Core Values (Pt. 1) and Weekend Joys

Core values are codes of conduct we each live by.

Core values may be composed of both ethics, and morals. Morals are different from ethics in that morals represent codes of conduct that are life affirmative, while ethics may or may not be life affirmative.

It is a pretty safe bet that the Dali Lama’s core values are such that if emulated by the world at large, would be life affirmative. Our chances of survival would probably be significantly enhanced.

Living moral core values also enhances life on the planet for all living, all sentient beings. This is the function of morality.

Ethics are codes of conduct and are used by almost any person, family, business, organization, or group of people seeking to function as a collective.

Ethics should not be considered the equivalent of morals. Every soldier in the military has a soldier’s handbook. These codes of conduct may be seen as the core values of a solder.

But the soldier isn’t in a position to consider the morality of his/her actions once they become a solder. They have to put all such ponderings aside; regardless of what they believe is, or isn’t moral, they must follow their soldier’s manual and chain of command.

This may require killing people, even MANY people, for reasons, and in ways that seem ethical as the book would have it, but feel terribly immoral within.

Our core values ultimately establish how we relate to the world, and how we utilize the resources of the world.

Hitler obviously had strong core values, but they couldn’t be shared in a way that was safe in general for many others.

The story of Hitler is but one of many examples we could look to as a means of demonstrating how our core values express our way of relating to the world, and how we utilize the resources of the world.

Today, it may be worth taking a moment to ask yourself what the world would be like if your core values became law and we all had to live the way you do.

How would we relate to the world differently than we do now?

Would we be more like the Dali Lama?

Or, would we be born to kill?

WEEKEND JOYS

I had to take a photo of these beautiful flowers Vidya picked and put on my desk for me. They are each like beautiful little suns bursting upward, with green life as their tail.

We are surrounded by, and we are expressions of Mother Nature’s art.

Here you can see me out on the patio practicing my 4 Doctor songs with my rattles. For my new public health program, I’ve put together fun little songs for each of the 4 Doctors. They will be used as teaching aids and active meditations.

I’ve had fun creating them and enjoy practicing them. I love to sing them in the sauna.

I’m working on a piece of art at the moment. I started out drawing it with black pen. It’s a metaphysical, symbolic picture of the sun and moon eclipsing and I didn’t have a clear vision of the color scheme I wanted to use for the sun.

I put it down and put it out to the Universe that I could use some inspiration. The next morning, I was walking out the front door of my work house (Heaven), and I saw this beautiful moth lying in front of me on the sidewalk.

Nature’s beauty gave me the inspiration I needed. Imagine how amazing a scarf, or bed sheet would look with this moth’s pattern all over it!

I’ve been getting outside and doing some heavy stone lifting. My body feels much better when I regularly use my bare feet on the earth.

No matter how smart you think you are, or how fast you think you are, or how balanced you think you are!if your feet can’t keep up with your head, you will experience pain.

The stone you see me adjusting there weights about 160 pounds. I had to build stone steps (bottom right of the photo) to get within lifting range. I often have to do some pretty interesting balancing acts while stepping up onto stone steps I’ve made.

The problem is often more a case of being delicate than it is a case of simply getting the stone up there. Even a touch too much momentum on impact and the whole stack goes over.

Sometimes, it takes me half an hour to get one stone in place and it may have taken that long to find the stones and build the steps just to begin. Every sense, every muscle, and every organ is on the job.

When loss of fingers, toes, or life are real and ever-present, a whole new level of meditative awareness emerges. This state is one to be welcomed if unwanted visits from the PainTeacher are to be avoided!

Here you can see the step system I built so I can get heavy stones higher up. I was running out of energy after being out in the sun and lifting heavy for some time so I decided to cap it.

You can see my notebook and pens on the foremost stack. I keep them with me at all times. My best ideas and concepts come to me when my body is moving.

We each have to learn how to use our body-mind in ways that work for us.

My instincts are more active when I participate in a thought process. Since so much of my work centers on the concept of functional balance, almost  any exercise opens me to the intimate connections within myself as I functionally balance myself.

Here you can see me practicing my Stork Walk tai-chi form in the stone circle. It’s fun and informative to feel the different effects of rock formations, line drawings on the earth, different elements in the circle, and how it all influences me inside.

The stones, the plants, the animals, and the sun, moon, and sky (to name a few) are all great teachers if we let them be.

As the energy of the earth, atmosphere, and sun move through the stones, chi, or biological energy is formed. It moves in patterns.

I like to relax my intellect and open my feeling-self and follow the energy as it flows. Often, I feel as if I’m being guided as to how to become a tree, or a lizard, or a hawk!

What am I now?

I went out to get some exercise yesterday afternoon. I was all excited to add another tall stack right next to the one you see above.

I worked hard and was about six stones tall when I lost control of a heavy stone trying to land it on its perch. It fell over and hit the one I’d previously built. I was now standing in the middle of a pile of big stones!

I thought, “Isn’t it wonderful that Great Spirit loves to play with stones so much!”

I spent the next hour creating this stack. I finished by putting all the loose ones in a circle. I left full of joy.

These are the kinds of joys we will explore during next month’s upcoming Zen In the Garden workshop, May 25. We will learn how to express our individual fire to harmonize body-mind and spirit, besides realizing the art of unbound play by cultivating present moment awareness and stillness

I concluded my day by going home, having a sauna and watching a movie with Penny. Vidya headed home to catch up on things there, love her plants and relax.

Love and chi,

Paul Chek