Hello and Good Day!
Friday was busy for me. I completed my next edition of my Monthly Message and Q&A with Paul offerings for www.chekconnect.com.
There were many interesting questions to answer this month so if you are a subscriber to my Monthly Message, I suspect you’ll find it interesting. If you are interested in subscribing, you can do so at www.chekconnect.com. In my Monthly Message, I shared a video with slide show that recreated my 4 post series on Healing With Stones. That’s a free offering so if you visit chekconnect.com, you can view that when it is posted.
I went and got a much needed massage Friday and took a nap in the steam bath. That put enough wind in my sails to continue my rewrite of How To Eat, Move and Be Healthy.
Saturday, I came to work and worked some more on my book rewrite. I also did a lovely pushing workout. I coupled Swiss ball dumbbell bench press (70 x 8-12) with club bell snatch to touch-back (15 x 12-16), and concluded each of the four circuits with single arm cable pushes from a high angle (75 x 20 ea.) (I pushed each rep at a different angle from floor to overhead for motor variety).
The institute was empty and they gym was quite and peaceful so I really enjoyed myself.
Sunday I felt very lazy so I rested. Though I had every intention of getting into my rock garden and fixing some creations that the wind blew over and creating something new, I just felt like lazing.
Instead of rock work, I drew an image that has been coming to me repeatedly for several days. I spent six hours drawing a picture that represented human self-consciousness to me. I suspect it will show up on a blog sooner or later.
Our preparations for the CHEK Conference are going well and we are getting lots of people signing up each day. We are also getting confirmation from more excellent presenters! It’s very exciting to be able to share this event with all of you.
Today, I’d like to share my experience of The Dream-Weaver.
THE DREAM-WEAVER
“The Dream-Weaver” as expressed in my artistic rendering, represents my own experience of dreaming. I state this up front for reasons that will become evident at the end of the blog!
At the top, you see the sun. The sun’s core is matter (yin), which expresses itself as light (yang). The sun’s sphere of influence, or embodiment can be said to be the area in which it’s gravitational force influences all other material bodies. It can also be expressed as the range in which it’s light has creative influence.
When you stand in the sun and look at it, it looks like the sun is “over there” and you are “over here”, yet, you are actually within the sun’s sphere of “body”. Within the sun’s body are all the planets in our solar system, which function much like the organs within your own body.
The Dream-Weaver is an amalgamation of all possible modes of conscious embodiment and expression emergent from the elemental relationships expressed in and as the sun’s relationships. The Dream-Weaver’s pallet of creative tools includes the essential elements of earth, water, fire, air, and ether (space in relationship).
Because the Dream-Weaver has all the base elements of creation in His/Her toolbox, dreams can express any possible mode of self-expression possible within the infinite bounds of MIND.
The Dream-Weaver is sitting in The River Of Life. This represents the flow of time and the possibility to change your mind; matter = past, thought/light projection = future.
Because you can’t possibly stand in the same river twice, the Dream-Weaver’s message is to take advantage of the opportunity to create anew in each moment of your life such that you learn to create what you desire to experience in life, not what other people tell you to be, or expect you to be.
Within the Dream-Weaver’s body, you see a bird, also composed of the essential elements of dream-creation. The bird is a metaphysical symbol for the soul – individual consciousness. The soul represents Unconditional Love and/or Consciousness; the soul-bird is not bound by space-time and can fly to any region of mind and can swim in any direction in the river of life effortlessly. The soul-bird represents the infinite possibilities offered to us as choice, which are expressed in the “NOW” by our choices. In the center of the soul-birds forehead is another sun, which represents vision, wisdom, and Unconditional Love.
The soul-bird’s eyes represent Kosmic Vision; “Kosmic” is a Greek term that means not just “cosmos”, which is merely matter, but is inclusive of matter, biosphere, noosphere (MIND) and theosphere (Divine Sphere). Therefore, the Dream-Weaver represents that our dreams constitute universes being born from no-thing.
Below the soul-birds eyes are it’s organs of feeling. They have hearts of gold in them because the soul’s only means of experiencing itself “as life” is through the thoughts and emotions afforded to it by it’s body, which is represented as soul’s (your) ego. T
o exemplify this point, Chinese metaphysician and philosopher Chang Tzu said, “If a man can dream he’s a butterfly – how do you know you aren’t a butterfly dreaming it’s a man?”
The soul-bird’s headdress is as swinging doors made of black and white. This represents the two essential polarities of yin (black) and yang (white), of which all dreams are made.
The bars of black and white exemplify that in general, we tend to believe our own ideas as fact, when the actual fact is that we can’t know for sure anything is a fact until we know with objective certainty what consciousness is!
Only a little over 100 years ago, if you’d dreamed the world was round and told people about it, they would have thought you’d lost your mind! After all, everyone knows the world is flat!
Therefore, the soul-bird is “wearing the mask of tai-chi”, which means that the soul “put’s it on”, yet, Her eyes are not tainted by the mask of illusion or Maya, which are Her Joy.
The black with stars represent the essential nature of ALL Creation, which is composed only of emptiness and relative or perceived fullness. Soul-bird knows everything there is to know because consciousness is non-local and is the basis of all perceptions; She knows “movies are movies”.
She never falls into the trick of the ego-mind, believing that the world is real, definite, finite because She knows even the Universe is a virtual reality (2nd Level Creation).
Soul-bird enjoys the experience of Her ego because she knows that thought the ego falls for the trick of illusion (the mystery of Divine Creation), and gets deeply entangled, ego is only the equal of a great actor playing his/her part fully in they show.
Above soul-bird, you see two fish coming together to create the Dream-Weaver’s mouth. The fish appear to be trying to eat the same piece of meat, which is a product of each other! The fish represent yin and yang. The piece of meat represents our words, which we are so often willing to fight over with other fish. The fish also represent the mirror; like most animals, ego-minds in general can’t differentiate weather they are looking at self, or other.
Because there is only ONE SOURCE, any appearance of yin or yang, self or other, are all illusory conceptions. The blast of flames coming from the side of the fish, the Dream-Weaver’s face, represent the sun. We are all expressions of the sun, moon and earth, as well as the entire Kosmos; what we are then, must logically be already present in seed-form within the sun and the earth.
When this is understood, the question, “What came first, the chicken or the egg?” becomes irrelevant. Both the chicken and the egg are expressions of potential states that give birth to each other. The earth is akin to the egg, and the chicken (idea) is drawn out of seed-form in the earth by the levitation force of (the sun’s) light; that’s why plants and trees grow toward the sun, not the moon, earth, or otherwise.
In fact, some astronomers suggest that all our planetary bodies may well have been ejected from the sun at one time in the creation of our solar system; chicken and egg are as two halves of a circle trying to determine which came first!
The fish are swimming in water, which is the basis of all biological life. Yet, the fish, born in water, is so accustomed to water, it has no concept of what water is. If you tried to sell water to a fish, it would not be likely to even understand the offer. Water, as the basis for biological life, which we forget about, represents our subconscious mind, which constitutes the grand majority or basis of our thoughts and actions.
Just as fish forget they are in water, we forget that what we believed when we were children is still behind the scenes influencing our choices. This ignorance leads to a lot of pain and confusion. This pain and confusion makes the plot much thicker and more realistic to the soul – more entertaining!
I remember an experience I had when I was 15 in summer camp with Yogananda’s monks at the Lake Shrine Self-Realization Temple in Los Angeles. The monks told us a story that Yogananda had told some of them.
One of the monks had asked Yogananda, “Master, why is it that the world seems to be caught in a ceaseless parody of crime, injustice, wars, famine, illness and seeming unfairness?” They relayed the story that Yougananda replied, “When you go to a movie, don’t you like a got plot, plot twists, villains, a good shoot out, and the intrigue of lovers?” The monks answered, “yes”. Yogananda continued, “God enjoys all these things too, or they wouldn’t be here!”
The monks went on to explain that at any moment in the world, there are babies being born to loving parents, there are people hitting the jackpot, there are people overcoming what seem to be unbeatable odds. At any moment in life, we can choose to be come conscious and take responsibility for our free will, our capacity to choose and become what we want to be instead of what we’ve chosen to believe we are. They explained that the world is FULL of opportunity and it is up to us to decide who we are and what we will contribute to.
Next in my drawing, you see the Dream-Weaver’s nose, which is connected with His/Her eyes, out of each of which another being emerges. This represents that our senses inform us, yet the experience of our senses is expressed body-wide via the fluid conducting medium of the humors – the fluids of our bodies.
Dream-Weaver’s eyes each represent a universe of possible interpretations of what IS. The head emerging above the right eye represents our capacity to see the world from the masculine perspective, and/or our ability to import the past into the NOW.
The head above the left eye represents the female perspective and our ability to project the past, or novelty into the future (gestation). Yet, like the Universe, these two perspectives are incomplete alone. They have no relative value without the other.
To the degree that we align ourselves with either a masculine dominant view or feminine dominant view, we make decisions on incomplete perceptions and/or information.
The blue lines emanating from the sun represent space-time or the field of possibilities available to all of us at any given moment in time. This represents the atmosphere we create collectively and individually (social mind).
Yet, regardless of how shitty a day we are having, we’ve all had the experience of realizing how many times we acted and lived in a way that not only produced negative experiences for those in relationship with us, but realizing that a few days later, it was as though it didn’t even happen! But, what did happen is that we may have damaged some relationships with people that we love because we over-invested in our programmed or partial beliefs as TRUTH.
Often, sadly, we find out that “we were in the wrong”, not the person or persons we projected the blame onto.
Here are some meditations I invite you to participate in if you feel so inclined:
DREAMING
1. How many times have you woken up in the middle of a negative dream or nightmare, only to realize it was just a dream? How long did it influence your behavior? Were there nightmares that were representative of how you were managing yourself in your relationships?
2. How many times have you had beautiful dreams, woke up, and out of your own excitement thought, “cool, I’ve got to get to sleep so I can continue that dream”? Take a moment and ask yourself, “How is it that I could CHOOSE to reenter a dream and actually do it?” Were there things you learned in such dreams that encouraged you to follow the dream? Did those dream-perceptions in some way influence others you shared relationships with because you saw the dream as an opportunity to live more harmoniously?
3. How often do you go to sleep at night, TOTALLY forget your problems, and your joys(!), only to wake up and begin running your storyline all over again, even when it hurts you and others? If you can forget everything, then, can you choose what you will re-member based on what you want, instead of what you don’t want?
4. Would you be willing to draw the Dream-Weaver in you? What does your Dream-Weaver look like? You’ve seen mine.
In my life, I’ve endured seemingly endless criticism over everything from my approach to diet and exercise, the way I dress, and my metaphysical beliefs, to my choices in relationships with women, and even my art!
Yes, people complain about my art because they say “it looks psychedelic” and imply that because my art looks psychedelic that I must be a druggie!
As painful as it is at times to do my best to share my life experiences in hopes that they will somehow benefit others, I’ve learned that people who are more focused on the negative and don’t allow themselves to be present with the gifts (or the evidence) afforded to them, are simply caught in their own nightmare.
As the old saying goes, “misery lives company!”
As painful as it is at times, I have to take advantage of the opportunity to stay centered in my own truth. To the degree that I’m in touch with my authentic intentions to share, I’m able to allow them to have their judgments. They are dream-weaving.
If we come to realize that the Universe is the seedbed of all possibilities, we also know we don’t need to kill the messenger. When we realize we can simply change our mind, we know that we can change our dream(s). If we all become brave enough to find out what it is in us that represents what we are criticizing, we often find that we are externalizing our own dislikes of ourselves onto others so we don’t have to take responsibility for them.
The Dream-Weaver has NO qualms about the kind of dreams, or the kind of life you choose to live. A life of pain and ugliness is just as much fun to the Dream-Weaver as a cast of favorite characters in a favorite plot in a movie is to you. Some enjoy watching things be blasted to smithereens and people getting raped, pillaged and killed. Others prefer love stories and Disney movies (which also have some of these qualities!).
The key thing to remember is that to the degree your dreams include judgments that separate you from others, your dream separates you from yourself and therefore, stops you from ever coming to know who and what you really are! When we aren’t “aware”, dreaming shitty dreams becomes a habit!
I love to dream. I love to share. I love to experience myself, and even when it hurts, I’m grateful that I’ve found a piece of myself that needs more love, empathy and/or guidance.
If we all come to realize the nature of the Dream-Weaver, and accept the amazing gift of free will, of choice, we can choose to dream of harmony together. We can choose to allow people to have their dreams with their unique cast of characters.
Eventually, we all fall asleep.
Just remember though, if you fall asleep with a habit of dreaming up what you don’t want, you are likely to wake up and keep doing it.
When I go to bed each night, I thank Great Spirit for the opportunities I’ve been given that day. I thank Great Spirit for giving me just what I need to reach my potential as a human being and to have empathy for the parts of myself that at times, feel like horseflies buzzing around me constantly and biting me ceaselessly.
I trust that because Great Spirit is Perfect, that tomorrow, I can use my awareness to dream more perfectly again and know that I’ll get better at dreaming as I practice dreaming with awareness.
Love and chi,
Paul Chek
