What are triads in our every day activities? How do the three lines of work form a triad to help us remain present?
Three Forces in Everyday Activities
This morning I am cooking oats for breakfast. It is an octave with certain steps and certain intervals. Each step in the octave involves three interacting forces. The stove flame is the active or first force. The oats are the passive or second force. And the water in the pot is the medium in which the meal is cooked, the third force. Third force appears as a neutralizing or catalyzing force. Without the water, there would be no oats for breakfast, so the third force is necessary to enable this. Once I turn off the flame, it is a different note in the octave and the interacting forces are different.
Intervals in the octave are places in the process where other octaves may enter and move things in a different direction. Intervals can result in an outcome other than a breakfast. While the flame is still burning, a phone call, a knock on the door, or going in imagination about what I need to do next, can make me forget the pot on the stove, resulting in an undesirable outcome.
Being Aware of Third Force
Awakening involves becoming more aware of the three forces in every moment. In my daily life, I am usually third-force blind. I am not aware of what is enabling the activity I am doing. To be honest, most of my day I am also second-force blind. I may be aware of the impulse from one of the lower centers (the first force), but I do not take into account the denying force (the second force) for the process. Third-force awareness is particularly important in the effort to be present, as I can do exactly the same activity with completely different third forces. I can cook oats with the aim (the third force) of feeding the instinctive center, which is legitimate. I can also cook oats with the aim of trying to be present to cooking oats. Then I feed both the instinctive center and higher centers.
Three Forces and the Three Lines of Work
To accomplish my aim to be present, I should prepare some plans to deal with intervals. Schools offer these options because students in a school have the same aim to be present to our lives. If I am cooking breakfast for my family or a friend, their aims may not support my aim to be present. Their aim might be to have a nice breakfast or to discuss the weather.
When I cook breakfast for a student friend, both of us have the aim to be present, so we help each other bridge intervals in our first lines of work. We can gently photograph each other for our identification with the news. Or we might add a beautiful impression to the table to support each other’s inner work. Of course, at least one of us should be already present in order to perpetuate the state. This type of interaction is part of the second line of work.
There is yet another line of defense against the lower self taking over our state of presence. Two or more students, even sharing the aim to be present, can sometimes all fall asleep. If I am cooking breakfast for a school event, an example of the third line of work, this involves all three lines of work. I would have my first line work to be present with the second line support of fellow students. And if either of the first two lines of work gets into an interval, I can remember that I have a role to support an event that will create presence for other students. My third force to be present will be reinforced and strong.
Using the Three Lines of Work to Overcome Intervals
If, as I cook, I become identified with the form of the school and forget about presence, the third line of work has gone into an interval. Yet at such times the other two lines can come to the rescue. A friend can gently nudge me out of identification, or my own first line of work—my presence—may bring relativity to dispense with the identification.
Ernst Newman has written several articles for FourthWayToday.org, including: https://fourthwaytoday.org/right-location/ and https://fourthwaytoday.org/forging-ones-being. For another article, see: