LAW OF THREE (62) The Still Point

LAW OF THREE (62)

THE STILL POINT (1)

"One who sees inaction in action and action in inaction, is intelligent among men, and he is in the transcendental position, although engaged in all sorts of activities." Bhagavad Gita (400 bc9

 

"At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;

Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,

But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,

Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,

Neither ascend nor decline. Except for the point, the sill point,

There would be no dance, and there is only the dance." T.S. Elliot

The still point brings time and space in a relationship with eternity, the third dimension of our experience.  In the Gita "the transcendental position'' is free from tensions between absolutes. Neither action nor inaction, at the point where the dance flows.

The still point is where all working surfaces meet (active-passive-neutral). It is where we reside. It is our home. When T. Keating later in life was asked if he was longing for home he answered: 'I wold like to think that I am already at home.'

The Centering Prayer method taught by T. Keating aids the practitioner to return to the absolute centre from which we have never departed, by letting go to all attachments to the transient and repetitive thoughts. 

LAW OF THREE (61) The Purpose of Thinking (2)

LAW OF THREE (61)

THE PURPOSE OF THINKING (2)

"If you are going to think, at least THINK. Use your own mind, heart, and grounded presence to see what is actually going on and try to understand with what is the most awake in you, not the most asleep" Cynthia Bourgeault

The question is: can we think?

"The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking"

Martin Heidegger, What is called thinking.

Implicit in the above quotations is that the power to THINK for ourselves needs to be developed. In blog 59, I wrote: "From an intellectual perspective, thinking needs to evolve into understanding in order to become an instrument of the will." In its undeveloped state, thinking is the mechanism that maintains the dream of a separate existence

When the attention is free from its attachment to thought we are able to observe objectively the stream of thought.  In detached observing spontaneous understanding may arise. This arising of understanding requires our conscious presence (reconciling force).  'It requires the presence of what is most awake in us'.

In true thinking our attention needs to play a discerning role in the articulation of thought. We need to actively be able to think our thoughts, instead of our thoughts thinking us. We need to ask ourselves: Am I in control of my thinking?

Perhaps Rene Descartes was right after all in his famous 'cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am) if he meant: 'I can think, only when I am'.

LAW IF THREE( 60) Conscious Influences

LAW OF THREE (60)

CONSCIOUS INFLUENCES

"When the attention is not free and independent it is trapped in the world of duality lending its power to like and dislike, belief or not belief, and so on,   It feeds duality and cannot choose independently. When directed consciously it can become the gate through which conscious influences can enter creation."

J,G. Bennett

Freedom depends on our power of choice. Choice depends on our attention not being caught in the limitations of like-dislike, belief-non-belief, right-wrong, pleasure-pain, good-bad.

When the attention is not subject to the pairs of opposites it can become a bridge through which conscious influences can enter creation .

When we  give full attention to a person in need, we become a gateway through which the afflicted person can connect to the inner listener; we unable the speaker to become receptive to the healing power of his 'deeper self''.

In the ordinary state of our attention is lost or undirected.  St. Mark says: "Having ears do you not hear?" People may be speaking to us and although we are aware of their words, we may not aware of their meaning.   Suddenly a sentence may catch our attention, consciousness has entered, and both the speaker and the listener can hear. A new dimension has entered our awareness.

When our attention is free and independent we can direct consciousness to an issue, and in this voluntary act we become carriers of the neutral or reconciling force (3rd, force) aligning ourselves with the intelligence that transmits meaning (4th force). In this configuration what may arise is the solution to a deadlock, and lead us forward into a new direction.

LAW OF THREE (59) The Purpose of Thinking

LAW OF THREE (59)

THE PURPOSE OF THINKING

"...thinking must never be regarded as merely a subjective activity. Thinking lies beyond subject and object. It produces these two concepts just as it produces all others. When, therefore, I, as thinking subject, refer a concept to an object, we must not regard this reference as something purely subjective. It is not the subject that makes the reference, but the thinking. The subject does not think because it is a subject; rather it appears to itself as a subject because it can think.

Rudolf Steiner. Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path.

Thinking is a human experience. Its usefulness depend on how conscious we are of the thinking process and to what use we put it. The clarity of our awareness determines whether we think our thoughts or our thoughts think us. The first is real thinking and the second fictitious thinking.

'That we are thinking is real, while what we are thinking may be a fantasy' A. Blake

Thinking can be seen as a dialogue between thoughts, feelings, and sensations. It may consist of what I am, what I wish, and what I do, each voice claiming an independent I and an independent will.

Thinking arises out of conflicting inner aims and desires. The need for discernment and reconciliation between conflicting aims and desires has given rise to the development of different psychological and spiritual methods and techniques.

From an intellectual view, thinking needs to evolve into understanding by the practice of conscious dialogue or formulation.   

LAW OF THREE (58) Sin and The Law of Three

LAW OF THREE (58)

SIN AND THE LAW OF THREE

"Sin comes from a Greek word meaning to miss the mark, 'a term from the art of archery' What does missing the mark actually involve? It presupposes a target, which is called the bull's eye. A bow is the means by which the archer tries to launch the arrow into the centre of the target. The purpose of the art of archery is to hit the target every time or to get as closed to doing so as possible." Thomas Keating. Heartfullness.

In the same context Thomas Keating says: 'The psychological experience of a separate self sense is the root of all sin; get rid of that and there won't be any more sin."

From the perspective of the Law of Three, sin is a dual experience in which the presence of the 3rd or reconciling force within is not felt. 

In Archery, when the archer, the arrow, and the target are in perfect alignement they become a unity. In this configuration the target does not exist as a separate entity: the target , as it were, enters creation when the archer is united with the target and the felt sense of separation no longer exists.**

Nearly three thousand years ago the 'omnipresence' of the bull's eye is explained in the Mahabharata (the sanskrit epic of ancient India)

"Dronacharya organised an archery competition to test the skills of his pupils. He kept a small wooden bird on a tree at a distance. He asked all the pupils to take aim at the wooden bird's eye. To every pupil he asked the question:'What do you see?

Each disciple replied the same: I can see the bird, leaves, fruits, sky, etc. Dronacharya's anwer was: 'put down the bow and leave.' 

The last one to be asked was Arjuna. Dronacharya asked him: 'what do you see?' He answered 'I can only see the eye of the bird', Dronacharya kept asking him if he could see other things but Arjuna replied,  'No teacher,  I can see nothing other than the eye of the bird.'  Dronacharya, happy with Arjuna's  response told him to shoot. The arrow sprang from the bow and went straight into the bird's eye."

**I am in God and God is in Me.

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LAW OF THREE (57) Attention, Carrier of the Third Force

LAW OF THREE (57)

ATTENTION, CARRIER OF THE THIRD FORCE

"We are carriers of the Third Force which we can bring into a situation through the power of Attention."      J.G. Bennett

Attention is not force in a triad, but the carrier of the 3rd force.  Attention directed to a point releases information.  If we put our attention to our left foot, information from our left foot will arise.  The information arising from the left foot will be the reconciling force of a triad. 

One triad leads to another.  If the information received about our left foot is cause for concern we may feel the the need to visit the doctor.  Need will become the active force in a succeeding triad where the resisting force will be the reluctance see a doctor.  Contradictory circling thoughts may prevent the entry of a new reconciling third force in the form of decision. However the circling thoughts may be brought to an end by alarming new information entering in the form of an enormous swollen foot and the decision to visit the doctor is taken.  

Information may come from different sources.   It may come from the present or from the past.   It may come from memory or it may come from intuition.  It may come from the present or mat come from the past.

If we direct our attention to our hand for a couple of minutes, we notice all kinds of information and commentaries entering our awareness about the hand.  Information from the past may come in the form of thoughts like: 'what a worn out hand this is', etc.  However if we allow all the recorded past memories about the hand to pass by,  a new vision from a deeper source may arise like: the extraordinary miracle of the sudden apparition of 'this hand'.

LAW OF THREE (56) The Third Force

LAW OF THREE (56)

THE THIRD FORCE

"Imagine how the energies of our planet would shift if we as Christians took seriously our obligation to work with the Law of Three as our fundamental spiritual praxis. Face to face with the vast challenges of our times -environmental, economic, political - we would avoid making judgments (because according to the Law of Three, the denying force is a legitimate player in every equation), set our sights higher than "winers and losers" (or even negotiated compromise), and instead strive in all situations to align our minds and hearts with the Third Force."

Cynthia Bourgeault

What is the significance of the Third Force?

The Third Force 'allows' the power of 'direction' to enter all spheres of creation.

In a car the accelerator (active) and the brakes (passive) are forces that go against each other. Only the presence of the steering wheel (reconciling force), can reconcile the accelerator and the brakes and direct the car in the deciding 'direction' *

* Accelerator, brakes, steering wheel represent three distinct and independent movements in a triad working as a unit. At the centre, the driver (the will) decides in every moment which of the three forces will be active,