By: Intensity Magazine

You want to know how Layne Beachley endures the pressure of 20 feet of whitewash on her head tossing her around like a washing machine? It's not what you fight with, but what you fight for that allows the Renegade to endure these trials to transcend him or herself. Beachley says flat out that the spiritual and emotional aspects outweigh the physical.

It takes intense spiritual and mental commitment to remain physically relaxed under the extreme duress of several thousand gallons. Factor in that Layne faced a torn medial collateral ligament in her knee and recovered from muscles atrophied to 10%, dealing in a male-dominated sport, and you have the sculpture of a true warrior.

Moral Depravity

Most gyms and schools rage about their aspirations of the powder pump derby. They suffer a deep moral depravity, owning more mirrors than iron, more display cases than resource guides and more injectables than nutritional support. My heart goes out to the garage gym knuckledragger who bucks this Malibu Ken-and-Barbie muscular masturbation. Training and physicality in general was intended to free us from the ego, not reinforce its stranglehold upon us.

The bottom line is that without great 鬡n to willingly close with the Xtremes, without the esprit de corps to support our unrecognized Renegade kin, without the moral edge of fighting for a greater purpose than yourself, you shall lack the leverage to risk what you are for who you could become. Truly, sport, like life, is a trial of moral and physical forces by means of the latter.

I call the following my "Pillars of Strength." I challenge you to walk the path of the Renegade to free your mind, awaken your spirit and make savage your body.

My "Pillars Of Strength"

1. All people suffer.
2. People suffer due to desire, or attachment.
3. Attachment manifests physically as gravity. Gravity holds us down.
4. As the mind, spirit and body are one, so can gravity weigh down the mind and spirit.
5. Breaking gravity frees the mind and awakens the spirit.
6. However, attempting something new or walking into the unknown requires leverage.
7. Leverage can be found only in the Higher Source of Energy.
8. Faith is the only force that can leverage this Source.

Almost all programs (and the coaches crafting them) totally neglect the first law of athletics: the pursuit of human excellence, the strengthening of the moral caliber of the athletes, and the transcendence of the ego, which limits personal emancipation from societal mediocrity. To those of you whom read this and resonate with the message, join in and walk the path of the Renegade? for it's much deeper and more rewarding than just the toughest physical approach out there.

We don't see life as it is, but as we are. Conceive a limitation and it becomes one. Perceive your own artistic genius and ignore those acclaiming themselves as experts, gurus and legends. Keep faith that your dreams are not mad, but that the masses are for not daring to dream as big as you. Do what the entertainment station zombies fantasize behind sore thumbs.

Live deliberately. Make Fun a vocation and Challenge havoc's cry. Embrace your fears and soar high. And remember the words of Master Yoda, "luminous beings are we. Not this crude matter."

Scott Sonnon

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