Trampoline of Oneness

The Trampoline of Oneness

By John Taylor; 2006 April 16

In the middle of the night many years ago an image came before me of
the Baha'i principles as a trampoline. I scrawled the notion down in a
fragmentary note, dumped it into my data system and forgot about it.
Recently the fragment resurfaced by design among photocopied pages of
my old notes when I was going over our present principle intersection,
the interstices between one God and one humanity. Now I wonder again:
are the principles like a trampoline? If so, how would these two
aspects of oneness, of man and God, fit into that?

As I saw it in my vision back then, the One is the fabric upon which
you jump. The side of the fabric that your feet touch would be the
oneness of humanity. The other side of the trampoline's fabric is the
oneness of God -- the surface is one fabric because one God is
essentially the same thing as one human race, since we are made in the
image of God. The difference between them is only that the one God
side of the fabric is invisible, permanently hidden from direct view
of the jumper. But still, every touch to the oneness of humanity is
contact with the One Creator. The particular location where you land
on the trampoline would be the specific social principles, economic
equity, equality of the sexes, and so on. No matter where you go,
there you are. You are on a specific principle and all principles at
once; you are on oneness and particularity at the same time.

I enjoyed this analogy because it shows the interdependence of
principle as a single system. Jumping on any one location, you are not
isolated and on your own as when jumping on terra firma. The unity of
the system recycles most of your downward energy and feeds it back,
giving impulse upwards and heavenwards. An impact in one location puts
a strain on one's understanding of all the other principles. I like
that.

No trampolinist jumps in the same location of the trampoline every
time, though a central location of course is safer and more efficient.
According to that, a woman business person might keep the principles
of equality of the sexes and economic equity permanently in the center
since she is wrestling with their issues on a daily basis. A penniless
disabled writer living an isolated, monk-like existence who
specializes in the Baha'i principles might move different principles
into the center at different times. He might even fall on his face and
look very closely at the fabric for months at a time, starting, say,
in the last days of January, 2006 and continuing until right now. The
businesswoman would live a prosperous, focused existence while the
writer would be in penury and constant confusion, his sanity in grave
peril.

The trampoline metaphor has its ups and downs, as it were. When I read
in scripture references to a "tabernacle of unity," it rises in my
esteem. A tent is made of fabric not unlike a trampoline; it has an
inside and an outside, both are made of the same fabric but the inside
and outside have very different uses, just like the surface of the
trampoline.

My downs with this metaphor come when I try to work in the spiritual
principles, the principles of faith, love, power of the holy spirit,
covenant, faith, and so forth. Are they like the struts and springs
around the edges of a trampoline holding the fabric taught? Are they
the threads of the surface fabric, or perhaps colorful designs and
pictures woven into fabric itself? Are they perhaps the tent poles of
the tabernacle of unity? Or are they something else?

As an example of a spiritual principle, how would you work the
principle of love into the trampoline equation? If God is love, the
image of man is love too. The principle of oneness of humanity would
be nothing else but loving and showing compassion for our fellows. As
the First Epistle of John puts it,

"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one
that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not
knoweth not God; for God is love." (4:7-8)

The principle of love as it affects the two big onenesses might be
seen as the tension that keeps the fabric tight and bouncy. If one
pays attention only to the One, love will flow, there will be less
entropy, and the energy of action and reaction will be maintained
within a unitary system. Consider these words Baha'u'llah wrote,
advising the Sultan who banished Him in how to avoid the corruption
that had blinded him and led his leadership astray.

"Cleave thou, therefore, with the whole affection of thine heart, unto
His love, and withdraw it from the love of anyone besides Him, that He
may aid thee to immerse thyself in the ocean of His unity, and enable
thee to become a true upholder of His oneness." (Summons, 214-15)

An upholder of the one God upholds His image on earth, that is, he or
she loves all mankind.

But as soon as you push the analogy, the clarity of the image
dissolves. Most likely, since spiritual principles are beyond
comprehension, any image or analogy we can come up with sooner or
later will do its reality an injustice. The spirit moveth where it
listeth, so do not try to list it. Hence the iconoclasm basic to
monotheism since Abraham. Probably best to leave images out entirely
and restrict ourselves solely to the verbal descriptions given us by
Those who know it first hand. But the thing is that they use analogies
too, both implicitly and explicitly. Consider the following, which
weaves in denial as a location on dry land and belief as a plunge into
water and a flight up to a high nest:

"Please God, that we avoid the land of denial, and advance into the
ocean of acceptance, so that we may perceive, with an eye purged from
all conflicting elements, the worlds of unity and diversity, of
variation and oneness, of limitation and detachment, and wing our
flight unto the highest and innermost sanctuary of the inner meaning
of the Word of God." (Kitab-i-Iqan, 160)

--
John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com