DEPTH NOT WIDTH; Look Within, Not Wider

Just wanted to say I hope your DL's keep rolling out of that Chi filling mind! Almost every week one just speaks right to my heart!
-Joe
Spokane, WA

Meet and talk with Joe and nearly 60 other WF worldwide warriors exchanging Practice insights and encouragements and inspirations each day in the WF SanghaLounge, available only to DL Subscribers.

Why is it a wise notion for a Warrior to hang out and check out all the new Posts in the WF SanghaLounge? Cause every now and then I pop my head into the various caves in there and facilitate for free. That’s right; occasionally you get complimentary coaching from me if you just show up in the SanghaLounge and contribute.


The Masters have always warned the aspirant along the Path of Awakening not to seek too wide; learn and develop a few Proven Tools of Transformation from your Teacher, then Practice going DEEPER for years. Too many Students do not know how to control their hunger for spiritual growth and turn outward to become addicts to new styles of yoga, meditations, personal growth seminars, books, etc. Meanwhile, they do not See the magic of Transformation available to them right beneath their noses; such as a toilet, a stairwell, or a toothbrush. This type of spiritual ignorance is the root cause of all human suffering; assuming to know things without truly Seeing their intrinsic nature. If we constantly think we need a new mantra, a new Teacher, a new Teaching...you know what happens? Our most important, basic Tools that we first learned from our Teacher(s) - perhaps something as simple as "Conscious Breath and Posture" throughout the day - becomes dull, cold, and useless. In WF Online Training, i have a 25-year old Path of Progressive Proven Tools that are only given when the Online Student is READY and has shown mastery in his or her current Level of Attainment. This type of one-on-one training beneath a Teacher for each Student ensures that the Student does not become a "Spiritual Materialist" or an Addict to thinking that More Is Better. Remember one of my first Teachings to you so long ago:
"Less is more."

enjoy the following Teaching and i will see you in the WF SanghaLounge!

photo: snow is falling at the WF Temple H(om)e yet my Ax of Awareness is never allowed to become dull by searching outside my current Practice or Teachers. Deep, not Wide. That is how we strike the true Go(l)d; the Awakening of Kundalini through strong and capable gross, subtle, and refined anatomy. photo by coach



DEPTH NOT WIDTH; Look Within, Not Wider
by coach ilg for the WF Sangha

Below is an example of how I chose to keep Online Student JJ of Chicago (Go Bears!) working on depth of practice instead of grasping for more “tools”. Remember my quote, Noble Yogins, whenever you think your Practice is stalling out. Just repeat to yourself:

“In this moment,
Am I concentrating or
Am I grasping?”
- coach ilg

***


Dear WF SanghaLoungers,
Many thanks for all of your comments. They are wonderful and have given me a great deal to think about over the past several days.

I am a husband and a father of four daughters and have often thought about this question of the steep and direct path to enlightment. I think I am on it, or at least on the path that is appropriate for me, and it feels awfully steep and direct. It occurs to me that I have many more teachers than just Coach Haku. WF is important, but for me it is like a thread that winds through and binds together teachings I receive from my wife, my children, my pastor, my colleagues and others. I need all of these teachings right now and it would not be appropriate for me for now to follow the path of a solo warrior...



READ THE ENTIRE QUESTION FROM STUDENT JJ
and COACH's REMARKABLE COUNSEL TO HIM; ENCOURAGING HIM TO EXPLORE BY DIRECT EXPERIENCE HIS
OWN "Jesus Granthi's"!

MONOTONY vs. REPETITION

"Mr. East/West" himself; coach in a "Rocky" t-shirt juxtaposed with Blessed Mala Beads leans against a hogan in New Mexico. A native child of the American Southwest and educated in Eastern Contemplative Studies, coach still dances the East-Meets-West philosophy matched by a peerless athletic resume like no other. photo by Ananda, yesterday.




MONOTONY vs. REPETITION

A “Practice” inSight by Coach Ilg

An excerpt from my next upcoming book…
do not republish


"If we lose the spirit of repetition, our Practice becomes difficult."
- D.T. Suzuki


Every workout is an interesting one to a WF trained athlete.
Since our workout is everywhere in this Path,
Our life becomes a very interesting, colorful, crazy, and precious Bardo.

Workouts transform boring into interesting when we balance meditation with activation.
Meditation earns us patience, acceptance, and most importantly; perseverance.
Activation carves for us a Wholistically Fit Body capable of meditation in all physiologic zendos.

Monotony?
She has been conquered by us through decades of blisters upon our skin.
We have worn her once stiff and imposing suit into a pair of faded jeans easily washed.

We now smile compassionately at Monotony for we are kin to her higher aspect; Repetition.
The Spirit of Repetition, we now know intimately.
The Sacred Spirit of Repetition is a most potent DharmaArrow in our warrior quiver.

Like our Grandfather Sun and Grandmother Moon, arcing endlessly, we too now know the graceful Spirit of Repetition.

Like the Mountain and Desert Winds upon cold sacred peaks and melting pine mesas, we too now know the graceful Spirit of Repetition.

No longer does Monotony burden our Journey.
We have come to recognize her once formidable hulk as but a seductive...


READ THE ENTIRE TEACHING IN THE WF SANGHALOUNGE...it can be found in the "Practice" cave...

Coach's Trip Diary Continues in the Pueblo of Tamaya

now appearing on DL Subscription...

plus,
Student TC speaks beautifully and powerfully about his new Awareness of Interrelationships gained through his Online Studies

as SUNRIDER HERBAL WARRIORESS and HP YOGINI Karen offers us a fantastic photo of Shiva like proportions and input!

Post ThanksGiving WF Student Practice Check

Take Coach's Practice Test
on today's DL

see how your Practice is measuring up to the Standards of a WF Student, WF Warrior Student, and a WF Master Student!


from Coach:
having a GREAT and powerful time along the banks of the Rio Grande with Ananda...life is so deep, dimensional, and i think to myself...
"...what a wonderful world...
Into the Holy-Day Season we WF Warriors go with Conscious Breath and Posture to keep our Practice and our Workout Everywhere.




photo; the so-hard to describe Pranic Power of my beloved southwest. taken by Ananda.

Of InJury and Asana; Actual Training Exchange

Conquerer of countless in-Juries both personally and professionally, Coach teaches that only a strong, steadfast asana Practice will impart the Divine Download that allows each of us to Self Heal. Look WITHIN and DIG! - photo by Ananda.
***

Dearest Coach,
A moment please?
Accept my apologies for sending multiple emails to you over the last two days. I realize that you must get many, many emails daily.

Most Noble Shishya,

you need not worry about that.
if i answer, i answer.
if a flower blooms, it blooms.
if not? that's okay too.


whatcha got?


STUDENT:
The left pectoral muscle has been really acting up again (strained it in the weight room last summer). It feels knotted and inflamed.


READ COACH's PEERLESS COUNSEL IN TODAY'S DL SUBSCRIPTION!!!

Coach's GivingThanks by Way of Yogi Praneet and YOUR Devotion!

As a Thanksgiving Gift for you iDL'ers,
i give you today's DL Subscription entry without edit.
this is the type of genuine CHI that hallmarks each day of DL Subscription and gives you access to the incredible wealth and love of our new WF SanghaLounge.
May each of you realize the value of a few pennies per day and Subscribe to DL;
i promise; it will deepen and inspire your Practice in ways unimaginable to you right now...

enjoy:


"I am attaching a picture of myself taken earlier this year in one of the forests in southern India where I was helping with some field research on wildlife - I look pretty much the same (a few pounds lighter now)." Non-Formal Student Praneet, a WF Yogi in southern India high on the MultiDisciplined Pran after completing the Frugal Realm WF Program in TOTAL BODY TRANSFORMATION. Hey, there is a lot of 'pran' in Praneet! ;-)

How's this for a Thanks-Giving Message...and i ain't talkin' Hallmark bs...this is the WARRIOR type of genuine appreciation streaming from an Awakened Yogi halfway across the (outer) world:

***

Dear Coach llg,

My name is Praneet, I am based in Bangalore, India and want to say - thank you for the beautiful message of Wholisitic Fitness that you are sharing with the world through your books, articles and life.

I had been stuggling to regain the fitness levels I had in my teens and early twenties (am currently 31). I had been training and had been drawn to meditation but had not practiced with enough focus to see significant changes and had realized over the past several years that to be happy I needed to meditate and train physically but did not have the right guidance.

I was browsing through books in the fitness/wellness section of a bookstore when I chanced upon your book - in retrospect I think I was destined and ready to find your book (Total Body Transformation) and open myself up to your teachings.

Since I started walking the WF path I have shed a lot of my fears , learnt to be more responsible and am starting to realize that the beauty inside has always been there - I just had to become aware of it. All aspects have helped - meditation, yoga, strength training, cardio (especially the cardio commute) and nutrition and I now bow to breath as well :-) I have a long way to go, but am taking one day at a time.

I have just completed the Frugal Realm (whew) and am on my week long break, waiting to get in to the Jeweled Lotus. I am planning on participating in a Marathon next year - something I have always wanted to do but never had the courage or discipline to pursue.

Thank you coach Ilg - I am truly and forever grateful - you have helped me transform my life. Thanks for your words of guidance and encouragement and for your embrace - I return it with great love and respect. Yes, I will continue focus on the stillness beyond my sweat and will join the temple one day :-)

Peace and love,
Praneet

***

One Heaven Of A Path, you and i have been Blessed with, eh?

Noble Warrior Praneet, YOUR Devotion IS my Thanks-Giving. No matter how stuffed or hollow our stomach may be tomorrow evening, it is my Prayer that all beings everywhere remain HUNGRY FOR THE TRUTH.

i know that you, ALL of you which make up our WF Sangha, make one feeble mountain yogi deeply, deeply joyful and through your sweat and stillness, i remain inspired to continue along our Steep and Direct Path.

off to New Mexico with Ananda for some family time in multidimensional Ways; biologic family, sky family, earth family, river family, road cycling family, sagebrush family, red dust wind family, etheric family...
and some UnAwake people say that i am not much of a "family man"...i beg to differ!

As we continue to find HaTha Yoga, we inevitably find the Prana and the Apana within each Conscious Moment. As those two vital inner winds become more controllable with our one pointed mind, then not only are we are introduced to our Inner Teacher, we are also introduced to the countless generations of our unique and true Inner Family.

Such is the ThanksGiving of HaTha Yoga; the merging (union) of Prana-vayu and Apana-vayu!

May MultiLayered Dharma Blessings shower upon you and your infinite Family, and may you remain Awake Enough to feel them, share them, and GiveThanks for them.

om so ti,

your loving coach

photos:
2) adobe church wall, southwest sky. Santa Fe, New Mexico, my former h(om)etown. photo by coach.
3) adoble wall, tree shadow, southwest sky.Sedona,Arizona. photo by coach
4) i am perhaps Happiest when i launch myself along the open roads of my Beloved Southwest. it's even better with my beautiful Ananda by my side, sharing the sensuality of red rock, pranic gusts, and shimmering high mountains. photo by Ananda.

A World Class definition of Karma to Live By

Wupatki Pueblo, photo by Ananda taken yesterday.


very potent definition of Karma
with a very touching poetic commentary by Coach

today on DL SUBSCRIPTION FORMAT: the Tribal Newspaper of Wholistic Fitness.
come, join our powwow, every day we Dance the Disciplines like no other.
we are waiting for you.