The other day I listened to a conversation in which people were explaining how past abuse inevitably led to suffering in the present day.
It occurred to me that anyone buying into their ideas was selling themselves short. The 3 Principles Paradigm [3PP] offers greater peace of mind and resilience, irrespective of what has happened previously. This is not to condone or minimise abuse. It is to show why past abuse does not have to mean ongoing suffering.
Understanding the 3PP involves seeing the nature of Thought. Thought is a formless energy which constantly flows through each of us like a bubbling stream. This is what creates our feelings or experience of life. What anyone is feeling now is a 100% reflection of the Thought they are entertaining at this moment.
Yet most people believe that our feelings and experience are largely created by external circumstances or the past or other people. The intellect has been taught to attribute feelings to circumstance. This is to fall prey to an illusion. When this happens, our mood drops as our minds swirl with thoughts. It is as if the stream of thought has been dammed temporarily. Particularly painful or blocking are thoughts of victimhood and powerlessness. And striving to force a change in thinking can actually increase the blockage by adding energy to it.
It is the human condition to vacillate between awareness of the source of our experience – Thought – and believing that we are powerless victims of circumstances. Even when we believe we are the victim of circumstances, Thought is still the creator of our experience. That belief [a thought] is creating a feeling of distress.
Only when we wake up and stop looking toward this illusion does thought again begin to flow freely. Clarity and resilience and wellbeing return. From this resourceful state it is much more obvious what, if any, action is required.
Knowing how the 3PP operates does not free us from the human condition. Sometimes we see the source of our experience clearly; sometimes we become caught in the tangle. As we understand the true source of our feelings more accurately, and can also see that each of us gets innocently caught up in the misunderstanding from time to time, suffering diminishes. Seeing this insightfully leads us to take any desire to blame, retaliate or force change more lightly. Action taken to change how we feel is misguided, as external circumstances are never the source of feelings. In any moment, each of us has the potential to revert to our innate state of free flowing wellbeing and wisdom.
If anything in this has piqued your curiosity, please get in touch.