Who would think of just inhaling or just exhaling?
By Edward Hirsch
We can intuit the Vertical Axis as the Eternal Now intersecting the Horizontal Axis of the flow of time. It is easy to relate to it as mere geometry, and even when we relate to it as a symbol of sacred geometry, it is easy to reduce it to a symbol, an idea, a concept. But that would be a great mistake, like mistaking the menu for the meal.
The Vertical Axis is a symbol that points to an experience, and even more, to a realization of Oneness. As an experience, it is essentially pointing to the descent of “Holy Spirit” or Grace — the descent of “Spirit Baptism,” to use Christian language — but it is not limited to that religion or any one religion. It is universal. It is essentially the awakening to Presence, to one’s True Nature, to what life is really about.
In a Threefold Schema, we have:
- (Above) — awakening to God (Spirit, Truth, Reality, Presence Itself, etc.).
- (Within) — awakening to one’s True Nature.
- (Around) — awakening to the True Nature of life, cosmos.
And that is not all — for while awakening in a sense is an end in itself, it is also never just that, for it also opens outward to life and the world, in action, in service. It is never for oneself, and the very awakening itself makes it clear that there is no separate “oneself.” And so it is all for service, but then there is no “one” to serve “another.” This means that action continues but is “reframed” in a different meaning and consciousness.
The Vertical symbolizes the Oneness of all “levels,” as from “Above” to “Below.” As such, it actually implies the integration of the Vertical and the Horizontal Axes as the One Whole Truth of Transcendence and Immanence. We know this as the plus sign (+) in arithmetic, which symbolizes wholeness. The Horizontal Axis alone we know as the minus sign (-) in arithmetic, which symbolizes a deletion. And that would be like the incompleteness of the experience of time (as the Horizontal) without the Presence of the Eternal Now (as the Vertical). With both together, we have the Above (Vertical), the Around (Horizontal), and the Within (point of intersection), all as One Thread, One Flow, One Life, One Presence.
On a slow inhale, you can experience receiving the Downpouring Grace of the Above (along the Vertical) through the crown of the head into the heart (as the point of intersection), comfortably holding on the retention of the breath, and then slowly releasing through the nose with the exhale (along the Horizontal). All three parts are one whole, just as all three parts of the breath are one whole. Who would think of just inhaling or just exhaling?
As one becomes aware of the Oneness of it all, one releases one’s sense of separateness, since the very idea of it is laughable, ludicrous. One becomes a willing channel, or agent, as it were, even though it comes through this particular one, with this particular conditioning, language, gender, and so on. One might even function all the more as a creative individual in the whole process, taking initiative, but it is not coming from a separate one.
The Vertical implies:
- (Above) — submission (as to a “Higher Power”) to the point of “no-thingness.”
- (Within) — alignment of all one’s bodies and levels of being, and alignment with Purpose or Will.
- (Around) — open channel for all one’s gifts and capacities in the service of That.
The Vertical Axis, functionally, is a channel for the Flow of Grace into the world. Of course, Grace is not outside of or above this world, for it is not located spatially, even though it is pictured as Above. And of course, the channel is not some linear symbol but is the human conduit, the vertical spine as it were. And further, the Vertical is the One, the I AM, and there is nothing channeling anything anywhere. Such is the paradox of the Sacred Mystery.
Edward Hirsch, M.A., teaches about the “Practice of Presence” at OLLI and offers free weekly Zoom meetings in the teachings and practices of Presence from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Saturdays on a drop-in basis (us02web.zoom.us/j/84805886301).
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