August 14, 2026
Principle 8. Comprehended Action. Week 3
You Will Make Your Conflicts Disappear When You Understand Them In Their Ultimate Root, Not When You Want To Resolve Them
Last time: Conflicts and Contradictions.
This time: Phantoms and Laughs
This Week:
In previous weeks we’ve looked at the basic structure and general scope of this principle. We have also tried to understand it in the light of past situations. This week we focus on how the principle might apply in the present moment.
Consider your personal life. At this moment, are there conflicts, strained feelings, tensions, or disagreements between you and your friends? What about members of your family? Perhaps with co-workers, or neighbours? What about in yourself, are there disagreements between what you are trying to do, your thoughts, and your feelings?
No?
Well, that’s good. Move along then. Nothing to see here…
This week to help gain some new perspectives on this principle we will consider how it might have applied in our past, and we will also play the game of
Name It!
You gain the benefits of an exercise by doing it.
You gain the benefits of a game by playing it.
The Game of the Week.
With your understanding of the principle in mind, try to come up with a new version of the principle, or some aspect of the principle. Then give that new formulation a name that synthesizes it or, in some way captures its essence.
It seems useful to recall that this principle is named “Comprehended Action”. That is no doubt an important clue as to as to its application.
You can see in my reflections below why I sometimes think of this as the principle of “looking in all the wrong places” or “How not to look for the root of a problem”. That reminds me to be aware of where I expect to find the root and to question why. Am I looking at things the way I always, according to my resistances and habits. Should I be looking somewhere else, or in another way?
What’s your version of the principle?
What will you name it?
General Considerations and Personal Reflections:
Here are some personal reflections. I offer them in the spirit of dialogue and exchange, and look forward to hearing your thoughts about, and experiences with, this principle.
Among the themes that seem to come up when considering this principle are those related to questions about the “roots” of a situation, what they might be, how I might find them, and how understanding of those roots could change things. We can find conflicts in different ambits (eg. at work, with friends, family, and so on), and also, conflicts about different things (eg. about money, politics, ideas, values, etc). And of course, internal conflicts (eg. between desires, hopes, fears, and between my thoughts, feelings, and actions).
The Phantoms that Haunt All of Us
There are also certain conflicts between what I want, what is, or what might be. The past (and its phantoms), like my future (with its phantasmal fears) are present now. They are neither finished, nor waiting to happen. They are present, here and now.
For example: the fear of losing what we have; fear of not getting what we want (or need); fear of poverty; of illness; fear of loneliness; and at the bottom of everything the great knot of suffering — the fear of death. Somehow, it seems we usually manage to ignore these — or at least distract ourselves from them. But who is unfamiliar with them? And who knows their ultimate root?
But let’s lighten things up a little.
As many of you know I’m on a quest, a search for at least one joke to illustrate each principle. We don’t need great jokes. Lame jokes will do. as long as they are not too long, at least mildly humorous, and capture something of the principle.
It’s a tricky business considering how humour is so culturally, situationally, and temporally bound. Nonetheless, and despite all that, I think these are a great complement to the stories we currently use to illustrate the principles. And while we’ve certainly shared a few of them, I always keep an eye out for more of them as well). Please let me know if you have a joke you think might be suitable for this, or any of the principles.
Like folktales, and teaching stories some people feel jokes are proper to a certain culture, or tradition. And sometimes they certainly are. But often determining origins of these things is very difficult, if even possible. Certainly, jokes can be appropriated, they can also migrate, and cross pollinate when exchanged, but similarities also arise because of the situations common to all human beings. Perhaps the origins are the least important issue in any case.
In any case try this one which I mentioned in last week’s meeting…
How Not to Find the Root:
In the late hours of the night a policeman came upon an apparently very inebriated fellow muttering to himself as he crawled on hands and knees under a streetlight. As is the custom in those parts, the officer interrupted our intoxicated friend and asked what he was doing. The drunk replied: “I’ve lost my keys”. The helpful public servant asked “Well, where did you last see them?”. Gesturing at the faded sign of a popular drinking establishment a few blocks away the reply came: “I had them in my hand after I left that bar”. The policeman immediately said: “Well why aren’t you looking back there?” With a note of pity in his voice our friend looked up and said: “well, the light’s much better here of course.”
Attached is Another Version of
How Not To Look For The Roots of A Conflict
This one starring “Jeff” a character from possibly the first modern comic strip!
And another more recent one.
For more information on earlier versions of this story look here:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/04/11/better-light/
For its history in the social sciences:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetlight_effect
Worth Repeating:
The Principle of Immediate Action reminds us that we should learn to benefit from all the intermediate steps or situations that lead to our goals.
Consider:
I want to move towards a situation where I’m not at war with myself, where I can tap into my vital energy to face life’s challenges, and where I can face the uncertain future more joyously.
In other words, what I want is to make the phrase Peace, Force and Joy, into more than a slogan.
This Week’s Homework:
- Reflect on this principle in terms of your present situations.
-Play the game of Name It!
Note:
Marie Clare has agreed to host our meeting next week. We hope you can join us.
Besides the opportunity to participate in the weekly experiences, our next meeting will be a chance for an interchange about your thoughts, insights, examples and questions.
You’ll receive a reminder the day before the meeting.
We hope you can join us.
Comic Strip by Bud Fisher 1942
These notes have been posted on Facebook and sent to our email list, and, on my website www.dzuckerbrot.com
Don’t forget:
In some moment of the day or night inhale a breath of air and imagine that you carry this air to your heart. Then, ask with strength for yourself and for your loved ones. Ask with strength to move away from all that brings you contradiction; ask for your life to have unity. Don't take a lot of time with this brief prayer, this brief asking, because it is enough that you interrupt for one brief moment what is happening in your life for this contact with your interior to give clarity to your feelings and your ideas.
Silo_ La Reja, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2005
