WHERE DOES THIS LADDER GO?

Hello and good day!

I’m probably sitting in the plane on my way to New York as you read this. I thought I’d leave you with a little something to ponder today as I travel.

Questions regarding the spiritual path make up the bulk of the questions I answer for students and patients today.

A while ago, I drew this piece to symbolize the spiritual journey, which is essentially the only journey there is. The outer circle represents the undivided interconnectedness of all life or existence. The “S” through the middle of the circle represents Spirit; the force of transformation or “Shiva” in Hindu mythology. The dark areas represent the balance of, or reconciliation of the forces of yin (the female) and yang (the male), which all life or existence are products of. You may know these forces as tai-chi. The birds represent souls coming and going in life as we know it.

The ladder begins well below the circle, which represents that there are steps we all must go through to enter the realm of life once we’ve passed on; regardless of how evolved one may have been at the time of their death, we must all start from the beginning in each new lifetime.

There are seven steps on the ladder within the circle, representing the journey of conscious awakening relative to the psycho-physical values we can choose to embody in each lifetime. The steps above the circle represent higher chakras in which our consciousness may awaken in life or the afterlife, depending on our devotion to gaining union with TRUTH.

The ladder comes from and goes no-where. The source of all life and the TRUTH of all life is UNCONDITONAL LOVE (UCL). UCL has no place of departure or arrival. Any such place would represent “a condition”, which can only be the product of mind, or relativity. The ladder then, comes from and goes to THE ABSOLUTE.
In a beautiful book, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, who was Roman Emperor from 161 to 180, I was very impressed to see how so much of his teaching was aligned with Taoist and zen philosophy.

Meditations serves as an example of how Aurelius approached the Platonic ideal of a philosopher-king and how he symbolized much of what was best about Roman civilization.

Reading Meditations was very interesting to me because well before we had advanced astronomy, Marcus Aurelius had a very beautiful cosmology he lived by.

As a man that reached great heights in his professional career, you can clearly see through his teachings, he never lost sight of the fact that we are all, including planet earth, but specs in a universe of inconceivable grandeur. He shows how one can deal with war, politics, and the troubles of any time in human history, yet, never loose sight of the bigger picture of what’s important in life.

The climb on this spiritual ladder goes from unconsciousness to super-consciousness. Each step of the way, we learn to live and love more fully, openly and honestly.

In so doing, we express the good, beauty and love of the universe itself. Each step up the ladder, we gain greater awareness as to what is temporary and not worthy of entangling ourselves in, and what is ultimately, all that we can take with us when we go.

All that leaves with you is what you’ve become. No money, cars, houses, stature, rank, authority or otherwise makes this journey. What we leave behind as love for others reincarnates each day to the degree that we are emulated.

Knowing that, my dream is to leave behind the best of myself so I can feel good about resting for a while in the afterlife.

It is my dream that we can all look back into the garden of life knowing that we’ve left it a little more beautiful and safe for the children than when we came.

Love and chi,
Paul Chek