Principle 3 Timely Action – Week 4 – 2023

 March 16, 2023 

Principle 3. The Principle of Timely Action. Fourth Week.

Do not oppose a great force. Retreat until it weakens then advance with resolution.

Last time: What Forces?

This time: Death, Time, and the Future.

This Week:
We are continuing to explore the “The Principle of Timely Action”.

This week we will be examining this principle in the light of what we imagine the future holds.  At our next meeting we will have a chance to discuss these reflections.

General Considerations and Personal Reflections:
I hope these reflections might be useful raw material for your own meditations and they are being shared in that spirit.

How To:

 With few exceptions not much can be said about what the future holds with any degree of certainty. No surprise then that imagining the application of this principle in my future is an undertaking filled with doubts and guesswork. Nonetheless, I worry and make plans so if nothing else I certainly think and act as if I know what will happen in the future. It seems worthwhile then to think about one or two of the most pressing of these imagined situations and consider what fruit my application of this principle might bear.

Especially, in these perilous times — or times when the perilous nature of life is more apparent, I think it is especially worthwhile to meditate, if only occasionally, and briefly, on a few of the future events that have a greater degree of certainty. 

A First Approach:

Leaving taxes aside, we still have suffering, and death on our list of certainties.  Fun, right? Clearly, focusing on all that doesn’t sound like a meditation to lower your blood pressure, and increase productivity (see my blog entry selections From the Ultimate Self-help Book: No Self, No Help)! Among the more certain themes are those connected to the central questions of “who am I and where am I going”. That is: illness (very probably), old age (if I’m lucky) and death (certainly). And if I’m 

not planning to reach old age that seems like a bit of problem in itself. 

I should note that Silo considered these questions as central to his teaching and he dealt with them directly but very gently, especially in writings or talks destined for an audience of non-specialists.The axis of the book (The Inner Look) is the problem of meaning in the face of our mortality,  and The Path asks us explicitly to think every day about where we are heading. Nonetheless Silo was careful to not push people to confront these themes as he felt that for many it is simply too painful and confusing. Instead, as in so many things he counted on “the magic of the copresence” and a gentle approach. Like water the most yielding of elements wearing away the might mountain. And indeed, for most of us our resistance to connecting to the deep registers around these questions (not necessarily to the abstract ideas) is indeed a mountain. 

Is it too harsh, to point out that, ‘no one escapes alive’? It certainly seems that by the time I go, or with my going, I will lose everyone and everything I care about. Furthermore, everyone I love, and everyone I loathe, along with all those to whom I’m indifferent — are all in the same boat. And it’s a vessel that way too often feels very small, and adrift without a map or compass on a vast uncharted, and stormy sea.

So, what does it mean to not oppose a great force when that force is relentless time itself, with all the inevitable problems and questions that accompany its passage? In front of that force how will I find a way to retreat and what could it possibly mean to advance? How wonderful to encounter, in the face of that implacable future, a source of meaning that can ground the resolution I need to advance!

Worth Repeating:

Learn to treat others in the way that you want to be treated. 

Learn to surpass pain and suffering in yourself, in those close to you, and in human society. 

Silo, The Path

Remember:
A valid action, is unitive, is aimed at improving the well-being of others and feels like something you want to repeat again and again. 

 Coming up:

Next week we’ll begin our considerations of April’s principle, four the principle of proportion. It says: “Things are well when they move together not in isolation.” 

All of this effort is not just in order to deepen our understanding this particular principle, but also to develop a form of dynamic meditation, a practice that can be applied in every moment of life.