Energy cannot be created or destroyed.
There is a set amount of energy in the universe (although we would perceive it as limitless using our physical methods of measuring). This energy is constantly changing form which gives the impression that it is being created out of nothing and then withers and dissolves back into nothing. When one changes the form of an energy pattern (breathing, eating, walking, talking, thinking, doing) it is like throwing a rock into a still pond and creating ripples or waves of energy moving outward from the cause. The first three ripples or effects are the ones felt most intensely and understood most effectively. After that the wave (ripples) are too far removed and subtle to be related as a result of the original action.
The Rule of Threefold Returns does not mean that every action creates a reaction three times as intense (large, etc.) as the original because you are not really creating energy (or anything else). You are changing the form of energy that already exists and cannot be destroyed.
The Rule or Threefold Returns does mean that the effect comes back to you from the closest ripples (waves of change). These changes are felt and perceived on the Physical, Emotional and Intellectual levels.
This is the Threefold Return: the understanding of the effect of ones every thought, word and deed (consciously or not) on these three levels constitutes the RETURN and LESSON to be learned. If the LESSON is completely absorbed on the Physical, Emotional and Intellectual levels then it is of course understood on the Spiritual.
Of course, it is already understood on the Spiritual since that is where the impetus for action springs from. It is just that our human minds need the Physical, Emotional and Intellectual assimilation for the lesson to be fully effective and understood on the Material Plane.
“AS ABOVE, SO BELOW,
AS BELOW, SO ABOVE.”
The energy you send out always comes back to you. If you act in a violent way, you become violent. If you act in a peaceful way, you become peaceful.
