When it was time for me to speak, what came to mind was a conversation I had with my friend and colleague Dicken Bettinger recently. He was telling me that Syd Banks, the man whose enlightenment experience led to the insights now commonly referred to as “the Three Principles”, said that each principle –Thought, Consciousness, and Mind – could only really be understood in its own language.
The language best used to explain and understand the principle of Thought is logic – what Syd talked about as “the logic of the psyche – psyche-logical”. There is a logic to the principle of Thought in action because it only and always works in one way – from thought to feeling, thought to experience, inside (formless) to out (form).
Therefore we can speak about it as a paradigm – a 100% reliable guide to life and as close as we can get in words to the truth about how the mind works and how our human experience is being created.
The language best used to understand and explain the principle of Consciousness, by way of contrast, is metaphor. Imagine the clear surface of a lake, reflecting the clouds, birds, and sky with no intention, no choice, and no preferences for what it reflects. Or imagine the sky itself – vast, unbounded, able to contain every airplane, bird, and cloud that passes through it and home to the sun itself, the source of energy for all organic life.
We cannot “see” Consciousness, but it is that which allows us to see; we cannot “understand” it, but we can stand under our own thinking and watch it create our everchanging feelings and experiences against the constant backdrop of pure awareness.
As I was listening to Dicken share Syd’s insight, my mind jumped ahead to ponder the language of the universal Mind. How best to wake up to the deeper guiding intelligence inside us? What language best points to the invisible power at the heart of life itself, the animating force, the divine spark that lights us on fire and allows us to burn brightly throughout our lives?
Two words came to mind, and I was delighted that they were the same two words that Syd used to point with. The first was “silence”. As he often said, “Every human being is looking for a silent mind.” This is not the word “silent” used to describe the opposite of “noisy”. It is the silence within which the noise of our thinking arises; the nothing out of which every thing comes. In this sense, silence is not just our birthright, it is our very nature.
The second word was “love”. We can use the word “love” as a verb to talk about treating people with kindness and doing things with care, but in this case “love” is a noun – a way of describing the beautiful space within us from which kind, caring action spontaneously arises. So in talking about silence and love, we’re talking about a quiet mind and a beautiful feeling – the experiential essence of what the Three Principles are pointing to as our innate health, deeper nature, and true identity.Click To Tweet
As I spoke, it occurred to me that I’ve always had a gift for logic and metaphor, which is why those aspects of my books and talks flow easily. Letting love and silence speak through me feels more like a forgotten skill remembered and a lost treasure found. Which is perhaps why it has always taken me a bit longer to speak to the nature of Mind, and why, for me at least, whatever comes has always been worth the wait.
So here’s to Uvnitř v sobě and all who read it in whatever language you find it easiest to understand. May it give voice to the silence that you are made of and may you always take the time to let the love within you speak…
With all my love,
