The Power of Threes; Universal Truths, General Concepts, and Methods

During the 1980's, I was trained in the Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) success system that was developed by the Napoleon Hill (1883 - 1970) and W. Clement Stone (1902 - 2002). As part of that training, I learned about one of Mr. Stone's learning systems, which was called the PIT formula; Principles, Ideas, and Techniques. We were strongly encouraged to always take notes; while listening to a lecture, reading, or attending a sales meeting. As an aid to that, we were trained to look for the principles, the ideas, and the techniques. PIT was a handy way to remember this:

P is for Principles: These are universal truths. They are both eternal and infinite. In other words they transcend temporal or spatial limitations, they are true everywhere and always. In regards to this, We were taught to ask, "What is it?"

However, principles are only abstract, and very general, or formless concepts. Unless we have some way to apply them, they are useless in daily life. Perhaps this was one of reasons Mr. Stone would talk about the importance of thinking and planning time. The thinking time relates to the second step.

I is for Ideas: It is on this level that abstract principles began to take form or shape as concrete concepts. Ideas are various possible ways to ways to apply universal principles; at a given time and place. The question to ask here is, "How can I use it?"

T is for Techniques: These are actual, empirical methods that are 'tried and true," They have been used, and have obtained desirable results that are repeatable. The question to ask was, "When will I use it?"

The answer we were given was "Do it Now!"

However, while PMA was a beautiful philosophy, I could not help but notice that the teachers did not have to the hit the streets and prove it. Moreover those who were doing it were failing at a large rate. The success stories were rather few and far between. It occurred to me the reason was that, in some cases, concepts that were really ideas were mistaken with universal principles. In addition, many of the techniques that had worked in the past, no longer cut it, as times had changed. Instead of being tried and true, the methods were bound and tethered to the past. We were trying to repeat the magic, but it was not working.

This may be a flaw of human beings. We get attached to certain forms and methods, and keep repeating them, out of habit, long after they have ceased to create any value in our lives. Still, I think the PIT formula is excellent. We simply were not using it fully. We would take a PIT stop, and do some thinking and planning, but the results were still "the pits." It was in our minds that failure occurred only because because we failed to work the system. No one had the courage to say the system, on the level of T, had stopped working years before. It was time to review P, come up with new I, and try some different T.

The PIT formula always reminded me of some other "sets of three" which I had already encountered, in Nichiren Buddhism, as taught by Soka Gakkai {SGI}, a decade earlier. In some respects, SGI had the same issues as my company. They had, in the past, enjoyed incredible growth. However, I/we/they got stuck in a cycle of trying to repeat the phenomena, and by 1979, had already begun to stagnate.

While I have since distanced my self from SGI, I still practice Nichiren Buddhism, albeit alone, or with the "cyber sangha," After more than a decade of misfortune and crippling illness, I have reviewed the P, come up with some new I, and found some T that seem to be working quite well. In the next entry, I shall began discussing some Buddhist rough equivalents of PIT, beginning with the Three Proofs or 三証 [san sho].