Good Day to ALL!
Well, things are beginning to flow with my natural rhythm now. I’m slowly getting caught up will all the work I had to put aside to meet the demands of my traveling and teaching schedule, patients, and the CHEK Conference.
I’m excited to have my long time buddy Matt Nichol arrive to visit me for a few days from Toronto. Matt was the strength and conditioning coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team for many years before venturing out on his own.
Matt now runs an extremely successful athlete development program in Toronto. Matt has a wide variety of elite amateur and professional athletes he coaches. In fact, Rory informs me that Matt coaches more professional athletes than any other independent strength coach in Canada, which is very impressive indeed.
Matt is famous for getting great results and is one of the first figureheads of professional strength and conditioning to embrace my teachings. Matt is also a CHEK Practitioner.
I’m really looking forward to getting Matt out into my rock garden and creating something unique with him. He’s a big strong guy so I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up making something out of big stones together. I’ll let you know.
Matt will arrive this afternoon so I’ll take him to the Encinitas Acupuncture and Massage Center for a massage and a steam when he arrives. Tomorrow, it will be zen in the garden with Paul for the day. I can’t wait!
Matt has crafted his own performance and post-workout recovery drink shakes for his athletes that’s becoming very popular with pro athletes. If you would like to know more about Matt’s products, feel free to visit his site: https://www.biosteel.com. I’ve heard great reports about it and I know he would only use high quality nutrition in any product he’d design so I’m excited to share that with you all.
BIRD SPEAK
My soul guided me to a beautiful little poem to share with you today. I’ve excerpted a few verses of this long poem for you from an excellent book I got from my favorite metaphysical book store in San Francisco, which is “Fields Book Store”.
The book is titled, The Drunken Universe – An Anthology of Persian Sufi Poetry, Translation and Commentary by Peter Lamborn Wilson and Nasrollah Pourjavady (p. 123-4).
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III
At such an assembly-
when Night was grown thin
and black as a fiddle string
with a crescent moon for a bow-
the birds gathered
to debate their love.
The Ringdove first
praises the bee, whose saliva
makes bitter petals sweet.
The Nightingale exalts his Rose
who rides as in a royal coach,
the flowering branches
her trailing grooms.
The Turtle sings the nation
of the Cypress, whose smallest breath
can shatter the dome of blossoms:
but the Starling calls the Cyperss “lame,
one-legg’d, sunk in earth–
while Tulip, in blood-red revolt,
conquers field after field.”
Wood pigeon says “Tulip by nature
is two-colored, false. The Lily now,
the Lily all white like the
Book of the Righteous!”
But Quail hymns the green Lawn,
“for how can the Garden
write its Book except upon
that emerald page?”
Parrot loves Jasmine
more than any vulgar grass,
Jasmine’s amber breath
and camphor face;
but Hoopoe longs
for Narcissus, her kingdom
the falsehood of Jamshid,
the throne of Afrasiyab.
Commentary:
This beautiful Persian poem about birds chatting about their likes and dislikes!is it any different than the chatting of humans?
They each have their unique personalities, likes and dislikes, ranging from flavors and colors to commentary about each other.
In the last verse:
Parrot loves Jasmine
more than any vulgar grass,
Jasmine’s amber breath
and camphor face;
but Hoopoe longs
for Narcissus, her kingdom
the falsehood of Jamshid,
the throne of Afrasiyab.
We see that the Parrot loves Jasmine more than any vulgar grass. Here we see that what is food or favorite for one is vulgar to another.
We also see that Hoopoe’s longings are for Narcissus, a personification of a being that loves it’s reflection (the mirror!); her kingdom the falsehood of Jasmid, the throne of Afrasiyab.
The poet is informing us that even birds can be narcissists! That birds fall for the falsehood of apparent royalty and stories of mythical figures.
There is an underlying theme that suggests that where there is an ego of any kind, there is apparent separation, choices, wants and desires, agreements and disagreements. Yet, each ego, bird or otherwise, is all part of a Grand tapestry we call both Nature, and Life.
It is our likes and dislikes, similarities and differences that creates the flow of energy, time and experience. Once we grow to understand this fact, it becomes much easier to step back and become brave or loving enough to see the beauty of it all, even the things we think we don’t like become essential to the beauty of it all.
Love and chi,
Paul Chek
