Happy Friday to All!
Tis the day before Christmas, and
all through the house
nothing is stirring
not even a mouse!
I hope you are taking a little time to rest today.
I suspect many of you are frantically running around doing your last minute Christmas shopping! I was once that way too!
But as the years passed by and I realized how little Spirit there was around Christmas relative to the marketing, hype, and over-consumption of goods.
Most of what is purchased as Christmas gifts usually does nothing but fill closets and garbage cans with junk and stress the planet while maintaining our addiction to external sources of fulfillment.
I’ve come to prefer making something like a piece of art, or giving a phone call to tell someone I love and appreciate them instead of buying more closet stuffers just to “fit into a social paradigm” that is in many ways, part of the challenges we face on the planet today.
I’ve been making Christmas/New Years gifts for my instructors each evening for the past week and once I get started on art projects, I go into a time-warp.
The result is that I’ve been up a little later than normal and I’ve begun to feel the fatigue during the day.
I had a good day at work yesterday.
Yesterday, I thought I’d have a few sips of some of my beautiful espresso after not having my morning espresso for about a month now.
I tried a few sips on one I made for JP a couple weeks ago just to make sure it was safe for him to drink ☺ and the result was me sweating and shaking for about two hours.
After I had a couple small sips (about half of what I had with JP), my lips dried up and cracked, which is a real pain in the ass.
These little experiments are great reminders to me as to how a healthy body is a sensitive body.
I want to take the day completely off of exercise other than walking in the hills today, so I went into the gym and did some high intensity dumbbell bench pressing for four sets of four.
I did the same with the front squat and single arm high-cable pulling. Then I was fortunate enough to have Penny offer to cook me lunch in Vidya’s absence.
Penny created a lovely salad with some of her fresh from scratch, spicy salad dressing and some nice cod with curry sauce. It was fantastic too!
I finished my final edits and additions to the new Scientific Shoulder training correspondence course so Holli Spicer can put the finishing touches on the manual and we can get the course off to our duplicators.
Keep your eye out for announcements of the new course in January.
I’m really excited to share this course with you all because it offers a functional, holistic approach to shoulder rehabilitation and conditioning unlike anything I’ve ever seen or studied out there.
Though the course is comprehensive, I tried my best to use lots of visuals, demonstrations and clear explanations so that even athletes and those that aren’t in the exercise or healthcare profession can learn a lot.
I’ll look forward to your feedback when it comes out. If you want to be notified of the release of the new Scientific Shoulder Training program, it is important to register yourself at the institute web site so we have you on our mailing list (go to: www.chekinstitute.com).
BODY AS TEMPLE
In case you can’t read the words on my mandala, it says:
In TAO
You are centered
not shaken by events
Centered in our hearts
we are a keystone
to ALL we Love
At-ONE with Life itself.
Knowing Center
we easily recognize deviations
they guide us back to who we Really are.
This, we call Awareness of TAO.
Since the advent of organized religion, people have become progressively more programmed to believe that God is closer to them in some way, while standing or sitting in a church or temple.
This is akin to thinking that somehow, the air, or space are closer to you when you are in a church or temple.
There is no source of anything other than SOURCE.
SOURCE and SUM are one and the same.
Some think that reading certain books, or following certain rules will somehow bring SOURCE, or space, or life “closer to you” — or will some how gain you favor when you finally meet your (idea of) God. Such ideas and behaviors merely exemplify both their state of confusion, and God’s sense of humor ☺.
Once you understand that an eyeball can’t “see”, you begin to wonder “who sees?” Is it the brain that sees?
What was looking when the idea of a brain was put forth in creation?
Brains are a recent advent of nature relative to the time life has been evolving on planet Earth.
Therefore, one can safely assume that both consciousness and “seeing” preceding realities; why create all this if you have no intention of looking at it?
Imagine being God and creating an incredibly beautiful woman and having no interest in looking at her!
Without something “other”, conscious would have no-thing to look at and appreciate, thus the necessity of “I and thou” to experience sentience; if there were no other, what could you be conscious of?
So in love with God’s Creations is God, that God can’t stop making bodies. Nature consists of bodies of this or that type, and myriads of them.
Bodies all provide utility – the ability to be utilized. For consciousness, they afford functionality; consciousness lives and looks in and through bodies; once in a body, consciousness often forgets that it is what exists between bodies too. More of God’s humor!
Your soul (consciousness) is in your body.
Your soul lives in, and expresses it’s desires and wills in your body like a air lives in your lungs; and because of your lungs air can be used to expresses the wills and desires of your ego-mind.
If your soul is in your body, and your body can’t get air into it (your temple), can your soul still worship there?
If you soul lives in your body and you don’t love it, feed it, and care for it, can your soul possibly be free to express the desires and wills that led it to a body in the first place?
Animals in the wild don’t read diet books and they seem to be doing better with their health than we are. They don’t seem to read books on God either, nor go to church, but many celebrate sunrise and sunset.
If any one of us just becomes honest with how we feel, how we think, how we sleep, how we smell, how we look, how we act, how we perform, or how we create in life, we are always aware when we induce detrimental influences.
I’ve never seen, nor heard of an animal in the wild that drank water till it died, or ate so much that it became constipated, sluggish and died.
I have seen many animals change what they eat under the influence of changing circumstances. For example, it is well known in the field of biology that all creatures have their own form of medicinal plants they use.
This is proof that they are “aware” of the need for change when consciousness and expression are hampered in any way.
Can you access the animal intelligence, the instincts within yourself?
Are you brave enough to let the animal in you teach you how to be healthy, since the diet books and experts haven’t worked? No one in general needs any help outside of common sense and instinct; without which you are essentially a very sick animal and nature has laws that govern their future!
If you spend some time with your body, letting it communicate with you (notice it’s communicating with “you”, it will guide you as to how to balance yourself.
It will tell you, like any healthy dog will, when it needs to go outside, wants exercise, is thirsty, etc.
I like to spend some time each week alone with my body. I let it guide me as to how to move so that I can unwind and balance myself.
Because your body is the foundation of your mind, if your body is crooked, your mind is contorted in its expressive medium, just as a crooked foundation under a house is a guarantee that the whole house is crooked!
After I warm up, I often hold a bottle of water as a functional weight. I let the same process emerge, following my body, but the water allows me more leverage and deeper penetration with stretching.
It’s easy, and it works. Try it if you like.
When I lift stones, I have to be fully present with, and in my body!or I can get badly hurt. I know that for sure ☺.
When I have to life something heavy, my body tells me how to position myself so it won’t get hurt. When I listen, I do well.
How about you?
I hope you have a lovely Christmas this weekend.
I’m confident most of you will have plenty of chances to listen to your body.
Just remember, it is in your body that you truly worship; it has to go into any temple with you and if you weren’t in that temple with your body, you couldn’t worship there.
Therefore, any worshiping in a church or temple happens first and foremost in your body-mind.
I’m always amazed at the length of effort and expense people go to keeping their churches and temples clean, all the while forgetting about their bodies.
If you kept your church or temple the way you keep your body (just take a picture of yourself nude and ask the Rabbi or Bishop if you aren’t sure), would you be the one they put in charge of keeping their place of worship beautiful?
This weekend I will have fun.
I’ll celebrate Christmas exactly like I celebrate each waking day.
I will celebrate in the temple of nature, as nature.
Love and chi,
Paul Chek
