The Left Angle Cross of Limitation (Version 1)

Full breakdown

The power of gate 60 runs through all of this. Maya, from the Sanskrit root 'ma,' means measurement — that's the essence of it, and the essence of our own mind: a dual measuring machine, working with 'this' and 'that.' The reality is that maya is established through limitation — that's how we hold our world together. We build limits, raise a wall, dig a moat, and inside that boundary we make our world. This is the densest plane imaginable, and Limitation exists to bring us into it — to bring us to our limits. 'You can't cross the street right now.' They'll show you exactly that, because it's their job to inform you.

Maya is built two ways: first, things need names — once a thing is named, it takes its place in maya. Second, everything needs limits. From gate 17 onward we've been dealing with time, trying to work out how it functions — 'what is life? Can we live longer?' In maya we run into the densest limitation of all: the limit on our own lifespan. Can we succeed? 'Only if we accept limits,' says this cross, because that's its whole teaching. These people tell us: 'yes, of course it's all illusion, but it's our illusion — you can't do anything about it by standing outside it, because you can't actually get out.' We are in maya, and these people are wonderful teachers of it, constantly reminding us.

But the way they remind us can feel deeply limiting — the ones who put out a hand and say, 'you can't do that, you can't go further, that's a limit.' Understand how important this is: it concerns what can and cannot be completed interpersonally, because it depends on understanding the other person. Someone says, 'I can complete this with you — or not. I can do this with someone else — or not.'