Happy Tuesday to ALL!
Today is the last day of HLC3. Yesterday I taught my students the importance of accessing infant development integration. We had great fun through practicing with each other.
I hope you enjoy my Tao-Te-zen today: “Threes love to chase each other.”
Spirit is two
Chasing dark makes three
One snake sees the other
The mirror is three
Which is real?
The snake or the snake tattoo
They both leave their bite
But the impression does not leave
Threes love to chase each other
TAO-TE-zen practice is seeing three
The sun, earth, and self
Zen in practice is meditation
Two eyes seeing inside self as one
That is zen
“Threes love to chase each other.” People need people for their own self-realization.
“TAO-TE-zen practice is seeing three as sun, earth, and self.” Sun in Egyptian metaphysics is referred to as Rah, in Hindu metaphysics as Ram, both of which are perceived to be depictions of deity, the divine or god.
Earth represents matter, and the self is the integration of consciousness in matter.
Therefore, “TAO-TE-zen practice is seeing three as sun, earth, and self” means be aware that you are a composition, and that the composition that we call self is a marriage of unconditional love with spirit and matter.
Zen in practice is meditation.
Two eyes seeing inside self as one. The two eyes refer to your physical eyes. The left eye is linked to the left side of the body which is linked to the right brain, the wholeness, the creator. Right eye linked to left brain, logic, putting things in a row, sequential thinking and learning.
Yet in meditation, we depart from any derivation between logic and creativity and we merge into the oneness of self where there is no longer any delineation between self and other.
There we come to see that the truth of ourselves is that we are truly One.
That is zen.
This sutra “threes love to chase each other” simply means that if there were only you or I here, one of us, then there would be essentially nothing to do.
There wouldn’t be any cities, towns, villages, tribes, families, societies, teams, organizations. The world would be one that would seem exceedingly large and lonely.
“Threes love to chase each other” is also depicted in the Tai Chi symbol as the two fish, or two dragons, or two snakes chasing each other, which is a reflection of spirit itself.
Yin may be perceived as love. Yang may be perceived as fear, and love is always trying to console fear and through that consolation, empathy, and compassion, fear has the potential to be transformed into love.
Yet because fear has identified itself through separation, when fear comes face to face with love, its tendency is to run.
It is this perpetual running of fear from love that creates space, time, and matter.
As human beings we are in a perpetual vacillation between love of and fear of, yet without the other, we would have very little to love of or fear of.
Therefore “threes love to chase each other” is really a story about life and about the necessity of relationships.
Who would you love without your friends and your family?
Wishing you all a brilliant day!
Love and chi,
Paul Chek
