GOOD (Mon) Day to You!
I hope your weekend was splendid!
I took the day off Friday and celebrated the completion of my recent film project.
It took me almost a month to get through all the technical difficulties and schedule conflicts but I’m very pleased with the outcome in the end.
As I mentioned in a previous blog, this project included a new on-line course on how to heal from fungus and parasite infections.
We are working diligently to get the program edited and up for your personal study. Please be warned, it will most likely be ready in a few months, so please be patient with our next phase in this project.
This is a reminder that if you want to be notified of the program release, you need to be registered with the CHEK Institute, which you can do by going to www.chekinstitute.com
Friday was a day I had all sorts of plans to draw and stack rocks; I’m working on a new rock formation in my front yard and have been excited to finish it.
By the time I finished my piece of art for the day, my only urge was to lay on the grass under my huge fichus tree and dream. I did that until the sun went down and then relaxed with Penny and Vidya when they came home.
For me, that turned out to be a perfect day. Saturday, I went to Encinitas to see Wess Boyce for my usual bone scratching session and a long steam.
I was in the steam long enough that I felt as though I’d just done an American Indian sweat lodge.
Again, I had lots of plans to work on my rock project but found myself only piddling with it. I spent much of my day reading, drawing and relaxing. We went to see the new movie titled “Contraband”, which was pretty good entertainment and a great excuse to eat two bowls of organic popcorn with the ladies (it takes two bowls of organic popcorn to fuel the foot-rubbing machinery in me) ☺.
Yesterday, I did some more reading, and Vidya and I each created a piece of art together while Penny ran errands. I didn’t finish my art for the day until about 4:00 PM; the day just flew by!
I got out the door and continued on my rock project. I’m creating a mini version of an Irish round tower.
My boyish urge is to rush so I can see it finished, but when I do, I tend to become less present with the stones and make mistakes that end up costing me time later.
A couple days ago, I had a section of the circular wall collapse. Two of the stones fell into the center of the tower and it was all I could do to get them out without either falling into it, or collapsing the whole formation.
With that in mind, I just took my time and worked until I couldn’t see any more. The tower is now at about my eye level, which makes stacking much trickier because I can’t see the whole footprint where the rocks go and can end up “thinking” the rocks are stable!
I will continue tonight.
All-in-All, I had an excellent weekend. I found that it takes me two days to unwind from all the activities of the week and that by Sunday, I’m really getting good at resting.
I’m constantly amazed at how healing rest is.
I’m convinced that if people took the time to sleep properly and rest when dong relatively meaningless (often habitual) activities, the amount of money they would save on drugs and doctors would certainly go a long way toward an excellent vacation somewhere they love to be.
That said, I’ve learned over the years that you can’t teach an old dog a new trick until it’s in enough pain to be willing to try something new!
MESSAGE FROM THE MOUNTAIN GURU
I drew this picture I titled “Mountain Guru” for a friend of mine; he doesn’t know it yet but he will soon.
I drew it for him because he is one of my students who has done an excellent job of actually not only “listening to” the essence of my message as a teacher, but does a great job of “living it”.
While I was taking photos of the drawing, I thought it would be a great blog post to share the essential teachings of the mountain guru’s from cultures all over the world.
Let’s see what the Mountain Guru has to say:
First, the Mountain Guru is depicted as a mask, which he is behind, yet as you can see, his nose is in and through the mask.
This symbolized that we are all in two realities at once. We are in the world of the relative, the world of this and that, he said!she said, woulda, coulda, didn’t, shouldn’t, etc.
The relative world is the world in which choice exists between the past and the future. The relative world is the world of experiencing life.
This is the world we all live in and in modern shamanism, this world is sometimes referred to by authors like Arnold Mindell as the consensus reality.
This world is symbolized beautifully in the tai-chi symbol. It is also symbolized by the Mountain Guru’s mask as the OM symbol.
The OM symbol is a Sanskrit symbol which stands for the Primordial Sound that creates all existence.
The other world we all live in, (though unconsciously for most) is the world of Undivided Wholeness. This is the realm of the Universal Dream, where Unity is the reality.
It is Unity that underlies the relative world of consensus reality.
Our experiences in the world of Unity are often so mystical and mysterious, dreamlike, that we have a hard time sharing our experiences with others.
After all, how do you describe experiences of total Unity with the Kosmos (unlike “cosmos”, “Kosmos” includes the material, biological, intellectual and the Divine realms) with language, which is divisional by its very construct?
The world of Unity then, is a non-consensus reality because whatever you experience there and share is unlikely to be accepted as real by the consensus (of people).
The nooesphere is the realm of mind, which acts as a bridge between the two worlds. Without mind, which is the product of OM, we couldn’t interpret our experiences as this, or that.
All would be Unity and there would be no thought, or awareness of it.
The nooesphere then includes the concrete realm of thoughts about “people, places and things”, as well as the abstract realm.
In the abstract or “dreamland” realm, we can dive into the infinite, experience the greater truth of Unity, and then carry the fish we catch there to the dinner table of relativity where we can more effectively digest our catch.
This sort of “fishing trip” gives us the ability to seek guidance and conformation from Unity so that we can follow the way in relativity.
In essence, the Mountain Guru is telling you, “Those that don’t dream, don’t see, and those that don’t see, are often afraid to witness their dreams.”
The Mountain Guru is looking through the mask of relativity from the realm of the “I AM.”
You may notice the slight difference in his eyes, which is to indicate that one eye see’s the whole while the other sees the parts.
His message here is not to fall into the trap of believing what you see with your physical eyes without confirming it through your own presence and experiences in Unity.
He warns that those that don’t go within, go without. Only when we are wise enough to develop a relationship with the Great Spirit within can we ever develop authentic trust and understanding.
Until then, we have no reference point for what the purpose of life is, for what peace is, for what bliss is, and can only depend on the opinions of others (usually equally trapped with half-vision) for confirmation.
This is to be stuck in the consensus reality.
He has three points on the crown of his headdress, which represent his mastery of body, mind and spirit. They are created of red, black and silver.
The red represents his mastery, which gives him authentic safety and security in the relative world of “life”, as well as in the world of Unity; we must be capable of dying to the relative to get to Unity fully.
The silver represents his capacity to be clear of mind so he can guide people in either direction; to and from Unity.
The black represents that he is a master of transition and that change is the only constant in the universe.
His message is that to reach our potential as human beings, we must master our body, our mind and become one with Unity so that we know what we are part of and what our life is expressing.
He has a series of squares on his forehead. The square is yin in sacred geometry and it is the counterbalance of the sphere (yang) represented by the sun behind him.
The squares represent the elements, which are earth, water, fire, air and aether (space).
This symbol on the Mountain Guru’s forehead is his statement that without understanding the nature of each element, and how they work together in life, we will always create problems for ourselves out of ignorance.
It is the job of parents and tribal leaders to teach this to you as a child and in adolescence so that you can more effectively contribute to life in a balanced way.
His nose sticks through the mask, which represents that the five senses are just holes in the fabric of reality.
His message is that as long as you depend only on your physical senses, you will always be missing much more than you are gaining because the amount of the world and the universe that exists outside the narrow range of human sensory systems is indeterminately more vast than the world of the senses.
The outward path of the senses only takes you into contact with, and the experience of more “stuff”, but will never ultimately fill the void within each human being.
Only when you love and respect yourself enough to go inward and love yourself enough to be present as to what and who you really are can you ever be comfortable, secure, and at peace when it looks like the world is falling apart in chaos all around you.
His right ear is bigger than his left ear because the right ear is connected to the left brain and it is the ear that lives in the consensus reality.
Here, we must be much more careful about hearing what is being said vs. hearing what we want to hear.
The left ear being connected to the right brain or the brain of wholeness doesn’t depend on physical vibration for input. It is listening to the voice of silence, which is ever-present.
Silence is the source of OM.
His mouth is contained in the blue rectangle to depict the need to be impeccable with our words.
The blue represents water, rhythm and flow and his message is to practice saying only what is true to you; if you speak for others, you may misrepresent them and then you are likely to experience disrupted rhythms when you experience the chaos of confusion and conflict all around you.
Thus, when we speak to others, it’s always good to begin our expressions with, “I’m wanting, I’m feeling, or I’m needing” instead of “he said, she said, you woulda, shoulda, coulda or didn’t!”
When we are insecure in our views, we often use loose terms such as “they said you didn’t!”, or “We are all against you”, yet in truth, the “they or the we” are usually limited to one or two people and a lot of imaginary characters who are typically equally needy and ill informed!
Though you can’t really see it well in the image, his little goatee is made of gold, which represents that wisdom grows from his being.
Even the bodies of the enlightened seem to go beyond the physical laws of consensual reality.
This is evidenced by the fact that on numerous occasions, when enlightened saints and sages die, their bodies often do not rot for extended periods of time.
For example, I have been told that when Yogananda’s casket was opened weeks after his death, there was no sign of degeneration at all, and the room was permeated with the smell of roses.
There have been many similar observations throughout the history of the mystics.
His headdress is made of plants. This exemplifies that we all depend on the live of other living beings to sustain our own. His message is that if you take more than you return from Mother Nature, you create a reality that you are unlikely to survive; she can take all you can dish out without dying, but you may not be able to endure the counterbalancing act She institutes out of honor for all life on earth and fairness to other life-forms!
Finally, his neck and face are quite thin. This exemplifies his commitment to only taking what he needs to live naturally, and in balance with Mother Nature.
When we consume more than we need, we are being disrespectful to other living beings that have just as much right to a peaceful, complete life as we do.
Because human life depends on what “appear” to be lower life-forms, out of our ignorance we can cut our noses off in spite of our face. He informs you that when you have no water, food or essential resources left because they have been disrespectfully squandered, a whole new level of reverence for what was under your feet will emerge!
In essence, his message is the same as the underlying message of all the world’s great mystical and religious teachings; “Do unto yourself as you would have others do unto you.”
Yet, if you abuse or treat yourself poorly, you will become trapped in a consensus reality and are likely to think that all your pains and problems are “someone else’s fault”.
With that kind of mindset, you are likely to only love others the way you love yourself. That in itself can become the downfall of humanity!
When we love ourselves enough to explore both worlds, the consensual and non-consensual, we become humble, loving and wise, for we know that what we are is the expression of the Divine, that which is truly WHOLE.
When we love ourselves to take responsibility for keeping our body-temple healthy and well tuned, we are naturally inspired to seek beyond the limitations of the body (which tired and sick people can’t effectively do).
We can be present with the stars at night and join their conversations.
We can be present with ourselves.
And when we are, we see the same stars, and hear the same conversations.
They are the happy chattering of Joy Dancing in, and as ONE.
Love and chi,
Paul Chek
