LAW OF THREE(73) Coronavirus and The Law of Three (3)

LAW OF THREE (73)

CORONAVIRUS AND THE LAW OF THREE (3)

"I must admit that all ultimate questions cannot have final answers,

but that we can at least be aware of the problem we have presented.

I have touched the limits of my understanding and must stop here.

The Tree of Knowledge again and again tempts one at the cost of

neglecting the more important tree, the Tree of Life."

"How can human thinking grasp the destiny of life itself, when we are

not its owners"  

Ramon Panikkar, 4 September, 2009.

THE UNKNOWABLE

In the last two blogs I identified two reconciling forces:  "Coronavirus", in Blog 71, and "Uncertainty", in Blog 72.     In this blog,  the reconciling forces the "Unknown" or "Unknowable".  The three successive triads are leading us deeper into our Self. 

The Unknowable transcends or puts a stop to the permanent irreconcilable binary forces: certainty-uncertainty.   The urge for certainty feeds on uncertainty. Both forces must eventually face the Unknowable that transcends Certainty and Uncertainty.  

In this triad the urge to Certainty is active (+), and the resisting force is Uncertainty (-). Certainty and Uncertainty are two independent forces brought into a relationship by the reconciling power of the Unknowable (=).

Socrates refers to Certainty in Uncertainty and Uncertainty in Certainty: I know that I know nothing* A humbling and implicit recognition of our powerlessness and utter dependence on  a knowing beyond knowing.  

St. John of the Cross: "saber no sabiendo toda ciencia transcendiendo"  (to know without knowing, all science being transcended)

The overwhelming urge for certainty at the present time, equals, according to R. Panikkar,  to the addiction to the Tree of Knowledge at the expense of the Tree of Life. 

There is an oriental story in which an old sage who had spent all his life in a room surrounded by piles of books,  in a rare awakening at the end of his life,  he raised his gaze to look at the mirror in front of him. He saw the presence a beautiful woman standing behind him. 'Who are you,' he asked? 'I am your wife', she answered, 'I have been beside you during all your life. Who do you think that during all these years has been feeding, and caring for you?'

THE LAW OF THREE (72) Coronavirus and The Law of Three (2)

LAW OF THREE (72)

CORONAVIRUS AND THE LAW OF THREE (2)

"Unto this Darkness which is beyond Light we pray

that we may come,

and through loss of sight and knowledge

may we see and know That Which

transcends sight and knowledge,

by the very fact of not seeing and knowing;

for this is real sight and knowledge."

Dionysius (c.500 AD), Mystical Theology

UNCERTAINTY.

In the previous blog (71) I identified Coronavirus as a reconciling force in so far as the Nations culture of blame and confrontation (man divided) is temporarily suspended, while the human family is deeply engaged in defending itself from a common threat. 

A vaccine has not yet been found.  The virus expands.  A global feeling of uncertainty unfolds.  Coronavirus is now an active force;  science research resisting force i;  and prevailing climate of uncertainty is bringing both forces into a relationship.  

The urge for certainty exposes our own vulnerability to Universal Forces which we habitually ignore as it challenges the human illusion of power and control over our programs for happiness. 

The pandemic will naturally come to an end.  The question is, will its present impact bring a significant shift in global human behaviour?  Will the same old shortsightedness prevail?

THE LAW OF THREE (71) Coronavirus and The Law of Three (1)

THE LAW OF THREE (71)

CORONAVIRUS AND THE LAW OF THREE (1)

Every phenomenon in creation is the work of three independent forces. When we see the presence and action of three independent forces in every event in creation, we see the world as it really is. We can see he presence of the active and the resisting force in every event or phenomenon very easily. But very rarely are we are aware of the presence and action of a third relating or reconciling force.

Law of Three (Blog 1)

Coronavirus has all the qualities of being one of the three independent but mutually necessary forces of an evolving Triad.

The coronavirus can be identified as a reconciling force in so far as the traditional culture of blame and confrontation within society and nations is temporary halted and global attention is focused on a thread coming from a dimension beyond man's control.

Nature with a microscopic shift is altering entrenched patterns of behaviour in a most undemocratic way.  Stock exchange markets have been ruffled, the arrogance of power humbled, and the polluted skies of China cleared.  For how long?

The Coronavirus thread will eventually be brought under control by the discovery of a vaccine.  New Knowledge will arise and a new triad will emerge  The new triad may manifest as an evolutionary or involutionary one,  depending on the nature of the neutralising force.

An involutionary triad could lead us from Democracy to Absolutism; that is, reinforcing patterns of behaviour imposed by outside ourselves (the dominant rulers)  An evolutionary triad could lead us to recognise the overwhelming needs of our sorrowful planet and move us to patterns of  behaviour governed from within ourselves(free individuals).The third possibility is that humanity learns nothing from the experience and we continue in our habitual way.

LAW OF THREE (70) Time and The Unchanging

LAW OF THREE (70)

TIME AND THE UNCHANGING

Time present and time past

Are both perhaps present in time future

And time future contained in time past

T.S. Elliot, Four Quartets

1 The changing and the unchanging co-exist in our inner experience of life.

2 The unchanging tends to be associated with God in all names and the changing with the outer movements of Creation.

3 Similarly, the unchanging is an attribute of Eternity and the changing, of Time.

4 Our Individual role in the spiritual or transformational way could be considered as playing the part of the reconciling force between God and Cosmos.  Neither being identified with the unchanging, nor with the changing.  In christian terms: entering the way of transformation into the fullness of Man in Christ.

5 "Just by the very nature of our birth, we are on the spiritual journey." T. Keating. By the very fact that we enter the manifesting world, we enter the way of transformation.

6 Time-events provide the friction necessary in the transformation of our being, We suffer every stage of the transformative process in the guise of attachment or detachment to the 'changing' scene,  culminating in the death of the body and the release from all attachments.

7 Drawing on Thomas Keating´ spiritual journey, the unfolding stages of our experience of time are presented in the model of the four consents: i. Consent to the basic goodness of nature with all its parts. ii. Consent to the full development of our being. iii. Consent to accept the fact of our non-being (being nothing) or diminution of Self. iv. Consent to be transformed.

8 In addition to this model, I would suggest that an even earlier consent takes place: The Consent to be conceived.

...

LAW OF THREE (69) Eternity

LAW OF THREE (69)

ETERNITY

"Eternity is not the feeling of existence; it is not the feeling of being permanently living in the present; it is not undivided consciousness: it is becoming sensitive to influences coming from beyond existence; from the world of will. Eternity is becoming receptive to intuition, to timeless intelligence, and to the universal source of love."    From my notebooks, unknown author.

Eternity it is the dimension that enables us to be touched by Intuition, Intelligence and Love.  Eternity reconciles time and space and enables us to become sensitive to influences from beyond existence. 

Higher influences bring discernment and direction to our actions.  We  become sensitive to the demands of Love.

"Be ready in all things to sacrifice the less for the greater and to with hold nothing from the demands of Love"*   

* Oh Eternal Essence, O Holy Jesus, o Transcendent Godhead,

grant me the keys of salvation,

to fulfil the destiny for which I was created,

to be ready in all things to sacrifice the less for the greater

and to with hold nothing from the demands of Love.

J.G.Bennett

THE LAW OF THREE (68) Depth or The Third Dimension of Wholeness

LAW OF THREE (68)

DEPTH OR THE THIRD DIMENSION OF WHOLENESS

"Our ordinary looking is almost two dimensional; in it there is very little sense of depth. We talk of the ordinary "personality" world where we are occupied with thoughts and reactions as flat - with

good reason. But when the transition comes and there is depth, we find ourselves in a different state. We feel different. Indeed, the feelings become awakened, and a freshness comes."

Anthony Blake A Seminar On Time

Most of our life seems to take place in the confines in a world with very little sense of the spatial reality or depth, where we miss the sense of wholeness 

With the sudden awareness of the dimension of depth* our experience is comparable to waking into a new dimension of ourselves.  From which perspective the two dimensional world of thoughts seem like a dream.

With this experience of depth our perception changes. A third dimension has been added to our body experience and our field of our awareness is expanded. In this new configuration our body seems much less solid than before, and its borders less defined.

Perhaps Raimon Panikkar referred to this experience when he wrote "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."

The experience of the third dimension of the one and the same world referred by Panikkar is depth.     It is the experience of depth that makes us aware of what it really means to be in a body.

"There is a factual change which comes into the transition to an awareness of depth, as well as in the quality of feeling" Anthony Blake

*Third dimension of space.

LAW OF THREE (67) Dying and Rebirth

LAW OF THREE (67)

DYING AND REBIRTH

"We do not have within us a principle of stable existence. What we find in ourselves, on the contrary, is a principle of renewal, of return, of being lost and found again. This principle we can really only understand if we experience it in ourselves; and we know its taste as the taste of rebirth: whenever we come back from a state of oblivion, or forgetfulness. This happens again and again, to such an extent that we become accustomed to it and cease to see how important it is - and how really wonderful it is - that we should be able to come back again after having been lost."

J.G. Bennett

We cannot be aware of the instant of falling asleep or the instant of waking up.  All we can say on returning to our own awareness is  'I am here, now! '  .

We are unaware that our life does not run in a continuous line, but that it is constantly interrupted, renewed or given back.

Dying and rebirth is a constant in our lives without our being aware of the extraordinary miracle that it represents.   It is  'the action' of an independent creative force which does not come from ourselves.* and that constantly brings us back to life.

The continuous interplay of the three independent cosmic forces (life-birth-death), that makes possible the experience of being here now:

'I am here now in this immediate space in contact with a life force which supports, enlightens and unifies my presence' John Pentland

*Everyone 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 as we come to see this, although it is really a terrifying thing that we have no power to keep hold of our life: that it has to be renewed or given back to us by something that does not come from ourselves.

But even when we 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 to trust that there is something that calls us back. And if it calls us back from sleep at night, it will call us back from that other sleep into which we shall enter,

J.G.Bennett