The existence of problems is one of the main reasons people think life on this planet is difficult. What makes it difficult are the events and processes that seem unavoidable but cause disharmony, dissatisfaction, resistance, or helplessness. A situation where we cannot instantaneously find a simple and easy solution can provoke negative thoughts and emotions. They can make a negative attitude and unnatural forms of behavior, which eventually always results in mental imbalance or physical illness. However, spiritual science has developed so much in the 20th century that there are systems of thought and practical technical means that enable people to solve most of their problems.
One thing that surely cannot help overcoming any issue is rejecting and denying their existence. This is usually the result of misunderstanding the basic natural principles of human existence and what its purposes are based on. Therefore, we will deal with some of the most characteristic and essential principles ruling the manifested universe. The model I will use to explain these principles is contemporary logical thought suitable for Westerners, called trialectics. Its creator is Oscar Ichazo, a spiritual teacher from Arica, Chile, also widely known for his study of Enneagram.
Trialectics is a synthesis of basically the same systems of thought that appeared in the 20th century under different names, such as “ecology of mind,” “unitary thought,” “general systems thinking,” “cybernetics,” or “synergetics.” Trialectics is the third essential current of logical thinking that evolved from Aristotle’s formal logic and Hegel’s dialectics. Therefore, we will first explore the fundamental axioms of formal logic and dialectics and then compare them with trialectics.
FORMAL LOGIC AXIOMS
1. AXIOM OF IDENTITY
A = A – a thing is equal to itself.
2. AXIOM OF DISTINCTION
A ≠ B – a thing can be distinguished from things other than itself.
3. AXIOM OF THE EXCLUDED MIDDLE
A ≠ A + B – nothing is equal to both of two different things.
DIALECTICS AXIOMS
1. THE AXIOM OF QUANTITY AND QUALITY
Quantitative increase produces a qualitative change.
2. THE AXIOM OF INTERACTION OF OPPOSITES
Change results from the inevitable conflict between opposing forces.
3. THE AXIOM OF THE NEGATION OF THE NEGATION
Any thesis, together with its antithesis (or opposite), produces something different from the two – a synthesis.
TRIALECTICS AXIOMS
1. THERE IS A MUTATION FROM ONE MATERIAL MANIFESTATION POINT TO ANOTHER MATERIAL MANIFESTATION POINT (MMP)
a) The mutation is completed when inner equilibrium is achieved.
b) MMPs are neutral points of energy retention.
c) The energy moves in a universe with preestablished laws, preestablished MMPs, or within pre-established models.
2. INSIDE EVERYTHING THERE IS THE SEED OF ITS APPARENT OPPOSITE. THE EQUILIBRIUM BETWEEN THE TWO OPPOSITIONS DEPENDS ON THE BALANCED CIRCULATION OF ENERGY.
a) From the point of view of nature, opposites do not exist.
b) From the cosmic point of view, there are no random accidents but only the circulation process.
c) In nature, there are no accidents.
3. THE PERPETUAL MOTION OF ALL CREATION IS DUE TO THE INTERCHANGE OF ENERGY BETWEEN MMPs. THERE IS, THEREFORE, AN INHERENT ATTRACTION TO EITHER A HIGHER OR LOWER MMP.
a) Higher MMPs are conformed by a smaller number of factors and elements.
b) Higher MMPs are responsive to the attraction of higher or lower correlating vibrations in a preestablished pattern.
c) One MMP’s attraction to another can be ascending or descending.
FORMAL LOGIC
Formal logic used to be the main viewpoint of the Western world from the time of Aristotle until about 200 years ago. God was regarded as a giant cosmic feudalist with clergy and religious dogmas as his unquestionable governors. The Earth was ruled by the “Sun Kings,” God-appointed absolutists who took the privilege to decide what the truth, law, and desirable way of life were and what was not. In those times, people’s attitudes and ways of life hardly ever changed. Birth and the corresponding social status have determined people for their entire lives. The Earth was thought to be flat and motionless, and the Sun was a choir of angels singing “Alleluia.” The king or queen was always right; women and children were second-rate persons, and the authors of texts like this one were burnt alive. People were stuck with these attitudes for a long time, thinking there was only one possible “true reality.”
Ichazo and many others concluded that formal logic is rigid and inactive, not considering time and change as apparent elements of everyday experience. When formal logic claims something is, it cannot be anything else, and there is no possibility for change. Once a thief, always a thief; once a communist, always a communist. You are either for us or against us, guilty or innocent. However, formal logic was necessary for making a communication sign system (words) and creating consistency as the basic principle for all forms of human interaction. Consistency is essential when expressing what we have in mind (people, ideas, objects, etc.). So, when we ask somebody to give us a glass of water, we don’t mean a chair or something a glass can turn into in time. We communicate as if objects of communication are fixed and unchangeable. For this reason, formal logic is also necessary in science for naming, describing, or classifying certain phenomena. On the other hand, its limitation is that it sees the world as never-changing static objects, thus encouraging prejudices, ideologies, self-control, and self-restraint in people. The world is either black or white, good or bad, and the most typical psychological reflection of such attitudes is the feeling of guilt.
DIALECTICS
As the more dynamic logic of Hegel and Marx, dialectics has introduced terms such as change and opposition into logical thinking. This has enabled most of the leading social changes over the last 200 years. The shortcoming of dialectics is that it leads to unavoidable conflicts and doesn’t contain a limitation concept. This has brought us to the edge of ecological disaster and self-destruction. It happened because the dialectic attitude encourages the accumulation of energy, money, or political power as long as it is helpful to a person, family, company, or nation. Moreover, the idea that conflicts are the main generators of change can justify violence and wars. Projection mechanisms and suppression are a reflection of the dialectical viewpoint in psychology. People see the causes of their problems in the external world and try to function “normally” by aggressively suppressing their negative internal states and character traits.
Though it might seem strange to many, Ichazo thinks that dialectics is the leading world viewpoint nowadays and that it has reached its climax not in communist countries but in the Western, capitalistic world. Concepts characterizing the business politics of Wall Street and other banking centers and the state politics of the most powerful world countries are actually dialectical. Pressure, competition, accumulation of material resources, and political power needed to solve world “conflicts” and realize future “breakthroughs” are typical dialectic words. I would add that the formal-logic viewpoint, and not the dialectical one, characterizes most former and still existing communist countries. Hardly anything changes there, and the atmosphere is dominated by stagnation, inactivity, and general rigidity.
TRIALECTICS
Trialectics is a more complex system of thought, encompassing and transcending formal logic and dialectics. It is possible to analyze any manifestation more thoroughly using trialectics. So, I will use this, currently the most complete logical viewpoint, to explain the essential characteristics of the manifested world and the meaning of human problems.
Change
The first and foremost principle we must consider while confronting and solving our problems is the universal cosmic principle of change, which is the essence of the manifested universe. Ichazo doesn’t simply say “everything changes” like Heraclitus, Taoists, Buddhists, or contemporary physicists. He defines a “material manifestation point” as any identifiable state of a system at a given time (people, groups of people, objects, plants, animals, thoughts, emotions, ideas, etc.). He also says that “one MMP inevitably mutates into another MMP.” Mutation, change, transition, movement, transformation, process, or operation are only different words for the same concept, which is the central metaphor of the trialectic viewpoint. Ichazo clearly separates the trialectic philosophy from formal logic, where the identity principle strictly limits how a person perceives reality. His goal is to expand the human ability to think and act in the constantly changing world by introducing the concept of mutation.
People do not notice many processes because they are either invisible or too slow for our eyes, and sometimes because of the limitations of human language. While describing a phenomenon during everyday communication, words classify processes into artificial groups and encourage static concepts in human consciousness. Processes happen constantly; they are always present, but when expressing or analyzing them using words, we turn processes into a sequence of fixed nouns. Although we can communicate with other people using such nouns, words cannot reproduce reality authentically. The verbal, static concepts directly influence us while forming artificial attitudes, prejudices, judgments, and beliefs about “what we are” or “what things should look like.” We should, instead, try to perceive life as it is, a sequence of neutral events that are neither good nor bad but simply are.
People are MMPs at a certain level of consciousness and a particular point of evolution, connected with all the other beings and the environment around our planet. However, the very idea of manifestation stresses the temporary nature of every phase or point in the process. The MMP might currently be stable, but it will soon mutate into something else, then again into something different, until it returns to the non-manifested world. So, everything changes, but people live as though everything is to last forever. Problems occur when change starts happening, and people continue living the old way, ignoring the natural process or even opposing it. Unless we change by our own free will and at the right time, the change will become more and more difficult for us later. Instead of allowing a harmonious mutation, we are then forced to solve problems dialectically – using fight and pressure. Doctors, for that reason, claim that it is better to prevent an illness than to treat it and that reacting at the right time will spare us huge problems later. So, if we experience some heavy issue and feel stuck, it might be helpful to check whether we view it from the formal logic viewpoint, that is, if we are too rigid and inactive. And if we are, we have to know that the resistance to change will eventually lead to dialectical conflicts, fights, and pressure.
Opposition
There are other prejudices that can block change. One of the characteristics of the manifested universe is that everything in the world contains its opposition. When change starts occurring, we should actively participate instead of resisting it, especially if we want the transformation to be harmonious and swift. Still, the opposition in the form of obstacles we have to overcome can seem insurmountable because of our prejudices. The existence of opposition was defined by dialectics long ago, but trialectics has quite a different view on oppositions, considering them mutually dependent and containing one another. They only seem antagonistic because each opposing side includes a seed of the other side. So, antagonism exists only in human concepts and not in nature. The conflicts we see in the world are nothing but our own projections, resulting from the fact that we are programmed to make oppositions. When we, as children, saw a cat eating a mouse, we projected into the scene our belief that the cat must have hated the mouse. But that feeling is illusionary because animal species are parts of closely intertwined ecological systems, depending on one another. From the cosmic viewpoint, dialectic fright doesn’t exist, especially not between animals.
Another essential characteristic of the manifested world is that everything is not possible – there are certain limitations. The first axiom of trialectics states that “energy moves in the universe according to pre-established principles, MMPs or models.” This means that whatever is possible at a particular moment is determined by the processes and the material manifestation points that preceded it. It is not about determinism or lack of free will but about consciousness that uses selection methods to choose between possible future directions. The eastern equivalent of this axiom is the principle of karma, of cause and effect, or preceding events determining, to a certain extent, what is happening now. Although they leave an individual numerous possibilities of choice, those possibilities are not innumerable or unlimited. Therefore, every human problem can be solved, and there are always at least a few positive solutions to it. If there were none, then man would not be free but a robot.
Many people wouldn’t mind changing if it could be done in their way, with the outcome they like. But everything happening in the manifested universe occurs within previously determined models, and people have to adjust to those models. Not everything is possible all the time, so people have to forget about their illusions and move within the limits of a given model. We can change easily when we accept the limitations of our situation and then do our best. That way, we can also experience the fulfillment and expansion of consciousness that a successfully learned lesson always brings.
Accidents
The second axiom of trialectics says there are no random accidents in the universe but only circulation processes. One of the big philosophical issues has always been the question of randomness or determination – is the world here accidentally, or does it have meaning, significance, and direction? It turns out that life becomes much more productive and constructive if we view the world as meaningful and not purely accidental. People often blame unexpected events or luck for what is happening to them, but if we look closely at all such events, it is evident that luck or accidents do not exist. They are also our projections. We fail to become aware of the processes behind those events due to the slowness and limitations of our perception. Luck and accidents are only our excuses for being unaware of what is really happening.
A reflection of this statement is the fact that each of us is responsible for our lives. In the problem-solving process, everybody must act from the position of the creator of their universe and everything happening in it. We are responsible for our problems, and we also play a crucial role in solving them. Trialectics leaves us no room for excuses, but it frees us from any guilt at the same time. Existing principles and MMPs determine our lives at the present moment. All we can do is actively clear our minds to achieve true freedom, to realize what we have chosen and why, and what we want now.
We always have a few options, and each of them will give some results. In that way, life looks similar to a chess game with specific rules, but our moves depend on our skill and knowledge of the game. We can play as an expert, or we can play as a dilettante. Some people define freedom as the absence of any rules, which they replace with absolute free will, denying the very existence of the game. There are many cases, however, when “freedom” proves to be only a form of escapism and ignorance.
Many people refuse to take responsibility for the creations of which they are not aware. They forget that psychology discovered long ago that the conscious mind makes up only one-third of the human psyche. The causes of many events in our lives can be found in our subconscious or superconscious parts. Therefore, while solving problems, it is essential to investigate, purify, and then integrate those aspects of our minds. The concept of independently creating the circumstances in one’s life can also be found in Eastern religions and philosophies, which teach about the immortality of the soul and its numerous incarnations into physical bodies. In the period between two incarnations, while existing in the spiritual world, our souls choose the direction of our future development, the experiences we will have, and the lessons we are going to learn. This means that the soul decides the future parents, body, and country we will live in. On the soul level we also choose many other life circumstances, including how much free will we would have and the nature of problems we would solve.
However, it seems that the choice of experiences and lessons is not entirely free but depends on three main conditions. The soul first looks at her previous experiences, having an entirely constructive attitude towards her past. This means that she will continue her development or finish what she has started. She will also look for ways to correct her past mistakes, now using positive opposite activities. Finally, a soul will try to free herself from the impressions or models of thought and behavior she has already fully experienced but is still attached to out of pure habit.
This karmic cleansing will set the preconditions for some completely new experiences, especially those we were deprived of in the past or did not have a chance to get. According to Hinduism and Buddhism, our soul appeared long ago in this part of the universe to live and experience everything available on this planet’s “menu.” In different development phases, we were attracted to different forms of living – sometimes “positive,” desirable or pleasant, sometimes “negative,” undesirable, or unpleasant. Therefore, the second basic condition includes unfulfilled wishes and experiences that seem especially interesting and attractive to us at a given moment. The soul must fulfill all her wishes, or she will return to the same spot sooner or later. Unfulfilled desires, especially when they are suppressed by force, can create a soul’s karma. While deciding about new experiences, the soul is at liberty to choose from many different possibilities, the ones she finds most suitable for her creative self-realization.
The third element results from the main reason our soul appears on this planet – spiritual improvement and development towards higher and more conscious forms of existence until she is finally united with God. The Earth seems not to be a place only for fun or suffering. It is a place where we can acquire knowledge. The basis for our spiritual improvement is gaining and developing spiritual qualities through different forms of both spiritual and earthly life. Spiritual development doesn’t imply only following a certain teaching or school. It is possible to develop spiritual qualities by living a natural, harmonious, and fulfilled earthly life. Many people, especially atheists, never even dream that they will reach their spiritual goals (although they might not call them that) through a good emotional relationship with their partner, family, or parents and through a creative job.
Spiritual qualities are the most natural human qualities everybody likes and desires. Creativity, for example, is a spiritual feature, and it is evident that it is an important goal for most people. A sense of humor and wittiness also. Everybody knows witty people have always been popular and that humor has a vital role in our lives. Being easy-going, simple, refined, charming, happy, fulfilled, relaxed, patient, and having inner peace are all God’s qualities, and everybody finds them desirable and interesting, although they don’t seem to have anything to do with being religious. Souls choose to develop many of these qualities during their lives in the material, dual world.
Therefore, spiritual lessons seem to be the very essence of every experience in life. For instance, people enter different relationships with others and the world around them. It is natural to be in harmonious relationships with persons we interact with, especially family members. Relationships serve as a means for expressing one of the basic universal principles our lives are built on – unconditional love. But, whatever we experience through intimate relationships will be the basis for spiritual lessons. Therefore, learning specific lessons is probably the most essential element of the plan our soul made for this incarnation, practically the meaning of life.
However, once the soul comes here, what seemed easy and simple from the spiritual level becomes dependent on the principles that exist on the material level. To fulfill the chosen tasks successfully, we must understand and respect these principles. When the soul comes to the material realm, it gets two new bodies – the physical and energetic, and the ego as their psychological equivalent. Memories of the spiritual sphere are pushed into the subtle dimensions of our mind to enable us to center in the here and now of the physical reality so that we can focus on fulfilling new tasks.
Other causes for forgetting the spiritual sphere and past lives are civilizational. We have been brought up in a pan-rational civilization that does not admit or believe in reincarnation and the spiritual world. This belief has been imprinted in our minds and forms our fundamental perception of reality. However, contemporary psychologists and sociologists say civilization and culture are collective inventions. If we agree with this, the widely accepted “consensus reality” doesn’t necessarily have to be the “true reality.” Our forced oblivion resembles an ostrich hiding its head in the sand. We seem to think that denying some aspects of actuality will free us from responsibility for it. A direct outcome of such an attitude and behavior is many complex problems humanity is facing today, either at the individual or collective level. Although the subtle dimensions of our being do exist, they are not present constantly in our consciousness to avoid burdening us. However, from time to time, it is necessary to contact those dimensions to expand our consciousness, understand our existence properly, and solve our problems.
Levels of Consciousness
Another essential aspect of the manifested world is that it is structured in levels. The biggest and most apparent sections of the universe are galaxies, star systems, planets, people, animals, and plants. All these forms undergo the evolution process, different aggregate states, and events in the time and space continuum. The third axiom of trialectics states that one MMP is attracted to either a higher or a lower MMP and that one MMP’s attraction to another can be ascending or descending. This means that the mutation processes can have two directions, going through certain degrees of development. The same is true for consciousness because it is evident that everybody is not at the same level of awareness. It is also clear that, in the manifested universe, human consciousness undergoes different levels through transformation processes.
Ichazo sees each change as either an increase or a decrease in the rigidity of MMP (in structure, form, complexity, and the number of inner principles). At the psychological level, change can be defined as a greater or smaller openness towards the external world or a higher or lower awareness of one’s inner conditions and processes. Therefore, a higher-level theory can explain more using fewer devices. A higher degree of awareness will enable an individual to have more knowledge, broader horizons, and better quality activities using less energy (effort). The higher the level of consciousness, the fewer illusions there are that limit a person’s self-realization.
When there is a time for change, we are free to consciously choose the direction we want to take – downwards, towards more limitations, deeper illusions, and loss of awareness, or upwards, towards higher awareness, simplicity, freedom, flexibility, and openness. It is natural for people to move upwards because we develop in the direction of more perfect forms of life inside the cosmic hierarchy. In time, everybody will be attracted to the self-realization level.
According to Ichazo, consciousness allows no formal definition by its very nature, but it is possible to give a functional definition, which states that consciousness is that which recognizes itself. Self-recognition has its own preestablished MMP, which represents previous levels of consciousness. These levels vary from a very partial recognition to complete integration. Trialectics admits people are not the same and act through specific and recognizable degrees of awareness at every moment. Here are the four essential levels:
1. THE LEVEL OF MENTAL ILLNESS
Here, we find psychoses and other forms of mental and emotional disorders.
2. THE LEVEL OF SUBJECTIVE STATE
This is where most people find themselves. It is the level of social and cultural norms and attitudes.
3. THE LEVEL OF REALIZATION
A series of transitional levels of growing clarity and experiences of higher states of consciousness are found here. These higher states are of prime importance to Eastern spiritual disciplines, modern self-realization methods, and humanistic and transpersonal psychology.
4. THE LEVEL OF A REALIZED INDIVIDUAL
These are levels of self-realization reached by Buddha, Christ, and other highly developed spiritual beings. Individuals at this level already live in unity with God, completely knowing their psychic and spiritual territories.
Moving Through the Levels of Consciousness
To move upward through the levels of consciousness to reach self-realization, we have to go through the process of disillusionment. Illusions, together with certain parts of social predisposition, create our character, convictions, prejudices, and suppressed negative emotions. At any moment, we are able to choose whether we will move upwards or downwards. If we are not moving upwards, it is absolutely certain we are moving downwards because there is no third direction. Standing still doesn’t make us neutral – since the universe in moving forward, our immobility slowly but surely moves us downwards.
Moving downwards seems easier because we don’t have to take any responsibility and discipline to change and follow the upward motion. It results from the present actions, conditions, and levels of consciousness. Moving upwards means putting more effort into it, cleansing and widening one’s consciousness, which is not always easy. While purifying and expanding their mind, people can feel like they are jumping into an abyss, not knowing what awaits them and unable to see their voyage’s final goal. This feeling is caused by the fact that an old and worn-out part of our being must symbolically die in the transformation process. A familiar and safe mind structure has to be replaced by a new, not fully known, and not entirely shaped structure. To our ego, this looks like death.
Disillusionment is a necessary process we have to go through to move towards higher levels of consciousness. Self-observation is very helpful here because it is an essential and crucial aspect of the process. It helps us avoid sticking to the prejudices we have about ourselves, the outer world, and the expected results. Such prejudices create antagonisms; each struggle will make us exhausted, and we will find ourselves at a lower MMP.
When we pass through levels of disillusionment, resistance, fear, and suppression appear. Our ego will do anything to drag us away from the process just to defend its power over us. We shall resist letting go of our illusions, traumas, negative emotions, or worn-out beliefs. Unless we move towards the higher levels, we will be attracted to the lower ones that bring us apparent safety and comfort and protect us from unpleasant confrontations with ourselves. However, we shall have to confront ourselves sooner or later because, eventually, the only way is up. Luckily, there are numerous training systems speeding up and shortening this process.
***********************
We have now come to the end of analyzing the basic principles and rules of the manifested universe through trialectic axioms and viewpoints. Ichazo expressed his holistic view through a unique system of axioms, synthesizing similar ideas of many modern authors and using simple, meaningful, and economic formulations. We already know that the contemporary scientific world considers phenomena and processes as events in the space and time continuum. Trialectics adds that they are conscious phenomena occurring at a certain moment and place. It gives us a rather complete model for the interpretation and analysis of different events within and outside of us.
What is, then, the real meaning of problems? We cannot avoid problems in our lives, but a correct attitude and good technology can help solve them. Problems provoke crises, which naturally appear at the moment when an individual is ready to move to a higher level of consciousness, to abandon the old way of thinking and behavior, and to acquire a new one. But problems do not occur to destroy us or spoil our plans; they are a means of our personal development, a medium we use to climb the evolution ladder towards higher levels of consciousness to finally reach enlightenment and self-realization.
Problems and crises are messages from higher dimensions of our being, giving us a chance to free ourselves, expand our minds, and change our lives. We should, by all means, use such opportunities because there might not be another one. And even if there were another one, we would get more rigid each time so transformation gets more and more difficult.
Problems are natural elements of the human experience. They help us, as the old alchemists put it, “turn rough materials into gold.” According to alchemists, metals do not exist to be lead, iron, or copper but to be gold or silver. Carbon doesn’t have to be just a piece of black, sooty coal but a shining diamond. As diamonds are cut with materials tougher than they are, so are crises and problems the tools of human development.
During the transformation process and substituting the old models with new and more perfect ones, our ego will resist and create problems and obstacles while presenting them as real. But, “whatever a thinker thinks, a prover proves,” says Dr. Leonard Orr, the creator of Rebirthing. Our ego is our thinker and prover. It can even organize external events to prove and convince us that our prejudices are correct and justified. However, we have seen that opposition does not exist – it is an illusion that needs to be recognized and dissolved. This process can sometimes be painful, but it is necessary and impossible to avoid.
People have accomplished many civilizational achievements, adjusted and conquered nature, gained knowledge of our planet, and achieved high levels of technological and cultural development. But all of that has not given them real and complete freedom, inner peace, or satisfaction. After establishing order in the external world and gaining a certain level of material security, it is time to start examining our inner world and influence our internal states and processes, which are the real source of our problems and, simultaneously, the source of solutions.
©Tomislav Budak (1995)