Good day to ALL!
I had a great day drinking my special tea and doing art and playing in the rock garden. I spent a few hours out there building a rock pattern that I can do tai-chi and balance training on.
I filled the stone circle where my meditation seat is that’s closest to the road with large stones in a web pattern. Quite fun.
It’s a cloudy day here today and I’m feeling lazy….still resting from the jet travel so laying low.
Enjoy my sutra for today: Rivers Grow In Trees
Rivers grow in trees
And so does the sky
Rain falls, rain rises
Rivers flow like snakes crawl
So do roots, babies too
Roots go to the center
As water falls and rises in the trees
Rivers fill the tasty fruit that birds eat
And the birds eyes
TAO-TE-zen practice is to learn from water
She does nothing, yet in her – everything lives
Water grows forever in the trees
Just by worshiping the sun
May you practice
This is an invitation to pay attention to the beautiful principle of Wei Wu Wei, action without action, that is manifest in the water, and the principle of yang or levity manifest in the sun.
Meditation in the first hour or last hour of sunlight provides us with an opportunity to gaze at the sun without hurting our eyes, and by breathing and being present with the sun, we inhale more chi, prana, etheric energy, life force, which the body uses to grow and to expand conscious awareness of self.
By being aware of the changes one feels in their body, in their mind, in their emotional state, when their thirsty and they drink, or when they’re enjoying themselves in the sun, we learn a tremendous amount about the influences and the gifts from the river and the trees and the sun.
Rivers are the equivalent of your arteries and veins. Just as your arteries deliver fresh blood, oxygen, and nutrition, and your veins remove the waste from your body, the byproducts of metabolism, the rivers, creeks, and streams have the exact same function in nature.
Though gravity carries water downhill toward the center of the earth, it is the action of pumping and warmth that encourage water to rise, thus rivers grow in trees.
Though the Sutra reads “Rivers Grow in Trees”, the principles of the Sutra, the falling supports the rising, the gravitational pull on water and its desire to seek the lowest level is overcome in all living organisms, which raise the water up to fulfill their nature.
The rising action induced upon the water is an active process that comes by way of the warmth of the sun, the warmth of our bodies, and the living function of contraction of our muscles.
These principles are all functioning in nature by various mechanisms. For example, when the wind blows it deforms the bodies of plants and trees creating the same pumping action in them as movement does in our bodies.
But could the trees, the plants, or nature move, pump, or survive without that most miraculous capillary bed of rivers and streams and creeks and lakes provided by Mother Nature.
I don’t think so.
Therefore the message of our Sutra “Rivers Grow in Trees” is that though we look at a tree and do not see the river, it is the river rising, reaching for the sun, climbing towards its source of warmth.
It is the warmth of the sun that evaporates the moisture, the water in the river creating sky, atmosphere, clouds and rain, in a perpetual cycle of unconditional love.
Through the study of nature (TAO) we can learn a tremendous amount about the importance of the elements and the importance of harmony as necessary to sustain life and to keep life healthy, vital, and balanced.
Nurture your selves today with the intention to let the river of life flow within to produce extraordinary radiant lives worth celebrating!
Love and chi,
Paul Chek
