THE RULE OF THREES: THE POWER TO CHANGE UNIVERSES

You are capable of living in three realities or universes simultaneously. Think about that statement. If you are human, you automatically live in two universes. Some of us never progress to the third universe, the spiritual plane of existence.

The physical universe — all matter, chemical elements, physics, all that lives belong to this universe. On this level, humans are just a species of animal. Without this universe, there is no life of any kind. The mental universe — only humans live on this level. All humans begin their lives in the Garden of Eden, where pleasure is the norm. This universe is one of the reasons. Only humans can reason. Only humans have a mind to find out their destiny. They have their life span to learn how to get to Heaven.
The spiritual universe is the Kingdom of Heaven, the final phase of human evolution. God has invited us to share this universe with him. What a deal! This universe begins when you put God at your center. The only way to enter this universe is by the unrestricted use of your will. Humans are spiritual apes, only capable of fulfilling their destiny with God’s energy, not ours. Using both the questions and the answers from The Christ Principle, anyone can solve the Divine Equation.

The Rule of Threes is the third in a set of six thresholds through which we must pass. Put it another way, it is the Divine Equation that reveals the purpose of life. You must answer equations correctly and in sequential order. Each one depends on the answer before it. Remember, the Divine Equation does not prove who God is, but rather who you are. The other five are:

• What is the purpose of all life?
• What is the purpose of your life within that life?
• What does reality look like? (The Rule of Threes)
• How does it all fit together? (The Rule of Opposites and The Rule of Revolving Centers)
• How to love fiercely?
• You are going to die, now what?

We don’t recognize these three universes as distinct because they all work together as one.
You are born into the first reality, that of the physical universe. All matter lives in this universe. Humans alone have evolved into the next universe or mental reality. We evolved, learned, and gradually discovered meaning. The third universe is strictly voluntary. It is the reality of the Spirit. You can’t measure it. That does not mean it can not be measured. It is the universe of faith informed by reason. Our challenge, as humans, is to integrate these three realities as one to make it through the threshold of death into Heaven. Some of us believe this to be true, while others do not. Life is a discovery of what is meaningful. Humans use their minds to soak up reality and make sense of it. Spirituality is a way to put value and meaning in the proper perspective. Each universe is given to us to solve the mystery of our destiny.

These three universes are three parts of the grand mystery. Humans must figure out this mystery to move on to their final destination. It is the ultimate Monopoly game. We learn what to hold onto and what to sell in this game. Our purpose is to gather as many riches as possible. We are made for Heaven, not earth. We are made for Forever, not just for eighty years or so. Play to win!

• Not everyone believes in three universes. Most of us just ignore the signs God gives us. Some become bored and fall away from their core principles.
• Scientific reality is what you can measure. Is it correct? Of course it is.
• Philosophical reality is reason. The mind deduces what is not logical. Is it correct? Of
  course it is.
• Spiritual reality uses belief in a reality that is not seen. Is it correct? Of course it is.
• So, how can all three levels of reality be correct? They are each looking at one part of
  reality and not the whole. Reality is one yet has three dimensions or universes. The three are one. The one is three.
• The ultimate challenge in life is to know your purpose. That purpose is somehow bound up with three dimensions or universes.

There is another power, one not accepted by all humans (remember, they can reason and choose whatever they think is good for them), the spiritual universe. In our lifetime, we are defined, not by our accomplishments but by the choices we make and their consequences. Remember, the spiritual universe may only be entered if you have an invitation (Baptism) and you accept that free gift along with the conditions of membership. You always will be a part of the physical universe. On top of that, you are a member of the mental universe with all its consequences. The two universes, the platform for life and the platform for human reasoning and choice, are there to allow you to choose the spiritual universe or not. In the mental universe, you begin to realize the importance of immutable values and meaning, especially what it means to love. Why is this? Where does that choice take you? This next level of power is not human at all. It is the power of God, for lack of a better term. How do you know that? Because He revealed it to us. Humans from time immemorial created gods of stone and myth to satisfy a desire for communication with a higher level of power, one outside of themselves. They created gods such as the Greek Pantheon of Gods and Roman deities, using anthropomorphic figures to represent what they thought a god should be like. These gods and goddesses had no power to lift up humans to the next level of their evolution, but they were a vain search in the collective consciousness that there must be something more to life.

I. The power to move from nothingness to a beginning but no end does not exist in the physical universe. There is. Power does not have the power to move itself to a new paradigm alone. There must be more tremendous energy to “lift up the totality of all that is from nothingness to matter and energy.

II. The power to evolve or mature to its highest potential is inherent in the physical universe. All matter, physical matter, gases, energy, and the natural way moves towards its purpose from non-living to living animals. Humans evolved from all that is part of God’s DNA. But, pre-human animals were incapable and did not possess the power to move from animality to rationality. It took that same power that began all that is to move us to the next level of our existence, human nature. A power reached down from a higher nature to pull up humanity to its intended purpose. Again, this physical nature does not possess the power to “lift itself up” to the next level of our evolution, human reason, and the freedom to choose what is good or bad for them and suffer its consequences.

II. There was a problem. Having reliance on free will rather than the natural law, no one could tell humans what to do and what was right or wrong. Humans kept flip-flopping around, creating some force outside of themselves that they could focus on to unite the failing code of behavior that said, “Might belongs to the powerful.” People banded together into tribes, nations, tribes for power, but their human instincts for no one to tell them what to do still meant chaos. The gods humans created were imbued with several superhuman powers; this is the mental universe, so named because only humans exist. It relies on the physical universe for its basis of survival and study to get clues on the purpose of life. The human universe has a power of the mind, a cumulative process of learning what is beneficial and what is not authentic. Humans are not evil in nature but rather don’t know how to use their astounding capabilities for good or evil to discover the purpose of life.

IV. Jesus Christ becomes one of us (Philippians 2:5-12) to tell us and show us how to use the power of being adopted sons and daughters of the Father to know love, serve God and others, and be fulfilled as a human being in Heaven. Here are some characteristics of this spiritual universe that you need to do to have the power to move from self to God.

• Heaven is God’s playground and if you want to play in his sandbox you need to respect His rules.
• There is only one rule: “Love one another as I have loved you.”
• Jesus did not leave us orphans without a clue. Even though he never wrote a book himself, Scriptures are examples for us of how to love as Christ loved us.
• Jesus is present to those who are present to Him in the Eucharist and Eucharistic Adoration.
• The Church Universal is the school where we learn how to love by emptying ourselves to grow in Christ while our false self diminishes (capacitas dei). Christ is our Master.
• Everything in the spiritual universe doesn’t make human sense to the world. St. Benedict, in Chapter 4 of the Rule, provides us with a list of those things we need to do to become more like Christ and less like our sinful and inconsistent selves. https://christdesert.org/prayer/rule-of-st-benedict/chapter-4-the-tools-for-good-works/
• Taking up your cross daily means to seek God where you are and as you are. If it is easy, you are probably carrying the wrong cross.
• All power and energy in the spiritual universe come from God. It is the energy of love, the relationship of service between Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
• The gulf between God and humans is so great that Christ (Son of God, Savior) had to become one of us to give us an inkling of what our inheritance is as adopted sons and daughters of the Father.
• In the physical and mental universes alone, individual humans are the center of their lives and they are happy to do what makes them satisfied. In the physical, mental and spiritual universes, the fulness of what it means to be human may be realized, not because of individual power but because all reality is in resonance and not dissonance. All reality is One.
• When we say the Lord’s Prayer privately or recite it together in the Eucharist, we say: “For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, Forever and Ever.” In humility, we approach the Father through Christ to make a profession of Faith, a daily conversion from self to God.
• https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p4s2.htm
• In our own age, being corrupted by hatred and calumny and detractions, there are those whose center is hatred and burn incense at the altars of their own selves. These choices seem strong to their believers but won’t last long. They have no power. You know they are wrong because they race-shame others in the name of social justice. You know they are wrong because they lack a center that can propel others to fulfill their destiny as members of the human species.

The Rule of Threes is the third part of the Divine Equation; what does reality look like? If you live in only the physical and mental universes, you can have a great life, be successful in your endeavors, accumulate great wealth, and have a wonderful family. As good as it is, the mental universe alone does not have the energy to propel you to the next level of your evolution, the spiritual universe. The Christ Principle saved us to reach the full potential of our humanity in this life and most certainly in the next one, we hope.

I use the Rule of Threes for each word I meet, parsing it into the three dimensions of reality. Each universe has its own meaning, its own rules. You can’t measure one universe with the tools of the other. These universes help me partially lift the veil of what is real to see the potential of all reality, not just the physical or mental universes alone.

To God, not to humanity, belongs all Power and Glory. Now and forever, praise be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The God who is, who was, and who will be, forever and ever. Amen and Amen. –Cistercian doxology Listen to the Non Nobis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1GDRx-F1C0

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