Why The 3Ps Are Not A Tool - November 18

How do the Three Principles relate to frightening events in the world? In today’s 5 Minutes in Nature, Liz reflects on this question and reminds us that the Three Principles are not a tool we apply, nor a technique for managing life. Instead, they offer an understanding — a way of seeing how experience is created and why we feel what we feel. When we recognise the 3Ps as a description of how life unfolds, rather than something to do, we can find a deeper sense of steadiness and comfort — even when the world feels uncertain.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott.

You find me inside my garage.

It's been really wet today.

I went out earlier,

It was dark,

It was rainy,

I took my microphone out to share a Five Minutes in Nature with you and it was just so wet and miserable I had to abandon it.

And I thought,

I don't want to abandon it for the day,

I'll come into the garage.

So I'm semi-outside,

The door's open and I'm just in a bit of shelter as I speak to you now.

And today's Five Minutes in Nature is prompted by a comment that I got and I love getting feedback and comments and questions.

And this question was asked a few weeks ago and it's something along the lines of,

How does the three Ps apply to the frightening things that are happening in the world?

Something like that.

Now you probably know I follow the three principles.

It's something that has really transformed the way that I am in life.

The three Ps,

The three principles,

It's also known as the inside out understanding.

And I thought today it would be just helpful to explore what we mean when we look at the difference between an application model and an understanding.

So the question,

How does the three Ps apply to the frightening events that are happening in the world?

The question seems to imply that you need to apply the three principles.

And the three principles is not something you apply,

It's a description of what's happening.

Now I often don't use the term the three principles because I find it can be a bit confusing as I try and explain what these three principles are.

It's also described as the inside out understanding.

And that's how I'm going to share it with you today.

And for me,

The inside out understanding has two key components.

Firstly,

Is that we are all deeply okay.

Like at the level of soul,

We are made of spiritual energy.

It's the same energy that makes up everything in the world.

It's a loving,

Resilient,

Compassionate energy.

You,

Me,

Everyone,

Everything around you is made of the same energy.

And the second thing is that for us as human beings,

Whilst we're made of this eternal,

Ever-present energy,

We also have the power of thought.

And the power of thought creates stories and it gives us the ability to plan.

We can imagine the future.

We can remember the past.

We have beliefs that we take on board.

Thought shapes our world as humans.

And the thing with thought is that if you don't realise the nature of thought,

You don't realise it comes and it goes.

If you don't realise that if you believe it,

Then your whole world can look frightening.

And what the inside out understanding is all about is sharing that actually you're not made of thought,

You're made of the energy of life and you get distracted by thought.

And the reason it's not an application model is you don't need to remember it and do anything with it.

All you need to do is understand it.

If I was to have an application model,

Just say,

For example,

Every time I felt stressed,

I thought I need to go and meditate,

Then every time I felt stressed,

I would go and meditate to feel better.

That is an application model.

I apply meditation to make me better.

With the inside out understanding,

And you can probably hear it's just started raining outside again quite heavily,

But with the inside out understanding,

This isn't an application,

It's an understanding.

So when you understand the nature of thought,

You align yourself up with the way that life works.

Thought doesn't become frightening anymore because you understand the way it works.

So for me,

As I live my life,

I don't apply the inside out understanding.

I seem to remember it and then I forget and then I remember and I forget.

But ultimately I know at the level deep within me,

My core and essence,

I know that I am deeply okay and I know that I'll sometimes forget and that's okay too.

So today is a reminder of the inside out understanding.

You are deeply okay.

There is the power of thought that will distract you and you will doubt yourself.

It will cloud over that okayness,

That core of who you are.

And even if that happens,

It doesn't matter,

You're still okay.

So there is nothing to apply.

The inside out understanding is something to remember.

And tomorrow I'm going to take this on a little bit further to explain why it's so useful to understand this in relation to all these unsettling,

Upsetting events that do take place in the world.