IN THE PRESENCE OF THE KING

Happy Thursday to You!

I hope you are well and that life’s little circumstances are seen as a chance to cultivate awareness.

Sometimes, it seems like the world is falling down around us, but in my life, I’ve noticed that many times I’ve let circumstances get me stressed only to realize a few days later that it was unnecessary and didn’t help improve things.

It’s as though we need emotional ups and downs to “feel alive”.

If we don’t have a natural sense of well-being, we often create polarity so we can be more aware of the edges, which allows us the opportunity to choose to be in the middle; not too much, not too little!

I had a very busy day yesterday. So busy in fact, that I didn’t manage to get my to tai-chi session, morning nor evening.

When that happens, I’m able to remind myself that it’s the way I live as a lifestyle; what makes the big difference is consistency, and missing a session now and then isn’t such a big deal if the general theme is congruent with my overarching dream of self-creation and Self-exploration.

I had a great time giving my webinar titled, A Neurodevelopmental Approach To Conditioning yesterday to the Australian market.

Our Australian distributor, www.placeofchi.com and you may still be able to down load the webinar from their site once it’s posted. The live webinar was a free offering, but if you did not register you’ll be able to purchase it by registering on their site.

After my webinar, I had to jump right in my car and race home for my PPS coaching call; I wanted to be at home in my home environment since the call was ending around 7:00 PM.

The call was great with lots of good questions and supportive comments from PPS students. I always love hearing how people’s lives change for the better when they apply the PPS teachings.

I have to practice every day myself.

I had a nice lunging workout yesterday. I coupled lunges with 185 for sets of 4 with back squats at 155 for sets of 10 with reverse Swiss ball crunches for sets of 10 and did four rounds.

That was about all I could take after my previous two workouts and I’ll enjoy a day off of exercise to day. Tomorrow I’m taking the day off to be in my rock garden and I’ll get some great exercise there.

IN THE PRESENCE OF THE KING

This poem comes from Hafiz – The Voice of God – A Hundred Odes, Translated by Khalid Hameed Shaida, MD.

Her veil, if she dropped, she must be tight
Does the barman have something special tonight?

O heart, be happy and thank your star
There’s something in the air if she went so far

In the garden, the flowers are everywhere
It’s cool and pleasant, with fragrant air

The ladies of night are full of allure
The barman, in bottles, has every cure

There’s frolic and gaiety and joy everywhere
A message from Sheba must have the air

The night’s starry, and there’s full moon
And sing and dance and drink and dine

Your promise, O preacher, has no allure
The barmaid has all—what I need and more

Now HAVIZ is happy and has everything
Because he is in the presence of the king.

Commentary:

In the era of Hafiz, anecdotes to wine, barmaids, barmen, roses, flowers, the moon, the sun, were all often used as metaphors for God.

The queen of Sheba was thought to be a very wealthy woman who gave King Soloman loads of gold.

At first sight, one without these understandings of middle Eastern poetic expressions of God could easily get the impression that Hafiz is talking about chasing ladies, getting drunk and partying.

What he’s referring to (as I know and understand Hafiz from my studies of his poetry and related teachings), is his relationship with God.

The ladies of the night full of allure are a masculine, but beautiful expression of God’s infinite creative ability. The barman with all his bottles of “cure” is a metaphor for God, who has all the cures.

Hafiz says:
“Your promise, O preacher, has no allure
The barmaid has all—what I need and more”

One would need some knowledge of the life of Hafiz, who was often walking the sharp edge of a sword because his was the era of extremely hard-core Islamic faith, which carries all the pain and challenges of the Christian faith of that era.

His poetry often exposed the futility of following orders or worshiping letters printed on paper in lieu of experiencing God directly, which brought heat to him on a number of occasions.

Hafiz, like many poets of his class was very likely a truly enlightened man, and as such, could see right through the veil of religious dogma.

“The barmaid has all—what I need and more” is his way of saying that there is no need of a middle man—A preacher!

If this poem is offering any kind of message to the reader, it is simply to spend time enjoying what life has to offer, while at once being aware of the mystery and majesty of life.

To worship the Source of it All, not to get trapped in the idea of being good so you can get to heaven. Hafiz would tell you that that whole concept is but a Mexican finger trap!

A Mexican finger trap is a cute little contraption often made of bamboo, help or another tough fibrous material. It is woven into a cylinder just the size of the average human finger.

If you stick your finger in one end and offer someone else to stick their finger in the other end, any attempt to “escape” results in an increase in the binding force, which occurs due to the way it is weaved.

The harder some tries to escape, the harder it grips their finger.

Rumi and many other enlightened poets and sages throughout antiquity have warned repeatedly of the dangers of organized religion and Hafiz was no exception.

I hope you have a good day celebrating the majesty and mystery of Life, your life and all that is. That is the fastest way to God-Realization.

Remember, God is UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. There are no rules there!

If we create rules, it is usually because we are afraid to experience the abundance, freedom and joy that is our natural birthright.

As I’ve come to see it, our challenges are Mexican finger traps and the secret isn’t to fight them. It is to relax and unwind issues in the spirit of the good of all involved.

Adding stress to stressful situations only diminishes creativity and increases the likelihood you will reenact the same behaviors over and over again!

Enjoy your day!

Love and chi,
Paul Chek