PRETENDING TO BE AWARE?

Howdy and magnificent day to All!

Well, I’ve certainly enjoyed interacting with so many of you over the course of the last couple blog posts! It’s fun to get into Pandora’s box and see what’s hiding in our shadows ah J.

I had a beautiful, productive day yesterday. I put the finishing touches on my new webinar titled, Essential Program Design Basics, which I’ll be delivering to the trainers working for the Lifetime Fitness chain Thursday.

I’m excited to share simple, yet highly effective ways to develop more effective exercise programs with the trainers.

Penny, John O’Brien (our director of education) and I met yesterday to discuss strategies for growing the business and getting our core products out to the public more effectively. It was a great meeting.

I always love working with my wife to fulfill our dreams of sharing the institute with those that are ready to cultivate their own well-being with the simple methods I’ve cultivated during my career.

I’m deeply grateful to have Penny in my life. She’s the most amazing, delicate, yet hard working, productive little rose of a woman. She is proof that indeed, you do get what you wish for when you are clear as to what you have to share and who you desire to share with.

Today, I thought I’d share a passage from one of my favorite books on the practice of TAO, A Path And a Practice, by William Martin, p. 107:

WE KNOW Its ENDING

If we pretend to be aware
but do not recognize
our own suffering,
we remain ignorant.

The fundamental joy of this path is the awareness
of the suffering caused by our own mind.
Knowing its origin,
we know its ending.

There is deep wisdom and truth in these words from a wise man.

When we do not recognize:

• That our judgments are acts of separation, we easily forget that the Universe is ONE. ALL is One, and One is ALL. That is true! The only separation that can be experienced is that which we choose to create. Though many will say things like, “what the hell is he talking about, I didn’t choose this, so and so did this to me!”, we often don’t realize that we are taking a passive role. It is essential to anyone ready to cultivate well-being to remember that choosing not to choose is choosing.

When we don’t recognize:

• When we ignore our feelings, we don’t know how:

• Our body informs us; how to eat and live harmoniously; we become addicted to what we don’t want and often convince ourselves that we do want what we “don’t need.”

When we don’t recognize:

• What we do want, we are likely to blame our condition on others.

We are likely to stop believing in the words of others because we’ve become unable to feel how living that way affects us, and others we have relationships with.

When we don’t recognize:

• That Mother Nature is guiding us, we stop holding still enough to listen to Her wisdom. Instead, we believe the news, remaining ignorant to the corporate agendas we are being programmed with, allowing ourselves to feel afraid, alone and isolated in the world. We forget that all challenges are opportunities to learn to live and love better. To take responsibility for ourselves and the decisions we make; being apathetic contributes to apathy, which only grows more apathy in our own lives and the lives we share relationships with. Soon, all we see is the shit of the world, and we easily forget that flowers grow in shit!

Today, I will practice honoring the truth of my own conviction: The Universe is One. We are all in and of that One.

All events are the Universe unfolding, opening like a flower. Just as the stress of the sun on our skin tans us and helps us feel warm and beautiful, we learn to see that the stress of opening is a means of realizing what we are looking for; flowers always turn toward the sun.

I hold the conviction that while I’m warming in the sun, there are others climbing mountains getting burned; that is the way of a mountaineer.

I hold the conviction that while I’m warming in the sun, there are soldiers in the desert burning, fighting, killing, praying, and that’s exactly what makes a soldiers dream of being a soldier come true; that dream depends on there being others willing to include fighting in their dream.

I will practice knowing that where I experience pain, I’ve been given the gift of awareness.

By being present with my actions, I will become more “aware” of how my choices affect me, and others I share relationships with.

I invite you to join me.

Love and chi,

Paul Chek