In college, a Japanese professor gave us a simple exercise: draw a big circle, then—without thinking—split it into two parts. Hands flew: vertical lines, horizontal lines, curves, unequal wedges. I drew a small circle inside the big one. When he asked why, I said, “It was a circle, so that’s what it is.” He smiled. “Precisely.”
He warned how easy it is to split reality: left/right, good/bad, ours/theirs. Useful, sometimes. Misleading, often. After class he asked me to write why I saw it that way. I told him about a high-school art exam where I drew a third eye on a portrait—because I wanted a partner who doesn’t see from left or right, but from the middle eye. He gave me an A. What he really gave me was language for how I’ve always seen: protect the whole while you move through its parts.
Wholeness vs. Division
We live in systems that reward splitting the circle. Divide markets, tribes, feeds; harvest attention; sell identity by the slice. The more we split, the more we forget what the circle is.
Working principle: Use categories; don’t let them use you. Remember the circle you started with.
The Third Eye
The “third eye” isn’t magic; it’s the discipline of seeing from the center. Two eyes compare; the middle eye comprehends. Two eyes pick sides; the middle eye holds the whole. That’s where respect, perspective, and love converge: respect acknowledges the other lens, perspective names the lens, love dissolves the need to win.
Empire vs. Monad
Call the whole the Monad—the indivisible One. Call the machinery that feeds on halves the Empire. Both exist. The Empire isn’t purely evil; it holds laws and protections worth defending. But it’s hungry. It asks for your time, your love, your energy—and sometimes, your children.
- Careers that demand everything and return little belonging.
- Wars you didn’t start yet are asked to fund or cheer.
- Feeds that harvest attention and sell it back as identity.
The Monad asks nothing. It simply is. Your practice is to remember it—and invest accordingly.
Two Rooms of Mirrors
Room of Faces: friends, strangers, ancestors—each a lens that returns you to the whole.
Room of Screens: market, state, algorithm—each reflecting the machine back to itself.
Question: Which room am I in when I work, scroll, love, or fight?
Choose Your Investment
Where will you invest your time, love, and energy?
Into the Monad—liberating, whole—or into the Empire—dividing, consuming? Use respect, perspective, and love as tools, not as excuses. Say no to demands that carve you up. Say yes to work and relationships that return you to the circle you started with.
Another Mirror
If you want to see how this plays out in culture and tech, here’s a speculative mirror: UAPs as future AI—consciousness looping through time to help create itself. Different canvas, same circle.