Meaning is relational, so reality understood in terms of meaning involves a dynamic relationship between self and world. What reality means is a function of that relationship. If self and world are out-of-sync with each other, all seems lost in meaningless strife. When self and world are in-sync, however, harmony prevails and possibilities are freely explored. We might imagine self and world as two points (or poles) on an axis, and so we might use the axis as a symbol for talking about the degree to which self and world resonate. When the axis wobbles irregularly, self and world often find themselves in conflict—a chaotic conflict that projects no path to resolution. When the axis remains upright, spinning like a top, self and world ring with resonance. In either case, the axis defines their essential connectivity. The points on our axis (self and world) are interdependent and exist only in relation to each other as connected by an axis.
We might alternately think of this axis as an illustration of our self-control, our command over our own attention, the quality of our intentions and inclinations, our uprightness, the power of our will, our potential, the extent of our temporal horizon, and many other things. With self-control, our potential increases as it becomes engaged in worlds beyond the one of our immediate situation. We connect ourselves to a larger story and see its through-line even as we see the part we play in it. As our command over out own attention, the axis operates as the force by which an imbalance in our attention self-corrects—like the gyroscopic effect of a toy top that keeps it from falling. This effect is reinforced by the healthy balance of our attention to the subjective, objective, and active modes of attending to an experience at a particular level. Levels are themselves determined by the duration of the experience, hence thinking of the axis in terms of temporality. To keep an eye on that experience that is always present (the fundamental wonder of existence) even as we simulteneously enjoy experiences that come and go also helps us to retain harmony with the world. Indeed, attending to that non-particular experience that is always present with all other expereinces is to attend to, and so to strengthen, the axis itself.
