sights (un)seen - 2010 WF Calendars!

Play of Divine Light, Ajax Mountain, above Telluride, Colorado. click to enlarge. photo by ilg during the filming of the IRON TEMPLE TEACHINGS DVD.

your ol' coach, at Durango's Coke Race #2, a few weekends ago V-1'ing up one of the endless hills on the 10k course. Andrew "Fergie" Ferguson (see below pic) talked me into doing the race even though i only had my training skis and no race clothing...i eventually ended up in 5th Place AG...

apres race; i offer champion Travis Brown (National MTB Champion) a coke. to my left is my Durango bro and multi-sport podium champion Fergie. the above two photos courtesy of Durango Nordic Ski Club, which provides superbly shot race photography for free; click here for more race pics from this race.

Most Treasured WF Sangha,

often i have to wait for Race photography to send me photo's of the races in which i participate. sometimes, this can take weeks here in the laid-back Southwest. as i wait for any race pics from the Chili Classic, the down time allows me to smile at your wonderful input about my own photography used in iDl and DL. i thank you for the kindness and am greatly pleased that through these years, several of my pics have imprinted upon thy heart. WF Devotee and Online Student, Richard Stone, has graced me with volunteering to produce a handful of WF 2010 Calendars. Through his love and appreciation of WF, he is paying all costs for these exquisite, handy, and chi-full small desk calendars. if response is strong from you, we may be able to order more.

if you would like to have one (you pay only a small shipping fee), let me know. first come, first served. email me.

however, before you do, please take a few minutes to enjoy this inspiring Sights Unseen video.

head bowed,
hip deep in more snow with more still coming (retail orders being delayed; we can't get into town yet)...

coach ilg

ilg's TOP FIVE ENDURANCE BOOKS

click on both pics to enlarge

from today's interview with Coach Ilg on
"The Outdoor Journey" blog

***

For the first time in my life,
i find myself fighting to find the (inner) Fire to compete in
endurance sports.

fatigue from New Daddyhood at age 46 is a prime reason.

okay.

the only reason.

to train for hallmark events such as the Tour de Ski high altitude nordic ultra marathon, or the Mt. Taylor Winter Quadrathlon requires the one thing that a Conscious Parent does not have a ton of; selfish time.

especially if the parents, like Joy and i, choose to raise our children without babysitters and/or do not have elders to help.

so, when it comes to getting in Cardio Workouts; the default Discipline is Running.



that is go(o)d.
because, running is, within the WF Path, considered the "Most Noble" of all Cardio Disciplines. This is due to her purity. Her nakedness. There is nothing like the spiritual high combined with the amplitude of grounding upon our tissues
which comes from our feet consistently and intensely "fucking" Mother Earth...which is using the famous "F-Word" in its original and classic sense.

in fact, due to intense compaction upon the body which running transfers into our connective tissue, most teachers of 'yoga' tend to shy far, far away from intense and consistent running. many even go so far as to counsel their yoga students NOT to run because, "it will ruin your yoga." such ignorance of what "asana" truly means stems from our current spiritual dark age (kali yuga). one must choose one's teachers of yoga very wholistically, in my opinion.

so, when WF Devotee John "Hakado Ru" Kuhlman, founder of
"The Outdoor Journey" blog
asked me for my Top Five Endurance Books,
you'll see that most of them revolve around running.

There is nothing that rips your body up
while strengthening the mental and stamina fibers as running.
every other Cardio Discipline has some form of extracurricular 'entertainment' for the ego;
swimmers have the water element and buoyancy,
skiers have glide,
cyclists get to have their bodyweight supported plus mechanical momentum and speed,
even the Second Most Noble Cardio Sport; Snowshoeing
is not as pure as running due to the imposition of the webs and a far less concussive factor.

So, as New Daddy ilg fights fatigue like i did this morning
while strapping on a pair of YakTrax to my running shoes
before steaming up the zero-degree temperature for my hour long run along
frozen forest roads,
may you find inspiration and the will to carry on the go(o)d fight
as you
maintain your steadfast consistency in the endurance arts...
one of the Five Noble Disciplines of Wholistic Fitness (aka; NavanYoga in Sanscrit).

click here for the list:
ilg's TOP FIVE ENDURANCE BOOK picks on Hak's blog

head bowed,
wholistic heart open,

your loving mountain yogi

*
second photo of coach in Vasisthasana by James Q Martin;
(photo by www.JamesQMartin.com)

NOTE: this is the final "Full Story" that iDLr's will receive until next holiday season...
don't be an unwhole athlete or an imbalanced spiritual seeker;
subscribe to DL today...and for about $12/month you'll get the full, juicy DharmaTeaching each and every release...quit settling for chickenscraps;
you deserve better.

subscribe to DL,
support the WF Path,
and
receive a complimentary pair of keys to the Worldwide Wholistic Fitness SanghaLounge
only for DL Subscribers, plus discounts and much more!

c'mon...WARRIOR UP!!!!

When Independence Expresses Yoga (Union)

click on pics to enlarge








I pray on this day that all of us who have come to know Turtle Island as our h(om)e realize the absolute CHI FORCE of the authors and signers of the Declaration of Independence.

As your Svadhyaya on this day of days,
read aloud with chi, the noble warrior words of the
most important document that monuments our ability to
live freely, practice our yoga without question, and gather
and speak our own Truths which we find to be self-evident.

Read it aloud to your family.
i did this morning, then took my Can Do Clan to
Dewa's and Joy's first ever small mountain town Fourth of July Parade.

As Joy held Dewa in her arms, watching the float of veterans and hearing the
National Anthem, this daughter of a Marine cried tears of happiness and gratitude...
because Joy knows by way of her own father,
the noble warriors who willingly gave and give their life, sweat, and blood
so you and i can speak, act, and worship freely.

Freedom, like fitness, must be fought for.
It cannot be taken for granted.

If my 9-month old daughter can wave an American Flag as she feels the CHI of the day, and if my beloved partner of 40 years old, can cry tears of gratitude
for this amazing, amazing, amazing country today...

i'm thinking at least you can do as i ask,
and read the following Sacred Scripture to your family...
and
maybe even
feel some long-lost LOVE for being
free.


i'm taking "off" from DL this weekend to attempt to finish my
HALLWAY YOGA DVD; which i know you will appreciate and trust you will buy...
it is my fastest, most effective solution to creating consistency in
a sadhana; it's a routine of only three vital postures to be done in the morning
before you rush out to do what free people in a free land do;
pursue Happiness.


***

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

in Congress, July 4th, 1776

by unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders

which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

WF Book Club debuts on the WF SanghaLounge

Ever wonder what type of books i assign my Online Students?

well,
for the first time in the history of WF, subscribers to DL can now visit the NUTRITION Cave in the WF SanghaLounge and see how i consider Assigned Reading as a form of "spiritual nutrition." dis ain't Oprah; dis is WF! and any book assigned to my Students is done so for its capacity to transform accordingly the pranic constitution of a WF Student; formal or informal.

head bowed,
coach ilg

Dewa Dharma; My Little Precious Jewel Reaches 21 Days Old

My Darling Dewachen,

in honor of your 21st Day of coming into this Formful UniVerse* and, to let you know that Amma and Abba ( mommy and daddy) are still ATTEMPTING to bring Non-Attachment (vairagya) to your absolutely ADORABLE form,
i Gift unto Thee on this Day of Days, an excerpt from a very famous book that many Awakened Adults read and re-read to keep our Practice of Non-Attachment at the forefront of our Consciousness.

The book is called...


OH, we hate to tell you, however, this might just be the MOST ADORABLE DL ever! DO NOT MISS THE ENTIRE TEACHING PLUS...and you CAN't BEAT THIS: more Dewa Pictures, including a sneak peak at the world's fittest Baby Glutes!

photo:
1) She's got me; Hook, Line, and Sinker. It is great Honor to take some of the mountaineering like stress from Joy and feed Dewa some of Joy's breast milk from a very fancy smancy bottle. I only wish i could lactate! Hey, maybe...oh well, anyway, much of my Stay-At-H(om)e Fatherhood practices have evolved into what i call; Dewa Sadhana! i Love it! i simply cannot imagine going away from Dewa for entire days to some 'office.' No way.

RECLINING BENEATH ASPENS; a new poem

a new poem and pictures by steve ilg

Writing poetry has long been established within the Wholistic Fitness Personal Training System as a form of what i termed, "Passive Meditation," back in the early years. To this day, if you look upon Bala's cartop carrier rack, you'll see a decal, one of many, expressing; POETRY IS NECESSARY. And it is. Sadly, the pace of Kali Yuga seems to have diminished the soul-nourishing action of reading, contemplating, and creating poetry. Not in this Tribe, however. I will not let your notion of Personal Fitness exclude the necessity of cultivating a poetic mind. From the poetic mind comes poetic action; something that is needed in each of our parenting, relationship, occupational, and fitness skills. This new poem, upon which i worked during the month of August, is offered as an honor to the now freezing nights and sweeping color changes of early autumn. though my chi accelerates towards near constant blissful realms during this most precious season of the falling leaves, it is not without sadness i already miss my hammock, heated smells, and stentorian monsoon rains! this poem is a work in process for a new book of poetry; Kinlani Speaks! a sequel to my first book of poems;

Pagosa Speaks!

May your Practice reflect poetry,
the mountain yogi

***

into fabric jaws wide open
swallowed by a summer hammock,
lyrical see-sawing hugs skin,
melts bones
swaying DreamCatcher of bird- and windsong.
leaf dappled shadows
frolic upon my suspended cocoon.

flesh and mind dissolve
multiplicity's of high country August emerge:

surfing fertile waves of nature,
ripe yet unhurried sweeps of Heaven's breath
the dance of deciduous and evergreen scapes
claw Father Sky.
towering Ponderosa extend silky
green needle fingers
shimmering mock futility
transforming scratch of wind
into Father's own beautiful Ujjayi!

Please consider subscribing to DIRECT LINES to read the rest of Coach's beautiful, powerful poem and pictures but also to help support him in his Lifelong Work of attempting to restore intelligent poetry and spiritual depth and width to our notion of personal fitness training...

Now THIS is what i call a STUDENT UPDATE! Warrior Leeson reveals his Subtle Practice depth!

Now of course, i do not have 'favorite' students. A Teacher and Protector of Dharma is trained to operate from beyond Duality, right?

However, those students that apply their Subtle Mind to the household Practices upon which Wholistic Fitness truly excels, totally turn me on. A rose is only a rose to the UnAwakened vision. There is the gross form of the rose, the subtle fragrance of the rose, and the myriad causal energetics of the rose. To each form, to each workout that we perform, to each Practice and Teaching of Wholistic Fitness, there is also gross understanding, subtle understanding, and refined understanding. These relate to our needs for External, Internal, and Divine Motivation as i have Taught you previously in this forum.

Below, veteran WF Online Student Warrior Tobe from Steamboat Springs, Colorado reveals his subtle understanding of what i consider to be the most integral factor to the WF Personal Training System; Meditation. Particularly within the exclusive Teachings and Practices of my WF Early Morning Ritual (EMR).

Lets listen and learn from my beautiful Shishya Leeson, a genuine Warrior of WF who has learned the endless value of diving DEEP into the often misunderstood household Practices of WF:

On Sep 26, 2007
Dear Coach,

My EMR practice remains a key part of my WF practice. I notice a
calming of my nervous system and greater rhythm to breath. My postural
awareness increases exponentially. I carry a lot of tension in my neck
and shoulders and your WF Toilet Yoga sequences helps to bring my focus there and allow greater relaxation...

...Neti (nasal) wash is essential and clears me of much waste and snot. The simple
practice of neti washing opens up Ida and Pingala* and allows the energy of
my nadic system to flow more freely and deeply. I can feel the pranic
empowerment deeply after neti and pranayama..."

DO NOT MISS THIS FANTASTIC TRANSPERSONAL PROOF of why WF is the Mt. Everest of Personal Training!

Trust in the Path,
and
Abhyasa; Steadfast Practice NO MATTER WHAT!



To all my devoted Students who have the courage to chase their Highest Star through the Wholistic Fitn
Wholistic Fitness Online Training Path;
i bow in deep respect.

May perspicuity arise through calm chitta...

om so ti,
the mountain yogi

* Ida; Left Nostril orchestrating the female/lunar energetics of the body/mind.
Pingala; Right Nostril orchestrating the male/solar energetics of the body/mind.

First Snow Of The Season Kisses The Sacred Peak; Devoted To Thoreau

Please, do not miss this beautiful, special entry with coach and an excerpt from his spiritual grandpapa...

only on DL Subscription Format