It’s only been for a time that I’ve thought of “3D” as Third-Dimensional.
Prior to that I thought of “3D” as the royal pathway to God, the heart of spirituality, the basic spiritual movement.
At that time, “3D” meant Discrimination, Detachment and Devotion.
How is that the royal path to God?
Well, as far as I’m aware, the task assigned to us in life is to know our true identity. Why is that assigned to us?
Any longtime reader of this site will know that it’s my belief that God created life so that the Unknowable could know itself. God is One. There is no second besides God. How is God to know God when God is all there is?
Easy. Create life forms. Create finger-puppets. That’s us. And then assign them the task of knowing who they are. And when they realize who they are, in a moment of enlightenment, God knows God.
And how are they to do that? Now comes life in 3D.
Discrimination
Hindus lay out – or perhaps more particularly Vedanta lays out – a threefold path for humans to know themselves as God. The first step is to discriminate between the Real and the unreal. All is God, yes. But some things are purely God and some things are worked upon. The Light that we see in a moment of enlightenment is purely God; the light we see shining from the Sun or from a light bulb is a stepped-down transformation of that other light.
We can look at a light bulb all day and nothing will occur. But if we glimpse the Light of God, we are transformed. We’d want to discriminate therefore between the light that is Edison’s and the Light that is God’s.
So too we’d want to discriminate between that which is temporary and that which is lasting, that which is changing and that which is unchanging, that which is conditional and that which is unconditional. To do so is to launch ourselves on a lifelong learning project about the nature of God because God is lasting, unchanging. and unconditional.
Our deeper and deeper penetration into discernment brings results with it as well. As we distinguish between what is and what is “not” God, we realize increasing bliss just by that activity alone.
Detachment
The second step in this threefold path is to detach ourselves from the unreal. That which doesn’t last, which changes, which is conditional at some point we let go of because it just doesn’t satisfy us for long. We follow the cycle of desire – wanting, having, satiating, and wanting again – gaining what we want and then detaching ourselves from it when it fails to permanently satisfy. We’re driven on by a basic residual thirst or hunger which cannot be satisfied by anything else but God – a longing for God, an urge to evolve, a hunger for more and more and more, which won’t let up until we merge again with God.
Getting and consuming, then throwing away, getting and consuming, then throwing away, we work ourselves through one fad after another, one desire, one hunger, until we find ourselves spent, dissatisfied, and begin to turn away from the things of the senses altogether as basically unsatisfying.
Devotion
The third step in this threefold path is to devote ourselves to the Real. Having lost our taste for that which only satisfies for a while, we hunger for that which satisfies forever. We’ve discriminated between the Real and the unreal; we’ve satiated ourselves on all that is unreal; and we now hunger for and devote ourselves to that which is Real.
We set in motion the Law of Attraction and draw towards us by our yearning that which is Real, that which is of God. We draw towards us peace, and joy, and love, and bliss. We leave behind us that which only offered us temporary relief from the fire that burns inside us and surrender to the fire itself. We allow ourselves to be consumed with love for God.
We forget about the things of the world. We become careless towards that which so many others want. We cannot keep our minds on the mundane. And yet we thrill to anything that speaks of the Beloved as we’re drawn further and further into the orbit of the Divine.
This is the basic spiritual movement: to turn from the world to God. This is the turning point in our lives and in all life. This is the only decision in life that really matters.
And this is the very thing that we can see going on around us at this time. We’ve been told that a time of separation exists in which those who wish to remain in a Third-Dimensional world will gradually separate from those who wish to go on to a Fifth-Dimensional one. We’ve listened to the Company of Heaven (Discrimination) and they’ve mapped out for us the contours of the journey towards the Fifth Dimension. We’ve heard the call and we’ve put our packsacks on.
We’re leaving behind all that interested us formerly (Detachment) and setting out on the road that leads to Nova Earth (Devotion). We’ve separated ourselves from that which is becoming rapidly unreal and have set out on the journey to the Real. We’ve detached ourselves from the old paradigm and devoted ourselves to the new. We’ve detached ourselves from the stultifying drama and devoted ourselves to a more abundant life. We’ve detached ourselves from conflict, competition and self-servingness and devoted ourselves to peace, sharing and selflessness.
We’re using the 3D skills of Vedanta, so to speak, to leave behind the 3D version of reality. Drawn on by the ineluctable attraction of the divine, which can only be felt when we leave behind the mundane, we’re gradually being drawn into the sacred circle, the orbit of Ascension.