The Trinity of Relationship
La Trinidad de la Relación
A question about the mystery of love and the relationship between oneness and the three-in-one, drawing on the Christian Trinity and non-dual teachings.
The Trinity of Relationship
A question about the mystery of love and the relationship between oneness and the three-in-one, drawing on the Christian Trinity and non-dual teachings.
It reminds me of something. I used to have a really hard time getting up in the morning when I was young. I would be dreaming that I was awake, and then I would realize I was still asleep. I'd think, "How do I get out of this? I don't know if I'm awake or asleep." Then one day I suddenly realized: if you're asking yourself the question, you're asleep.
Right. When something so obvious is that confusing, it's because you're lost in thought.
I wanted to ask something related to the mysteriousness of love that came up earlier. It also reminded me of the Trinity, the Santísima Trinidad: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The idea was that it maps onto me, the other, and the relationship. The third element is the relationship itself. I was wondering about your take on that, and whether it adds anything to this question of what love is.
The three that are one
To me, the key there is: three that are one, and one that is three. In a lot of these teachings pointing to non-duality, they are pointing to an underlying truth that is overlooked. But then there needs to be a kind of returning, and the returning is, in a way, the whole point.
In recognizing that there is no separation, for example in a relationship, it frees the possibility of the relationship. To see that in a sense there is no relationship, that what appeared to be three is one, then it can go back into the one that is three.
At first, in a deeper ignorance, there is only one and the idea of another. Then the mystery of another starts to become recognized. Then the relationship starts to become recognized; there is a third. And then that becomes recognized as being one. But it doesn't stop there. From there, it frees up, brings freedom, to go back into the one that is three.
The risk of staying stuck in oneness
The risk is to stay stuck in a realization of oneness. But it is also important to realize that oneness. Oneness you could call "not-twoness," just to be more Advaita-ish. In Christianity they talk about unity, but it is the same. The Hindu culture is more mathematical, and more mathematically correct. Unity implies duality: if there is one, there must be two. You have to go from zero to one, so then you have two. That is just the semantic, logical expression. Whereas in Advaita they say "not two," because they know that if you say "one," it implies two. But in my interpretation, unity and non-duality are the same pointing, just expressed in a different tradition.
Returning to the Trinity
The recognition of unity, "I and the Father are one," can become an attachment where something is lost. There is a different kind of confusion there. There is a greater freedom in the recognition of unity, or non-duality, or non-separation, and then in a sense going back to the Trinity, to the relationship. The relationship is freed with this recognition.
This is not something I hear very often or see discussed much. I think it is because it is a post-awakening step. It is simply not relevant until then. Franklin Merrell-Wolff described it as "the high indifference."