In Search of the Miraculous

And so it may go on until the third force makes its appearance, in the form, for

instance, of new knowledge, showing at once the advantage or the necessity of work on oneself and, in this way, supporting and strengthening the initiative. Then the

initiative, with the support of this third force, may conquer inertia and the man

becomes active in the desired direction.

"Examples of the action of the three forces, and the moments of entry of the third

force, may be discovered in all manifestations of our psychic life, in all phenomena of

the life of human communities and of humanity as a whole, and in all the phenomena

of nature around us.

"But at the beginning it is enough to understand the general principle:

every phenomenon, of whatever magnitude it may be, is inevitably the manifestation

of three forces; one or two forces cannot produce a phenomenon, and if we observe a

stoppage in anything, or an endless hesitation at the same place, we can say that, at

the given place, the third force is lacking. In trying to understand this it must be

remembered at the same time that people cannot observe phenomena as

manifestations of three forces because we cannot observe the objective world in our

subjective states of consciousness. And in the subjectively observed phenomenal

world we see in phenomena only the manifestation of one or two forces. If we could

see the manifestation of three forces in every action, we should then see the world as

it is (things in themselves). Only it must here be remembered that a phenomenon

which appears to be simple may actually be very complicated, that is, it may be a very

complex combination of trinities. But we know that we cannot observe the world as it

is and this should help us to understand why we cannot see the third force. The third

force is a property of the real world. The subjective or phenomenal world of our

observation is only relatively real, at any rate it is not complete.

"Returning to the world in which we live we may now say that in the Absolute, as

well as in everything else, three forces are active: the active, the passive, and the

neutralizing. But since by its very nature everything in the Absolute constitutes one

whole the three forces also constitute one whole. Moreover in forming one

independent whole the three forces

possess a full and independent will, full consciousness, full understanding of

themselves and of everything they do.

"The idea of the unity of the three forces in the Absolute forms the basis of many

ancient teachings—consubstantial and indivisible Trinity, Trimurti—Brahma, Vishnu,

and Siva, and so on.

"The three forces of the Absolute, constituting one whole, separate and unite by

their own will and by their own decision, and at the points of junction they create

phenomena, or 'worlds.' These worlds, created by the will of the Absolute, depend

entirely upon this will in everything that concerns their own existence. In each of these worlds the three forces again act. Since, however, each of these worlds is now not the

whole, but only a part, then the three forces in them do not form a single whole. It is

now a case of three wills, three consciousnesses, three unities. Each of the three forces contains within it the possibility of all three forces, but at the meeting point of the

three forces each of them manifests only one principle—the active, the passive, or the

neutralizing. The three forces together form a trinity which produces new phenomena.

But this trinity is different, it is not that which was in the Absolute, where the three

forces formed an indivisible whole and possessed one single will and one single

consciousness. In the worlds of the second order the three forces are now divided and

their meeting points are now of a different nature. In the Absolute the moment and the

point of their meeting is determined by their single will. In the worlds of the second

order, where there is no longer a single will but three wills, the points of issue are each determined by a separate will, independent of the others, and therefore the meeting

point becomes accidental or mechanical. The will of the Absolute creates the worlds

of the second order and governs them, but it does not govern their creative work, in

which a mechanical element makes its appearance.

"Let us imagine the Absolute as a circle and in it a number of other circles, worlds of the second order. Let us take one of these circles. The Absolute is designated by the

number 1, because the three forces constitute one whole in the Absolute, and the small

circles we will designate by the number 3, because in a world of the second order the

three forces are already divided.

"The three divided forces in the worlds of the second order, meeting together in

each of these worlds, create new worlds of the third order. Let us take one of these