Saigo and Daigo: The Vertical and the Horizontal

Some people have a small taste of the Vertical (the unrelieved Absolute) and they then begin to go to lectures, read metaphysical books, and argue with those who don’t share their opinions. They have naturally translated their small experience into terms that are familiar with them religiously, philosophically, and psychologically. So they hear the Voice of Jesus, or they see Krishna playing the flute, or get a glimpse of the Buddha with two attendants. This disturbs their lives, because they now realize there is something more than their daily experience.

Others may have a complete ‘vertical’ experience, an overwhelming sensation of ‘oneness’ that takes them completely into the Absolute and makes it impossible to get back to their habitual daily lives. They now think transcendentally and find everything in this world tasteless and meaningless. It is very difficult to live on in this fashion, even though the experience itself may have been joyous and almost ecstatic. Many who have this experience of the Absolute are sure they have achieved the final rung on the ladder and make no attempt to understand or integrate their experience. They may become renunciates and shun all worldly life. It is not a happy or fulfilling way to live, however. If they have a good teacher, he will see the dangers and lead them along the way to complete integration, back to the Marketplace with all humanity and, indeed, all life. Without a teacher, they may persist in this condition, understanding much of Eternity but little of Today. They may long for release from this world into a state that they conceive, without realizing that that state represents the state of their own minds. Having escaped Samsara, and had a real glimpse of Nirvana, they have not reached the point where they perceive that Samsara is Nirvana, that there is no need of escape, only integration. They are living in the Vertical, which is steep and slippery and untenable in this world.

Those who have followed a true teacher, or who spontaneously have an experience where they perceive their own enlightenment, are able to make the complete circle and come back to ‘ordinary’ life, which will now appear anything but ordinary. What need for argument when each thing is perceived in itself and seen as being ‘true’? Such a person has little desire for metaphysical discussion, and no desire to foist his views on anyone else. He no longer perceives his experience as “Christian” or “Buddhist”, and will get to the point where he forgets his own enlightenment. Not wishing to be a teacher, he is a true teacher by example. There is no chance of his being hung up on words or written characters. The Scriptures no longer serve a purpose as everything in life has become a Scripture. Truly, the moon shines clearly in a cloudless sky–yet there is turmoil, joy and suffering, below, and he does not avoid these. The Vertical and the Horizontal have been completely integrated. For how many does this happen?