Saturday 27 September 2014 – Cynthia Bourgeault Lake Cowichan Wisdom School
In the west substance theology has been the classic way the Trinity has been approached.
The first substance theology asks is “Who are the Persons?” and then “How do they interact?”
Substance theology functions in the mind realm which perceives by differentiation. What determines identity is what makes it different from the other. For the mind to be “original” is to be not like anything else. Actually the root of “original” is the same as origin. So to be “original” is to be in alignment with what is, to be from “origin”.
The Medieval schematic for the Trinity:
the Father is God
the Son is God
the Spirit is Godthe Father is not the Spirit
the Spirit is not the Son
the Son is not the Father
The problem in the Trinity for the Medieval mind is – How do you sustain the distinction of substance of identity through differentiation while remaining one?
Part of the problem with this old schematic is that the world is totally missing. It is just not necessary to the diagram.
The other problem with this Medieval vision of the Trinity is that there is no sense of motion or dynamic community.
The question for our day is – how do we release the stranglehold of substance theology? How do we find a way within the Trinity to start talking about process and relationship?
We need to see the Trinity as pure relationality; but this requires a different kind of mind than we have been accustomed to using. We need to get through the filter of mind and begin to “see” with more of ourselves.
Three theologians who will help us move beyond the stranglehold of substance theology:
Catherine LaCugna (d. 1997) – God For Us: The Trinity In Christian Life 2012.
LaCugna traces the “defeat of the doctrine of the Trinity.” She ponders the economy of God “oikonomia“. We must include in our thinking of the Trinity the on-going work of redemption and revelation in this world.
How has God made known to us his hidden purpose? How are all things brought into unity in Christ?
The west got caught up in obsessive speculation about the nature and relationship of the divine Persons. Augustine – “the Spirit is the love between the Father and the Son.” This essentially wraps the whole thing up inside itself. It neither presumes nor requires a world out there. It postulates the utter self-sufficiency of God without any intrinsic necessity for creation.
We need to think about process. We must not freeze the Trinity. The Trinity always involves movement.
Raimon Panikkar (d. 2010)
Panikkar taught us to think that every human experience is contained in every religious tradition. There are a finite number of experiences humans undergo in relationship to the divine. When you start from experience you discover commonality where previously you have only been able to see difference. When you start from doctrine and the need for agreement, you end up with disagreement.
The Trinity accurately represents the mind of Christ and allows us to enter into that doctrine. The mind of Christ is a cosmotheandric mind (world – God- man = three states in which consciousness can find itself).
There is a necessary and inevitable inter-circulation between the states. There is inter-abiding love. Everything is in everything else. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” There is affinity with the divine, yet there is at the same time, separation. We all have a point within us in which we understand that there is a place where I stop and God begins. But we also know there is a place in our experience where we need to fall on our knees and declare “Lord have mercy.”
There is constant circulation between form and formlessness in every human being. I am one with Sour in so far as I act as source making everything I receive flow out again. I am one with Source to the extent that I act as source.
The Trinity conveys the dynamic inter-abiding of states that are bound together in a rhythm of being that allows things to flow.
The love between the Father and the Son must flow out into the world. It cannot be a curved love that falls back on itself. It is the Spirit that keeps the Trinity open. Father — Son is closed. We need three terms in order to open it up.
Beatrice Bruteau – God’s Ecstasy: The Creation of a Self-Creating World, 1997.
Process and Motion are necessary to our template.
The Trinity is the symbol of symbiotic unity. Unity and differentiation are held in one. This is the very way evolution lurches forward. Autonomy is let go at one level and a massively enhanced function emerges at another level.
Agape love requires three not just two terms. Erotic love only requires two. In agape love you so interiorize the Beloved that you step forward with the Beloved living within you.
It is not enough just to love your Beloved. It is the nature of maturing love for that love to move within you so that you see the world as the Beloved sees the world. We are being invited into an I—I relationship.
The I lives in me as my deepest I, so that I flow out because that one has fused within me and the love that is the I impels me out into the world.
The three God Persons who are in relationship in the Trinity exemplify the I—I relationship.
Once you get Threeness, you have the self-projective capacity that has to move out into manifestation.
Threefoldness is by nature ecstatic. It goes out from itself. Three breaks the symmetry of two. The moment you have three-foldness, you are going to have on-going manifestation.
In A Spacious Place 
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October 2, 2014 at 6:38 am
AnneMarie
I am wondering if there are any MERTON followers on Long Island?
Please e-mail me at amweisman@optonline.net AnneMarie
October 2, 2014 at 6:44 am
Sharon
Lovely! I will be attending a wisdom school in November and I am appreciating this!
October 2, 2014 at 8:51 am
elbie
Ah, this is complicated and difficult to understand. Is there a way to say it in simpler terms, I’m wondering?
Like … you have 2 people who are in an intensely loving relationship,a father and a adult son, say, and each person is a separate person who stands on his own 2 feet but the bond between them is strong and special, and really quite exclusive because it is formed out of their relationship to each other and history together. It’s like this relationship between them is a third person because it exists only because each of these 2 beings exist. So it is this relationship itself also that forms and informs the 2 individuals … something they internalize and becomes who they are … Like if I’m the son, say, I likely will inherit common characteristics (and in this case genes) from my father … so I’ll see myself in my father and my father in me (NATURE). But, what I don’t necessarily see as easily is and what I long for more is how the relationship between my father and me changes both my father and me (NURTURE) … like it’s bigger than just the gene pool … and more fluid. For this relationship to be healthy there’d have to be a deep trust between the 2 parties involved … and that would be grown and nurtured just like a baby would need to be fed and nurtured to grow.
Okay, so now there is the world part and how does it fit into the puzzle? and how does this 3-part relationship (father, son, spirit) fit in and interact with the world? It might seem they are a separate entity operating off to the side and separate from the rest of the world, but in reality they are born out of the world and where deeply embedded in the world. Like every relationship ever formed between 2 people is deeply integrated and affects the world, not just in this moment – a snapshot time in history, but historically and every single relationship impacts the world way into the future. It’s like no relationship exists entirely in isolation really.
Wow! If this is true, then if in any and every relationship there is an awareness of this impact on the world, healthy or unhealthy … that’s kind of a lot to take in … like a huge responsibility … but also kind of nurturing in a way … like it causes you to want to nurture every interaction with everyone you meet … and you respond to, appreciate and are formed by the nurturing too … and non-nurturing relationships too … and the (each) relationship somehow becomes something way more poignant with ripple affects … Or is it something else? Okay, now I’m curious to see what insights tomorrow’s blog will bring … 🙂
October 4, 2014 at 6:55 pm
Jennifer
Elbie,
Maybe we cannot really understand the actual makeup of the Trinity and how it works anymore than I can know what my lungs look like. However, I breathe everyday and have life. So although I don’t know the intricacies of my own lungs, I benefit from their presence and interaction with my heart and other organs. I get to know the Trinity by the manifestations I experience, like breathing.
October 4, 2014 at 6:56 pm
Jennifer
….except in my metaphor….the Trinity might be the air….or the space between the breath.
October 4, 2014 at 11:48 pm
elbie
Hey Jennifer, you know, for me it feels a bit like learning to read for the first time … you see these strange etchings on a piece of paper, and you know they are significant because people around you can read them … consistently … when they read the words on the paper, they don’t just make consistent sounds … they tell a story that lifts you off the page and kind of make the etchings and the page irrelevant … It feels a bit like that for me, I guess … still looking at the symbols and thinking … ah, this is significant …
October 5, 2014 at 8:03 am
Jennifer
Well Elbie, there is a felt sense that being able to know…not understand…this mystery will assist in becoming the joyful beings we are meant to be…..:)
October 5, 2014 at 12:09 pm
elbie
Yeah, it seems there a different ways of approaching this material, and depending on where we mentally place ourselves to start, doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive or downplay our appreciation of the larger story … just different layers. But, I think you’ve answered my unspoken question … like why do this at all … why grapple with this material here an the Holy Trinity , why engage with it all? You and me, we could say, ah no, we don’t need to bother with this material at all, we can appreciate the mystery of peeking in from the outside … I suspect it is this delightful doing the grappling together that brings us most joy 🙂
October 5, 2014 at 12:19 pm
elbie
I guess what I’m wondering now is ought I to go out and get and wade through Cynthia’s book so we can at least be talking the same language? or do you reckon it’s okay to bounce around the topics here on Christopher’s blog … and see where it goes?
October 5, 2014 at 1:26 pm
Jennifer
I think bounce and if the bounce intrigues you…commit to the book! I read the book shortly after it came out and my puny brain got lost along the way. However, the idea of affirming and denying energies as being equal…and especially the negative as not being bad…was an aha moment for me. What I needed more of was the practical aspects of recognizing when these two forces were at work…when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em. See…it is at play around whether or not to buy the book…LOL.
October 5, 2014 at 9:00 pm
elbie
Okay, thanks for this, Jennifer. I reckon if you got lost along the way in the material, then I’ll almost certainly bound to get.lost,as well, so happy to wing it as we go, … unless you start to find my lack of background info knowledge starts to get bothersome then please do let me know 🙂
Can we talk about these energies, a bit more? Theory is well and good, but like you, I do find it helps to have practical examples to hook into,for it to become real and relevant….
Do you have a practical example you would perhaps like to explore in more detail?
.
October 6, 2014 at 7:59 am
Jennifer
Elbie,
I think you have a wonderful intellect!! I’m going to answer your question from my understanding which could be completely skewed. Cynthia’s work on the Trinity is based on the Law of Three which comes from Gurdjieff. The law of three, (what I think) says that every created act requires three energies…affirming energy, denying energy and reconciling energy. So, let’s say a new committee forms to put a new roof on the church….this is affirming. In the midst of the project, some naysayers say we don’t have enough money and the roof is too high for parishioners to do the work, we need to hire professionals. Yet the committee founders feel they are perfectly qualified. A tension arises. The act of naysaying is the denying energy. The tension is the place where there is a possibility for something completely new to emerge. The reconciling force has a possibility to enter in this place of creating a whole new triad that can move things to a better place. How this all relates to the Trinity…I haven’t figured out.
As well, Cynthia’s last chapters in the book try to explain the formless moving into form through different gradations. I must really re-read to see if I can understand more now.
Does any of this make sense?
October 6, 2014 at 10:19 pm
elbie
Jennifer, yes, very cool practical example … an all too common example we can really bite our teeth into 🙂
You know how they say necessity is the mother of invention and the best innovations tend to happen in this kind of constraining space. The best innovation also happens when there are opposing voices, provided there is fundamental agreement on a common cause. What the opposing voices do, if listened to, is ramp up the innovation … requiring greater creativity. Cool stuff when it happens.
The challenge really is how to hold this all together so people don’t get upset and leave … and this is where the dynamic needs relational energies.
On the face of it, this roof project has the hallmarks of a successful project … a clear statement of the problem … a roof that must be replaced. No-one seems to be opposing this, the need for a new roof … which puts them way ahead to finding a solution …
If a large enough group of influential people opposed the idea of needing a new roof, then they would have to take it back a step to find a bigger picture they could all agree on. And this can be a lot of fun too … brings out of the box thinking …
We have the roof committee who are committed to building the roof and gung-ho. And we have the … er, let’s not call them naysayers – ‘naysayers’ gives them a negative spin which they don’t really deserve …. let’s maybe call them the ‘realists’ … (we all like to label ourselves as ‘realists’ in this less gung-ho frame of mind) … The ‘realists’ are an essential, and actually quite an active energy too, though it might not seem like it at first glance.
Which then begs the question … what is the denying, passive constraint?
What’s interesting about the roofers and the realists is while they’re not necessarily opposed to the roof being replaced, there is some tension around the perceived constraints (agility, skill and money). Thinking of Cynthia’s example of the river, the riverbed is a passive lump. These constraints can be a passive lump too, or at least something that provides boundaries. I’d tend to add ‘expectation’ to this list of constraints … though not exactly sure how this fits in with our roof example, unless someone is wanting to build an ornate, gold embossed roof with turrets or something … but no indication of that here … but I guess we can assume the folk in this example all agree on some basics building code expectation … eg. the roof shouldn’t blow away with the first windstorm, shouldn’t leak when it rains, and such … ? Hmmm, a “fly-away”, leaky roof could be fun … but ah, mustn’t digress … still trying to keep this realistic 🙂
Jennifer, what do you reckon are the reconciling energies for these folk in the roofing conundrum?
October 7, 2014 at 8:29 am
Jennifer
I like your observations Elbie. And “realists” is better than naysayer. LOL. Well, I would say that in order for the reconciling energy to even emerge, someone on one of the two sides has to soften…and softening does not mean “give in”. Someone has to stop bracing enough so that the reconciling energy can find a place to seep in. When both parties remain rigid…then affirming and denying just keep hitting each other over the head with their agenda. Over and Over for years sometimes.
Even when someone stops bracing and reconciling energy enters in, there has to be enough shift in a major portion of the group in order to come to some kind of conclusion. In this case….a roof has to be repaired (in a new project….the project may be killed…maybe the project should not go ahead).
In our case the tension arises around hiring professionals and do we have enough money and a group of people who think they can fix the roof without professional help. Let’s say one of the first group starts to soften. They start to ask questions about how much it costs to hire a professional…what would be the advantages of a professional (i.e. a warranty). Already we are moving to a new configuration and a new triad.
So…in short, I don’t know what reconciling energy will do. But the conditions for it to enter are non bracing, deep listening, seeing your own rigidity and waiting. And even when you do all of these things, the other party has free will and may choose to stay stubbornly connected to their way as the only way. When that happens, then you get to practice more non-bracing, more deep listening, more seeing of yourself and more waiting. Then the transformation happens where it is intended…in oneself. LOL!
October 7, 2014 at 7:21 pm
elbie
Yes, what you say makes sense to me … but, oh, so hard to do sometimes, especially when you are all riled up.
Someone once told me that it doesn’t take two to stop an argument, it only takes one. It took the longest time to figure out what he meant … and even then a lesson that didn’t settle in deep enough to become second nature. A case of knowing the theory, but struggling in the execution …
It happens so seldom that when ‘she’ blows, people are surprised and even amused by it … that is, as long as they are not on the receiving end … Ho hum, today being a case in point. Shoot, I’d rather everyone was amused by it … but no, tomorrow I’ll need to go back and mend some bridges and yes, I might have won some new-found respect in a certain quarter, and yes, the job might get done a lot less painfully tomorrow, but really at the end of the day, what does anyone of us want but to know we are loved … unconditionally … All the roofs and fences and code that need to be mended don’t mean a jot if there is no love … which is kind of a dumb thing to say because there is always love … just not always shown love on the outside … Why is it so hard to show my love? Like somehow saying “I love you” will somehow disempower me somehow … yet, it hardly ever does …
Sorry for this rambling rant, Jennifer, just working through some residual energy from earlier today …
October 6, 2014 at 8:07 am
Jennifer
Also in the Gurdjieff work (I am not a practitioner only a reader) there is the Law of Seven…also related to the Law of Three. The Law of Seven is based on the scale and the octave….do re mi…etc. There are two breaks in the octave between mi fa and te do (semi tones). This law shows that in every project tension will arise near the beginning and near completion. One then can decide at those places to create a new octave, drop the project etc. They are places of discernment…not giving up. You can see that Gurdjieff cosmology is quite interesting. There is much more to his system that I do not understand at all…..
Cynthia uses the Law of Seven to base formlessness moving to form….I think that is what she is doing….
October 6, 2014 at 10:35 pm
elbie
Must admit I don’t know anything about Gurdjieff or the Law of Seven or the octaves, though something you are saying here does ring a bell … I like the idea of observing patterns and recognize these tensions, one near the beginning and one near the end, that are really helpful when adjusting to new roommates … takes unnecessary stress out of the situation when you know to expect these tensions as part of a general pattern rather than taking it personally.
October 7, 2014 at 8:33 am
Jennifer
Yes, exactly that Elbie. Once I learned about this, and thought back over my life, I could see these patterns at work. It is also helpful to know that just before you are finishing a project, you most likely will want to give up…and so that you need extra help and support to see the finish line.
It also says that there are two places in any project where you can abandon and maybe should abandon…..
October 7, 2014 at 6:29 pm
elbie
“It is also helpful to know that just before you are finishing a project, you most likely will want to give up…and so that you need extra help and support to see the finish line.”
This has me chuckling … as in “Oh, that’s what it is!”
Lesson learned on my last project is even when your job is done and you’ve handed over the reigns to far more accomplished people to bring to the finish line, for pity sake, whatever you do, don’t actually say it out loud … unless you want an earful … better to stay on in a supporting and cheerleading role and be standing next to the last person to switch off the lights …
October 7, 2014 at 8:53 pm
Jennifer
I am glad you did a residual rant…in a safe place. I find that if I can put something outside myself..then I can look at it and see more clearly. If it sits inside it just churns round and round … and does not make delicious butter, but something sour and unedible. Love is the field of energy we can always jump into…however, sometimes a loving thing is to hold your center and speak truth if something is out of order. I have found that in order to do that successfully, I must deal with my “riled up” feelings so that when I do speak, I have some chance of being heard.
My new practice is to find my stillness before I act. I have been successful at times in finding the still place…and other times, I missed the opportunity. But, I know (ha ha) that I will get more opportunities. Recently, I was so knocked out of the box, and tried to find my stillness. I caught myself. But I was so knocked out of my center that I felt swirling inside of me. I couldn’t say anything at all. A friend told me that what happened was that the false sense was melting (like the wicked witch lol). And that the true self wasn’t stable yet. That made sense.
It sounds like you did a great job with your last project and brought the octave to a beautiful conclusion.
October 7, 2014 at 11:56 pm
elbie
Jennifer, thanks for this … a lingering impression I have left now and also encouraged by something you said when you wrote “I couldn’t say anything at all” is yes, this is where it is, the truth, what it keeps coming back to … whatever truth needed to be said was said …not by words but something in the expression reflected back at me for the barest, rawest moment … a glimpse … like looking in a mirror.
October 8, 2014 at 7:40 am
Jennifer
Beautiful!
October 8, 2014 at 8:09 am
elbie
Back to the our example … Jennifer, you know when we talk about form … we often think of form in the shape of a task driven thing … like we’re using the word ‘project’ to describe it … but form can be something else too, like the group of people in our roof example who could potentially carry on arguing about the roof over years and years … the group has a form … which is lasting and while the dynamic of arguing year over year might sound rigid and maybe not creative, or even particularly healthy, the thing is …. there is something in this dynamic that still continues to hold the group together…. and this is fascinating.
I’m thinking the Law of Seven … applies as much here to the group as to any project … you know 2 critical octaves when a group evaluates itself and decides, or rather it just happens through normal dynamics (forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning) to stay together or dissipate …
I wonder to what extent this being a church group, versus say a sports club or personalities or something else, that holds this group together for years? What I mean is … a belief in the groups’ existence as being something not wholly self-serving but part of something bigger and outside of purely itself ? …
October 8, 2014 at 1:38 pm
Jennifer
Elbie,
That is an amazing insight. I immediately thought of a relationship in own family where we seem to have gone back and forth for over 50 years. And I would say that relationship and family ties holds us together…it becomes the container. We are presently at an impasse…and Christopher’s notes say third force can enter at an impasse. So…I am trying to soften, see from another perspective, and wait. I don’t know what else to do…because my doing has made it worse each time I attempt.
I attend a church which has principles and no dogma to hold them together. This has been a very interesting experience, because there isn’t a common belief in Jesus to hold people together….rather…it is the friendships and relationships that hold people when the going gets tough. I would think this might be true of non-religious groups such as sports groups etc.
In our roofing example in a church….I suspect the differences can be contained in that both sides care about something bigger than themselves, ultimately.
October 8, 2014 at 11:19 pm
elbie
Jennifer, what does this means … third force enters at an impasse?
October 9, 2014 at 7:56 am
Jennifer
Well, I am no expert on this…but I imagine that third force is like grace. It seems to me that grace can only enter where there is an opening. Impasse suggests a block. So, I cannot see how grace can enter into a blocked place. In order to receive, our hands must be open. Perhaps we are now talking about the miraculous…or at least what we cannot explain. I honestly cannot think of an example where grace has entered into an impasse…right off the top of my head. Can you? The first example I thought of was falling on one’s knees and saying help…but here the impasse no longer exists. Maybe third force enters in through the suffering which seems like an impasse. Your thoughts?
October 9, 2014 at 10:19 am
elbie
Jennifer, I’m not really sure. I was thinking yesterday maybe it’s when we get to a point where there is nothing else left to try and we sort of throw our hands up and say “I don’t know” … like giving up on trying to control the situation and just letting the situation unfold whichever way it’s going to happen and accepting whatever happens as for the best …
And then I was wondering about how much of this Third Force is about us and how much of it is outside of our control, like forces of nature and time, and yes, then there’s the miraculous too which can’t be explained by the normal laws of probability or pattern … you know, the type of happening that surprises and shocks you, usually into paying attention.
I recognize in myself 2 quite distinct ways of responding … there’s the regular day-to-day approach of ‘get this’, ‘do that’, ‘try this’ and then there’s the other way which usually happens in response to the miraculous where it is convergence, a synergy … I think they call it synchronicity.
For example nowadays arriving somewhere or meeting a person by chance and recognizing the ‘aura’ of someone praying for this person … and it’s the most natural thing to respond, without needing to question it or figure anything out … often simply just being there to connect with this person and witness whatever is happening … It’s in these situations I recognize this person is important to God and held by a power far greater than I can fathom and also by someone who loves this person and is praying for them … It’s as if the most active thing we can possibly do for anyone is to pray and God takes it from there …
October 9, 2014 at 2:30 pm
Jennifer
Elbie,
Maybe third force is something like the resurrection.
October 9, 2014 at 2:31 pm
Jennifer
Hmmmmm…..that would be third force on steroids!!! LOL….
October 9, 2014 at 9:24 pm
elbie
Resurrection … maybe? Explain?
Interesting comment in Christopher’s note #7 … an impasse is when the when the moving centre is missing. It’s almost starting to sound like the Third Force is the essential self …? And the essential self is personhood (rather than personality) … but then she says that time can be the Third Force and it comes down like a stream which sounds more like the Holy Spirit … ?
Hmmm, suddenly thinking of Yoda in Star Wars … “May the Force be with You” … in a wierd way Yoda’s ‘the Force’ is making sense as a candidate for the Third Force … and the whole focus on awareness, paying attention, situationally, being centred, at one with the universe … Did you ever watch Star Wars, Jennifer?
October 9, 2014 at 9:47 pm
Jennifer
Resurrection! Well what could be a greater impasse than the crucifixion. Who would ever have seen resurrection coming. Jesus’ last words .. my God My God why havd you abandoned me. And then…into your hands I commend my spirit.
And then Pentecost….on all the apostles hiding out. Who would’ve seem that one coming?
I’m not sure I know what the moving center is…other than I suspect from my reading, its the physicality of the body. I don’t know the gurdjieff terms but most systems will say we have an intellectual center, an emotional center and a moving center. We operate in one more than the other. In Gurdjieff work one is challenged to get all three working. So if you are an intellectual, you will be required to garden and chop wood, or if you are a sporty person, you will be sent to the choir. If you are an emotional center, you will probably clean toilets. Just guessing. So I don’t understand third force, impasse and moving center at all.
I can see time being Third Force…I.e. time heals grief. It’s about the only thing that does.
I did see the first star wars movie when it came out. It is a vague and distanct memory.
Lots to think about……
October 9, 2014 at 10:14 pm
elbie
Yes, lots to ponder … 🙂
October 10, 2014 at 8:37 am
elbie
Hey Jennifer, I found this “The Third Force” that Christopher wrote that helps clarify the Third Force for me … https://inaspaciousplace.wordpress.com/2014/05/25/third-force/ and with what you have written here how the resurrection (and pentecost)) fits …..
So now, reflecting on an impasse as being anything that blocks love … like lack of attention, fear, insistence on the ‘right’ way of doing things (like the right way of building the roof in our roofing example),making assumptions …
Also, since Star Wars came to mind … The Dark Force which is surprisingly similar to the Force but driven by ambition and wholly self-serving in nature … and how it is that the similarities between the Force and the Dark Force make it so easy to switch between the two without even realizing it … …
October 10, 2014 at 5:42 pm
Jennifer
Dear Elbie,
Well I must say that ever since I became aware of the idea of third force, I have been trying to keep my eye open for it….akin to a child wanting a glimpse of the tooth fairy…or waiting in the forest in hopes of seeing a bear or deer.
Happy Thanksgiving!!! Love our conversation! 🙂
October 10, 2014 at 10:02 pm
elbie
Jennifer, Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family too!! This has certainly been an delightful conversation … thank you… and now I have this image of you tip-toeing in an enchanting forest with your eyes wide open and a ticklish smile of anticipation. 🙂
October 11, 2014 at 4:59 am
Jennifer
LOL! I don’t do mud! Maybe third force is like that shoe lace!!
October 12, 2014 at 1:27 pm
elbie
Yeah, I love how things aren’t always end up as they seem. The shoelace, a constraint to keep a shoe on the man’s foot, when it ‘fails’ it’s job of being a constraint becomes an instrument of something bigger for the third force, the man an apparent villain at first becomes an active rescuer, and without even realizing it … I love how he followed his nature … and did something so awesome without even realizing it. I know it’s just an animation, but you sense that he is kind and attentive when he stops. And the fairy’s light which I would think would be a third force thing becomes a tool for attracting the man’s attention. Almost like the third force is in the light fairy and in the creative energy and dynamic, supportive nature of the friendships between the fairies … I don’t do mud … but you’re a garden fairy … I know, ironic, isn’t it? … eee-ew … okay then … 🙂
October 12, 2014 at 3:09 pm
Jennifer
I love it when an animation is rich with meaning. The garden fairy (where have we heard a garden story before)…doesn’t do mud. But with encouragement, skips through the puddle. Instead, the encourager gets stuck in the mud….substituted love….and is stuck in the mud (a danger in itself) and also placed in harms way by a truck driver…who has no idea what is going on. He sees a light….stops….stops…looks….listens. Just stopping,looking and listening…he, unaware of himself…changes everything by his very being…..in the stopping, the stilling. 🙂
October 12, 2014 at 3:14 pm
elbie
Yes 🙂