A bizarre moment in a tribute meeting
I’ve attended four virtual meetings that were dedicated to the memory of Keith. All was nice, though there was one moment that took me by surprise. In a group of Three Principles practitioners, a couple of them said, “Brett, this must be so hard for you.”
Was it hard for me? Yes, it was, but only during the waves I had. Does that mean that those who said it was hard for me were right? There were, totally! Did it make them wise, clever, and intelligent? Absolutely not.
You see, they came up with a thought about what I was going through and accepted it as the truth. That would make sense if they had asked me how I was doing, but they didn’t, and I didn’t provide any input. Zero. I said absolutely nothing about what I was going through. My emotional state was normal, so my face couldn’t have looked distressed or upset. How is it they could “know” what I was going through with zero input from me, regardless of whether it was correct or otherwise?
There are two Bretts?
This reveals another surprising aspect of the human experience. The people who made that bizarre statement, “Brett, this must be so hard for you,” had an idea of “Brett” in their heads, reacted to what “Brett” was going through, and somehow projected it onto me as if I had anything to do with it. I had nothing to do with it whatsoever. Those two were super creative people, but this wasn’t one of them, even if it took on the appearance of making them look brilliant and empathic.
The “Brett” in their heads is exactly the same as Brett here in real life. Same appearance, same picture, same hair, same eyes, same voice, same behaviors, same patterns, same habits, same beliefs, same words, and so on. It’s impossible to know the difference between “Brett” and Brett. Such is the extraordinary power of the mind. Therefore, we need something else to find the difference between the two Bretts. How about “where is he?” Am I living in their head or here as I’m writing this article? If I’m living in their head, I hope it’s rent-free, considering my body is vastly bigger than their brains and that I can somehow fit in there!
It’s really easy, if not beyond irresistible, to know what “Brett” is going through in their head because THEY can feel it, not Brett. The “Brett” in their heads is still thought in action, and it looks as real as the real thing. And because it’s thought, they will inevitably feel that thought too, so they can feel what “Brett” is feeling. This is why they project onto the real Brett. No wonder I’m puzzled, going, “What have I done? Have I said something?”
But once they have insight that “Brett” is still within THEIR reality, it also means that whatever “Brett” is going through must be materialized through their own thoughts, not the real Brett. This is a very common mistake, and even Three Principles practitioners are not immune to it. I’ve been there. At some point in our lives, we turned this misunderstanding into a belief without ever knowing we had, and we accept it as a fact of life. There is good news, though. The Three Principles can reverse it all because it’s deeper than beliefs. Hence the phrase, “Beyond Beliefs.”
Spiritual components cannot be assumed
My own insight, from several years ago, was that while I can have an image of another person in my head, there is no way I can “add” any spiritual component to that person within my own reality, including, and especially, feelings and realities. Another way of saying “spiritual components” is “elements of the inner life.” Keith taught me this.
Knowing the facts now, there is now a space for me to listen to the other person. I’m no longer “preoccupied” by “filling” that sacrosanct space with my own thought-created ideas about what the other person is going through. The other person is having their own thoughts and, therefore, their own feelings and a painted reality, which obviously cannot be mine.
I am the only person in the entire universe who can feel and paint a reality from my own thought, and no one else can receive what my thought materializes. It begins and finishes in the same person. Likewise, the other person is the only one in the entire universe who can feel and paint their reality from their own thoughts, and no one else can receive what their thoughts materialize into. It begins and finishes in the same person.
Two ways of understanding the same person
If I fill in the spiritual components of the other person within my reality without their input, the other person doesn’t matter, and is recognized as “chattel,” “object,” “thing,” or a “statistic.” Surface appearances and behavior overrule the inner life, which remains invisible.
If I fill in the spiritual components of the other person within my reality based on their input, the other person matters and is recognized as a human being, just like me. I get to see beyond the skin, and the curtains on their inner lives are opened. It’s incredible, mind-blowing sometimes, what I get to witness, and I always learn what is thinkable. It doesn’t mean it’s right or wrong, good or bad, helpful or harmful, just that it is a thought! This is why there’s always something to learn from others.
As the human experience lives only in the now, I had to learn to keep emptying the other person’s spiritual components within my reality, so I could keep up with them and stay up to date. The human experience is surprisingly dynamic and can change much faster than we think.
A surprising by-product: deeper listening
This was the moment I stopped projecting onto real people (most of the time!) and, to my surprise, I found myself listening more deeply to others than ever before. Deeper listening was never the target or even a consideration, yet learning more about the principles behind the human experience produces that result.
After that “infamous” tribute meeting finished, I had a thought that made me peal with laughter: If Keith had been there in that meeting, I am imagining those two people who made that statement receiving a stern yet charming pep talk from him!
Love, Brett