Meditating on the Soul of Numbers

When we hear the name "Pythagoras," most of us immediately flash back to high school geometry: a^2 + b^2 = c^2. But Pythagoras was far more than a mathematician; he was a mystic and a philosopher who spent his childhood traveling the world.

There is evidence that he may have visited India, as he adopted beliefs similar to the Jains including the transmigration of souls, the sacredness of all life, and asceticism. For Pythagoras, reality wasn't just physical matter; it was constructed on an abstract plan of numbers.

The Sacred Integers

In Pythagorean thought, numbers are the bridge between the divine and the material. He believed the sacred integers—1, 2, 3, and 4—were the grounding for all physical form:

• 1 represents the Point.

• 2 represents the Line.

• 3 represents the Plane.

• 4 represents the Solid.

It was with these integers that the "soul of the cosmos" generated the sensible world of material things.

A Meditation on the Blueprint of Reality

I was invited to meditate on these numbers this week, and the experience was surprisingly visual. As I focused on the sequence 1, 2, 3, 4, I began to see them not just as symbols on a page, but as a framework overlaying the world.

I visualized the numbers hovering over images of space and earth. Then, the scene shifted, and I saw them over grass fields, bodies of water, and finally the sky and clouds. It felt as if I was seeing the "code" or the structural DNA behind the natural world.

The Somatic Connection

As I tuned into my body during this visualization, I noticed my attention settling deeply into my stomach.

I’m not exactly sure why the focus landed there. Perhaps it was a grounding sensation, or perhaps it was my body's way of digesting the concept that the physical world, including my own gut, is ultimately made of abstract vibrations and mathematical truths.

It was a reminder that math isn't just a subject we study; it is, in a very real sense, the language of the universe we live in.