The Forgotten Fundamental to be Included in the Trinity 

The Forgotten Fundamental
To be Included in the Trinity 

On my journey so far in this incarnation I have come to realise that there are three parallel lines of evolution that Nature demands the individual should pursue. These lines are inspired action, contemplation, and the proper use of intelligence. The human being who functions consciously traverses each incarnation using the faculties of thinking, feeling and doing. These faculties constitute a working trinity. He or she attempts to harmonize the reasoned thinking cultivated by means of the unstinting study of metaphysics, the intuitive feeling arising from the dedicated practice of mysticism, and the inspired action necessary in the staggering repetition of the daily doing performed by the ego. In short, the intellectual, the mystical and the practical must be cultivated equally and brought consciously into balance and harmony. If all these qualities are fused and equilibrated, they will allow the profound realisation of the essential quality of insight, which transcends them. This is not the place to elaborate on insight, as the purpose of this essay is to bring attention to the Forgotten Fundamental. Suffice to say that within the individual there exists a hierarchy of insight, followed by intuition, followed by intellect.

Sharpened and quickened use of the intellect in the study of metaphysics, and in the practical affairs of everyday life must be combined and balanced with the feeling of love of the Overself in mystical contemplation. The person cannot escape the dedicated work that needs to be done if the harmonious integration of these elements is to be achieved and insight unfolded. In short, the individual must make the Quest of the Overself into a practical pursuit in everyday life. But everyday actions must not be blind ones. This statement leads us into a consideration of the Forgotten Fundamental that must be included in the trinity. That fundamental is the use of the self.

Wise and altruistic action is, for the thinking, caring person, the would-be philosopher, a process of tireless working for the triumph of Good. But too often the altruist attempts to help others when he has not realized that the quality of his use of the self in his selfless actions has a profound influence on his own spiritual development. In other words, that Forgotten Fundamental of the use of the self is the missing link in his endeavours to balance his psycho-physical-emotional-spiritual development. Constructive conscious control in the use of the self is something that will inspire his moment-to-moment everyday existence.

Before explaining what constructive conscious control in use of the self is, it will be clearer if we consider what subconscious misuse of the self is.

As I wrote in my book, ‘CONSTRUCTIVE Awareness’, Chapter 2, page 21:

“As explained in the previous chapter, misuse of our thinking, resulting in misuse of the body, is a present-day malady. The modern person is a victim of generations of misuse caused by artificial living conditions in civilization. These artificial, stressful conditions cause taut necks, rounded backs, stiff joints, inadequate breathing, stretched nerves, all kinds of neuroses, worried minds, and so on. Such is our unawareness of ourselves that these states can come to feel ‘normal,’ to be ‘us’. In other words, we develop a habitual, devitalized way of being and doing.  Our habits are us. This devitalized condition is usually considered to be an unavoidable part of life, something that is inevitable as we grow older, and we usually blame something or someone else for our situation.

            Consider, though, how much of our way of being is of our own making, is our own responsibility. The environmental conditions into which one is born, or lives in, cannot be excluded from this consideration; indeed, extremely adverse situations play a large part in shaping our lives. If such conditions, however, are within reasonable limits, they can be ignored for the purpose of this illustration.

            One of the strongest habits that we develop from early childhood is that of ‘end-gaining’.  This means a constant striving to get to the end of any task that we perform, without consideration of the co-ordinated ‘means’ we should employ to gain the desired end. Education is geared to end-gaining. Children are encouraged to produce a good result at school without proper consideration of the ‘how’ of achieving it without losing their psycho-physical equilibrium. This is true of so-called mental as well as physical activities. The best way to illustrate the difference between ‘end-gaining’ and ‘means’ is to give a simple example, such as picking an object up from the floor. The vast majority react to the stimulus of the object falling on the floor by bending the torso forward at the lumbar spine by keeping the knees straight as we reach down with the hand. This movement continues until the knees have to be reluctantly bent to allow the hand to reach and grasp the object.  The return journey usually starts with placing the hands on the knees and pushing up with the arms because the back is not strong enough to perform this task easily. The breath is held throughout this activity – except for when a tired grunt of effort is forced from the body. This habitual way of bending the back can be extremely detrimental to the welfare of the lumbar spine. If done too often, it can lead to damage to the intervertebral discs in the form of distortion and even prolapse.

            If you ask a person to describe in detail what she actually did with the different parts of the body in lifting up the object, she will be unable to do so.  This is because the co-ordinated ‘means’ of performing the act are of little interest to her and occur beneath her awareness. She will have no more than a vague, hazy idea of the ‘how’ of her doing.  This is classic, habitual ‘end-gaining’.

            A more mechanically appropriate way of bending to the floor is to allow the back to remain ‘straight’ and to bend the knees and hip joints as young children do.

            The above explanation, however, does not go far enough as it gives the impression that we can change directly one method of doing something for a better one. This example is given simply to point out that a superior, mechanically appropriate method exists; but if this were as far as it goes, we would be dealing with nothing more than physical culture. The indirect process of constructive awareness is much more than mere physical culture: to learn it we ought to begin to use our minds and consider the ‘how’ of performing our everyday activities.  We can learn how to constructively ‘think in activity’, how to attend to the co-ordinated ‘means’ of doing something, no matter how trivial.

            The first method of bending in the above example is a misuse of the body mechanism; it is not designed to do this.  Numerous other examples could be given of the inappropriate, detrimental habits of use of the psycho-physical self.

            Physical habits cause mental habits and vice-versa. Sects, cults and groups which recognize, and attempt to utilize, the power of the mind over the body are out of truth, and so out of balance, to the extent that they fail to recognize the power of the body over the mind. The way to change bad physical and mental habits is by inhibiting them. Inhibition in the sense meant here is the very basis of change.”

            (The reader is asked to refer to ‘CONSTRUCTIVE Awareness’, Chapter 4, for an account of ‘Inhibition and Direction,’ which includes the importance of consciously attending to the integrity of the head-neck-back relationship.)

            There is no need to add another element to the trinity, because constructive awareness is a fundamental part of the use of the intellect in which the conscious mind is quickened and expanded to attend to the use of the self. The intellect, however, cannot achieve a fundamental change in the use of the self without combining its endeavours with the cultivation of the kinesthetic sense. The latter is unknown to the vast majority of people, so much so that we usually refer only to the five senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell when considering what they tell us of the world around us. If our awareness of the body and its interaction with the environment are to be complete, we must learn to include and appreciate the kinesthetic sense as being of equal importance to the other five.

In the trinity, therefore, the kinesthetic sense would come under the category of feeling; but it is not mystical or emotional feeling.  It is the awareness of the relationship of one part of the body to another as the body interacts with its immediate environment. The body as a mechanism must be understood: but what is more important, the quality of the use of it must also be studied and understood.

            Thinking aright is essential. Nebulous thoughts that float aimlessly through the mind are of no importance, but the habitual trend of thoughts is. If you are habitually thinking thousands of trivial thoughts in your buzzing internal dialogue then you are always with these thoughts, not with yourself. In contrast, constantly recurring dynamic thoughts about improving the use of the self will allow the aspirant to positively influence his own contribution to his earthly experience. The more often we repeat the thoughts that will produce co-ordinated use of the self, the quicker will we reach, not only a truly conscious way of living that will improve our general progress and well-being, but also make it easier to elevate ourselves to spiritual nobleness.

No matter what a person’s philosophy of life may be, if he is seeking authentic all-round development, it must include constructive conscious control of the individual by the individual – the Forgotten Fundamental.

This article was first published in The Power of How by Daniel McGowan. You can download the PDF of this book for free here:  FREE DOWNLOAD