UNWRAPPING THE GIFT

Hello and Happy Wednesday!

I hope your day was a reflection of your dreams yesterday.

I had a very productive day of coaching, writing, and building new slide shows for my monthly Q&A with Paul and Monthly Message offerings on www.chekconnect.com.

Unfortunately, I had a little tangle with my computer in the process that cost me some time and aggravation, and then Penny a few minutes to figure out.

Initially, I found the challenge irritating and confusing but it worked out well overall. I had to go get Penny to come assist me because she knows more about computers than the tech guys that repair them.

Once she was sitting in my chair in my office, I calmed down because at least, I got to visit my beautiful wife for a while and I knew that my problem could be resolved.

Though we both work here at the Institute, Penny is so busy managing the business affairs of the C.H.E.K Institute worldwide that I often only see her when she’s asleep in bed when I wake up in the morning, and then late at night when she comes home, which is just before I go to sleep.

So, occasionally, when I need her help, even though the problems are potentially frustrating, I’m always able to learn something about patience from her.

She sees computers as things you must learn to understand and she feels that they just do what we ask them to. I want my computer to intuit my commands and she often reminds me that I can intuit all I want but if my intuitions don’t end up being computer literate, then I’m still caught between worlds!

Ah yes, there are always lessons to be learned from the Buddha beings in our life.

Even those that we think are less or more intelligent or skilled than we are often surprise us. Ask any parent to list the lessons they’ve gained from their children and surely, they will tell you of the wisdom of the little people!

UNWRAPPING THE GIFT

We are born soft and supple.

We laugh a lot.

We sleep a lot.

We dream a lot.

No matter what we do, initially,

our parents call it playing.

We see the world with eyes full of wonderment.

We have no ideas of color, race or creed.

Each person, place, indeed, each thing is a mystery to us.

We want to touch, taste, feel, see, and explore everything. We know nothing of can’t, shouldn’t, don’t, must, or have to.

When we get hurt, we don’t know for sure whether to laugh or cry until we learn which one gets us the most support.

Once we learn, we practice that method of self-expression.

When it stops working, we try other ways; we watch and see what others are doing to get loved?

When young, we are naturally inquisitive.

That works for a while!

But being inquisitive is seen by many parents and teachers as being a pain in the ass!so soon, we become afraid to ask questions; it is less painful to just do as we are told!

We see so many things differently than others say they are. We see our parents come home from work, hurried, anxious, nervous. We watch. We listen. We learn.

We learn that working isn’t fun. We learn that our parents are too busy to share with us. We find that our parents and school teachers are very much alike.

As we wake up to the expectations handed to us as responsibilities, we naturally begin to question the concept of growing up.

We learn that to play and have fun, we must often tell lies about where we were and who we were with; it’s safer that way!

We’ve noticed that mom and dad use that method with each other too, so why shouldn’t we?

We often get so good at lying to meet our needs, we forget when we are doing it.

We are told we must never drink, smoke, or spend time with strangers.

Strangely, we see that our parents and teachers are most happy when they are drinking, smoking, and hanging out with strangers.

We secretly know, there must be some sort of gift there if so many people are doing what they tell us not to do, so we try unwrapping these gifts.

We find something special in such gifts.

They are “bad”, so when we can explore them, we often find that they are good! Fun! Exciting! Different. Mind altering.

It’s easier to laugh. We develop good bad habits, just like our teachers.

Soon, our inner-treasure chest is full of secrets.

We need them. They assure us that we are smart, powerful, capable. We learn that we too can get away with things.

We feel strangely stronger and safer knowing that we can out-smart our parents and teachers!

Without realizing it,
our hugs become more and more wooden, and less and less frequent.

Without realizing it,
we stop looking into people’s eyes because we innately feel that our eyes are a window into our treasure chest; the last thing we want is our freedom taken away!

As we hold onto our inner-secrets, we find that they are more and more socially unacceptable.

Now, there is sex involved. Now there are drugs involved. Now there is cheating involved. Now there is sinning involved. Now we are afraid of God, for we all learn that God is All Knowing.

A part of us is intrigued by the mystery of God, but the other part of us feels unholy, unacceptable, sure to be judged and sentenced to hell. God begins to look and feel just like our parents and teachers, but since we can’t see God and aren’t sure we know God, we don’t really know who, or what we are hiding from.

The more we learn about God, the more we become suspicious that we are being monitored from every direction. Now, our hugs become even more wooden and our treasure chest buried deeper and deeper behind smiles and subservience.

We reach the point where we hope we can find someone to love us.

We hope to find someone that isn’t afraid of what may come out of our treasure chest in a moment of sexual union, or while sharing the drunkenness that frees us from the bonds of our beliefs.

We hope we can find someone that loves us more than we love ourselves; we are afraid that if they really get to know us, they won’t love us any more.

After all, that’s how it went with mom, dad and our teachers at large.

We seek. We find. We fall in love.

We are high. We feel happy. We forget our pains!for a while.

Soon enough, we find ourselves not getting what we want from our lover.

We remember how to use leverage; mom and dad were masters of that.

If our requests are not worshiped, responded to, inevitably, we reach into our lover’s treasure chest and expose a part of them they are willing to protect.

Initially, it is easier for them to make love to us and conform than it would be to deal with the rath of others knowing what’s hidden inside us.

Naturally, we find ourselves trapped in love.

Soon enough, we reciprocate.

We now face each other, we swords of treasure in each hand.

We pry, bend, twist, and eventually, we break each other.

Now we are in love, but we are very alone.

We can’t be honest.

That means exposing more treasure.
More treasure now means more theft, more leverage, more control,!there is so little left to “live for”.

As we age, the parts of us where we bury our pains and secrets become knotted and sore. Our digestion begins to weaken. Our breathing becomes shortened and quick. We become constipated. We become tired and start to have wrinkles and gray hair.

We become even more worried that no one will love us, or our treasures.

We naturally begin to feel more and more alone, even though we are surrounded by people everywhere we go.

Many have wrapped themselves in make-up.

Others wrap themselves in muscle.

Some wrap themselves in the supportive blankets of disease and disablement; they find it easier to get what they want that way – easier to feel loved.

A man can lift more than anyone in the gym, but
he can’t get along with his wife and kids.

A woman goes a long way to looking beautiful each day,
but she feels naked without her face.

Many, by now, have found God in a bottle, in smoke, in distractions. They are hooked on safe love.

Others desperately try to purge themselves in churches, in temples, in 12-step meetings.

Now old, wrinkled, tired, and unsurprised,
we are less secretive. We’ve learned to be alone.

We fart and laugh about it.

We drink, smoke, and don’t care what others think.

We watch the children and their parents.

We smile. We see all the games we played being played again and again by them.

We see their pain clearly, for it was once, and possibly still is our own.

We have empathy.

We have compassion.

We are Grandparents.

We are at a crossroad in our life now.

We can let go of it all and explore the mystery without caring what parents and teachers or others think.

Or, we can get more and more bitter, rigid, resentful; we are sure there’s no God by now.

If we choose to become a child again and explore the mystery without worry of judgment from others, we unwrap the gift.

We find God hiding inside us!

We meet the Unconditional Lover.

We realize that all the pain, trials and tribulations were a gift.

The gift of Self-Realization.

We see the humor in it all.

We see the unbound creativity of the Universe.

We see the star-people watching us at night.

We see that without some pain, we could never fully appreciate what love is, how love is.

We realize deep within that we are perfect as we are.

We realize that everyone else is perfect as they are.

We experience the humor inherent in our games of concealment at the moment we look into the eyes of The Divine and we laugh and cry out loud. It is as though we are being torn to pieces and rebuilt anew at the very same time.

We are free.

Now, we are safe people to share treasures with.

Now we know how to love and why to love.

Now we don’t need muscles or make-up to feel safe because we know who we are.

Now we see ourselves everywhere; hiding in the addict, in the church, in prison, in government, in sports, in power, wealth, poverty and fame.

We realize that we are God.

Entertained.

Entertaining.

We realize that every ending gives birth to yet another beginning.

This is the nature of Mind.

When the puzzle is complete,
we shake the box and do it again.

We realize that LOVE has nothing else to do,
but me,
but you!

Love and chi,
Paul Chek