A personal 5-hour Media Fast and Silent Retreat paid off handsomely during teaching a HP Yoga® Restorative Yoga class to 12 Warriors in the Cave of Champions. As a new daddy, it required a tremendous effort to carve out this mini-retreat; yet, ilg realizes just how important it is to my capacities as a teacher, parent, partner and athlete.
May virtue arise in the minds of all living Beings.
May virtue arise in the minds of all living Beings.
Photo: this fantastic pic was caught by Most Noble WF Student Daniel Wolfe. Overcome the tendency to find fault. Finding fault diminishes fundamental inspiration by the most 'mundane' of Beings and Circumstances. click to enlarge.
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The following email came to me after i processed an Online Order from WF Informal Student Adam C:
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The following email came to me after i processed an Online Order from WF Informal Student Adam C:
Student:
What a lesson this has already been Steve!
I clicked "buy" and sat at my computer waiting to get an auto generated email with my purchases attached!
I went through your web page a few times trying to figure out what i did wrong....
Then it hit me...
this is steve ilg! he is going to send it himself...
And i need more patience and get away from the instant gratification mind set...
Thanks for the lesson before I even open the lesson.
adam
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Coach Responds:
Coach Responds:
People come often toward me with questions seeking spiritual advice. On the podium of things-i-could-say-to-them is this:
"Delay your desire for instant self-gratification."
Delayment of Self Gratification has been part and parcel of the great WF Teachings since 1982.
Since then, i've have to retro-fit the Teaching to meet the ever-accelerating times:
Delayment Of Instant Self Gratification
has now risen to the surface of my Teachings on this subject since the advent of the internet (yes, WF existed long before the internet was even created...sOMetimes we forget the lineage of WF along the Path of Awakening).
not many things surprises ilg these Kali Yuga days.
what does surprise ilg is the head-shaking realization of just how fast the mind states of people can switch within the quick context of one's own lifetime.
Ananda holds up one of our Swiss Chard Plant Beings from our garden. Well, it's not really "OUR" garden at all is it? It's Brahmans...It's God's Garden, not 'ours.' The spiritual teachings of gardening (and they are many) pivot upon Delayment of Instant Self Gratification.
As Student Campbell discovered, ilg still does keep the "OM" in CustOMer Service.
Most don't.
Most internet services are all about Instant Self-Gratification.
The faster the delivery, the better.
This Way of Thinking is, what the Buddha would call, 'afflicted.'
The shortcomings of faster-is-better are many.
Common to the condition to an ever-accelerating life is the effect of "expectation."
When i graduated from St. Columba School, here in Durango, all my schoolmates that graduated from the 6th grade that year, got these plaques adorned by bible quotes.
In one of the most Moving, Profound, Awakenings of my young life at the time was opening up my Plaque box and seeing a quote that was not from the bible.
It was, instead, from the Collective Wisdom of All Ancient Enlightened Masters...
And what it said hit me with no less velocity than a thunderclap right into my Ajna Chakra:
"BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HAVE NO EXPECTATIONS
FOR THEY SHALL NEVER BE DISAPPOINTED."
FOR THEY SHALL NEVER BE DISAPPOINTED."
Can you, right now, even imagine how your life would change if you could Realize this quote into the Things-That-You-Do each day?
How would it affect your Asana Practice?
Your Cardio or Strength Training?
Your Nutrition?
Your waiting at the Stop Light or Grocery Store?
So, this quote from my chi-ldhood is sOMething that all of us could actualize.
Interesting with the training of the mind is that whatever comes into our mind is not owned by any Source higher than thou. Any thought can come into our minds,
through TV or iPods or this Blog...
so consequently it is Go(o)d to not give any special meaning to it
just because you became Aware of it.
what's important is to run pervading thoughts pass your Dharma Teacher; he or she is well trained to facilitate thoughts and things actually important to your spiritual Awakening.
If we don't expect things, we don't live in the future; instead we live Here, Now.
Student Campbell 'got' my teaching in Delayment of Instant Self Gratification due to his acceptance of ilg as his Teacher.
It is beyond the ability to put into words just how important it is to have confidence in, and be inspired by our chosen Teachers. Otherwise, without such deeply rooted conviction, we will inevitably miss the subtle - if not the gross - Teachings from our Teacher.
And the go(o)d Teachers all-Ways teach in multi-layered ways for long, long years.
May mental quiescence permeate your workouts and your work-withins...
feeble ilg
How would it affect your Asana Practice?
Your Cardio or Strength Training?
Your Nutrition?
Your waiting at the Stop Light or Grocery Store?
So, this quote from my chi-ldhood is sOMething that all of us could actualize.
Interesting with the training of the mind is that whatever comes into our mind is not owned by any Source higher than thou. Any thought can come into our minds,
through TV or iPods or this Blog...
so consequently it is Go(o)d to not give any special meaning to it
just because you became Aware of it.
what's important is to run pervading thoughts pass your Dharma Teacher; he or she is well trained to facilitate thoughts and things actually important to your spiritual Awakening.
If we don't expect things, we don't live in the future; instead we live Here, Now.
Student Campbell 'got' my teaching in Delayment of Instant Self Gratification due to his acceptance of ilg as his Teacher.
It is beyond the ability to put into words just how important it is to have confidence in, and be inspired by our chosen Teachers. Otherwise, without such deeply rooted conviction, we will inevitably miss the subtle - if not the gross - Teachings from our Teacher.
And the go(o)d Teachers all-Ways teach in multi-layered ways for long, long years.
May mental quiescence permeate your workouts and your work-withins...
feeble ilg
