I think former Online Student Karen Carmona put it best about today's WF Challenge Test when i told her, like all the others, 'nope, not correct' on her guess...to which she wrote back,
"Things are not as they appear."of course, Student KC was quoting Buddha
, however, what she was trying to say was that we don't extract from everyday situations the richness of
Lila (go ahead and Google that word if you are still - by now - unaccustomed to ilg's ease of flipping between yogic and Western terms. don't be lazy; ilg plants words to challenge your willingness to explore spiritual beacon words) which runs rampant through the fabric of our Outer World.
okay, i've pushed you i DL'rs long enough, although, quite frankly, ilg is surprised - given the volume of you sitting around the DL Campfire - not one of you were able to get the correct answer.
it was Keith Erickson from i don't know where, that came closest. he wrote well past my deadline time;
Hi Steve,
Longtime fan of
Outdoor Athlete just bought
Total Body Transformation and saw your In-Direct lines test. Thought I would give it a try.
I see four Canadian Geese and one well hidden whitetail deer. Just got home from work @6pm so I'm probably over the time limit.
Best Regards,
Keith Erickson
Warrior Keith, you were the ONLY ONE who spotted the deer in the foreground! sadly, however, it was not a "Whitetail Deer" but rather, a "Mule Deer." Also, you missed one goose.
here is how i wrote my DL Sangha after they got stiffed as well:
The correct answer to yesterday's unsolved
WF Test Challenge:Five Canadian Geese (Branta canadensis)anda Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus)
Glimpses of undifferentiated Reality...what the Japanese spiritual seeker might call, Sartori, and what i have historically termed, 'shards of Awakening' are like finding the huge Deer in yesterday's photo.
look again at my photo.
this time; hit up
WF Lifestyle Principle #1: take an Ujjayi Breath, adjust your posture, soften your eyes as if in meditation...as if in asana practice.
look softer...you'll soon be greeted by our beautiful Deer Being
and you'll be shocked,
"Why, how the hec could i have missed THAT?!"that's precisely how Truth feels
when we happen to rip through a layer of Avidya...spiritual ignorance.
like water; Mind is clear.
like muddy water, Avidya makes murky that which is by nature quite Clear.
when i composed that photo,
i purposely framed Sister Deer within her natural camouflage; the dogwood and elder bushes along the river bank...
like Sister Deer in my photo;
modern American culture thwarts the context or framework in which to comprehend transpersonal insight and Truth. Worse still, rather than encouraging us to explore Truth and spiritual penetration more deeply and discover where they spring from, we are taught and basically brainwashed in both obvious and subtle ways to make more murkier our Clear mind nature; each time we plug into an iPod, watch TV, gossip...
that's what freaks us out when we reach a certain depth of understanding in WF:
we arrive at the frightening station that what we call our 'selves' is really just an accumulated mish-mash of second-handed opinion and unEnlightened trivia.
as Rinpoche Soygal says, "This is perhaps the darkest and most disturbing aspect of modern civilization—its ignorance and repression of who we really are."
Today's WF Assignment:
Look Softer, Not Harder.
ilg in meditation. photo by k. faulstich
