Principle 8 Comprehended Action 1 – 2021

“You Will Make Your Conflicts Disappear When You Understand Them In Their Ultimate Root, Not When You Want To Resolve Them”

Principle 8. Comprehended Action. Week 1

Last time: Being in One’s Centre and The Theory of the Reverie

This time: A story and a pause in which to consider things more deeply

This Week:

We start off this month by looking at the basic structure of the principle of comprehended action (or if your prefer action understood). We will consider its general meaning and broad implications.

Along with the meditation on this particular principle we are always trying to see how all the principles interact. We want to turn the principles into a dynamic and permanent meditation. lives. In that way we go on shaping a style of, or way of, engaging with life.

General Considerations and Personal Reflections:

Here are some personal reflections. I offer them in the spirit of dialogue and exchange, and look forward to hearing your thoughts about, and experiences with, this principle.

It has been said that when facing difficult or conflicted situations this principle encourages us to avoid actions that are not thought through. It doesn’t say we should do nothing about problems, but rather that we should try to more thoroughly understand the difficulty itself and our actions (our proposed solutions) . It’s normal to become anxious when facing conflicts and to compulsively attempt to solve them even before comprehending their roots. In this way problems are made even more complicated and in a chain reaction generate more problems.

Here’s an old story that illustrates the situation.

A young shepherd suffered through the cold nights because of his blanket. It wasn’t that the blanket was too thin, or badly made. As he told himself: “Since I was a child this blanket has protected me from wind, ice and snow, but now the cold passes right through it. Sure it has some holes and tears. But I could patch it. After all it served me as a child and it can serve me now.” So he patched the blanket and sewed up the rips.

The next night he noticed his feet were uncovered and almost froze. So he took the blanket and pulled it down. Of course, that left his neck and chest uncovered. Because the blanket was too short he passed night after night cold and uncomfortable, with either his chest or feet uncovered.

Now he thought to himself: “I had this blanket my whole life, and as a child it comforted me and kept me warm so it should keep me warm now since I fixed it up so carefully. I will just have to curl up when I sleep.”

The next morning found him tired, cramped and cold and he thought: “In all this time the blanket has not grown, nor can I make myself smaller. How then shall we continue together.”

Remember:

Some meditation requires that you sit down and close your eyes, but that’s less than half the story.

Worth Repeating:

We are trying to change or strengthen our mental direction. We want to move from a situation of internal conflict to one of internal unity, i.e. agreement between what we think, what we feel, and what we do.

Coming up:

Next week we’ll consider principle 8 (Comprehended Action) in the light of our past actions.

These notes have been posted on our Facebook page (Community of Silo’s Message Toronto Annex), sent to our email list, and are also on my webpage at www.dzuckerbrot.com

We’d all love to hear your comments, thoughts, considerations, artwork, etc about any of this.

Want More:
General information about, the principles, materials, parks, etc can be found at www.silo.net or www.silosmessage.net
There are currently 2 Parks of Study and Reflection in North America. These are Red Bluff (www.redbluffpark.org) in California and Hudson Valley (www.hudsonvalleypark.org) in New York. The Parks of Study and Reflection are projects built and paid for by individuals inspired by Silo’s teachings. More information is available on their respective websites.

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