Waltzing the Law of Three

I am just back from a 3-day Wisdom School on the Law of Three and I am seeing triangles everywhere.

Law of Three, in the Wisdom tradition of Christianity, is the theory that the most basic, most pervasive dynamic of life is a triangular dance among three kinds of forces: FIRST FORCE– affirming (positive, active); SECOND FORCE—denying (negative, passive); and THIRD FORCE—reconciling (neutralizing, transforming, catalyzing … etc.). The first two forces may end up in opposition but Third Force is present (though hidden) in the stalemate, and when it comes into play, change happens. Something new arises. Still, all three forces are necessary for that to happen.

This waltz is how things evolve on every level, from the subatomic to the universal. It is in the very nature of God (think Trinity as process more than persons). It operates at the level of the individual human psyche and in our interactions with each other. Continue reading

Food and creed on a snowy day

IMG_1088I keep thinking I want to write something profound, theological almost, but I am not up to it. Instead I meditate. 45 minutes this morning, no problem. And I think about diet and plan carefully for a food-shopping excursion during a brief break in the frigid, snowy weather. It wasn’t really a break but Vic had to go out for a doctor’s appointment so I went along and went around the corner to the supermarket and bought at least 10 meals worth of vegan food. Beans and more beans, greens and more greens. Continue reading

Being and Moving

IMG_3778 (1)It is March 13 and a fresh snow slows time as if to say, Let’s have some more winter before spring bursts upon us.

I could use a real time stop, to let me catch up with myself. Maybe that’s why time has been playing tricks on me. Like I was sure today is my grandson’s second birthday when it was actually yesterday. Continue reading

Teilhard and Orlando

1384338_1280x720

Photo by ABC 7 News, NY

We read the news of the Orlando massacre on our smartphones as we were driving back to the Midwest from a week of profound spiritual teaching and encounter in Maine. It brought the four of us in the car crashing down to earth-reality after a mountaintop experience. What happens when you come home is always a test of the validity of the spiritual experience you get in a retreat setting. Continue reading

Inwards and Outwards

“Those deeply attracted by the ideas [undergirding spiritual transformation] but unable even to admit their own inability to face themselves as they are, often seem prone to settle for the comfortable anesthetic of teaching others.” From Ouspensky’s Fourth Way by Gerald de Symons Beckwith

This was posted recently on a private group page as the “unsettling quote for the day.” It drew a lot of comments, some affirming, some pushing against it or reacting to what seems like a sweeping criticism of spiritual teachers. Many members of this group are themselves spiritual teachers, in one way or another. Continue reading

Wisdom of the stones

IMG_2973I reported a dream image yesterday to my friend Nina, who had been with me at Wisdom School. I did not understand the image at all.

I had a collection of small stones like the ones we have gathered from the beaches of the Great Lakes. I was supposed to eat them.

Nina immediately made the link to Logion 77 of the Gospel of Thomas, which was a main text for the Wisdom School: Continue reading

Wakeup call

A few months ago my husband was diagnosed with a non-aggressive form of prostate cancer. The doctors assure him this “little bit of cancer” is nothing to worry about; it just needs to be monitored for now. “My advice to you,” his primary care physician told him, “is to forget you have cancer. Live your life. At this rate you won’t die from prostate cancer for at least 15 or 20 years and something else could get you first.” Continue reading

Shift happening

I don’t know if I can take you on this journey with me. Things are moving so fast. Let me see if I can sum up what I’ve learned, what I’ve come to believe, in the past week or so. The change in my thinking has been breathtakingly fast because these ideas are not really new to me; they have just been presented in a way that makes a great deal of sense, and in a way that makes sense of what I have long felt and suspected and been confused about. Continue reading