The continuum of improvement

Mark Walter
A Monastery for Everyday Life & Leisure
4 min readFeb 10, 2018

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and how it demonstrates that the center exists in everything

http://bit.ly/2wIYV7T

Part 2 in a series on centering within deeper levels of awareness

Introduction

If we want to understand multiverses and unfolding dimensions of being, why not start with something familiar? Improvement fits that bill nicely.

At first glance, improvement seems simple. It’s about making something better. And viewed from that single perspective, it is simple.

It seems simple because we are restraining our focus point, limiting our perspective so that a particular level of complexity appears relatively simple unto itself. Yet, as we look at the variables listed below, the dimensionality of something as seemingly simple as improvement quickly expands.

The continuum of improvement

Self improvement, and it’s cousin spiritual/mystical training, resides along a continuum with a rather vast set of variables:

  1. Little/Big: On one end of the continuum may be things of little value, while on the other hand may be things of incredible value.
  2. Zero/Infinite: On one end are people who feel they need little to no improvement, and on the other end are people who never want to stop improving.
  3. Simple/Complex: On one end are simplistic solutions, and on the other end are deeply complex approaches and highly challenging goals.
  4. Material/Subtle: On one end are material-based solutions that help us gain wealth, or become more disciplined, or perhaps become better gardeners or quilt makers. On the other end are people who study psychology or philosophy, or the esoteric arts and sciences including various states of consciousness.
  5. Off grid/On grid: Some approaches are religious, others are technology-based. Some approaches are based in natural living, while other approaches find adherents jetting around the world to discover a more fulfilling life.
  6. Short term/Long term: Some people focus on what can best help them now, while others decide to make longer term investments.
  7. Big stuff/Quiet stuff: Some people equate self improvement with athletic challenges, while others prefer to curl up with a book in a remote cabin in the woods.

Seven dimensions of improvement

We can call each of these elements a dimension of being. For example, there’s the state of being little or big, or the state of being simple or complex.

If we move inward on any of our states of being, it’s easy to see that within each dimensional element lies even more complexity. To make that clearer to visualize, each bullet point listed above has included a short description which itself hints at the complex sub-matrices that exist within that element or state of being.

The common element within any dimension of being

When we view things from one perspective, it all seems simple. Yet, when we start to zoom out, it becomes more and more complex.

But the truth is, as we start to zoom in it also becomes more and more complex. This helps us to understand that calling something simple is a relative statement. What’s simple for one person can be overwhelming for another. What’s simple from one point of view, can actually encompass a great deal of complexity.

There is this area, then, between zoom in and zoom out. It is a point which exists no matter where we stop. Call it a middle ground, or a middle way, a balancing point or center.

No matter where we stop, we can still zoom in or out. This is irrefutable.

This concept, that no matter where we stop we can still zoom in and out, proves something vital: it proves that the center exists in everything. Because if you are in between zooming in and zooming out, then you are residing in between or in the center of those two things.

This implication, that the center exists in everything, carries another implication embedded within it. That since the center exists in everything, we should be capable of being centered at anytime, in anything, anywhere. That’s the inference, right? That if the center exists in everything, then no matter the situation we find ourselves in, we are firmly positioned in the center of it all.

If we can intellectually follow this, despite not being familiar with the implications of it, then it reveals something pretty important about our awareness and about our degree of consciousness. What’s revealed is that we can’t see what’s plainly there to see, feel and experience.

Now, why is that?

To be continued: Realizing the center within multiple dimensions of being.

Part 1:

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Mark Walter
A Monastery for Everyday Life & Leisure

Construction worker and philosopher: “When I forget my ways, I am in The Way”