i thought. Sure enough..i turned around and saw yet another skinny kid who probably did not even have pubes yet, had bridged to my wheel from the peleton chomping its way up the mountain behind me like a Pac Man game gone awry.
I was getting really hot, tired, and pissed off by now;
"Are you a Cat 4?" I growled at him through the sting of my sweat soaked eyes...
Breathing, gasping, gasping...then, "Uhhh, yeah..." followed by more breathing, breathing, gasping...
"Can you take a pull then, please?" I asked rather politely, I thought.
Not what he wanted to hear. I guess I had been the carrot dangling in front of him this whole race and now he figured he would just take his Easy Boy Recliner position and suck my draft for a few miles.
I could have told him what he could suck on me, however, my rear wheel would not be it.
So, I did a little out of the saddle squirt away from him, making him chase me down. In the 100 degree heat, it felt like a slap across his face.
He evidently got the point,
"Okay, okay...let's work together," was all he gasped.
PART TWO COMING TOMORROW IN DL! STAY TUNED!!!
And God Replied, "Really? Show me..." Warrior D Arises Out Of Anger Into Love
This Path is magic...yesterday, i responded elegantly to an Angry Dragon because i Sensed the Fear behind his Anger at me. This morning? That Dragon has been Met, Calmed, and now Walks the WF Path again with more CHI FORCE than ever before.
photo above: Coach practicing the Ai Imawa posture; Meeting The Dragon. These Taoist Postures are practiced by WF Students so we are trained to meet Difficulty with Breath and Posture thereby creating the suppleness and space to respond with Compassion and Love instead of reactive egoic defenses. Photo by Ananda, near Red Mountain, Arizona located near the WF Temple H(om)e.
***
Namaste Noble Warriors!
Yesterday's entry was especially poignant...and, after i chose to use "D's" letter as a DharmaTeaching not only for "D", yet for all of us, my heart was still a bit achy... i have lived most of my life struggling for money or sponsorship to enter the next race or climb the next mountain...physical or metaphysical.
So, this morning, when i saw that "D" had replied to my public DharmaTeaching of his email to me which called me names, i must admit i thought to myself, "Oh boy, here we go...he is gonna unleash more anger at me," what i found instead were Divine Words uttered from a most Noble Warrior whose Heart had seen the Opening in my counsel and whose courage rose above his ego. Here is the email from "D" and my response...
this is BIG stuff and we can ALL learn from Noble Warrior D;
***
Coach,
I must tell you how sorry I am for what I wrote,and ask for your
forgiveness. As I re-read my words I saw how selfish they were.
And when I read what you wrote I cried.
You're right it's not about you or charging for DL.It's about my
anger over what is happening in my life and not taking responsibility
for my part in it. The bike race analogy was right on.The group has
dropped me and how do I react? By getting mad at the group,for doing
the only thing it can do,its job.Very lame and weak of me.
I don't think I'm really ready to become a formal student. If I was
the means would come into my life.Or I've made the statement to God
that I'm ready and He is saying "Really? Show me. Work a crappy job for
the money."
Please keep putting teasers(for lack of a better word) on the InDirect Lines.
I will use them as motivation, and a reminder of an email I wish I hadn't sent.
Again,I'm very sorry for any hurt I've caused.
Love,
feeble,lame,weak d
COACH RESPONDS;
Noble Warrior D,
you are far from feeble, lame, or weak.
in fact, you have just scored an absolutely HUGE inner victory over your ahamkaric (egoic) force. it is i who bow to you...
in my response to your Anger Filled Email, i offered you alone the choice as to how to take my Teaching...
how much you wanted to be changed - Higher or Lower - was left in your lap. You chose the Higher Way... the Way of Love and Fearlessness.
Warrior D,
always remember this; no one forces you to learn,
you must learn to love to learn...EVERYTHING!
even Difficulty.
in honor of your Choice to take the Warrior's High Path, i offer you a standing 15% discount off of any product or service in the WF Tribal Catalog (exceptions; Retreats and Intensives).
my own Practice has been Deepened by yours...
thank you and soldier on, Warrior...soldier on!
upward, onward, and endlessly inward,
your Loving Coach
June 10, 2006
Coach has "turned his back on us," and is a "used car salesman"...a Warrior encounters a lower chakral experience...
Namaste Noble DL Warriors...
i TAF it important to your own Practice to offer you a smidgen of the WF World's version of "Coach's Hate Mail" that now greets my email boxes in the mornings since rolling the boulder over the DL Cave.
i TAF it beneficial to your own Practice to see how i am doing my Best to keep Serving the Dharma during this difficult time for many who have been spoiled by the years of DL for free and now are offended that i would do such a horrible thing as actually protect my Teachings for our Tribe and try to recup some financial loss from the hours and hours of writing,research, photography, and website expense.
oh well.
here is how i handled it over on InDirect Lines (IDL)...may it help your own Practice and sense of Serving Unconditionally the Higher Cause.
Namaste and thank YOU for Stepping Up to the DL Cave!
coach
***
Don't get gapped just because Direct Lines has gone Subscription; put your head down, dig DEEEEEP, and
BRIDGE THE GAP, baby! Photo; Coach Ilg escapes the Peleton and takes a solo flyer at a recent victory in New Mexico.
***
On Jun 9, 2006, at 10:26 PM, "D" wrote:
I saw your indirect lines post about anger and felt that it was a sign to tell you about
my anger that you are charging for Direct Lines (DL). I know that people are taking your ideas and you
have to make a living,and I respect that.But there is a small group of us,maybe just me,
who are doing all we can to learn from you, and you're turning your back on us.
I'm unemployed and my attempts to find a job have hit brick walls.I feel this is Gods
or fates way of telling me "Your only job right now is to work on your self." And I
have become grateful for the free time that I have,the humility that is learned from
going without.And I looked for someone to guide me,and I found you.
I got together enough money to buy your book.Did the work-outs the best I could with
what I have. Read DL everyday. Wished I had enough money to be a formal student. And
felt a change in me begining. Then you started charging for DL and doing teasers on
the free blog, which are used car salesman tactics if you ask me. I thought you where
above this.
Please don't feel that this is a ploy to get anything from you, I won't take it.
I just wondered if you knew about this small minority of people( like I said maybe
just me) who you are losing by doing this because we can't pay for DL. I'm guessing
you hear all the time from people that they can't afford to pay what you ask for
coaching. When what they really mean is won't. But I really can't. If it wasn't
for the kindness of my father, I'd be homeless.
I keep thinking about the line from Star Trek II that Spock says "The needs of the many
out weigh the needs of the few,or the one." I can understand that point of view,and
I am just one,no one really.Some would say, and have said, a loser. But that doesn't
mean I don't have needs,that I don't need help.
I don't know what else to say except thank you for reading this and for what I've learned
from you so far. I'm sad that it has to end so soon.
d
COACH CHOOSES TO TAKE THE TIME TO RESPOND:
Most Noble Warrior of the Higher Way,
hang in there.
have Faith in yourself.
describe yourself as "unemployed" and you are.
describe yourself as a Warrior Hunting and you become just that.
it saddens me that you consider a quarter century of my time, experience, professionalism
given to the worldwide Sangha free
as "so soon."
i am only doing my best to Serve and attempt to pay the rent while doing so,
i will trust you will begin to See a Higher Perspective to protection of the WF Teachings
and my own chakral work to develop my own boundaries as i enter the next stage of my own spiritual life.
you will Rise Above,
you will Subscribe and contribute to the Endless Power of DL...
you will one day become an Online Student, for you are ripe and powerful.
do not give up...hey, give InDirect Lines a chance... likening your Coach Ilg to a "used car salesman" after
all all these years is hurtful to me, the Temple, and your own Practice. Re-read my piece on Anger.
Noble Warrior,
i will endlessly work hard on myself to Serve at a World Class Standard of Body/Mind/Spiritual Excellence
for any Seeker is really, really ready to Find a Way.
there are no shortcuts and you have arrived at a spiritual crossroads where your Teacher is asking you
to do what is required to bridge the Gap to the Next Step. dig down, Warrior, to Step Up! Don't get gapped now
and do not waste your energy on trying to make this about me.
you found a Way,
i have given you many Tools throughout the years...
use them Skillfully and you and i will soon Begin Again the WF Journey at an even Higher Rhythm...
"Do your Practice and all will be coming."
- Pattabhi Jois
i bow to you from beneath the Sacred Mountain,
coach ilg, ryt/uscf/cpt
author/Total Body Transformation
http://www.wholisticfitness.com/
June 08, 2006
A WF Temple Archive Movement; "The Static Pull Up"...not so static at all!
Well, you don't see this everyday...
dis ain't no "Nautlius" or "Gravitron" bullshit...
Today i am taking you all back to my "Golden Boy of Boulder" era...the mid-eighties when i was among the fittest of the fittest of all multisport athletes anywhere; capable of finishing in the top 20 of a mountain ultra marathon and cranking off 60 consecutive pullups and climbing 5.12 all within the same week. and partying like...well, you know...it WAS the 80's...
in the new DL Subscription Format, you are in for a WHOLE TON of WF Tribal Archive photos, exercises, teachings, and hilariously epic stories from the history of me and WF, baby! the years ahead shine with all sorts of fun! Above pic is Skip (left) and Johnny Mars...you climbers that know your American Rock Climbing history have heard of Johnny, i am sure. Both of these bros were my training and climbing partners during the eighties and well...as you can tell...we had the CHI, baby!
i wanted to show you young ones a movement that i would do for rock climbing and nordic ski racing. It is tremendous movement that is forgotten these days, which is sad thing. It's called a "Static Pull Up"... you probably have never heard of it and may never be able to do in this lifetime...don't hurt yourself, trying, either. It's notion is simple; hang beneath a Pull Up Bar and then in ONE EXPLOSIVE MOVEMENT, skyrocket your body up, through, and then above the Pull Up Bar.
Easy, huh?
Note: This movement requires extremely strong shoulder, elbow, and wrist connective tissue to do safely. And talk about some Mula Bandha power! This thing makes doing a Headstand like kindygarten recess! WF baby...we'll find the Yoga Everywhere; especially in the Iron Temple! 
The Static Pull Up is a high velocity movement that begins with you dangling at arms length beneath a Pull Up Bar. See the bottom photo? that is the first High Intensity Pull that creates momentum for the upper photo in which Mula Bandha must be engaged and synched up with Hip Extension and DRIVING BOTH ELBOWS SIMULTANEOUSLY into Father Sky which sets your hips and shoulders to finish the final two pictures shown below. Note, that the Pull Up Bar must be a special one with enough space above it not to bash your skull once (if) you get to the Top Position. I am shown here in my self-made "Climber's Courtyard" in Farentinos Gym, Boulder, Colorado. I was allowed a budget and complete freedom from my boss and owner of Farentinos Gym, Dr. Bob Farentinos, to build the nation's first public climbing wall, 2-ton crack climbing tower, and custom made climbing specific apparatus such as a Bachar Ladder, Giant Pegboard (which can be partially seen in these photos), slack line, and Flat Webbing Rings, plus much more. What can i say...i had a great boss back then! In fact, he was my only boss since i went on to build my own gyms and yoga studios from that point onward.
In these two finishing photos i am shown in the top one approaching the Top Position where gleno-humeral stress is at its peak as i rocket my body at warp speed through Mid Position...
to the bottom photo where i am in a final "lock out" finish position at arms length above the bar.
i probably tried at least a hundred times before i could do this maneuver, yet once i fired my neural (thus Nadic/Pranic) system to accept the tremendous Fast Twitch Load, i was pretty much capable of doing it at will. the crux is NOT to "one arm mantel" the move or do ANY pressing movement; it's all Explosive, like doing a Plyometric Pull Up, if you will.
again, do not try this movement without a super strong abdominal wall and a Pull Up Mastery of at least 30 consecutive Pull Ups...otherwise you run a High Risk of damaging your connective tissue.
Wholistic Fitness® baby...the last remaining Path of the Physique Culture and, it seems, the only GENUINE PATH of multidisciplined Yoga on the planet!
The Difference between Happy and Joyfullness...Pierce, Do Not Push your Chakral Journey; Actual Coaching Exchange With Online Student S
If there is a Hell on Earth; certainly it lies within and the Fiery Anger of our Inner Hell Realms are soooo fast to arise so long as we remained chained to our samskaras. In this DL, i address the issue of Anger using an actual Coaching Exchange with an Online Student and from past Dharmatalks.
May it help your Radiance of Light and Love with the power of Avalokiteshvara,
namaste,
coach ilg
ps; above photo; coach has captured a devil below and fire above image...similar to how the "devil" resides in our hips/lower back (chakras 1-3) and manifests higher in the form of vented anger; harsh words and harsh actions that do only harm and deepen our karmic load.
***
Most Noble Warriors,
WF is a very confrontational Path; that is because it must be so.
It is a Path of Yoga; a genuine Path of Yoga; urging us at every level to Merge into that which our egoic layers attempt to hide from us.
I know i am beginning to really get somewhere with a Student when Anger begins to arise from their Practice.
If i can get Anger to Arise from a Student,
i know it is go(o)d.
we will need that Anger to arise...you've got a long Journey ahead of you...i am right here...Loving you as the Anger starts to arises and process. i keep my Practice so strong so that i can take on the Anger Arising of Students...cuss at me, scream at me, tell me to go to Hell during such Anger Arising times...i can take it from you if you are Brave enough to let it Vent...
think of how much you smile...
an equal amount of Fear and Anger is behind all the smiling...
it's gotta come through, baby...
All too often, however,
the Student Quits the Path instead of working with the Anger.
Just
as i once Taught you to do a Barbell Curl with more elegance and Awareness of Posture,
i am also going to Coach you through witnessing and Transforming Anger that arises with
elegance and Awareness of (spiritual) posture.
Somehow, other people that have Personal Fitness Trainers
have been Taught that curling a Barbell with elegance
is somehow different than that of curling Anger with elegance.
i tell you this; it is not.
All too often we put out so many fake smiles into the UniVerse...
AllWays Cheery,
AllWays "okay"...
"Wow," we want other people to think when they see us smiling so much, "She has REALLY gotten her shit together...i wish i could be as happy as her!"
I tell you this; Happiness is transitory.
forget trying to be happy...instead,
train your Mind for Love
and
reMember your Sacred Joy...
Joy is not transitory.
Joy is your Sacred and Endless Nature
why smile so much?
what is on the other Side of all the Smiling?
that is what your feeble coach asks.
Pain?
Doubt?
Fear?
Anger at It All?
Perhaps. Yet, regardless of the degree of Pain, Doubt, Anger, Fear
there is FREEDOM!
Make THIS the priority of your life, the most serious intent of a Warrior is to Realize Self! not be happy!
fuck happiness...
happiness is transitory...
go for Sacred Joy!
you must have a burning desire to be FREE!!!!!
then, and only then
will the Heavens applaud your every Step Higher!
Anger must be exposed and transmuted into a neutral state. It is our Anger, unexposed, that holds a Being in a 3rd dimensional existance, my MahaNidraRishi taught me. BE TRUE!!!!!!!! Once enough of the karmic load has been expanded, your Celullar Vehicle begins to Vibrate on a consciousness level of multi-dimensions.
Oh Noble Shishya Who Is Awakening;
there are many Levels to WF.
Practice Fully and Never Ever Surrender your formal Study; no matter what.
Many come to Teachers/Healers because they want to attach to someone with a Higher
Vibrational Frequency than their own. They do not want to take on their own Stuff. Their own Yuck. One must be very strong, and yet Be very Soft to be a Wise Teacher/Healer.
few there are.
contemplate these things i have said.
that is all,
coach
STUDENT S REPLIES:
************This was really profound----you are a PRO and i am feeling "found". I TAF we are moving to a new level of trust, of teaching, of my being able to GET your transmissions. Anger issues, expressions of and healing, and going through and rising above----important Journey. You say an equal amount of Fear and Anger is behind all the smiling.
Curling anger with elegance---i want to understand what this means. First is the elegance in accepting that the anger is there--right? Then the elegance continues by allowing the anger to do what ? To teach me how to let feelings move through me, to motivate me, to see the transient nature of all feelings.........am i on the right track here?
COACH RESPONDS:
Most Noble Shishya,
you are sooooooooo on track here!
"Awareness itself invites Transformation."
for now, steady your Practice with just Noticing the arising of Anger...sometimes, it is hidden so cleverly within our biomechanics that we do not realize how "Angerly" we sit down on a coach, or grab at a door knob, or clump about on top of Mother...that sort of thing.
STUDENT:
what is on the other side of the smile you ask. All that you mention----i do feel pain, doubt, fear, anger each and every day. i have laziness and habits that keep me from awareness. I push against these with the WF teachings .
COACH:
replace 'pushing' with 'piercing'
chakras cannot be pushed...however,
They can be pierced...example; Surya Bhedana Pranyama..."Piercing The Solar Channel With Control of the Life Force."
STUDENT:
The smile is about feeling the blessings--appreciation for all that i have----even the pain, doubt, fear and anger.
COACH:
perhaps.
perhaps 90% of that smile is bullshit.
STUDENT:
I TAF what you said about the karmic load expanding is on point. That is why i TAF that the energetic level of Yoga is next for me. I have worked the physical asanas and have opened to a certain level----in order to expand the "issues in my tissues" i need to go to the energetic level----pranayama, bandhas, SR and whatever other Paths you guide me along.
COACH:
SLOWLY!!!!!!!!
the Outer Shell will exhibit the change from within.
June 06, 2006
Bardo Blues and Southwest Hues...
"Those who have not practiced spiritual discipline in their youth,
pine away like old cranes in a lake without fish.
Like worn-out bows they live in old age,
sighing over the past."
- Dhammapada, 155/156
Jemez Reservoir...
now dry...like so much of my Beloved Southwest.
precious, precious snowmelt used to fill this gorgeous basalt valley
providing deep riparian abundance within this arid land...
now,
the precious water is used to support car washes and golf courses...
nowhere is the drought and insanity of comfort addicted human ignorance more evident
than within the spiritual birthplace of Wholistic Fitness; the "Four Corners" region of the American Southwest.
***
just a few short years ago,
i would come to this very overlook and practice Being
...and breathing...
this place, on the Santa Ana Indian Reservation is just a few miles from where i wrote my fourth book, The Winter Athlete.
often, i would ride my bike here and rejuvenate my lungs and legs with pinyon air and turquoise sky
peppered sparingly by lithe clouds...
my family still live along the banks of the Rio Grande bosque near Albuquerque, New Mexico.
where you see only scorched, brown earth today in this photo above...
just a few moon cycles ago,
there was the miracle of water...tons and tons of beautiful sky blue water lapping luxuriously at coyote tracked banks.
i would come here
do Ai Imawa...
yoga...
and breathe with the festive flight of dozens of cliff swallows plying the air...
like mystical flowers that danced a heart lifting Swallow Dance...
from my lofty perch poised above the rare and seemingly bejweled water,
i would recharge my spiritual veins with the abundance of pranic blood made manifest from red orange hues of
unspeakable sunset blues and then...moon.
this place saved my soul when i lived in Los Angeles,
attempting to be brave and bring this Mountain and High Desert chi
to those of the City Tribe...
yet, now,
having been faithful to my Big City Mission...
now
having returned to my Beloved Southwest...
i look out over the sage where once a sea had winked at me...
sage as dry as the parchment it is becoming...
as
old and withered
as i feel at times,
times like today
when i see this place where once water flowed,
now only
heat and wind and miniscule life...
"A man who does not learn from life,
grows old like an ox: his body grows
but not his wisdom."
- Dhammapada, 152
now i come to this sacred place
and perform Bardo Meditations...
in the heat and wind
in the heat and wind
the Southwest has fueled my zest for living in utterly unquenchable ways,
today, however,
the Southwest and the madness of people rushing here and sucking her fragile nipples dry
is teaching me yet another layer of Letting Go...
and Ishvara Pranidhana...
i hear Shiva laughing in the the dry quacks of thunder rolling over El Cabazon...
i hear Shiva
i see Shiva smiling up at me from the cracks of the yawning Mother Earth...
that which Lives cries for Life,
that which embraces Death laughs at the clinging...
now i come to this sacred place
and perform Bardo Meditations...
i come here to train for Death...
in the heat and wind
in the heat and wind
and wonder
how gracefully i, like the Purple Sage,
twisted and forlorn
can elegantly wither
and
assume my Death Entry.
June 05, 2006
HAS COACH'S INTERNET SPIRIT DISAPPEARED?
JUST WAIT...till you hear what Coach did at his most recent race on Sunday! Coach is on a road trip at the moment...we know you have many questions about the exciting changes at our Humble Temple like Chris below...
The Path is Steepening! Let's Warrior UP!
On Jun 5, 2006, at 9:15 AM, chris c wrote:
has your spirit disappeared from the web?
chris
***
TEMPLE MANAGER ANANDA RESPONDS:
FOR NIRVANA's SAKE...
NO!
our Beloved Coach ain't leaving the Internet! Hec, he was handwriting fans of his books even before the internet was invented! The Tireless Master of Fitness Warrior Correspondence is, in fact, working TWICE as hard to Serve non-formal Online Students...the new WholisticFitness site at: www.wholisticfitness.com
(better reset your bookmarks!)
Coach is in New Mexico taking care of Cycling Warriorism (just WAIT till you hear what he did at the Sandia Crest Hillclimb Race!) and a personal family matter...stay tuned to DL closely and our new "InDirect Lines" for all the inspiration that matters to your Awakening!
hope to see you as a Subscriber to DL if not an Online Student sometime!
June 02, 2006
Imagine Having Coach Date Your Daughter...
The following is an actual email i just sent Ananda's dad tonight...
thought you might just get a kick out of it...and imagine...if....
Hi "Dad"!
thought you would enJoy these pics i took of your daughter today
as i took her out on a local "intermediate" mountain bike loop across the street
from our home...it's exactly our "1-year Anniversary" from moving to Flagstaff from LA.
your daughter drew a bit of blood (hey, it ain't REALLY a good mountain bike ride unless
there is blood involved, right?) yet was the exemplar of a Warrioress as she
cranked out the whole 15-mile, 1,150' ride in fantastic effort without complaint.
on the climb upward, off the bike once again,
and once again...visualizing getting back on it!
there is about a 350' drop off on her left.
note blood on her Vastus Lateralis (click on photos to enlarge).
this Inner Searching of the Will to Go Higher
is traditionally known as, "Yoga."
"A true follower of the Buddha shines among blind mortals as the fragrant
lotus, growing in the garbage by the roadside, brings joy to all who pass by."
- Buddha
Dhammapada 4;58-59
at the top of the 1-mile Uphill, technical HURT of "Lower Brookbank"
and Joy's first sight since she has lived here, of the Dry Lake Meadows
which hover above our Temple H(om)e...
i'm sorry, just a little toooo cute...flushed face from Fear and Heat and High Heart Rate,
yet Joy's everlasting smile shines on and on and on...
(shit, those biceps ain't too bad, either!)
"Use your body for doing good, not for harm.
Train it to follow the dharma. Use your tongue for doing good, not for harm.
Train it to speak kindly. Use your mind for doing good, not harm.
Train your mind in love. The wise are well disciplined in body, speech, and mind.
They are well controlled indeed."
- Buddha
Dhammapada 17;231-234
Your daughter coming....
Your daughter going...she is a hard chick to keep up with!
"If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few."
- Suzuki-Roshi
Your daughter had a spiritual breakthrough on this descent of "Little Gnarly" trail...she Relaxed Into The Intensity...a Wholistic Fitness® training tenet that we have been working with on Joy's descending skills and today she found another
measure of relaxation during danger and intensity. This breakthrough..makes me...as a Coach...as a Teacher of Yoga...it just makes me... well...
SMILE!
looking GREATLY forward to seeing you in Floridia very soon (note, i will be a bit NERVOUS however...i always get a wee bit anxious if i cannot see a Rocky Mountain Summit soaring into Father Sky...).
much love and semper fi spirit as possible from this feeble civilian,
steve
June 01, 2006
SUMMIT CENTER STAGE RACE: End Of The Beginning...you do NOT WANT 'dis shit!
HOW (not) TO MAKE FRIENDS IN YOUR NEW TOWN...
Coach Pisses Off The Yellow Jersey,
Finishes first on his new team...
and finishes in the Top 15 Overall...
are you SURE you wanna piece of 'dis shit!??
i've absorbed a fair bit of Trash Talkin' capacities over the course of my life...
and it might come as a surprise to you that your ol' coach knows a thing or two about drivin' to the paint and kickin' out to the tres players, baby! c'mon...think you can take me...i know you want to...i know you would LOVE to put the hurt on me...yet, it ain't gonna happen, baby...shit, i will put the Shiva Ram into your Rama Dass ass and spin you around so fast you'll be cryin' to yor lil ol' mammatime...you KNOW dat shit to be true!...hundreds have tried to take me...sorry...friend o mine..just mind yo shit and take yo sorry lame ass to the back o the line...cuz when it come to talkin' shit and livin' dat shit in yo face?
yo is talkin' to da KING, baby!!!!!!
i will take you down in my Tevas and with Mula Bandha engaged, baby!
read on if you dare about how i bitch slapped the Yellow Jersey Team with Bhagavad freakin Gita Namaste HIGH PERFORMANCE YOGA CHI, and
survived to write my Noble Tribe about it...
hey,
someone has to play Shiva and Be Brave enough to go down while fighting against Goliath...
so,
i figger,
it better be a WF Warrior, baby!
Go ahead, Yoga Teachers...talk all you want you about Divine Currents, Instant Joy, Blessed
Happiness, Sacred Spirals, blah, blah, blah...
yet, when push comes to shove,
when the intensity of Anger Arising
and you KNOW it does,
even if it Arises within cancer, divorce, fat, drugs, impatience, or...
worse,
if you let it go until the Death Moment...
then,
you will recall a humble Warrior Path of Wholistic Fitness® and HP Yoga® that
embraces Anger as a Human Condition and thus uses the INTENSITY OF RACING, OF
CARDIO TRAINING, OF STRENGTH TRAINING, OF INTERVALS, OF MULTI-DISCIPLINED YOGA
to dilute our judgments, opinions, beliefs, gossips, and negative/lazy tendencies...
until you take out your Racing License...
i have a question...
are you REALLY a member of the Human RACE?
here then,
is the conclusion of my recent race...
just a little race
in a little known land
as a BIG WAY to express
what is happening in my Heart...
thus,
it is not a race report that i Gift you tonight...
it is my
Heart...
and i feel honored
and lucky
to share this yoga with you...
thus in Hanuman Spirit...
the vast, mysterious being...defies category...
the Son of the Wind God...
the Symbol of Selfless, Inexhaustible Intense Devotional Service to God,
Hanuman is the most Ferocious Warrior,
Hanuman is the Enemy of the Demons of Ignorance and Ego
the Connector to the Infinite,
the Breath of Ram..
the Life Force of the Cosmic Energy...
thus,
with Hanuman Spirit,
i Gift you my conclusion of THE SUMMIT CENTER Stage Race...
thank you for reading...and please put my Sweat to Go(o)d Use in your OWN Practice!
Namaste,
coach ilg
***
SCENE: Approaching Turn Around; mile 28.5 fast downhill
Two racers had attacked the Lead Group on the fast downhill leading to the Turn Around, a simple, neon orange pylon in the middle of the high forest road.
Sensing that Ian was gonna launch his Suicide Breakaway, i moved into the lead going into the Turn Around which was on a downhill for some crazy reason. The two other racers that had flown the coop just moments earlier were charging up the road next to us as we came soaring into the Turn Arround at over 28 mph...just then, the Lead Motorcycle which was on my left shoulder swerved directly into my path! Something from the bikes of one of the breakaway racers had come off and was bouncing erratically across the road toward the motorcycle, causing the moto to veer into...well, guess what? dat's right.. me! i locked up my rear wheel, kept the brakes off my front thank God, and waited to hear the thud of the racers behind me start hitting me as i instantly steered off the rear wheel of the motorcycle...
the thud never came, and i thanked my neural fitness for the narrow escape...this is why i Practice Yoga...calm reflexes in the face of danger. i instantly used the confusion to my advantage and accelerated around the Turn Around as the rest of the peleton was braking and wondering what the fuck had happened... i put my head down, hammered up the hill and praying that Ian had missed the moto and was on my back wheel for a lead out for his solo breakaway...
he was, and he did!!!!!!
halfway up the hill, i was spent and thank Lord Hanuman that young, brave Ian had read the fast flying energy of the moment and came around me hard and out of the saddle and flew up the hill before Summit Center knew what hit them!
i immediately moved into the first position and began attempting to thwart counter attacks...and boy did the counter attacks start coming! Red Rock Racing, represented by myself and Ian, had stirred up a Bees Hive and the Worker Bees, protecting the Yellow Jersey were STINGING MAD!
It was left to me alone to counter the entire peleton's response to Ian flying solo up the road. If anyone from any team DID manage to get away from our peleton and move up to Ian who was already nearly 1:00 up the road...then, i would need to be there to 'police' them if they did bridge to Ian, i could then counter attack and/or protect Ian's diminishing energy reserves.
So, every time a racer took off, i had to stick like Velcro� to his back wheel...it was hellish, exhausting anaerobic/aerobic work...each time another Attack went off or when Summit Center pressured the pace up to HIGH, i had to Be Here Now regardless of pain in order to Be There for Ian's backup. Thus was the agony of my Practice for 3 miles of rollers. "Rollers" are 'big chainring hills'...rolling hills often not longer than 600 meters that you can charge like a bull up and down in your largest chainring. After most of the attacks from riders other then started to subside after 3 miles, i found myself pretty much alone with the Yellow Jersey and his Henchmen.
And i had to do everything within the USCF Rules to thwart their efforts to bridge the gap to my Teammate, Ian.
So, i called upon Hanuman Spirit...
i became Summit Center's worst Bug In Their Saddles...
i would feign an Attack...cause them to chase me for a moment, then sit up and SLOOOOOOOW the entire peleton down...
"NUMBER 417..." gasped the Yellow Jerseys main Lieutenant, Scott, "you do NOT WANT TO FUCK WITH ME! STOP INTERFERING WITH THE LEADING TEAM's EFFORT to catch the breakaway...DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!?!??!!!"
"Why, Namaste!" i replied smiling and took off on another attack causing him to chase me down before i sat up again, causing yet another icelandic slowing of the peleton thus buying a few more seconds for my Teammate up the road, solo, into the wind... after a few more times of me playing this Zoom Stop Technique, Scott became rather animated and verbose in his response to my tactics, "NUMBER 417..." gasp, gasp, heave, heave..."I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD I WILL KILL YOU IF YOU DON'T STOP FUCKING WITH THE LEADER JERSEY'S TEAM...you have been WARNED FORMALLY THREE TIMES!"
i made a deeply conscious attempt to show Henchmen Scott that i was not breathing hard at all at a Heart Rate of 190 and thus spoke like an accountant in an air conditioned office to him,
"You know..." i spoke very slowly and (i thought) sagely, "when i was your age?...we called this, 'bicycle racing,' are you familiar with this sport?"
Long pause as the whirring mass of racers tickled my Kundalini Princess from behind...
"YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED THREE TIMES, the next one goes to the OFFICIAL!" said Scott...which, i must admit, was a great way of handing the situation for his Leader.
"Namaste!" i replied and took my position promptly at less then 3 inches from his back tire with the Yellow Jersey right behind me.
***
SCENE: approaching 8 miles from the Finish Line
Jeremy had popped long ago.
Our Team, which began two days earlier with five of us, was now down to three.
Aaron was barely hanging onto the peleton and in his game struggle there was great inner bravery. it ain't an easy sport. i rolled back toward Aaron to cheer and coach him among the chaos of 40+ hurting men traveling on less than 1/4" of tire rubber, handlebar to handlebar on rolling terrain on poor road surfaces at a 22 mph average; "Aaron, listen to me, bro...you GOTTA get up to the front of the pack and SLOW THEIR EFFORTS TO CATCH IAN, okay? They are about reading to cap my ass if i do anymore stalling tactics...now, i need you to stay up with the front guys, bro...no matter how hard it hurts, okay?"
Aaron looked at me quizzically. i don't know if he really understood through the haze and daze of his hurting that i was his Teammate. Bike racing is kinda like High Altitude Mountaineering sometimes; there arrives a point where the Hurt is So Great that, well, shit...you just cease functioning and recognizing things and people as you 'normally' do.
Spittle from several miles earlier had formed an icy looking veneer around Aaron's mouth. He tried to answer me when some snot dribbled into his mouth, nearly choking him.
I left him to his own suffering and rode back toward the front of the whirring wheels and racing heartbeats. It's a hard sport.
i had learned by now, that a bike racer - if he or she was to actually race and not just survive, one had to stay within the top ten or twelve guys. any further behind than that? you cannot telegraph when the next attack or acceleration happens and enormous amounts of precious energy are spent by 'yoyo'ing' - letting little gaps grow between your front tire and the back tire of the guy in front of you. Trapped in this yoyo Hell Realm, you are forced into dozens of little sprints to latch back onto this moving city of speed. It is always soooooo easy to just give up. Always sprinting just to catch back up crushes racing enthusiasm. "Survivor" mode kicks in and thoughts of the podium wither away commensurate to your energy. Attaining the ftness and bike skills to get into and stay in the top ten guys often requires years of frustration, accidents, mistakes, and falling off the pace. Gaining speed is slow learning curve for most of us.
***
SCENE: The Peleton Finally Catches Ian
At about 8 miles from the finish line, Summit Center leading the peleton for the Yellow Jersey, Peter, had finally caught our Beloved 18-year old Ian. I swear to Lord Hanuman that i fell in love with Ian over those miles when i could no longer slow the speed of his capture. i kept seeing him, hovering in front of our speeding city of wheels, about 40 seconds ahead..head down, skinny little boy body compressed against the growing, blowing wind...all alone in his own world of unimaginable hurt. Ian kept that entire huge Summit Center Team chasing his high school butt for nearly 45 minutes! Ian will do just fine in the Bardo...this i Know to be true.
As our Peleton caught Ian i was in the top five guys, watching like a wolf for a counter attack once we caught Ian. In Road Bike Racing, it is common that once a breakaway is captured, a racer will counterattack immediately, since they know the chasing Team that has done most of the work is tired. no counter attack came however. Summit Center had kept the pace way too high; 26 mph. this pace discourages mightily any thoughts of going it alone by glory seekers; could YOU pedal YOUR bike alone at 30 mph for 7 miles to stay away from an angry pack of racers? Probably not. i know i could not, so i tucked my Pride inside and hung on to the leaders, awaiting the final doom of the 1.5 mile uphill climb...maybe just maybe i could do something special on that climb...
As the peleton caught Ian, i slapped him on his skinny butt; "Great job, bro...i did what i could."
i did not see Ian again until he somehow,
someway,
actually recovered
and attacked AGAIN on the final uphill climb...
he finished ahead of me by a few seconds...
we were both behind the Yellow Jersey by about 30 seconds at the finish.
at the bottom of the 1.5 mile climb, the Summit Center's domestiques just pulled up,
and nearly collapsed in fatigue, having successfully delivered their Leader to the bottom of the final hill. Each one of them sold their souls and their results for their Leader, Peter Traylor.
dat,
my friends,
is bike racing.
fucking Noble, baby.
"Hey Pete..." i rolled by the Yellow Jersey at the top of the climb after the finish...
He nodded to me..
"Congratulations, bro...you better buy your teammates a nice cold one today...they fucking did GREAT!"
Peter was peeing, "Yeah bro, i know...they are like my rolling team of bodyguards."
"See you next Saturday on the club ride," i said as i rolled onward to meet with Ian, Aaron, and Jeremy...each of whom had finished and were smiling.
"Guys," i said, "Each one of you should go home super happy today...the last three days have been fantastic training for us as a new Team and i can't wait to race with you again. Ian, you in particular...i bow, baby! Well done!"
A little later, Scott, the main Bodyguard of the Yellow Jersey with whom i had shared words with out on the roads rolled up to me atop the hill climb summit...i began looking around for a tree to hide behind...
"Number 417!!!!!" He shouted in front of a growing mass of utterly fatigued racers replicating atop the hill...
i nodded to him.
"Number 417! yeah you! hey, man, GREAT RACE...dude, i hope i wasn't out of place back there on the roads...i was just doing my job, man!"
i smiled, thankful that the young strapping lad had chosen NOT to take a 2" x 4" across my face, "Bro, dude man...you handled me PERFECTLY! you tolerated my antics for a while, then threatened official reporting...that is precisely what you should have done! you and your Team and Pete did a FANTASTIC race over the last few days...you guys should go home very happy, man!"
"Yeah, cool...man, you were fit out there..."
"Thanks, but don't worry, next year i will be racing 45+ and so i will leave you young guns alone," i said.
"Dude! you are 44?" he said it in a way that seeped incomprehensibility.
"Yeah man, and you should come to my High Performance Yoga® classes on Wednesday nights so i can pay back some of that trash talkin' you were giving your Elder out there.."
By now, a small crowd had gathered and laughter rang through the mountain air...
"Yeah right," said Scott, "you'd totally kick my ass once you saw how inflexible I am!"
I chose to smile, bow to him, and let his comment linger like a hummingbird's dance upon an alpine flower and rode with my teammates down the hill toward the beginning of another end....
***
COACH'S RESULTS in his first High Altitude Cycling Stage Race returning to the mountains from LA:
May 27-29, 2006:
Summit Center Stage Race (bicycle stage race)
Flagstaff, AZ
http://www.azcycling.com
Result:
Prologue: Mars Hill Prologue = 16th place 2 minutes, 09 seconds
Stage 1; Perkinsville Road Race = 17th pace 2:17:24
Stage 2; NAU Criterium = 16th place 33:08
Stage 3; Lake Mary Road Race = 29th place 2:30:12
Final GC Result: = 14th place 5 hours, 22 minutes, 53 seconds. (+13.2 winning time)
Coach's next race is June 4th in Albuquerque, New Mexico when he takes on the young ones again in a 57 mile, 6,800' climbing slugfest to the top of Sandia Peak, 10,650'
Stay tuned to DL for more Race Reports that are certain to be...if not a slam dunk...
it will surely be filled with Dharma Points...
from the MultiDisciplined Mountain Yogi
the
Coach that still DOES...
coach ilg