Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Plane Spirit Victory For Online Student Weiss plus, i get ready for a BIG HURT!



"The most perfect technique is that which is not noticed at all."
- Pablo Casals

i am getting ready for my last nordic event of the year; the nation's HIGHEST nordic ski race on top of Telluride Ski Resort! THIS is gonna hurt. stay tapped into DL for more. now, check out this Teaching inspired by Online Student Weiss of NYC who has recently experienced a tremendous Shift in his understanding, practice, and appreciation of the WF Online Path. How about YOU?


From An Actual Online Training Exchange:

STUDENT W:
...and this morning when flying to Denver, i realized that i failed to become clear about which airline was actually flying me there, and to walk with my bags about 1/2 to 3/4 mile- it wasn't the distance, nor the weight of the bags, but my annoyance with the situation that ultimately i had created. but all of a sudden i got a sort of "hit" of WF Qi- and i read you r words about everything is practice to a yoga, and suddenly i was doing conscious breathing, smiling and kind of bouncing my way down the walkway between terminals at the san fran airport! Breath and Posture!

COACH RESPONDS:
that, my Friend,
is PRECISELY what WF (Western Based Yoga) is ALL ABOUT!
it is sooo terribly difficult to get my fans and even my students to understand that the real Gem of WF Training lies not in her physicality; rather in her YIN side; her 4 LIFESTYLE PRINCIPLES!. many people are intimated by WF Online or even by my books because of the up front physical training, the look of my own body, my athletic resume, etc. They think, "Oh look at him, i can never be like him; he must spend ALL day training..."

little do they know the true history of that broken body of mine, my supremely average...

READ COACH'S ENTIRE TEACHING on today's DIRECT LINES SUBSCRIPTION FORMAT: stop missing all these potent tools for your OWN JOURNEY HIGHER!

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Yoni Two-sday - ilg comes to LA to Teach!


Most Cherished Warriors of the Higher Sweat,

Two Dharma Arrows for your Quiver today;

the first is a most BEAUTIFUL contribution by our very own Teacher Ananda. take your time and let her Beauty sink into each of your cells then, spend the rest of today, turning that Beauty inside out for all Beings Everywhere, okay? here you go:

The Joyful Breath


Dharma Arrow number two?

WE'RE COMING BACK TO LA TO TEACH!

yup, it's becoming a Tradition; TAX DAY COMETH and so does the ILGMAN.
Both arrive in LA on April 15th.
The Latter is a tad bit more fun and healthy for the body/mind than the former,
then again, that is what Balance is all about; dancing that spontaneous edge between the demands of the Outer World
and your Willingness to keep cultivating that Endless Part of you known as your Inner World.

the pdf for my LA Workshop can be found under 2007 Retreats at my website:

WF 2007 Events

oh i am doing some REALLY FUN and COST EFFECTIVE changes in our WF Personal Retreats...so the Tribal Catalog is a bit frolicky (frolicky?) right now. i will let you know when the bulk of the VERY COOL CHANGES are made!

fun stuff, life; live it strongly, live it softly, live it with CHI!

onward, upward, and ever inward,

el coache

Sunday, March 4, 2007

Sky Like Mind + Coach Answers a Dharma Question


Buddha sat in serene and humble dignity on the ground,

with the sky above him and around him, as if to show us that in meditation you sit with open, skylike attitude of mind, yet remain present, earthed, and grounded. The sky is our absolute nature, which has no barriers and is boundless, and the ground is our reality, our relative, ordinary condition.

The posture we take when we meditate signifies that we are linking absolute and relative, sky and ground, heaven and earth, like two wings of a bird, integrating the skylike deathless nature of mind and the ground of our transient, mortal nature.
- Sogyal Rinpoche

***
"Coach,
i bow to your learning and recognition from Rinpoche at Naropa. i am working on a paper in my contemplative studies class, kinda following in your footsteps but without all the world-class athlete stuff. i will admire from a distance! i am working on a sidebar for my paper, quoting various body/mind experts that come from Buddhist traditions. if you would be so kind, Dear Dharma Teacher Who Also Does The Do Like Few,
* In one sentence, how would you describe the Buddha's viewpoint on death?

Om Mani Padme Hung .

May Chenreezig himself shower his Blessings upon your brave Path,
kit from Boulder"


COACH RESPONDS:


DO NOT MISS COACH's CLEAR AS A TIBETAN BELL RESPONSE in today's DL Subscription! CLASSIC!!!!


photos:
1) WF Temple H(om)e Buddha; Shakky overseeing and protecting the symbolic representation of the worldwide WF Sangha. by ilg.
2) Flagstaff ponderosa and pranic filled sky. by ilg.
3) coach in the "adepts pose" (Siddhasana). Temple archives.

Saturday, March 3, 2007

How To Help Heal, Without Being A Nuisance Or DisServing the Dharma



As our own Practice matures and our Light becomes more evident to our family and friends and
co-workers,
it is quite typical for us to be approached in any number of ways to Help.
sometimes, at the lowest level, we find people coming up to us and basically just
doing what i call, "Acoustical purging," upon us. People just start venting about all sorts of things
to us.
Our Practice during such encounters is WF Lifestyle Principle #1; Breath and Posture..

At other levels, we may find people asking us to perform ceremonies or mediate certain relationship challenges.
Here, our Practice must be to SLOW DOWN and create SPACE before saying, "sure, i can help you!"

The convoluted internesting of our Samskaric tendencies, our Karma, and our own Practice of the Dharma must
be considered before we attempt to "help" or "heal" others.

Below, WF Teacher Ananda provides an EXCEPTIONAL DISPLAY of teaching one of her beautiful and empowered online students to "slow down before you choose to help".

APPEARING TODAY IN DL SUBSCRIPTION:
Teacher Ananda's POWERFUL and PRACTICAL TEACHING!

Friday, March 2, 2007

Coach's FEBRUARY PRACTICE STATS; Light Body = Heavy Metal, Baby!




By the time came to race my Highlight Event of the winter; the Mt. Taylor Winter Quadrathlon, my Abhyasa (training consistency) plus the very same Nutritional Path of SUNRIDER Herbs + BioBuilde Amino Acids that i have Taught you, had done its job once again. My bodyweight was tickling 139lbs. a Flyweight with a Heavyweight punch, baby! My immunology was bombproof and my mental tenacity was ragin' to suffer.

That is the yogic body; a body capable of Higher Power Transference. Lightweight, super strong yet supple frame, and an internal energetic engine that recognizes, assimilates, and channels Prana instead of trying to rely upon the archaic muscle and oxygen system known to conventionally trained athletes.


This beautiful Nambe® trophy will endlessly invoke Sacred Sweat memories of my 3rd Consecutive Title at Mt. Taylor. Those memories trigger a cascade of Metta for my amazing Teammate, Lisa Goldsmith, the Kachina Spirits which Dance so powerfully in the ether of "Tsidool," and finally my attainment of the Fastest Ski Descent; something i had been trying to get for years and years.


Winning the Flagstaff Winter Triathlon heading into Mt. Taylor absolutely fired my confidence! A Warrior's best friend; confidence. To win this 2-Day, 3-Sport event, meant getting my bodyfat low by relying upon SUNRIDER Herbs yet Maintaining a Positive Nitrogen Balance by using BioBuilde amino acids to regenerate my body tissues. A difficult balance for most, especially if linking day after day of hard nordic training at altitudes of 9,000' to 11,500'. i skied or snowshoed 15 out of February's 28 days in order to be able to set the 11,301' Mt. Taylor Course on fire! Training at such high altitudes is very hard on the immune systems. Nutrition must be tantamount to be able to train at altitude yet recover and regenerate to manifest the training effect. otherwise you go backward instead of forward.when Racing at high altitude, it is VERY EASY to just try to get into a 'happy place' instead of racing your guts out! most of us will make that same error in the Bardo Entry as well. My key to maintaining my aggressive tenacity while racing and simultaneously instill openness through my power producing hips/glutes/abdominals meant while relying upon solo sessions of my HP Yoga Prop Workouts.

Here are my Practice Numbers that resulted in myHeavy Metal.
coaching note: do NOT attempt to mimic these numbers in your own training!especially do not attempt to copy my crazy low daily caloric intake vs. caloric output. there ain't a Certified Nutritionist on the Planet that would advise such levels. then again, there has never been a Certified Nutritionist that has been able to keep up with me! Tread CAREFULLY; numbers and intellect lead many Warriors astray from what matters most; Listening to the Language of your OWN Body!

Note how my overall Hours go down; this decrease in Volume is what enables RACE INTENSITY to go sky high!
Timing is Everything.
Most athletes are either too compulsive or too lazy in their training.
WF teaches what did the Buddha;
The Middle Path.

FEBRUARY 2007 Training Stats:


[due to Safety Concerns, coach's training stats are only available to DL Suscribers}

***
i Trust you can see the ebb and flow of my Practice Stats throughout the year.
which Disciplines always remain stable throughout the year?

Meditation and Yoga.

then, Nutrition.

the Dance of Strength Training (Shiva) and Cardio (Shakti) are the two most tweaked knobs in the life and times of a WF Warrior.

of course, engaged application of the WF Four Lifestyle Principles is what keeps our Workout Everywhere which gives the WF Warrior a total advantage in both the physical and spiritual realms of training and performance.


i often get referred to other multisport blogs written by 'triathletes' and 'duathletes' and sure, every now and then i catch the blogs of yoga teachers. then i visit the 'spiritual' websites. my heart opens, for i see them so stuck in specificity. none come close to the stratospheric versatility and wholeness of our own Tribe of humble, powerful, and highly skilled WF Warriors. Like a Dharma Arrow shot straight from Padmasambhava; the Warrior Path of WF producing the most Highly Skilled Yogins.

i love each and every one of you that are brave enough to stay Focused on the Path that develops WHOLENESS while setting the energetic foundation toward spiritual Awakening and possible Enlightenment.

in this day and age of high glitz blogs with advertising all over them, podcasts, and 'certified teachers' of blah, blah, blah, it is so predictably easy to allow our Senses to become addicted to being tuned outward. to spend our days grasping, our eyes hardening by each moment spent looking outward instead of receiving the softness of interplay of (gunic) energies. it becomes so easy to lose our internal core. start scampering off on a bunch of stupid, energy wasting enter-tainments instead of living the decision of inner-attainment through daily sweat and stillness in a balanced measure of wholeness training.

My Practice and Performance Stats all these years means nothing
unless they become footprints in the astral path leading each of you Higher.

May your Practice remain simple, straightforward, and endlessly spontaneous in myriad, inner ways and May your Lotus Feet remain firm until Enlightenment.

i'm going skiing.

om so ti,

steve ilg
a coach that still does...for YOU
!

Thursday, March 1, 2007

Yogi Jut Makes The International News Again!


What A Brahmanic Warrior! Yogi Jut, shown here with Coach after last year's Mt. Taylor Winter Quadrathlon which he also finished this year as well, has again climbed another professional summit in his work as a biologist specializing in, well, cave creatures! check out this story running in MSNBC!

Way to go Yogi Jut! See in you class on Tuesday in our HP Yoga "Cave"!

Yogi Jut In The News

The Beginning Of The End Of What i've Come To Love As ilg?


take good look at that face.
because today, on this Morning of all Sacred Mornings...
i'm getting the first hit that DaddyHood may well be the end of ilg as i love him.
i know, i know. some of you veteran Daddies are already smiling, seeing that ol' ilg is finally, finally gonna have to grow up for christ's sake. let me explain.
see that face? that is a typical ilg face.
you know, the one we've all come to love and enjoy, even me.
and trust me, it's been a long, hard grind to learn to love every afflicted, painfilled, negative, lazy, and spoiled cell of me.
you know how i've come to love all the conflicted parts of me?
i'll tell you right here and now, DL Warriors;
i've allways loved, embraced, and downright embellished the mischievous soul of ilg.
that is right, i said, 'mischievous.'
can a professional yogi REALLY be allowed to be 'mischievous'?
you bet.
in fact, in the Lineage of Mountain Yogis, we excel at mischievousness. we, in additional fact,

{another excerpt...}


...see all that fresh fluff upon the Sacred Peak?
if you could look outside my window right now, your Heart would Dance as the glimmering, glitter of cold snowflakes glissade through Morning Light like an Arctic fantasyland. there is fresh snow upon my Beloved Mother thanks to some night work from Father Sky. Mt. Elden, looking like a celestial white Ganesha in the background, appears to applaud in measured waves as cold and hungry finches, ravens, and chickadees flit like freezing fire through immensely needled giant pines. Each morning in the mountains is to me, Temple Time.
yet, as i write this, in this very moment...

{another excerpt:}

mischievous ilg applies his best yoga in these trees, mimicking puma like agility;
swiftly dropping one knee and then the next in deep, seemingly endless powder as the massive tree trunks whir past.
breath comes quickly, then slowly.
torso rising, then falling tapping into some version of primordial ocean movement still at large within my being.
this is why i telemark ski,
this is why i live,
this is why i...i...


DO NOT MISS THIS HILARIOUS, POIGNANT, POETIC ESSAY IN IT's ENTIRETY FROM AN AUTHOR, WORLD CLASS EXTREME ATHLETE and YOGA TEACHER COMING TO GRIPS WITH A LIFE-CHANGING SITUATION
***


* first photo by WayneWilliamsStudio.com
all others by ilg