Trinitarian structure of reality.

A few weeks ago we looked at the reality of the trinitarian pattern woven into the very structure of existence. This pattern—which is ternary rather than binary—is the very fabric of the universe itself. This isn't merely an abstract theological puzzle. It's a recognition that could transform how we approach every aspect of our spiritual lives—from our relationships and inner work to our engagement with the world's most pressing challenges.

We've grown accustomed to thinking in opposing twos: good and evil, light and dark, sacred and secular, us and them. Our minds seem wired for this either/or framework, and much of our spiritual tradition has been interpreted through this binary lens. But this fundamental assumption is limiting our capacity to participate in the deeper patterns of creation itself.

Cynthia Bourgeault, in her profound work The Holy Trinity & the Law of Three, poses this very challenge. She acknowledges that many regard the Trinity as "contrived and irrelevant"—even the renowned theologian Karl Rahner suggested that if the Trinity were to quietly disappear from Christian theology, most of Christendom wouldn't even notice its absence.

Yet Cynthia sees something revolutionary hidden within this ancient formulation. She writes: "I believe that embedded within this theological formula which we recite mostly on automatic pilot ('In the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit') lies a powerful metaphysical principle that could change our understanding of Christianity and give us the tools so long and so sorely needed to cooperate consciously with the manifestation of Jesus' 'Kingdom of Heaven' here on earth."

That metaphysical principle is the Law of Three and Cynthia offers us a simple yet powerful example that illuminates this cosmic pattern. Jesus himself spoke of the seed that "unless it falls into the ground and dies, remains a single seed." Viewed through the lens of the Law of Three, the seed represents the first force—the potential, the possibility, the yes. The ground represents the second force—the resistance, the limitation, the no. But nothing happens until sunlight, the third force, enters the equation. It's this third force that transforms the tension between the first two into something entirely new—a sprout that actualizes the possibility in the seed and opens "a whole new field of possibility."

This isn't just botanical wisdom; it's a template for how transformation occurs at every level of existence.

Consider how this pattern appears in our most intimate experiences. In relationships, we often get stuck in the binary dance of agreement and disagreement, harmony and conflict. But genuine intimacy emerges through a third force—perhaps vulnerability, or compassion, or simply the willingness to be present with what is. This third force doesn't resolve the tension by choosing one side or the other; it transforms the entire dynamic into something more spacious and alive.

When we begin to see through the lens of the Law of Three, we stop trying to eliminate tension and start asking instead: What third force wants to emerge here? How can I participate in assisting or midwifing third force? What new possibility is seeking to be born through this particular configuration of forces?

May we have eyes to see and to support the third force stirring in our relationships, our communities, and our world. May we learn to cooperate consciously with this ancient pattern of divine creativity that pulses through every moment of our lives.

With Love,

Heather

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Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses

*All previous readings & reflections can be found here*

Monday June 30th with Chris

Reading: 'Noticing the Noticing'

When I am most still,

there is something that holds me—

not a being, but a voice,

no, not a voice, but a transmission.

Not really a transmission, no, but a place

with gradations of color, almost like sky at dawn.

Well, no, not a place. More a placelessness.

A placelessness that holds me.

Yes. A placelessness. That holds me.

Or rather, a placelessness that is me.

And is also all that I’m not

.Oh, these words that try so hard to say something true.

They feel so small as they leave my mouth.

Like I’m tossing out tiny pebbles

into the pool of the infinite.

I stare at the tiny ripples they make,

in awe of their insufficiency.

Which is to say I’m in awe

of all that does not ripple.

With awe comes stillness.

The kind of stillness that invites me.

Invites me to notice how utterly I am held.

— Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer 

Chant: Stillness, deep deep within us. From small beginnings it flows into the living waters. The ocean of God, through our stillness, God moves. — words of Gerard Guiton from Stillness, p. 23 put to chant by Paulette Meier

Tuesday, July 1st with Chris

Reading: “There is a capacity in my soul which is unreservedly open to God. Of this I am as sure as that I live. Nothing is so close to me as God. He is nearer to me than I am to myself. His presence is still my being.

“The less theorizing you do about God, the more receptive you are to his in-pouring. True possession of God lies in the heart, not in thinking about God. A Divinity theoretically conceived will not do. For then God goes when thought goes. Rather grasp the God that is being, above all thinking and all creaturely activity.” – Meister Eckhart, Men Who Have Walked with God

Chant: Just be here, let go be here, keep within, within your heart, just be here, let go be here, keep within, within God’s heart – Heather Ruce

Wednesday, July 2nd with Heather

Chant: you the one, one in all, say I am, I am you – The Oriental Orthodox Order in the West

Thursday, July 3rd with Heather

Reading: “Those eager for transformation in Christ…and those who seek the reward of Heaven for their good deeds… are living in two different worlds.

“[The latter] have no idea what the mystics are talking about, or why people practice methods of meditation to cultivate interior silence and to experience the presence of the Ultimate Reality everywhere and in everything, including ourselves, As non-dual consciousness begins to unfold, so does the capacity for serving others and for seeing suffering not just as a problem but as a challenge.

“If our consciousness is growing, conflicts are resolved, not on the rational level, the level of opposites and duality, but on the non-dual level. Apparent disasters and contradictions are perceived as invitations to move to a higher level of consciousness. There the two are resolved in the light of a higher perspective where they are not contradictory, but complimentary.” — Thomas Keating, That We May Be One, p.4-5

Chant: I Am, I Am Here

Friday, July 4th with Heather

Reading: “‘Choice freedom’ means that somehow you acquire the means in your life so that you have a lot of choices at your disposal and you exercise your freedom by choosing… And we try and work in such a way in life so that we develop the means to make choices.”

… “Because that kind of “choice freedom” in terms of the spiritual work is what we would call freedom of the personality or freedom at the level of the personality – freedom to express and fulfill whatever our personality wants.

And the core teaching of the spiritual paths… is that the freedom of the personality is never freedom; in fact, it’s the prison. And as long as we are enslaved to our personality we can never be more than slaves. There is no freedom when we are constantly saying, “I need, I want, I have to have.” This only shores up our sense of irredeemable anxiety. The truth is, I can never be rich enough, I can never be good enough, I can never please Mama, I can never please Daddy, I can never please God, I can never get all that I need. We all have that kind of root anxiety at the base of our being and we can’t always articulate what’s causing it, and we’re not even consciously aware all the time that we’re acting out of it. But when our identity is seated at the level of that egoic functioning or the personality, it is always in company with this vague anxiety, this vague sense of emptiness and lack, and this vague kind of either fear or anger depending on which is your temperament – either fear that you can never get enough and that it’s all going to go wrong and it’s all going to be lost or the anger that I have been cheated by life. That, according to all spiritual teaching, is captivity, is slavery.”

The freedom “for which we long is a freedom which allows us to be present in the moment without demands or expectations or any needing for things to go one way as opposed to going another way. It is a freedom that has no insistence in it. This freedom is connected to an abundance that flows to us from an unstinting Source of grace which is Being itself. It is an ability to connect with that, to replenish ourselves in it and therefore, to have no needs or demands in the physical world. In this freedom we can use the physical world as a way of manifesting the dance of abundance rather than trying to turn it upside down like that little empty piggy bank to squeeze out the last penny of what we think we’re owed.”

— Cynthia Bourgeault, Freedom From Living Presence Transcript (4 Oct 1999 –13 Nov 2003 Victoria, BC)

Saturday, July 5th with Heather

Reading: “Freedom is one of the great yearnings of all spiritual paths. Depending on some, you could say it’s the core yearning. Some paths say that you love in order to be free and other paths say that you become free in order to love. I suppose these paths merge when you discover they are the same thing. At one point or another – whether you say that freedom is the penultimate, surpassed only by love; or whether love is the penultimate, surpassed only by freedom – freedom is the direction we need to move. And without freedom, after a certain point, there is no such thing as a spiritual life. . .

“Real freedom is the freedom from choice.

“It’s the freedom to be truly whole and free and utterly responsive in any situation which is thrown at you regardless of its psychological content. It’s a freedom from the judgements, from the inner commentaries, from the necessity to force an outcome on a situation; it’s a freedom to simply be present to your word and to the Divine presence. It is the ability to be fully present and responsive in every circumstance. True freedom means not being thrown out, thrown out of Presence, no matter what is going on. You have the capacity to respond to life fully, as it is, staying fully in connection with your innermost centre.”

— Cynthia Bourgeault, Freedom From Living Presence Transcript 4 (Oct 1999 –13 Nov 2003 Victoria, BC)

Sunday, July 6th with Heather

Reading: "This is the kind of freedom we’re working at. It is not about achieving higher states in the spiritual life, because finally freedom is the experience of giving it all away and realizing beyond the states and beyond the many things you think you need in order to get the mother lode, there’s nothing needed. It’s all already there. And whether you have a huge, energetic rush experience or whether you’re lying in your bed so sick with the flu that you can’t even think about how you’re ever going to the bathroom – it’s still all there.” — Cynthia Bourgeault, Freedom From Living Presence Transcript (4 Oct 1999 –13 Nov 2003 Victoria, BC)

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