LAW OF THRE (44) Time-Space-Consciousness

LAW OF THREE (44)

TIME-SPACE-CONSCIOUSNESS

"Consciousness give us an added dimension to our mental experience, a dimension that is "in depth" rather than time and space. J.G. Bennett

Born without instructions manual,  we have no idea of who we are, where we come from, what purpose do we serve, or how to function properly.

Traditional wisdom schools indicate that to properly function we need to connect our mind with three independent sources of "information". The two primary sources of information come from the world of time and space. We learn that two solid bodies cannot occupy the same space at the same time and so on. However as we grow up it helps to realise that the experience of presence, comes from a deeper dimension of space.

"Christianity must accept unreservedly the new dimensions (spatial, temporal and psychological)

of the world around us" Teilhard de Chardin.

Our presence, our being, is neither located in the dimension of time nor in the dimension of space. Presence can´t completely fit in the dual world of cause and effect, the world of bodies.

Spiritual work is sometimes describer as that of developing consciousness,  which manifests underlined by the perception of depth. Depth helps to bring us into the word of presence. We are here. Now!

The experience of our being here, now, is not a transcendental or third world experience; but the experience of "the third dimension of the one and the same world, opening us up to a more real union with reality" Raimon Panikkar, * 

The experience of the third dimension of the world we are living is a wake call that which may lead us up to higher levels of receptivity

LAW OF THREE (43) Time-Space-Eternity (2)

LAW OF THREE (43)

TIME-SPACE-ETERNITY (2)

" I am Absolute, I am timeless, infinite, and I am awareness, without being aware of awareness... Unless there is space and duration I cannot be conscious of myself." Nisargadatta Maharaj

Humanity suffers from a severe case of mistaken identity. The mistaken identity is referred to by different spiritual teachers as the False Self, the Finite Self, the Ego-memory, the Personality, etc. All those concepts relate to an entity which identity and story is derived from the transient world of time and space. 

This temporal identity does not obscure completely the inner dimension of that Self beyond time and space. The spiritual way could be described as the path which leads from a transient identity to a transcendental.     

The transient identity of the ego is relativised  with the awareness of the third dimension of the manifest world.  About this third dimension Raimon Panikkar:

"The spiritual experience that we may call "mystical" does not put us in touch with a third world, but let us experience the third dimension of the one and the same world, opening us up to a more real union with reality" Raimon Panikkar, The Rhythm of Being, The Unbroken Trinity.

Ordinarily we identify ourselves with the transient and the finite. We derive our identity from the changing or the world of time and space, unaware of the underlying presence of the third dimension of the one and the same world would open us up to a more real perception of reality.

LAW OF THREE (42) Life-Death-Love

LAW OF THREE (42)

LIFE, DEATH, LOVE

"Every one who begins to study and know their own states is well aware that our experience is a constant dying and rebirth, We must not be frightened when we come to see this, although it is a terrifying thing that we have no power to keep hold of our own life; that is has to be renewed or given back to us by something that does not come from ourselves.

But even when we do see the helplessness with which we fall into oblivion, at that moment when we are most trying to hold on to ourselves, we must learn o trust that there is something than call us back. And if it calls us back from sleep at night, it will call us back from the other sleep into which we shall enter, the sleep of death."J.G.Bennett

I can´t imagine a more reassuring description of the presence and action in our lives of a power does does not come from ourselves in which we are invited to place our most absolute trust

St Paul on absolute trust adds:

" I am convinced that neither death, nor life, neither angels nor rulers, neither things present, nor thing to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus." 

Romans 8:38.

The recognition of the presence and action of the love of God in our lives surely must be the ultimate source of inner stability. St. Paul's realisation starts with the words "I am convinced",  and J.G.Bennett's use of the words "we must trust", both speak of the inspiring insights which enabled them to recognise the presence and action of a third conscious force in their own lives.

"When two or three are gathered together in my name I am there in the midst of them"

Matthew 18:20

LAW OF THREE (41) Back to Basics: List of Quotes (1-40)

LAW OF THREE (41)

LIST OF QUOTATIONS.     BLOGS:1-40

L3/1

"The spiritual experience that we may call "mystical" does not put us in touch with a third world, but let us experience the third dimension of the one and the same world, opening us up to a more real union with realty" 

Raimon Panikkar, The Rhythm of Being, The Unbroken Trinity. 

L3/12

The Law of Three: "People who grasp this law intellectually are very rarely nearer to it than those who feel completely lost. It is one thing to be able to deal with these matters in words and quite another to live them: At the very start we all suffer from a tremendous drawback: the working of our centres (head-heart-body) are dominated by polarity so that everything we look at, everything we feel and think and sense, is experienced in terms of two forces and not three." 

 J.G. Bennett

L3/13

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe" 

 Carl Sagan,  cosmologist and astronomer.

L3/14

"We often represent God to ourselves as being able to draw from non-being a world without sorrows, faults, dangers - a world in which there is no damage, no breakage. 

This a conceptual fantasy and it makes it impossible to solve the problem of evil." 

Teilhard de Chardin 

The transformation of the negative, a major sign of intelligence:

"Ordinary criteria of positive and negative do not apply.. The stress and noise of city life becomes transformed into an energy of meditation. Pain becomes a way of understanding the body. Moral suffering becomes a way of freedom from the personality. Mistakes become a way to truth. Lies become a way to sensitive perception. Death becomes a way to life. Anger becomes a way to compassion. The inversion of the negative is a major sign of intelligence"

 Anthony Blake

L3/15

"Without imperfection, you or I would not exist"

Stephen Hawking

"Look for one and you will find two. Look for three and you will find one"

Law of Three saying.

"To break dualism (and blaming God for the negative force) our worship has to be directed towards the The Third Cosmic Impulse - the reconciling, loving, compassionate and yet omnipotent will that transcends Existence and yet enters into it equally at all levels and on every scale."

J.G. Bennett.

L3/16

"The whole body of the world's religions are expressions of the Trinity and thus a unity between Christ and creation. The silence of the Father is expressed in Buddhism; the Logos is found in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity; and the various movements of the Spirit are present in multiple forms in Hinduism. Without the Trinity there is no Christ, and without Christ there is no Trinity."

Raimon Panikkar

L3/17

A political perspective:

HERE IS A POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE

"The rationalist part of the Enlightenment thought that to liberate man from the yoke of religion it was necessary to remove the experience of hazard, uncertainty and risk. Socialism has been the most radical in this attempt, but different forms of statism move in the same direction. Nevertheless, man is a being structurally confronted with hazard and risk and when the State tries to take upon its shoulder all the weight of insecurity, under such weight it wobbles and brakes.."

Rocco Buttiglione.

L3/18

Metaphysics are based on three conceptions so broad and consequently indefinite that they are hard to seize and may easily be overlooked. I call them conceptions of the First, Second and Third. First is the conception of being or existing independent of anything else. Second is the conception of being relative to., or the conception of reaction with something else. The Third is the conception of mediation, whereby the first and the second are brought into relationship. 

C. S. Peirce (1839-1914)

L3/19

"Both the affirmative and the receptive will are necessary for salvation. But there is a third will, the reconciling will, that is the Will of God. Nothing can happen without it. It is through this third will that the Divine Omnipotence is manifested. Man can only affirm or accept; he can neither make laws nor set himself free from them. Those powers are reserved by God; but it seems that, at moments, God allows man to exercise them. That is the real secret of freedom. Man is never alone. His "I" can affirm or it can accept, but nothing whatever can happen without God, for there can be no act without the third or reconciling will." 

J.G. Bennett

"And therefore keep watch for you do not know the day your Lord will come. Mat. 24:42. and when Jesus found in Gethsemane the three disciples asleep and said::  Can´t any of you stay awake with Me for just an hour? Mat. 26:40 (note three disciples). 

L3/20

Jesus Christ - the Anointed - from His conception on, and which is present in every person from the very moment he or she appears and starts being alive. To the extend that we open ourselves to this anointing, we become "Christified"... transformed in an Alter Christus. 

Javier Melloni

L3/22

"When we want to understand something, we cannot just stand outside and observe it. We have to enter deeply into it and be one with it in order to really understand. If we want to understand a person, we have to feel his feelings, suffer his sufferings and enjoy his joy. The word "comprehend" is made up of the Latin roots cum, which means "with", and "prehendere", which means "to grasp or pick it up". To comprehend something means to pick it up and be one with it. There is not another way to understand something. In Buddhism, we call this kind of understanding "non-duality". Not two." 

Thich Nhat Nanh

L3/23

My dear people, since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another. No one has ever seen God, but as long as we love one another God will live in us and his love will be complete in us... If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him, and he in God...God is love and anyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him.

 John 17:11-19

L3/24

"Intelligence communicates instantaneously with intelligence, wherever and in whatever it acts. This is so between people, between a musician and his instrument, between persona and an idea. We can understand the world because it has intelligence. The true scientist listens to the intelligence of Nature in a form of dialogue."

Suffering is an inevitable factor in existing and being alive; and the failure to understand suffering is one of the major signs of the lack of intelligence in our world today. 

Anthony Blake.

L3/25

"To those who only know it outwardly, Christianity seems desperately intricate. In reality...it contains an extremely simple and astonishingly bold solution of the world. In the centre, so glaring

as to be disconcerting, is the uncompromising affirmation of a personal God: God as providence, directing the universe with loving, watchful care; and God the revealer, communicating himself to man on the level of and through the ways of INTELLIGENCE" 

 Teilhard de Chardin.

L3/26

"Understanding is not the product of one function in man, but the resultant of several functions working in harmony. For example, if one appreciates something with the mind, one "knows" it; if one appreciates it with the emotions, one "feels"it; if one appreciates it with the external physical organs, one "senses" it. But if one simultaneously appreciates it with the mind, emotions and physical senses, then one understands it." 

Rodney Collin

L3/27

"Being open. Everything is available, waiting for us. We are bathed in cosmic radiations, all help. But we have to make ourselves open. Open our pores. Catch everything. What prevent us from being open, receiving what is going, is being preoccupied with ourselves, thinking of ourselves. If we forget ourselves, everything comes to us." 

Rodney Collin.

"Noticing enters our lives from another dimension or another world. It is one of the simplest ways that influences from a higher world come into this world."  

J.G. Bennett

L3/28

Each of man's functions: thinking, emotional and moving, has its own definite repertory all of which is in constant interaction. A man can never get out of the charmed circle of his postures or behaviour. Even if a man recognises this and begins to struggle with it, his will is insufficient. A man's will can be sufficient to govern one centre for a short time. But his will can never be sufficient to govern all three centres. The other two centres prevent this. 

P.D. Ouspensky

L3/29

"Discover that all that exists is this moment. Life is always now. Your whole life unfolds in this constant now. Even past and future events exist only when you remember or anticipate them. And you can only do so by thinking about them in this only moment that exits... (now) Mistaking the present moment with its contents gives birth not only to the illusion of time, but also to the illusion the ego"

Eckhart Tolle 

L3/30

"Our faculties can only comprehend the things of God, like the beauty of creation, the goodness of the attraction we feel for others, or the glimpses of truth we experience in religious images and concepts. All these things may reflect or represent God to us, but they miss the essence of God. To our normal human capacities God is nada, no-thing." 

"As soon as we use the label "God" or "divine presence", we make an object of it, separate from ourselves. Taken together, these reasons encourage us to dwell in the more comfortable, controllable world of "God and me" (duality) rather that the vague, vulnerable realm of "God in me and I in God" (non dual)" 

 Gerald G. May M.D

"We just do not understand ourselves, or know who we are. At worst we give lip service to God's presence, but then feel and act as if we were completely on our own." 

Teresa of Avila 

L3/31

"In phenomenological terms, love is a non dualistic experience. This is the reason why its is only with great difficulty that love enters into any "understanding". Love is neither equality nor otherness, neither one nor two. Love requires differentiation without separation; it is "going" toward "the other" that rebounds in a genuine "entering" into oneself by accepting the other within one's bosom."

Raimon Panikkar 

The same Spirit and dispositions that are in Christ are present in us, inspiring us with the same willingness to open ourselves to everybody's sufferings, in so far as we capable of bearing them. Moreover we are not just individuals. We are individual and social in our very being. We cannot be individuals without being totally united with everybody else, and we cannot be united with everybody else without being an individual member of the mystical body of Christ. (Note the triadic nature of this statement) 

Thomas Keating.

L3/32

"If we were deprived of like and dislike - if we had no polar nature at all - we shouldn't have anything from which to draw force. It is like the poles of a magnet. In order to get force from the poles of a magnet you have to hold yourself right in the field of action of its two poles. In the same way, in order to get force out of the dualism of our nature we have to hold ourselves in the field of it - not let ourselves be drawn to one side or the other, because this simply neutralises their polar force"

 J.G. Bennett

L3/33

"We have no conception of a pure affirmation that does not depend upon a denial. Neither can we conceive a receptive impulse that could sustain its own character except in opposition to an affirmation. Nor can we visualise a reconciling impulse that does not need the presence of opposing forces to elicit its quality.  

P.O. Ouspensky

"...be quiet, until the appropriate action arises by itself." 

Tao-te-king. Chap 15

L3/34

"Yes" is of the mind . "No" is of the body. The reconciling is of the emotions. Body knows the "how" of things. Mind knows the "what" of things. Emotion, plus mind and body, understands the "why" of things. Scientists are interested in the "how" of things, not in the "why" of things. 

S. Nott

L3/35

"God will bring people and events into our lives, and whatever we may think about them, they are designed for the evolution of His life in us." 

"We are invited to give God a chance to experience God in our humanity, in our difficulties, in our weakness, in our addictions, in our sins."

"In letting go of identifications, we suddenly realise who we really are... not the "I am " of myself but the "I AM" of God" 

Thomas Keating

L3/36

"Wisdom can only be given in a state of presence, with the three centres of our being in a state of presence. Anything less is asleep. Presence is the narrow gate thorough which one passes to wisdom. Samadhi or enlightenment, romanticised in the west, really means "a settled mind", or one rigorously present, balanced, and awake, in whatever emotional circumstances" 

Cynthia Bourgeault.

"As one level of being increases , receptivity to higher meaning increases and vice-versa" 

Maurice Nicholls

L3/37

EVOLUTION OR INVOLUTION: "We must remember the action of the three forces in different order. If the active force begins. the passive force unavoidably reacts, and the result of the struggle is a meaningless average. This happens in ordinary life. This process has nothing to do with the mysterious order of forces that bring regeneration, which begins with the third force - with understanding, with tolerance, with invisible help. When we know the taste of this other order of forces which begins not by imposition but by acceptance, we will find that by it everything becomes easy. And that the positiveness that we are trying to demand by force is already there." 

Rodney Collin

L3/38

EMBRACING PARADOX: "That there are many terminologies is essential. We argue that there is there is no one interpretation of the triad to be set against all others.  Such was the course of religions; and the comparison is apt, because we are striving to "hear the Word". The triad speaks the language of the engineer, the artist and the religious equally: it is THE language of languages, the logos.It is

holy fire: the essence of information."

Anthony Blake. The Triad.

L3/39

"I am one with the source insofar as I too act as a source by making everything I have received flow again - just like Jesus" 

R. Panikkar

L3/40

Two men were playing cards while discussing the power of God. "God can do anything he chooses" said one. "No he can't replied the other, "He can't beat my ace of trumps." 

Sufi story,

LAW OF THREE (40) Back to Basics

LAW OF THREE (40)

BACK TO BASICS

NO RULES NO CREATION:

Two men were playing cards while discussing the power of God. "God can do anything he chooses" said one. "No, he can't, replied the other, "He cannot beat my ace of trumps." 

Sufi story,

THE LAW OF THREE: A REMINDER.

According to the Law of Three, every phenomenon, on every scale (from subatomic to cosmic) and in every domain (physical, sociological, and psycho-spiritual) is the result of the interweaving of three independent forces: the first is active or affirming, the second passive or denying, and the third neutralising or reconciling.

When we see three independent forces in every event and every phenomenon, then we see the world as it really is.

In order to produce any phenomenon or event the three forces need to meet in a relationship of positive, negative and neutralising.

Considered by itself, every force in the universe is positive or active.

Only at the point of meeting do the three forces become structures in this relationship.

We can see very easily the positive or active force in any event or phenomenon.

Sometimes we are ware of the negative or resisting force as well.

But very rarely are we aware of the presence and action of the third neutralising or reconciling force.

Three conditions to creation:

God's sacrifice is Self-limitation by manifestation. The conditions of this limitation are three: The Universe is created in Space, in Time and in Equilibrium.

Boris Mouravieff.

"Without imperfection, you or I would not exist"

Stephen Hawking

LAW OF THREE (39) Man as a Reconciling Force

MAN AS A RECONCILING FORCE:

"I am one with the source insofar as I too act as a source by making everything I have received flow again - just like Jesus" 

R. Panikkar

Man is the bridge between the visible and the invisible realms acting as a force of transmission.

Initially this link between the two realms is established by an act of will.  It is done by letting go of attachments to the visible world and to the ego's illusion of "I can do".

Cultivating the practice of letting go of attachments opens a "gap" that reveals the presence of an underlying consciousness which fills all things.  Consciousness allows the coexistence of opposing forces.

As the field of consciousness expands man/woman become instruments for the transmission of Love which nourishes consciousness from the invisible realm.

LAW OF THREE (38) Embracing Paradox

THE LAW OF THREE (38)

EMBRACING PARADOX

"That there are many terminologies is essential. We argue that there is no one interpretation of the triad to be set against all others. Such was the course of religions; and the comparison is apt, because we are striving to "hear the Word". The triad speaks the language of the engineer, the artist and the religious equally: it is THE language of languages, the logos.  It is holy fire: the essence of information." 

Anthony Blake.  The Triad.

THE POWER OF CONTRADICTION

The first two sides of a triad involve contradiction: positive-negative, action-reaction, I must-I can't. Two forces opposing each other. Opposing forces arise out of need. They arise because of the presence and action of a third and invisible force which seeks expression. 

Out of the two opposing forces of birth and death arises life. Out of friends and enemies arises love. Life and Love are expressions of the presence and action in our lives of a 3rd relating or reconciling force. 

The presence and action of a third invisible force is implicit in St.Paul's experience of his inner contradictions: "What I want to do I do not no do and what I hate I do"

Thomas Keating's answer to St. Paul could be: "God will bring people and events into our lives and whatever we may think about them they are designed for the evolution of His life in us."

We do no expect that "unwelcoming" events are for God's development in us.  We believe they are designed for helping or hindering our personal development.  One's development cannot be separated from God's development,  nor can the cosmos be separated from God and Man. The idea of a crucified God as a reconciling force which wants to experience himself in the human form is a challenges to human reason. 

LAW OF THREE (37) Evolution or Involution?

LAW OF THREE (37)

EVOLUTION OR INVOLUTION?

"We must remember the action of the three forces in different order. If the active force begins. the passive force unavoidably reacts, and the result of the struggle is a meaningless average. This happens in ordinary life. This process has nothing to do with the mysterious order of forces that bring regeneration, which begins with the third - with understanding, with tolerance, with invisible help. When we know the taste of this other order of forces which begins not by imposition but by acceptance, we will find that by it everything becomes easy. And that the positiveness that we are trying to demand by force is already there." Rodney Collin

The outcome of any action will be different according to which of the three forces initiates the action(active, passive and reconciling). As individuals we may respond to a situation in three ways: reacting, resisting or reconciling.   The evolution of consciousness depends on the reconciling force becoming the active or initiating force in a triad.

Three classic triads describe the evolution of consciousness:

Essence (+) World (-) Mother (=)

Essence is given at birth. It is our undeveloped core of goodness prior to entering the world of duality or the world of the Ego.

When we are born our Essence is active. The needs of the infant act as an active force that draws energy from his/her mother who acts as a reconciling force in the face of the appearing world. 

The mother supplies the needs of the infant until the child has developed a controlling or active mechanism essential for survival in the world - in Freudian terms, the Ego.

Ego (+) Essence (-) Life (=)

After three we begin to form an Ego, which when formed will become an active force in relation to the Essence which will remain passive. In this triad the events of life will act as a reconciling force.

At birth the receptive mode of the child is dominant, but gradually it will be replaced by the active mode of the Ego in order to successfully deal with the challenges of a physical existence.

Essence (+)Ego (-) Wisdom (=)
Evolution depends on successfully developing Essence.

Essence develops with letting go of our attachments to the Ego.

Consenting to letting go of the resisting power of the Ego opens a "gap"or field of consciousness receptive to the power and action of Wisdom.

Awakening to our inner core of goodness is guided by the accompanying presence of Wisdom.

Except, ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

Mat: 18:3

LAW OF THREE (36) Receptivity to Higher Meaning

LAW OF THREE (36)

RECEPTIVITY TO HIGHER MEANING

"Wisdom can only be given in a state of presence, with the three centres of our being in a state of presence. Anything less is asleep. Presence is the narrow gate thorough which one passes to wisdom. Samadhi or enlightenment, romanticised in the west, really means "a settled mind", or one rigorously present, balanced, and awake, in whatever emotional circumstances" Cynthia Bourgeault.

In a "settled mind" head, heart and body are in a state of harmony and alertness. .  In our ordinary state our mind is insufficiently balanced and awake to put us in a state of hight receptivity. 

"As one level of being increases , receptivity to higher meaning increases and vice-versa" M Nicholls

 In most Wisdom teachings the human being is studied a three brained being, consisting of the intelligence of the intellect, the intelligence of the emotion, and the intelligence of the body. The three modes of intelligence need to evolve into unitive seeing and operate as a single eye to become sensitive to higher meaning.

When the three "brains" do not come to an agreement we experience in the screen of our minds"a pattern of unresolved issues" circulating without end.

LAW OF THREE (35) In The I Am of God

LAW OF THREE (35)

IN THE I AM OF GOD

"God will bring people and events into our lives, and whatever we may think about them, they are designed for the evolution of His life in us." Thomas Keating

God is immanent in all areas of our life:

  In Centering Prayer "We are invited to give God a chance to experience Himself in our humanity, in our difficulties, in our weakness, in our addictions, in our sins." by consenting to God's presence and action.

A dual perception persuades us that our spiritual salvation depends entirely on our "good works." but our experience shows us that "good works" are hard to achieve.

St. Paul knows that: "For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do " Romans 7:15:25

A classic example of the play in ourselves of the contradictory forces of: love-hate, good-bad...etc. leading which leads us to states of anxiety, frustration and guilt. 

Frustration and guilt are tricks of he ego   TK says that if guilt lasts more than half a minute, it is neurotic guilt.   "Pervasive, prolonged, paralysed guilt - that is the superego- That is our emotional judgement of what is right and wrong, and that is not our true judgement."

Letting go of our identification with the contradictions and tricks of the talkative ego,  may lead us to a sudden revelation "we suddenly realise who we really are!  I am not in the "I am " of myself,  but in the "I AM" of God" Thomas Keatting-

LAW OF THREE (34) Why? What? How?

LAW OF THREE (34)

WHAT? HOW? WHY?

"Yes" is of the mind . "No" is of the body. The reconciling is of the emotions. Body knows the "how" of things. Mind knows the "what" of things. Emotion, plus mind and body, understands the "why" of things. Scientists are interested in the "how" of things, not in the "why" of things. S. Nott

Understanding phenomena requires the answer to three questions : what?

How? Why?

The Law of Three identifies 3 forces: "why"is the active force of the action; "How" is the resisting force of the action, and "what" (or thus) is the reconciling or outcome of the action.

The active force refers to the initiation of an action, the resisting force refers to its process , and the reconciling force refers to the result or the thus of the action.

As simple example:

Building of a house

i Why? We want to built a house because we need shelter, etc. (+);

ii How? Refers to site, materials, labour, cost, etc. or conditions to build the house (-)

iii What? The final outcome or the thus of the action: here is the house!! (=)

Finding ordinary examples of the play of What, How, and Why in the material world is not difficult. But there are perennial questions which have been active inner forces ever since mankind acquired self reflective consciousness:

What is Man?  How did Man come to be?  Why of Man?

What am I?  How did I come to be?  Why am I ?

What is this creation?  How did it come about?  What (why) is its purpose?

LAW OF THREE (33) The Third Force

THE LAW OF THREE (33)

THE THIRD FORCE

"We have no conception of a pure affirmation that does not depend upon a denial. Neither can we conceive a receptive impulse that could sustain its own character except in opposition to an affirmation. Nor can we visualise a reconciling impulse that does not need the presence of opposing forces to elicit its quality. P.O. Ouspensky

THE THIRD OR CONNECTING FORCE

1 The three forces in a triad are interdependent.  

2 Two forces cancel each other. No movement is possible.  Only the entering of the third force gives a triad movement and direction.

3 The 3rd force may be more or less conscious.  The 3rd force enters to complete a triad, when the triad needs to move forward to overcome an impasse.  The 3rd force enters our consciousness in the form of information.   If the information comes from memory,  the ensuing movement would be determined by the limits of the past information.  However, the arising information could also be an inspired insight, coming form of deeper source, in which instance it would lead the triad into a new and unchartered direction.  Such is the nature of the creative triads.

The entering of the third force can show us the new step necessary to unstuck an immobilised situation to keep us moving.  But we cannot rush.  Past information may be overwhelming.  The cue of waiting 3rd forces in the form of thoughts aiming to keep us moving may be long but...

"...be quiet, until the appropriate action arises by itself."  Tao-te-king. Chap 15

THE LAW OF THREE (32) Welcoming Obstacles (The Enneagram)

THE LAW OF THREE (32) WELCOMING OBSTACLES (THE ENNEAGRAM)

LIKES AND DISLIKES 

"If we were deprived of like and dislike - if we had no polar nature at all - we shouldn't have anything from which to draw force. It is like the poles of a magnet. In order to get force from the poles of a magnet you have to hold yourself right in the field of action of its two poles. In the same way, in order to get force out of the dualism of our nature we have to hold ourselves in the field of it - not let ourselves be drawn to one side or the other, because this simply neutralises their polar force" J.G. Bennett

WELCOMING OBSTACLES

A wisdom teacher suggested that the game of golf was invented by someone who wanted to remind people of what life is like. "The game called golf consists in getting a little ball into a hole while at the same time overcoming all kinds of pitfalls and obstacles that prevent the ball getting into a hole too easily."

Our lives compare to a game of golf. The tensions provoked by the obstacles or hazards we encounter are part of the mechanism required to generate the energy necessary for life. Our freedom consists in the ability not to be drawn to either one side or the other of the two poles of duality (good-bad. like-dislike, pleasure-pain) and develop the capacity to bring into a conflicting situation the power of reconciliation and new direction..

TRAPPED BETWEEN TWO FORCES

Those familiar with the Enneagram* (the circle of 9 points) will note the inner triangle which is formed by the numbers 3-6-9. Numbers 3-6-9 refer to the three independent sources of energy which keep the wheel of creation "going round" (active-passive-reconciling)

Point 3 refers to the force or impulse of habit. Habit ensures repeating patterns of behaviour.

Point 6 refers to the force of the emotional pattern of responses: the likes-dislikes  If we are invited to eat something we dislike the look of, our habit, point 3,  is challenged. If we like fish and chips and our good friends prepared cooked snails our emotional mechanism, point 6, is triggered. 

Point 9 refers to the power of choice and decision. Rarely this power is acted by a conscious and independent Self.  The power of choice is normally exercised by the ego whose partiality lends its power to one of the opposing forces of duality to avoid stagnation. (see L3:5).

Only when No 9 does not allow itself to be drawn to one side or the other of our polar nature can our true will (True Self) free itself from dualistic domination and act as a true agent of reconciliation,

* Gurdjieff and Ouspensky

LAW OF THREE (31) Love, a Non Dualistic Experience

LAW OF THREE (31)

LOVE,  A NON DUALISTIC EXPERIENCE.

"In phenomenological terms, love is a non dualistic experience. This is the reason why its is only with great difficulty that love enters into any "understanding". Love is neither equality nor otherness, neither one nor two. Love requires differentiation without separation; it is "going" toward "the other" that rebounds in a genuine "entering" into oneself by accepting the other within one's bosom." Raimon Panikkar

Love is the ultimate reconciling force. Love differentiates the lover and the beloved to unable both to arise above themselves and abide in each other in a triadic self.  Lover and beloved are "inter-abiding."  The sufferings and joys interpenetrate each other.

Every active force in a triad can only be understood in relation to the other two.   Father-mother and son-daughter are mutually necessary forces in the triad of procreation.  The father-mother finds meaning and identity in the experience of "the relationship" with the son-daughter and the son-daughter finds meaning in the experience of the relationship with father-mother.

Father-mother-son are three poles of a same reality which manifests in their common heart feeling as a result of being in a relationship.

WE ARE BOTH IN CHRIST

The same Spirit and dispositions that are in Christ are present in us, inspiring us with the same willingness to open ourselves to everybody's sufferings, in so far as we capable of bearing them. Moreover we are not just individuals. We are individual and social in our very being. We cannot be individuals without being totally united with everybody else, and we cannot be united with everybody else without being an individual member of the mystical body of Christ.  T. Keating.

LAW OF THREE (30) Beyond the Dualism of God and Me

LAW OF THREE (30)

BEYOND THE DUALISM OF GOD AND ME

1 "Our faculties can only comprehend the things of God, like the beauty of creation, the goodness of the attraction we feel for others, or the glimpses of truth we experience in religious images and concepts. All these things may reflect or represent God to us, but they miss the essence of God. To our normal human capacities God is nada, no-thing." Gerald G. May M.D.

2 "No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." 1 John Ch4 V12

3 "God will bring people and events into our lives, and whatever we think about them, they are designed for the evolution of His life in us." T.Keating

"We just do not understand ourselves, or know who we are. At worst we give lip service to God's presence, but then feel and act as if we were completely on our own."  TERESA OF AVILA.

BEYOD THE DUALISM OF GOD AND ME

"As soon as we use the label "God" or "divine presence", we make an object of it, separate from ourselves. Taken together, these reasons encourage us to dwell in the more comfortable, controllable world of "God and me" (duality) rather that the vague, vulnerable realm of "God in me and I in God" (non dual)" Gerald G. May

Antonio Benet   /benetblogsuk.blogspot.com

LAW OF THREE (29) Time-Space-Eternity

LAW OF THREE (29)

TIME-SPACE-ETERNITY (1)

"Discover that all that exists is this moment. Life is always now. Your whole life unfolds in this constant now. Even past and future events exist only when you remember or anticipate them. And you can only do so by thinking about them in this only moment that exits... (now) Mistaking the present moment with its contents gives birth not only to the illusion of time, but also to the illusion the ego"

Eckhart Tolle

Time-space-eternity are the three essential dimensions of Individuality. We perceive them as the changing, the unchanging and the reconciling dimensions in oneself.

We experience the nature of time by the movements of thinking. When we cannot become aware of the dimension of space in our lives we are engulfed by thoughts. We do not notice the space in which the film of our imaginary life is projected and we are unaware of the underlying presence of the unchanging.

The awareness of the ever present space gives depth to the witnessing observer. Our sense of identity changes. We may perceive space in its spontaneous arising, between one desire and the next; when one desire has been satisfied and the next one has not yet appeared. But the brief interval is insufficient to realise or notice the inner significance of the experience.

The perception of eternity is the perception of our own presence. The awareness of being present and conscious.  It is the realization the we have never moved from where I AM.  It is the experience of the absence of the ego.  It is the unblocking of the eye of the needle.

"Life is real only then, when I am" G. I. Gurdjieff

LAW OF THREE (27) Noticing or transcending duality

LAW OF THREE (27)

Noticing or transcending duality.

"Being open. Everything is available, and waiting for us. We are bathed in cosmic radiations, all help. But we have to make ourselves open. Open our pores. Catch everything. What prevent us from being open, and receiving what is going, is being preoccupied with ourselves, thinking of ourselves. If we forget ourselves, everything comes to us." Rodney Collin.

CHOICE

Choice depends on the information available at every moment we need to make a decision.  We have information stored in our minds and laptops but there is information entering the present instant coming from another source specific for the present moment.  This information enters our awareness in the form of sudden noticing.   Noticing adds a new dimension to our experience and opens the way to real freedom.

Noticing requires an open and receptive attention.  It suddenly appears in our awareness like the instantaneous illumination of a dark room after the pressing of the electric switch,  It may manifest in the suddenly noticing the colour of the dish we are eating; or in the sudden noticing of the set of keys we have been looking for a week, or we may sudden realisation that the flowers in the garden are actually talking to us.

Noticing is given.  It is not something that we can do.  But in noticing our attention has to be free to receive *  Ir breaks the duality we are locked into by bringing space and colour into our lives.  

"Noticing enters our lives from another dimension or another world. It is one of the simplest ways that influences from a higher world come into this world." J.G. Bennett

It is only when we notice (3rd. force) that we have the possibility of choosing and changing the course of our lives.

" You could not stay awake with me for just one hour, could you?" Mat. 26:40

LAW OF THREE (26) Birth-Life-Death

LAW OF THREE (26) Birth-Life-Death

"Understanding is not the product of one function in man, but the resultant of several functions working in harmony. For example, if one appreciates something with the mind, one "knows" it; if one appreciates it with the emotions, one "feels"it; if one appreciates it with the external physical organs, one "senses" it. But if one simultaneously appreciates it with the mind, emotions and physical senses, then one understands it." Rodney Collin

Understanding requires discernment of the three active forces of any unity.  If we reflect on the nature of live we can easily discern the first two antagonic forces of  birth and death.  This two forces support each other and at the same time cancel each other.  Underlying birth and death is the hidden 3rd force of life itself,  the persistent an the immutable force that relates and eternally reconciles them both.

Time, an instrument of life moves always in the same direction.   Birth-Death exist in time.   We perceive Birth and Death as the world of the changing.  It may be referred to as the world of the transient and the eternal perishing.  Life is immutable..   Life is the persistent unchanging nature of reality not perceivable from a dual perception.

"He who sees the changing in the unhanging and the unchanging in the changing knows no sorrow" says a verse in the Upanishads."

The life cycle is represented in the Hindu trinity or trimurti as Brahma or the force of the creator, Vishnu as the preserver or reconciling force, and Shiva the destroyer or the eternally perishing. They represent the three independent but mutually necessary deities which reveal the unity of the Brahman.

LAW OF THREE (25) Intelligence (2) The Transmission of Consciousness.

LAW OF THREE (25)

INTELLIGENCE (2)

"To those who only know it outwardly, Christianity seems desperately intricate. In reality...it contains an extremely simple and astonishingly bold solution of the world.  In the centre, so glaring

as to be disconcerting, is the uncompromising affirmation of a personal God: God as providence, directing the universe with loving, watchful care; and God the revealer, communicating himself to man on the level of and through the ways of INTELLIGENCE" Teilhard de Chardin.

I read that a Leopard in central India avoided a big catastrophe by climbing a ladder. Villagers came to the rescue of a leopard which fell into a deep well - by throwing a ladder.  The big cat with great difficulty climbed the ladder to safety.

How could one explain this event without the action of the triadic nature of intelligence? In this simple example intelligence manifested simultaneously in the intelligence of the animal, the intelligence of man, and the reconciling power of the Intelligence suggesting the presence of a reconciling ladder.

God communicates himself to man on at each level of development through the ways of intelligence says Teilhard of Chardin

"The intelligence behind the known universe informs its evolutionary processes with coherence, consciousness and unity."

Ervin Lazlo