A Conversation with Dicken Bettinger

The Form, The Formless, and… “BEING Yourself”

What is formless, what is form? What, exactly, is a 3 Principles conversation? And what have the answers to these questions got to do with you being yourself more? “The answer, my friend, is…”

 

Introduction: A 3 Principles Conversation With Dicken Bettinger

It was with absolute delight and pleasure that I listened to an esteemed Three Principles teacher – Dicken Bettinger, no less – in Glasgow the weekend just gone (October, 2014).

The Dicken Bettinger talk was organised by Lynne Robertson & Christian McNeill. It took place in the beautifully located Mugdock Country Park.

And, as usual with a conversation about the Inside-Out understanding, I got insights I wasn’t expecting to get.

The scene is set, then…

 

Dicken Bettinger Talks About “Life, The Universe & Formlessness”

Now Dicken is a seasoned sharer of the Three Principles behind the human experience – learning directly from the discoverer of these Principles (Syd Banks) for some 23 years.

So he is no hurry to start pronouncing about the principles (oh no!).

Instead, he builds rapport between himself and the audience – talks about himself – then finds out what we want to know more about.

 

So Dicken did a little intake, a little listening.

He talked a bit about Thought.

And – boom! – then came the Big Picture (and so much more), on the 2nd day.

 

3 Principles Conversation – Dicken ‘Spoke’ To Me…

But it was something Dicken said on the first day that got me ‘noticing’. Can’t remember what it was now, that he said, but for the first time ever I understood another meaning to the expression “human being”, and to what it means to be alive (see main graphic below).

Human: form  | Being: formless

Wow! I had simply never seen that before – that the term homo sapien inherently understood the nature of the human experience.

I could see clearly now (sorry, Johnny):

• why being yourself is so difficult,
• why being fully present is nigh on impossible,
• and why you never truly know who you are.

Wow!

 

3 Principles Conversation: Introducing The Book of You…

So Dicken continued. He kindly elaborated on the form (known) versus the formless (unknown) discussion on his ‘Big Picture’ 2nd day.

And, as he did, I frantically scribbled down notes on more and more examples of what form looked like and its equivalent state in the formless. (And it became more and more obvious that the answers to life are found in the formless, NOT the form – as so many traditions, belief systems and self help strategies would have you believe.)

I called my notes The Book of Life, and then The Book of You, and  – well, excuse the graphic (it’s the best this Adobe Fireworks hack could do in an hour and a half!) – my notes look a little bit like this…

And whilst  this graphic might literally look like messy note-taking to you (what can I say!), it explains an awful lot about the mysteries of life to me. (Take a look again; pause; ponder.)

And let me add another more practical example below:

Control: form  | Guidance: formless

 

CONCLUSION

Life – as a human being or otherwise – is about the continual unfolding as the formless turns into form. As the unknown becomes known. As we make the impersonal, personal. This is the dance of life between the human (form) and the being (formless), then – between who we think we are (ego) and Who We Truly Are (Creator).

Well, this is the insight I got from listening to Dicken Bettinger have a 3 Principles conversation in Glasgow, Murdock Country Park, in October, 2014…

 

BEING YOURSELF: Some Next Steps…

There are no next steps to being yourself, really – you are always being who you know to be in this moment. Whether opened to love or closed down by fear (or somewhere in between), here you are. And this Inside-Out understanding – the human being operating system, if you will – merely helps illustrate the ways you get in your own way of fully expressing your loving self.

So, steps to take? Well…

• I encourage you to get curious about the formless and the form
• Notice when you surprise yourself (and notice when you don’t)
• Deepen your understanding of the 3 Principles behind life…