Explore Our Path
Session 1
Bi-Axial Beings
Reflection
Perhaps unknown even to ourselves, we hold a deep mystery inside of us. The teachings of traditional wisdom say that we are bi-axial creatures, that is, we live along two axes of reality—the horizontal and the vertical and these run through our being connecting us to many dimensions at the level of the heart.
The horizontal axis is the one we know most fully. We live in space and time and are each acting and responding to it on a daily basis—living out our lifetime as a narrative that expresses the events of our lives as a story on the planet. We know most of that story well, though obviously there are many things we may have forgotten. We spend our days, weeks, months, and years responding to life as we experience it along the horizontal axis in a world that we call “reality.”
Traditional wisdom says, however, that this is only part of who we are. We have another history, another life, hidden perhaps, and deeper still that is lived along a vertical axis connecting both heaven and earth, time and eternity, the transcendent and immanent worlds. We are living that life as well (though it may be less obvious to us, or even unknown).
These two axes meet and connect, not in the mind, but deeper in the heart, which is also a cognitive center that perhaps we know intuitively. In that place within, the horizontal world and many vertical dimensions meet and touch each other often interacting. Our heart knows this connection and responds to it, but often in hidden ways.
Spiritual awakening happens when we begin to detect and work with the reality of each of these axes and domains: the horizontal, the vertical, and the kardial. We become more alive and begin to live our complete selves when we can experience each of these and bring them into some kind of balance where we experience them affecting one another. When this begins to happen it means that we are coming awake and growing into our bi-axial nature which is no longer hidden from our consciousness, but is now an active part of our entire being. Teachings concerning contemplative life and the practice of Perennial Wisdom* want to assist us in the awakening and the growing relationship between each of these domains.
Practice
You have seen the diagram and image above. You have read the description that follows it. What do you make of these? Do they make sense to you? How do you experience these many dimensions within yourself?
Journal your response and reflections on these questions.
What other questions or concerns arise out of your reflections and journaling? What more would you like to know and understand? What would you like to do with teachings such as these? Journal your responses to these new questions.
What you are asking now and thinking about are very important because, potentially, they can lead the way forward. If you choose, you will have opportunity to discuss them in the future with members of the Order.
*Perennial Wisdom is a term for universal teachings that are found across the world in each of the great sacred religious traditions living today and before that in other ancient streams of wisdom. Aldous Huxley wrote a text with this important title listing some of these traditional themes and teachings.
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