The Cross has six squares, just like you would get if you unfolded a box. A box with four sides really has six if you want something really boxed in.
When you move from one square to the next, it is a ker-chunk. You know something has happened. The surface of one square is clearly distinct from all the others.
But this is also the restriction of rules. If we add a seventh square, it is no longer a cross or a box. I have to buy into the rules to play the game.
Did you ever think about Saturn? No, probably not. Most likely you have thought about the ring around Saturn but never about the planet itself. The ring defines that planet, but the ring is not the planet.
Sometimes the facts get in the way of the story! Constrictions and rules bring simplicity and directness, but they can also distract you from the Real Thing.
The rose is simple, with five petals. The plant is usually bushy and healthy. In an antique rose, the plant is as interesting as the flower.
The smell can range from sweet to musky. The blooms can range from white to yellow to red. The genetics of the rose prohibit blue petals: it is impossible to happen.
Ancient philosophers talked about five elements: air, fire, water, earth, and spirit. The rose celebrates the flow of those aspects in a circle around its reproductive middle.
But this is also the murk of being shallow. It is so easy to be distracted by toys presented to our senses that we forget about the journey.
Too much concentration on the beauty makes us miss the point.
Did you know that modern roses have sickly stems? They have gorgeous flowers, but modern rose beds have to stay full of nasty chemicals to keep the plants from dying from black spot or aphids or any number of other problems.
We grow these hybrids for the flowers. Scientists have created a charicature of a "real" rose. The modern rose plant is so weak that modern roses have to be grafted onto antique rose roots. If we tried to grow modern roses on their own roots, no long stems would be possible. The plant would fall over from a poor root system.
Taken to extremes, the rose loses its soul and becomes contorted.
Taken absent-mindedly, you will be pricked by thorns.
The Contemplation of One is this:
From beyond is my history.
To beyond is my destiny.
I am not a note in time:
I am a chord,
Where Once And Future Sings.
The Love of One is this:
From Brother Sun and Sister Moon.
Born by Wind, nurturned by Earth.
As without, so within.
The Glory of One is this:
As the universe, so the soul.
The Victory of One is this:
As it once was, so it shall be.
The powers are complete.
Throw it down, and the earth separates from fire.
Through wisdom it rises but stops short to return,
So Bodidharma came and said,
As the west, so the east.
And as the east, so the west.
This Force is complete.
It overcomes the delicate.
It penetrates solids.
This is the stone of alpha and omega.
This is the Word made flesh.
This is the elixir of yang and yin.
I am this fusion --
Of history transformed into destiny,
Of action tempered by contemplation,
And wisdom being born of healing
For it is in healing that we are healed.
And it is through Love that we are the Word.
As above, so below.
As without, so within.
As the universe, so the soul.
And so I am done.