What is a principle?
I had not thought of it so directly in a long time.
Principles are those observations of the process of engaging the natural laws through experience.
In other words, principles are not static, immovable things – though our language may give that impression.
Rather, they are the actualizing of personal interaction with basic laws of nature and of the spiritual reality behind nature which culminate in tenets, truths, or systems of comprehension in thought.
“Things” which, in our individual process, we have the power to “prove” to ourselves through experience.
They are different than laws – yet arise directly from them; which is perhaps why, in our modern culture they seem to be confused for one another.
One of the words often used with principle is “immutable”; however, it is not principles which are immutable, but the laws which underlie them.
It is possible to feel the power of the action which is inherent within principles, whether or not there is an ability to express it. The active principle of principles, if you will…
A belief system is not a law. It is a fundamental construct of humans used in the interpretation and cognition of their experience – and therefore, often so “close”, that is to say, integral, to our perceptive process that we fail to distinguish the lens of our observation from what is observed.
Our determination of what is true is based upon our ability to evaluate, discern, feel and intuit; and yet it is our thought process, or our mental construct which builds or contains our principles.
We develop them individually in spite of all societal efforts to the contrary; although we are, as a rule, highly susceptible to influence.
But ultimately we can, by virtue of our ability to observe, discern even the thought construct and diminish its effect.
Spiritual principles then, are those thought constructs, ideas or beliefs we have developed by observing the spiritual reality of our own life experience. (To the degree that we have done the initial work of developing such an aspect of our life.)
For many of us, it is simply a relegated portion of our existence. We are not what we would call “spiritual”. We may have a religious practice separate from the rest of our life experience which we consider to be our spiritual expression.
But for more and more of us it seems we must step into the larger calling of that spiritual life and allow it to be the center point of our larger life experience. Not a “system of belief” only but a way of practice: an actively changing, deepening and expanding way of looking at all of life and the world we live in. When we step into a new level of engagement of that observation of principles and laws we enlarge our capacity to derive meaning from our experience and become more deeply engaged within that experience.
That is the power which resides in principles. The power to engage, to construct; and within that construction to expand our own awareness and thereby, our own experience.
