Happy Monday!
I hope you all had a lovely Holiday Season.
The New Year is upon us, and from my point of view, has started out beautifully!
I had a great two-week vacation and feel ready for the best year yet.
While I was on vacation, I chose not to travel anywhere. As many of you know, I spent over 20 years on airplanes traveling the world to spread the message of holistic health, so going places doesn’t get me nearly as excited as being home and doing the things I love to do.
I did some stonework, but much less than is usual for me. I had several guests come visit Penny and I over my vacation, and we were often having fun doing art, or working out in the gym together.
I did a fair bit of painting over my vacation. I really feel a tremendous amount of bliss, inner-harmony when I draw or paint. Painting isn’t something I’ve practiced much until recently, so I’m still on a steep learning curve. Brushes and paints are much more complex tools to work with than the watercolor pens I find most natural for my artistic self-expression.
Believe it or not, this is the first mandala my wife (Penny) and I have ever done together in our 18 years together.
Penny’s much more left-brain oriented than I am, and likes to express herself in writing. She doesn’t naturally gravitate to artistic self-expression and it was great fun to share a day of art and relaxation with her.
This mandala beautifully encapsulates the day Penny and I shared together. Sorry for the poor photo quality. Penny took it in the house at night on her phone, but at least you can get a feel for the joy of our day together. Thanks for all your ongoing Love and support Penny! You always amaze me.
I had a lot of fun painting this piece. It is called “Soul Life and Death”. It is my artistic expression of the life cycle(s) of souls coming into and out of individuation and/or embodiment.
The hearts each represent a soul expressing itself through individuality. The souls in the white are coming into existence as they emerge from the Divine Ocean (bottom). The souls in the black have left their physical bodies behind. While self-identity and perceived separation (yang) are the theme consciousness expresses in the life-cycle, the self in unity (yin), as an expression of the Whole is the theme in the afterlife. This painting took me two days to complete, but I enjoyed every moment of the process.
The last day of my vacation was yesterday, and I spent the whole day preparing to paint, and getting started on what has become an annual process for me. I like to paint or draw a little special gift to begin the year the CHEK Institute Instructors, and a few other key people, such as our international business partners.
I usually paint over 20 of these, so it can take some time to do. Last year, it took me a month of painting every spare moment I had to finish.
This year, I meditated in my sauna to gain visions for each person, and then I did simple pen drawings in my notebook for each person. This way, I can get right into the painting without having to get the intuitive guidance under time constraints.
It is much harder to access my intuition if I’m in the presence of business or have deadlines hanging over me. Now that I have a clear path, I’ll be able to finish my paintings fairly efficiently.
I can’t tell you who these four paintings are for, because I want it to be a surprise for them. I can tell you what the symbols mean though, which may make it more fun for you to look at; starting from the left and working right:
1. The silver web is a Mayan symbol for the Moon goddess. The symbol above it is an archetype that symbolizes balance between the physical and astral worlds.
2. The heart symbolizes love, and the Chinese characters translate as “Intention”. This painting symbolizes the intention to love.
3. The orange circles are the Mayan symbol for the god of Squash, while the green symbol/pattern above it is the Mayan symbol for the Bird of Wisdom. The sun represents the source of life.
4. The house is made of two squares; one square on the outside with one smaller square in the inside (the houses window). This is the Mayan symbol for family. There is a heart within a heart in the rafter space of the house, which symbolizes the arrival of new life within the home. The house is atop of the world because the beautiful people this painting is for have successfully influenced the world with their life and presence.
Here you can see CHEK HLC3, Alex Gill showing you her complete Gong sheet. Alex had now successfully complete her second Gong of the tai-chi ruler practice I originally gave her in HLC2 training.
Congratulations Alex! I’m very proud of you! You are such a motivated, loving, beautiful woman and I feel grateful to know that your inner-flame is growing stronger and your mind becoming crystal clear. Keep up the great work Alex. You are a great inspiration to your fellow CHEK HLC Practitioners.
Yesterday, I took a break from my painting to go outside and have a nice pee in nature. As I walked out the door of my Heaven House, I saw this amazing, “big” butterfly on the outside wall of the house. I think it might be a yucca giant skipper butterfly.
I’ve never seen a butterfly with such a huge body. The body, head, and legs of this butterfly looked very much like the big spiders we have around here.
You can’t really appreciate the size of this creature in the photo, but the part of its body behind the legs is about the size and thickness of the whole end-joint of your thumb. Maybe the inverted Nike swoosh on it’s wings is a message to Nike to “turn it around” and start making shoes that actually work instead of pretending to do so.
As soon as I get caught up on painting my 2014 gifts, I’m going to paint this butterfly. A very interesting creature.
MY 2014 ART
For many years, I’ve had the practice of doing an annual mandala to symbolize my year. This year, my vision didn’t fit a circle (mandala) format, so I painted it as a picture instead.
Here is a basic breakdown of the symbolic meanings I’ve incorporated to express my intentions for the year:
The dotted circle: At the top of the cross, you see a dotted circle. This symbolizes “Consciousness”, from which light emerges. The more conscious we are, the more “enlightened” we naturally are.
All my life practices and teachings are based on the exploration of, and full expression of consciousness in, and as life. This symbol is the top symbol because it represents the source, sum, and goal of sentient life.
The Sun: The sun is a symbol for life. All things living on earth are entirely dependent on the energy and warmth of the sun for their survival and sustenance. The Sun represents clarity, charity, consciousness, energy, potential, radiance, stability and transformation, and Unconditional Love.
The Cross: The cross is one of the most ancient of symbols and has many meanings. My cross is composed of five squares (rectangles in this case). The square symbolizes yin, embodiment of consciousness, stability, structure, and the interaction of elements. It also symbolizes length, depth, width, and time. In my drawing the top vertical beam represents Dr. Movement. The bottom vertical segment below the tai-chi symbol represents Dr. Quiet. The West segment of the cross represents Dr. Happiness, and the East segment of the cross represents Dr. Diet.
Tai-chi Symbol: The tai-chi symbol is central to the cross because it is the function of your 4 Doctors to guide you to balance in your life. The tai-chi symbol is also a symbol that represents “Love”.
Five-Pointed Star: The five-pointed start in my art represents the fusion of earth, water, fire, air, and space within the human being. It represents the potential to express ourselves fully. It represents the nature of my work being supportive of my own needs in this lifetime, which are mastered and understood by loving and caring for myself so that I can authentically teach that practice to others.
That is what it means to be a CHEK/HLC Practitioner; to live true to yourself and share that with others so they can learn to create safety, security and joy in their lives.
The Heart: The heart represents my love of life, the land, my office property, my work, of nature, and of people in general. The dotted pattern between the two hearts represents the constant exchange of energy and information between each of us individually, and nature. The green inner-heart represents my office, where I do most of my work to help others heal and grow.
The River: The river flowing into the cross represents the River Of Life. It flows into a roundabout, and circles the cross. This signifies that we are all being supported by the River Of Life, yet, we must all make sacrifices (the cross) to become who we want, and choose to be in life. Water is the bringer of life, and is related to the flow of energy and time in our lives. The water reaches my Heaven House, and from there, it distributed as life-force energy through consciousness and man.
The Flowers: The flowers represent beauty and harmony. They all have four pedals, representing the 4 Doctors and the elements of earth, water, fire, and air, while the plants and the ground itself represent space. The flowers also symbolize keeping things in order in our lives so that our internal and external space isn’t cluttered.
The Mountains: The mountains represent both change, and stability. Mountains only become mountains when the earth goes through internal changes, yet mountain ranges are the source of stability for life on earth in many ways. The mountains also symbolize freedom to move. Room to live and play.
The Sky: The sky represents the air element, which is associated with mind. The sky represents a vast expanse; the mind’s vast potential to come to know itself at all levels of experience and possibility.
My Goal, as depicted in my 2014 art is:
1. Continue to explore higher consciousness by letting my soul guide me. The more I let my soul’s voice guide me, the more beautiful my life gets. I invite you to join me.
2. Stay focused on perfecting my 4 Doctor living and my 4 Doctor Holistic Living Philosophy. By being in harmony with Dr. Happiness, Dr. Diet, Dr. Movement and Dr. Quiet, our potential to learn, grown achieve, and experience is dramatically enhanced.
I invite you to join me in healthy 4 Doctor living this year; you can learn more about my 4 Doctor approach by studying my ebook titled, The Last 4 Doctors You’ll Ever Need – How To Get Healthy Now!
3. Continue to enjoy, and learn from Mother Nature. She is FULL of secrets, which she is much more apt to share with those who express love to her than those that are destructive and ill motivated. She has shared much with me that has enhanced my life, and the lives of others, and her secretes have always been shared when I was in a state of calm, happy, open, receptiveness.
This year, I invite you to join me in becoming more loving and nurturing to Mother Nature. She’s in need of our help now, as the population grows and resources are taxed. We are dealing with very serious problems of pollution in nature, and by getting into nature, you can regain your sense of love, respect and reverence for Her.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my blog today. I’ll be back into the swing of things now that I’m back to work and will do my best to be regular with my video blogs.
I have a few spots open for my first 2014 zen-In-the-Garden on Friday, January 10, here at my Heaven house in Escondido. I have a really fantastic day planned for us and if you want to join me with like-minded individuals there is still time to register here: zen-In-The-Garden
Love and chi, and Welcome to 2014!
Paul Chek
