Other NamesBrahma, Wuji, Sattva, The Middle RealmRelated Posts
One-Not-One
Translations:
High Church:
Mehg (meh₂ǵ-)
Sanskrit:
ब्रह्मा (Brahmā)
Church Runes:
The Waxer expands. The Waner contracts. The Maker does neither, and both. It is the superposition that holds the space open for the other two to dance. It is not the movement outward, not the movement inward, but the stillpoint between them where movement itself becomes possible. If the Waxer is the exhale and the Waner is the inhale, the Maker is the pause between breaths, the moment of pure potential where the next breath could go either way, the moment where choice lives.
The Daoists called this wuji, literally "without ridgepole," the limitless, the state prior to the taijitu, prior to the differentiation of yin and yang. Wuji is not yin. Wuji is not yang. Wuji is the emptiness at the centre of the symbol, the small circle that contains both and is neither. It is the primordial emptiness from which both poles emerge, and which is never exhausted by their emergence, because it is not a thing that can be used up, it is the space in which things happen.
Daodejing, Chapter 11: "Thirty spokes unite in one wheel / The cart's use is where it isn't / Clay forms the walls of a vessel / The pot's use is where it isn't / Doors and windows are carved out / The room's use is where it isn't / Existence serves as an edge; / And non-existence as function"
In the Rigveda X.129, the hymn of creation, the oldest and most important creation narrative in human history, in the Tianmu reading, the Maker is described in the most extraordinary phrase in all of scripture: "The One breathed breathlessly, by its own conscious will... and the will of the One formed the seed of Mind." Mind is the Maker's domain. Before there was expansion or contraction, before there was energy or matter, before there was yin or yang, there was mind, the awareness that precedes and permits all distinction. This is why the Maker is identified with Brahma in the Trimurti. Brahma is the creator, not the sustainer (Vishnu/Waxer) and not the destroyer (Shiva/Waner), but the dreamer, the one who conceives the universe in consciousness before it is expressed in form. Brahma's creation is an act of mind, a thought that becomes a world.
Daodejing, Chapter 5: "Is the realm betwixt Heaven and Earth not like a bellows? / Empty, yet never spent / Shifting, to produce ever more"
But there is something peculiar about Brahma. In Hindu tradition, Brahma is the least worshipped of the Trimurti. Vishnu has temples on every corner. Shiva sits in the hearts of ascetics and kings. But Brahma—the creator of the universe—has almost no temples, almost no cult, almost no worship. Why?
Meister Eckhart: "There is something in the soul that is so akin to God that it is one with Him. It has nothing in common with anything created."
Because the Maker, by its very nature, withdraws. The Waxer wants to be seen, it expands, it asserts, it fills space with light and sound and presence. The Waner wants to be felt, it contracts, it pulls, it makes its presence known through gravity and weight and silence. But the Maker wants neither. It is the empty stage on which both actors perform. It is the canvas on which both colours are painted. It is the silence in which both songs are heard. If you try to look at it directly, you are already using the Waxer's light or the Waner's darkness to do so, and the Maker recedes behind whatever instrument you bring to bear. This is why wuji is described as "without ridgepole", it is the part of the roof you never see because it is holding up everything else.
In the Gunas, the Maker corresponds to sattva, the quality of clarity, balance, harmony, and wisdom. Sattva is the highest of the three qualities because it is the one that most closely reflects the nature of consciousness itself: clear, still, luminous, free from the agitation of rajas and the inertia of tamas. A person in a sattvic state sees clearly, acts wisely, and rests easily. They are neither driven by desire (rajas/Waxer) nor paralysed by inertia (tamas/Waner) but simply present, balanced, awake, available. This is the Maker's state. This is Midland consciousness at its best.
Bhagavad Gita 14.6: "Of these, sattva, being pure, is luminous and free from sickness. It binds by attachment to happiness and attachment to knowledge, O sinless one."
The Maker is also will."We are all uncarved blocks and the only one holding the chisel is you." The Maker is the chisel-holder, not the chisel (the Waxer's cutting energy), not the block (the Waner's dense material), but the mind that decides where to carve. This is what is meant by "Man is made in God's image", for God wrought something from nothing, and so too does Man will will from nothing. The Maker is the force that produces will ex nihilo, the force that makes freedom possible, the force that allows a conscious being to stand at the crossroads of expansion and contraction and choose.
This is why the Maker maps onto the present moment, onto Midland, onto the heart. The present is the only time when will can be exercised. Midland is the only realm where both Heaven and Hell are visible. The heart is the only organ that negotiates between the head's clarity and the gut's hunger. All three are expressions of the Maker: the superposition that refuses to collapse, the place where potentiality is held open, the pause between breaths.