Hello!
I hope you are all in well-being.
It is my dream that you found some solace in gaining a better understanding of how the mind becomes active due to the differential or polarity created when there is a gap between our perception of a concept and the reality of the concept. With that understanding, one can simply choose to relax and become more intimate with a concept before passing judgment. This may be as simple as “letting the jury be out until proven otherwise – relax and wait”, or accepting that you need more information before getting emotionally involved with a concept knowing that your percept is incomplete.
This week I’ve been busy filming an infant development refresher for the CHEK students that will be available to them on www.ptenhance.com. It’s been really great to work with Gary Crozier and our model Michelle.
Today, I’ll be filming the new DVD on the Tai-chi Ruler method I learned years ago from Master Fong Ha. Several years ago, I designed my own version of the tai-chi ruler and created a poster to go with it that allows you to record two complete gongs of practice and gives specific information and instruction on the practice.
The DVD will give a complete explanation of the practice and methodology. The tai-chi ruler practice is the one that I’ve gained the most from relative to all my other chi cultivation practices, which I why I love to teach it to my students. Many of them have had major developmental breakthroughs with that practice alone.
I will be flying to Australia Friday to teach HLC 2 an Myall Shores resort. I’ll be spending time with Donal Carr, who I will be teaching how to instruct HLC 2 so we have an Australian instructor for this course. Donal has achieved Faculty status and has taught CHEK courses to thousands of people in Australia very effectively so I’m really excited to have him join the HLC 2 Instructor team.
Where I’m staying, there is feeble internet connection at best and phone connection is sketchy, so I’ve decided to create a series of blogs that Vidya will post while I’m away and I’ll give you updates on the trip through her.
The series, which begins today, is called How Life Works. This series is based on a presentation I gave at a conference in London in 2007 called Who Owns Low Back Pain. Unfortunately, CHEK Faculty Matthew Wallden (who was instrumental in having me on this panel of experts) felt that my presentation went way over the heads of the majority of the people there.
I was sad at the time to hear that. I could only conclude that sometimes, people don’t want to hear the truth if it means that they way they approach things like low back pain are based on empty or incomplete concepts, like, “we need to fix people”.
Since then of course, I’ve shared my views with thousands of my students and clients who really embrace and strive to understand their relationship with the Absolute. Many have expressed to me and share with me how profoundly their lives have changed for the positive, freeing them to tap into their unlimited potential, purpose and legacy.
I hope you enjoy this series. I’ll include self-awareness exercises so you can actually practice the teachings. If you do follow the series and practice, I’m confident that you will view, and experience life more fully!
So, let’s get started.
HOW LIFE WORKS – UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
At the top of our map for this journey into how life works, you see a dragon, under which is the word “UNITY”, to the far right of which you see the word “TAO”. In the top dotted circle, which implies being there without being seen, you see the words “Consciousness” and “Unconditional Love”. These words all serve the same meaning interchangeably.
They are also synonymous with the word “TRUTH” and “ABSOLUTE”. They are also synonymous with the term “GOD” in the monotheistic sense. In quantum physics, this dotted circle would be labeled as the “Zero Point Field”.
Unconditional Love (UCL) represents FIRST PRINCIPLE. This means that all that exists in or as existence (something) is Created as Second Principle, which we will discuss in our next lesson under the heading “Relationships”.
In his “Meditations,” Marcus Aurelius (emperor of Rome A.D. 161-180), emphasizes the importance of not getting too impressed with yourself, regardless of how great you think you or your accomplishments are.
Why? Because he rightly emphasizes that no matter how great we think we are, or how big the world may seem to us, what any one of us is or the world is relative to the Universe is at best, a speck of truth. Our life, or even the life of a planet, or a sun, are but a flash in the pan relative to that of the universe. He did not say such things to devalue life.
As an extremely well accomplished man, a Roman General who became Emperor of one of the most powerful dynasties ever to exist on this planet, he held himself and his accomplishments in check, for he was intimately in touch with the reality and magnitude of existence at large.
Marcus could see how success and fame had the power to delude and destroy otherwise good people. He saw how powerful greed was as a destructive force. He truly understood the meaning of the word “ABSOLUTE”.
UCL = ABSOLUTE
The Absolute cannot be measured. Therefore, it cannot be known! It has no beginning. It has no end.
Like the TAO, it is fathomless, Darker than dark.
If you could stand at the edge of the universe and face the Absolute, it would be an Abyss of unfathomable proportions. This is why even the greatest mystics of all ages have said that God Is A Mystery!
This is exactly why the same mystics have warned about defining God as this or that. Any such definition immediately implies that you can measure or know God “as”. Any such admission is by definition, a comprehensive description of deep misunderstanding! It is also the source of more warring and death than even the American medical system and the drug cartels combined.
Lao Tzu says in reference to the TAO, “He who talks about it doesn’t know. He who knows doesn’t talk about it.”
The reason Lao Tzu says this is quite simple. To talk about “any-thing”, is by definition, a means of circumscribing or defining it. The instant we do so with God, TAO, or the Absolute, we are acting in the domain of relativity. Once you have stated characteristics of “your god”, or “my god”, you have a means of comparing your god to my god. This is where concepts of heaven and hell are created!
When great masters or teachers like Lao Tzu talk about TAO, or God, we must remember what the word “about” means. It means “around”. Thus the term used to name a junction in a road that goes in circle – a roundabout.
These teachers are using words to create images and offer you a chance to expand your mind beyond concepts of right and wrong, good and evil, should and shouldn’t! This is why the Buddhist monks say, “Don’t look at the finger pointing to the moon!look at the moon!”
We have become a world of people that worship words more than experiences. We war over words and human definitions. Those that have gone beyond words and definitions have all become non-violent. They have all realized that all that “IS”, all that can be known “as”, come from one source, one well. That well for some is called God. For others, it is called The TAO. For others, it is Silence.
For all that have experienced God have come to the unshakable realization that because God or TAO are Prime Source, there can be nothing in the created universe that is not of Prime Source. There is nothing in existence that is not an expression of God or TAO.
LIFE or existence is the only relative God has, yet, that relative is to God as your hand is to you. You can look at it and label it “right hand”. You can see your other, “left hand”. You can clap, slap, stroke, yet all that comes from one source, you. Existence is the Hand Of God.
TAO is inclusive of all that is (tai-chi) and all that isn’t (Wu-chi); identifying yourself with what is, without including what “isn’t” is to delude oneself. Identifying yourself with what “is and what isn’t” is yet another delusion to the truly enlightened view, for is and isn’t are relative concepts that depend on each other for their existence.
God is God because God has no needs. God simply “IS”. So, as you can see, to understand TAO or God requires a very deep level of TRUST. It requires a mature mind, for once one understands the true meaning of these words, it becomes evident that there is no big daddy in the sky to rescue you from your follies.
To become truly spiritual simply means to accept responsibility for what you create moment to moment.
An Exercise In Relativity vs. The Absolute
To bring these words into context, and embody the experience in a way that words alone can’t, please do the following exercise:
1. Take a sheet of paper. The sheet of paper represents The Absolute. Therefore, the paper edges are only a representation for that which has no beginning or end – the Absolute Page extends Eternally.
Now, considering that current investigations in Astronomy have concluded that there are approximately as many stars in the universe as there are grains of sand on planet earth(!), you can understand how small a percentage earth makes up of the universe at large.
2. With that reality in mind, draw a small circle in the middle of your page. In the small circle, put a stick figure of the person you feel has been the most influential on planet earth. Maybe it’s Jesus. Maybe it’s Buddha. Maybe it’s Mohammed? Maybe it’s You!
3. Now, hand that page to someone who will help you with the exercise. Stand somewhere with room to move, such as a large room or outside your home. Have your partner, who is holding the page stand in front of you facing you.
4. Look at your world with your hero in the little circle representing the world, which is small to depict its relative size compared to the universe.
5. Next, refresh your mind with the concept of an Absolute being immeasurable! VASTER THAN VAST! With the Absolute fresh in your mind, ask your partner with the paper to begin backing away from you.
How far away did they get before you couldn’t recognize your hero?
How far away before you couldn’t recognize the world any longer?
Now, consider that relative to GOD, TAO, or THE ABSOLUTE, even a pin hole in that paper would be an overstatement of the size of the entire universe relative to THE ABSOLUTE!
6. Now. Sit in silence for a moment and in a meditative state, ask yourself the following questions. It’s a good idea to jot your thoughts down in your journal:
1)What am I?
2)Who am I?
3)Where am I?
4)What do my possessions and all the things I fight for or have fought for ultimately add up to?
5) If I were to create a God, could I create a better God than GOD?
6) When I cause pain for myself and others, how far does it reach and what good does it do in the world or the universe?
7) When I love myself and others this way or that way, under these conditions or those conditions, how far does it reach?
8) If I simply live my life with the intention of experiencing the mystery, knowing that whatever created me, and the Universe is the source of body, mind and spirit for all things, for all beings:
• Would I continue to argue over god?
• Would I continue to take sides or would I seek to find common ground for nurture in nature?
• Would I relax more and know that I ultimately experience what I create and that As GOD, I could only “BE”, therefore, I can celebrate the Mystery?
• Would I relax more knowing that life and death are only relative concepts that give meaning to each other, yet, neither are ABSOLUTE TRUTHS; and therefore, I can’t possibly die – I can only evolve to CONSCIOUSNESS and free myself of being “conscious of”?
• Am I in a rush to become “GOD as GOD”, or am I enjoying being a god in GOD because it’s the most beautiful show there is – the Universe itself?
THE ABSOLUTE is CONSCIOUSNESS. Only CONSCIOUSNESS can be “conscious of”.
Egos are “conscious of”, yet in that state of conditioning, a relative relationship is created. Conditions are created. The circle on your paper is created, without which, there would be nothing to be conscious of!
I realize these explorations can be challenging to the conditioned mind. The conditioned mind is a gift from UCL, just as the pens or pencils of an artist may be seen as a gift to the paper.
After all, if you were a piece of paper, would you rather lay eternally on the shelf, or would you prefer to become embodied as beautiful art and hung on the wall for all to see, enjoy, not enjoy, discuss, dialogue and have or experience?
Some may be scared to know the truth about GOD.
Some, like me, may be overjoyed to know that GOD IS UNCONDITIONAL LOVE and as such, can’t possibly harm, punish, diminish or demean you. All UCL can give you is what you believe.
Love and chi,
Paul Chek
