Happy Tuesday to You!
Well, tomorrow I head to Sydney, Australia to teach a series of workshops and seminars for six weeks. I’m excited to reconnect with my Australian Tribe of CHEK Practitioners and spend time with our Australian International Affiliates, Cathy and Donal Carr and their boys, Ryan and Josh.
I had a relaxing, but productive day yesterday.
I enjoyed a great little pushing session in the gym yesterday. I coupled Swiss ball dumbbell bench presses with Bruce Lee Swiss ball push-ups and clubbell touch backs and clubbell rotational swings.
I felt fantastic when I finished and enjoyed that feeling throughout the day!
In the evening, I painted a wooden carving of the moon’s face that I purchased on my recent trip to Idyllwilde with Penny. I will share it below with my blog message for today.
THE QUEST: SHORT OR LONG PATH?
We are all on a quest for meaning, understanding, and knowing.
We all have a deep sense of wonder as to where we came from? What is the Original cause? Why are we here?
Is the Universe the source, or is there something behind it; is the Universe God?
Is God the Universe?
Is God real?
Does my personal life have any meaning, or am I just a product of a cosmic quandary?
In my picture of the moon’s face above, I’ve depicted the three qualities of the human soul:
The black face represents representing (#9 in my system): the soul re-presents your own thoughts to you and in the beginning, you are likely to believe them – to perceive them as real, even when they lead you into more pain and confusion.
The yellow face of the moon represents reflecting (#8 in my system): The soul “reflects” on your thoughts. Through reflection, you often choose to do things differently.
Reflection as a quality on the spiritual path means to ask yourself this question of your own thoughts: “Is it true?” “Is it Absolutely True?”
The great teachers, in their own way, comment on two paths to Self-Realization. They are the short path, and the long path.
In my picture of the sun’s face being reflected in the moon
When we are in a state of authentic (naturally reproducible) joy, peace or bliss, we are representing that state to ourselves and others.
The short path is to become aware that:
A. You have chosen to create a state of being that fosters well-being and you can chose to do it as often as you like.
B. That mystical experiences induced by stress, drugs, starvation, over-exercising, may offer similar experiences to those above, but you are co-dependent upon an outside state or method of induction, such as a drug to recreate them.
Our culture loves instant immediate gratification, so the short path is the most common; you see it being lived out by millions seeking doctors to take away the results of their poor choices with drugs and surgery.
The truth is, all they need to is become fully present with the wisdom of their body and let their pains be an awareness tool that guides them in a direction generally opposite that that they took to create their pains.
There is nothing wrong with the short path, provided one takes complete responsibility for what they create and use such short path experiences as training wheels, allowing them to learn to recreate inner-peace naturally.
Most in our culture (and others) lack the discipline to follow the short path effectively.
This is one of the reasons drugs are banned in the world’s great religions, even though there are numerous scholarly documents giving evidence of the use of psychedelic drugs in most of them; usually used in initiation ceremonies.
The sun is REFLECTED in the moon. A reflection is a reverse image.
When we fall in love with our reflection, we often believe what we see in the mirror, or what others tell us as though it were actual fact, or “true”.
Notice though, the sun’s flames as reflected in the moon are flaming inward, not outward. Most would not realize this seemingly minor, but essential detail.
When we reflect, we are looking inward at out own thoughts.
Through reflection, we can decide what we want to “represent” through our thoughts, words and deeds in relation to self or others.
The short path is to pay very close attention to your reflections and ask yourself, before acting on them, “Is it true?”
In the middle of the moon’s face, there is a line where the dark is representing and the light of reflection meet each other.
Their, neither are represented, for they are rectified against each other, producing a Zero-force or Zero-point. This is ABIDING.
Because abiding is neither reflection, nor representation, there is no departure from center, or wholeness.
There is no “this or that”, no “should or shouldn’t”, no “right or wrong”. This is the place of “being”.
Because all rights and wrongs depend upon each other for their relative meaning, no such judgment can have any absolute validity!
That is the destination of both the short and long path. (I explore these concepts more fully in CHEK HLC3.)
In the end, learning to love one’s self authentically, naturally and joyfully is the goal of both the short and the long path.
The long path invites a committed practice through time, typically under guidance of a master teacher who had demonstrated their ability to love and live in a way you can aspire to. You have evidence that the teacher’s life is a model of wholeness you can subscribe to and be inspired by.
So, in conclusion:
Either path will take you to an awareness of your True Self.
The fastest way for anyone to get to their core and answer some of the deep questions is to practice abiding, for in abiding, there is no chance of being right, nor wrong.
There you are the closest to Unconditional Love, your Authentic Self.
May your quest lead you to ABIDE in your authentic self!
Love and chi,
Paul Chek
