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Intellectual Understanding And Spiritual Realization
According to the late Sydney Banks and his “3 Principles” theory, the key to serenity and graceful living begins with an intellectual understanding and spiritual realization of the inseparable BIG THREE:
Graphic credits: Poached from Judy Sedgeman’s 3P web site
I can confidently say that I’ve acquired an intellectual understanding of the 3 principles, but I feel like some force is preventing me from realizing their spiritual power. I suspect that it’s BD00 working covertly behind the scenes to block that realization.
To further explore the elegant simplicity and potential transformative power of the 3P trinity, surf on over to the Three Principles Global Community web site and check out some of the videos and articles.
Banking On A Solution
This may be one of the main reasons why I’m skeptical of analytical experts and fascinated by the seemingly intractable coupling between complexity and simplicity:
Photo credit: Judy Sedgeman’s 3P web site
The Three Principles
William James, who is regarded as the father of modern psychology, once wrote that the field of psychology had no true principles. He said if such principles were ever realized on a large scale, it would make the importance of every human advancement since fire pale in comparison.
As always, it’s our choice to decide what’s true for ourselves, but the three principles behind psychological life are: Mind, Consciousness, and Thought (MCAT). From formlessness, Mind produces a formed Thought and Consciousness brings this thought form to life via our senses. It’s as simple (simplistic?) as: Mind->Thought->Consciousness.
As long as we are alive, the MCAT trinity is in continuous operation. Whether we’re aware that this irreducible, equation-less, metaphysical system is operating silently in the background of our psyche or not, that’s how we experience psychological life moment-to-moment.
Of the three principles, “thought” is what we are intimately familiar with. Unlike formless “mind” and formless “consciousness“, we can directly “see and feel” our thought forms in real-time. Thus, from the instant we wake up in the morning until we go to sleep at night, we act on them as they spontaneously emerge during the day.
Note that the universal MCAT trio is impersonal. It doesn’t say anything… nada… zilch… about quality of “thought“. That’s where the “personal” you and I come in.
As soon as we become aware of an impersonally created thought, we instantaneously attach a level of personal “I-ness” and judgmental quality to the thought. Thus, hypothetically given the same thought, you can experience its associated feeling as joy and I can experience it as sorrow. Ergo, quality of thought is personal.
Related articles
- RIP, Dear Syd (Bulldozer00.com)
RIP, Dear Syd
From an acquaintance on LinkedIn.com, I just found out that Sydney Banks died in May. Syd was a simple and under-educated man who didn’t strive for fame and fortune. He was the first spiritual teacher whose words of truth penetrated my thick Newtonian thinking skull. I’m very sad to see him go.
Over ten years ago, I stumbled upon obscure Syd’s work while reading Richard Carlson’s not-so-obscure “Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff — And It’s All Small Stuff”. When I read that small tome, the hairs on the back of my neck kept rising up and I found myself experiencing multiple simple, indescribable, and joyful moments of being. It was weird because the words were so simple, yet they were also very profound to me. I kept saying “WTF?” to myself as I turned the pages.
After finishing “Sweat“, I devoured all of the rest of Carlson’s books and they all had the same endearing effect on me. Curious as hell, I scoured the footnotes and bibliographies to find out where Carlson came up with such impactful and profound thoughts and words. Through at least one level of indirection, I discovered that Syd Banks was at the root of a whole ecosystem that revolved around his work: “The Three Principles – Mind, Consciousness, Thought“. Stunningly, West Virginia University, a stereotypical academic bastion of logical and mechanistic thinking, paid tribute to Syd’s spiritual work by initially naming the West Virginia Initiative for Innate Health after him.
I’m really thankful that I serendipitously discovered the work of Sydney Banks. Rest in peace my dear friend from afar.
Spiritual Teachers
For many moons, I’ve been educating myself on the topic of spiritual growth in order to become a better person and experience more peace in my life. Here are my teachers (so far).
Why am I here?
WTF?
Meh!
D'oh!
My BTC Address
Bulldozer00's Blog 