What is the Law of Three and how does it apply in your life?
If you want to understand change, which is the only constant in our lives, it may be prudent to have a grasp of the Law of Three as taught by G.I. Gurdjieff, the Russian philosopher, and founder of the philosophical school of thought that eventually came to be known as The Fourth Way. Many of you know the Law of Three as “The Farther, the son, and the holy spirit.”
Who was Gurdjieff?
George Ivanovich Gurdjieff was a Russian born philosopher and teacher who was born sometime around 1866, there no clear birth records, and died in 1949 in France. His lessons and influence are still taught and felt today. I have had an interest in Gurdjieff for some time now, but I never deep dived into his teachings out of fear. He can be difficult to understand. He spoke and wrote in code. A friend who recently read his most well-known book, “Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson,” thought initially that it was a children’s book. It comes across that way, but his code needs to be deciphered. To better understand Gurdjieff it has been suggested to me to read books by a couple of his most well-known students. Specifically, P.D. Ouspensky and Maurice Nicoll. Although their books are not as perplexing, the concepts can be challenging to grasp. Too bad they didn’t have the opportunity to meet Steve Jobs and learn the importance of simplicity. If you can’t explain or present something simply, it isn’t worth telling.
The Law of Three or the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
The Law of Three is a law of creation. Creation of the human life. The law states that for anything to be created or an event to materialize three forces must be present. An active force (father), a passive force (son), and then a neutral force (holy-spirit). All three must be present and are equally important for the phenomenon to arise. A simple example would be boy meets girl, the active force, boy wants the girl, but the girl doesn’t want the boy because he is out of shape and overweight, the passive force. The boy decides to start eating better and exercising, the neutral force, to get in shape and impress the girl. Boy and girl get married and live happily ever after, the outcome or manifestation of the three forces.
How you can use the law in your life
The first approach to utilizing this law in your life is to be cognizant of it. To understand how it works and be assured that it always works. When you desire something in your life and it doesn’t come to fruition the cause may be a lack of one of the forces. Next we need to understand that we tend to focus on the first two forces without giving enough attention to the third force, we are third force blind. We concentrate on the motivation but not the facilitation. In the boy-girl example, if the boy does not engage with the third, holy-spirit or neutral force, this particular outcome would not happen. We tend to think we are the doer as the Buddhist would say. We are the facilitator. The third force or blind force must be present for change to take place.
You need to teach yourself to see the law of three. This type of knowledge is not innate or instinctive, but once it’s pointed out, and you begin to see it, you will wonder how you lived without it.
Until next week,
Rich Decker — Mindful Accord
RICH DECKERSEPTEMBER 28, 2017
