Spiritual Solutions

There are two kinds of thinking, horizontal or vertical thinking. Jesus was referring to these different ways of thinking when he said, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” (John 7:24)  

Judging by appearances is horizontal thinking. “Right” judgment is vertical thinking, or “transcendental” thinking, judging according to the wholeness of the Universe. When we trust only to visual appearances, we come away with only a partial understanding of life.

Most of us are conditioned to believe in the hard facts of life and of the material world. But, again, Jesus said, “In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) In other words, there is another way to look at the situation in which you find yourself.

The great inventors and creative thinkers of all the ages have broken out of the material world, the facts at hand, and have rejected current concepts of reality. They all have, in varying degrees, demonstrated a vertical view of what is possible.

On the three-dimensional plane, an idea may be impossible to all standards of measurement. But when viewed vertically, as Jesus said, “All things are possible.” (Matt. 19:26) Vertical, or transcendental, thinking means to surmount, to rise above, to overleap, to surpass, to go beyond and know no bounds. And in a very real sense, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, prayer is “the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view.”

In Exodus 14, we find the story of the people of Israel being led by Moses out of bondage in Egypt to the Promised Land. When they came to the barrier of the Red Sea, with the Pharaoh’s army in full pursuit, the people cried out to Moses “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? . . . it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

But Moses didn’t see the situation as hopeless. He chose vertical thinking, the transcendental view, and said, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today.” In other words, Moses was saying “Stop trying to understand things purely from a human consciousness; there is a higher dimension.” There is a way out; go within and see from a higher perspective, be open to God’s guidance.

So there are two ways of thinking. We can choose either. We can choose horizontal thinking, or we can choose vertical thinking. Horizontal thinking sees the way things are from the standpoint of appearances. It is how we see things. It is thinking about problems and it is therefore a problem-oriented state of mind. Vertical thinking deals with facts in a dynamic way, not denying them but neither accepting them as final nor representing the whole picture. Here we deal with conditions, persons and experiences not as they are, but as they can be. This way of thinking doesn’t just see problems but sees through problems; it is solution-oriented and accepts intuition.

Whenever you find yourself in the midst of a great challenge and you think “this is impossible; only a miracle can save me now,” remember that only a horizontal thinker talks of miracles. This kind of thinking concludes that the only way out of a situation is by supernatural intervention akin to stopping the law of gravity.

Don’t accept surface perceptions and don’t start thinking in terms of impossibilities. “All things are possible” doesn’t deal with miracles. It deals with spiritual law. Beneath your humanness, you can see the Divinity that your are. “Though I may appear to be weak, yet I am whole. Though there seems to be conflict, yet there is peace. Though my purse is empty, yet I am rich in my oneness with all abundance.”

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-seven years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at Spiritual Solutions.

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