The Third Principle of Action

If asked to characterize the great categories of force in the known universe, most people might make replies of “positive and negative” or “extropy vs. entropy” et al., giving examples/anecdotes such as hot/cold, good/evil, building/razing, aggregation/dispersal, etc.  Overall, a two-fold, dichotomous construct of forces emerges; a model of inhalation/exhalation, birth/death and other cycles in-forming life.  But this categorization is fundamentally incomplete and responsible for man’s inability to understand why the best laid plans and hopes for the future never materialize as expected, albeit sometimes pleasantly so (unpleasant outcomes tend to hog the press/memory).  This binary vision of opposed forces also fails to allow man to understand why even pleasant surprises are fraught with disagreeable aspects and vice versa.

 

That we might better understand such a state of affairs, let us examine what a universe sporting only two types of forces—principles of action—would actually be like.  Can you see that in such a bipolar universe, nothing could ever happen?  Once the green flag fell there would be instant and irreversible gridlock?  Every set of opposed forces would reach a point of equilibrium and a tableau of stasis ensue: the irresistible vs. the immovable.  Yet in our perception and exploration of the universe both local and astronomical, where do we find such a frozen stasis?  Nowhere.  This implies a further, a third principle of action exists which makes all the sound and fury, strutting and fretting, possible.  Man in his binary design is ordinarily incapable of directly perceiving this third principle, or, rather, he perceives but misses it like the audience misses the action of the magician’s sleight-of-hand or like the fish is unknowing of the water wherein it swims.  Indeed, man operates within and via the third principle but perceives only the dance of action-cum-reaction.

 

The easiest metaphor to illustrate the point is to consider the third principle as the context of any activity; the arena of the bullfight wherein matador and toro have their pas de deux.  Another good mapping is to recall the circumference of the yin-yang symbol, the circular boundary which allows a tumbling of the otherwise immobile yin and yang “fish” of the Chinese graphic.  The third principle of action is precisely that of which you are unaware, because of its apparent irrelevancy to the primary actors in opposition.  Consider: even a coin has three sides, yet all but the probability wonk disregard—read never think of—the rim-side between the face and obverse of the coin.

 

We’ve all seen the third principle at work in movies where two characters are having an argument and one turns to leave in disgust or triumph and steps into the street to be hit BOOM!  by a bus; the plot takes an entirely new direction.  The third principle has, too, another role to play in theaters: the film and projector light throw no image for the audience without the obstruction of the cinema screen.  Do you notice the “EXIT” signs during the movie?  If somebody yells “Fire!!” (not as a prank), their excellent services will be greatly appreciated by the patrons while the avidly watched film is forgotten (thereby sliding effortlessly into the “irrelevant” third principle purview).  Are you beginning to grasp the dynamic pointed at here?  Only the Extraordinarily Aware have the presence and intention to actively notice and use the ever-on-offer third principle of action.  It is yours, too, for the asking, and it can absolutely transform your life…