“My concept of the new man is that he will be Zorba the Greek and he will also be Gautam the Buddha: the new man will be Zorba the Buddha. He will be sensuous and spiritual, physical, utterly physical, in the body, in the senses, enjoying the body and all that the body makes possible, and still a great consciousness, a great witnessing will be there. He will be Christ and Epicurus together.” Osho
There are two primary modes of energetic expansion – for simplicity and becasue that’s how I experience them I’ll call them ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’.
Vertical
This is the development of awareness. Recognising your own and other’s patterns. Process work, knowledge of self and others. There is a sense of sharpness and clarity about it. Although it is not seeing, this kind of energy opening is closest to the sense of sight.
As you start to develop this faculty one gets on top of the emotions and recognises them for arisings in the bodymind. A non-attachment begins to develop and often changes in language take place – “I am sad” becomes “There is some sadness today”.
For me it feels centered in the Ajna or brow Chakra.
A flowering of vertical mode is what is commonly thought of when we call someone “spiritual”
Horizontal
This is the development of the capacity to move energy through the body, to sense into things and respond intuitively. There is a warmth and feeling of aliveness about it. This kind of opening is closest to the sense of touch and movement.
As this faculty gets more developed there is a sense of flow and of being able to strongly affect the energy of others, heightened senses, increased pleasure. When this further develops it becomes an ability to go with the flow and there is a deep acceptance of what is.
For me it feels centered in the Svadhistana or belly chakra.
When there is an opening and expansion of the horizontal we often view people as artistic.
Practices
Practices which emphasise the vertical are meditation, enquiry such as Maharshi’s “Who am I?”, and deep process work through tools such as the enneagram.
Practices which emphasise the horizontal are creative and expressive ritual, dance, ecstatic prayer, sacred sex
Practices which use both modes – Yoga, Magick, Singing, Active Meditations, Tantra, Dzogchen
Overemphasis
Risks of an overemphasis of the vertical are dryness, a lack of juice, excessive analysis. Spiritual practitioners with a strong vertical and an underdeveloped horizontal mode get stuck with insufficient energy to power through conditioning and other internal blocks.
Risks of an overemphasis on the horizontal mode are an excess of undirected energy and this leading to all the dangers we associate with artistic temperament, mental instability, addiction, excesses of emotion. Artists with an underdeveloped vertical often do not acheive much the undirected energy spills into drama and indulgence instead of being channeled into creativity.
Masters
Masters who emphasise the vertical mode – The Buddha, Zen Masters, Ramana Maharshi, Al-Maas
Masters who emphasise the horizontal mode – Rumi, Ramakrishna, Amma
Masters who have emphasised both modes – Osho, Gurdjieff, Adi Da, David Deida
Unity
I don’t think the initial journey toward unity can be attained through timid steps in both directions and an attempt to stay in balance. That way lies a static underdevelopment in both spheres. Each should be explored wholeheartedly and yet there needs to be a recognition that when diminishing returns are being obtained in one sphere, it is time to push the pendulum back the other way and start shifting modes.
Me
In my own growth I have found a definite sense of swinging between these practices and at times in my life I have primarily explored one or the other. I think of my time in business and then my time living in a park and a squat.
A few years back when I was strongly rooted (stuck.) in the horizontal I had the good fortune to meet an amazing woman who was very dedicated to vertical expression (primarily in the form of process work rather than meditation so I did not recognise it). We proceeded to push each other very hard – it was mostly agony because of sharp shards of remaining ego we still both had (despite prior shatterings) and which we were configured to recognise and demand abandonment of in the other.
This kind of intimate partner work though intense proved to be a fast, high energy track.
Right now the expressions have both reached a certain level where there is enough momentum that development is proceeding similtaneously
Narcissus and Goldmund
In the book of this name Herman Hesse examines something similar to the two modes I speak of here through the characters Narcissus and Goldmund.
“The thinker tries to determine and to represent the nature of the world through logic. He knows that reason and its tool, logic, are incomplete–the way an intelligent artist knows full well that his brushes or chisels will never be able to express perfectly the radiant nature of an angel or a saint. Still they both try, the thinker as well as the artist, each in his own way.” Narcissus
“Perhaps there were husbands and heads of families who did not lose their sensuality by being faithful. Perhaps there were people who, though settled, did not have hearts dried up by lack of freedom and lack of risk. Perhaps. He had never met one.” Goldmund
“Dear friend, how little you know me still! Perhaps I did ruin a future monk in you, but in exchange I cleared the path inside you for a destiny that will not be ordinary. Even if you burned down our rather handsome cloister tomorrow, or preached a mad doctrine of error to the world, I would not for an instant regret that I helped you on the road toward it.” Narcissus
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