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January 2008 
The Heaven of 33
Posted on Sep 26th, 2007
by 
J.K.
J.K.
This is in Response to the Questions and Reflections for September 26, 2007:
Returning from Tavatimsa
I've been searching for the meaning of "Double Three" for almost five years. Some of you may have noticed it's my title here on Zaadz. To explain its significance and how it relates to this question, I'll need to recall two dreams.
In the first dream I awake from a dead sleep into pure, black nothing. There are zero thoughts or objects; only my 'I' exists. There is a shock, and the thought of death arises instantly. Instinctively, I withdraw back into myself and find that I am in a lucid dream.
A beautiful, luminous Buddha is standing there, the most perfect being I've ever seen, and he is giggling. With a smile and a child's heart in his voice, almost playfully he says, "I did not make that happen to you. I only suggest that you look, and you did. But do not worry. If you ever want to see it again you can. And if you ever need me all you have to do is think of me and I'll be there."
The dream ended with that. I arose from my bed astonished.
A few weeks later I awoke from a deep sleep into another lucid dream. Once again there was darkness, but unlike the time before I found myself standing before the presence of God. Finding that I was also clairaudient, I asked, "Is my understanding of you correct?" The response was "More or less, but you still have a way to go." I then asked "What would you have me know?" And the answer to that was simply "Double Three."
About a month later I had a very beautiful and determinate spiritual experience. It's what defines me to this day. However, even with that experience, I did not learn the meaning of Double Three. I can only assume that it is what is next.
I've looked at many possible explanations, and one of the most promising is a curious place called the Heaven of 33. My information on it is sketchy. Loosely, I understand it's one of the Buddhist heavens that can be reached by accumulated merit. It's also called Tavatimsa. The Buddha is said to have spent one rainy season there preaching to his mother after she died. A brief description and Jataka tale follow below.
- Tavatimsa / Heaven of 33
Access: Public
Beautiful dream and recall. I'm envious of you lucid dreamers.
The first thing that comes to mind is the obvious. The triangle is the fundamental unit of architecture, mathematics and any attempt, really, to make sense of the physical universe. Take another triangle, representing, perhaps, the metaphysical universe and impose it on the first and you get a hexagram. That symbol was so important to David and Solomon that it has become the primary symbol of Israel and Judaism. But the hexagram was also important to Zarathustra, for example, and it shows up all over the occult. My sense is that these primary symbols pop up here and there across the world, across history, because they resonate with something real about our existence.
Just as a conversation starter, more than anything else, take that symbology and apply it to human existence. Let the first triangle represent our obvious selves… mind, body and spirit. Then the second triangle represents the mystery… the metaphysical counterpart to mind, body, spirit… perhaps that trinity represented in Christian myth as father, son and holy ghost, the three parts of God.
j…admit it…you just want to be able to have four wives! lol.
Thanks for the feedback, Nalukataq. You have some good ideas. It was perceptive of you to note that 'double three' might not be thirty-three. I've thought the same thing many times, and the triangle is a good example. The symbol for infinity also comes to mind especially since we could see that with a mirror. Here's a favorite quote:
“Wouldn't it be wild if we all woke up one day and realized all we'd really been doing all this time was looking in a mirror?”
I think if we did that something close to the idea of infinity would be what we perceived, but because there are so many other possible explanations I'm left here simply waiting for something to arise that makes the meaning clear. I sense that I can't speed the answer up.
If this subject sparks an interest and you want to get an idea of how many angles I'm talking about you might enjoy visiting this website. It's called The Mystery of 33, and the author, named Adam, has put together a mind boggling list. I keep a copy of the list here just in case the website ever goes offline. – And again, thanks for your post!.
haha… Star, maybe that's it. ;)
double 3 could also mean 6…which is the symbol for self-realization…
Wow J.K., what fascinating dreams!! (sounds like something from a book by C.G. Jung!) Thank you for sharing your experiences with us. Couldn't help thinking that perhaps double 3 is 3-to-the-power-of-3, or an nebulous reference to constellations such as Orion/Osiris, (though the first thing that struck me was the 33 degrees in some rites of freemasonry). From everything I've ever read about dream interpretation, what's most (and only) important is the subjective – what meaning it has for you, the dreamer. I mean, afterall, what does this 33 year old know about anything?
Cheers,
Andy
Thanks, Andy. Those are also good ideas. Ironically, in naming them you help me further define the pickle. There are so many good ideas I just can't choose. That's why I said I didn't think I could speed up the answer. I suspect one day it will come to me just as effortlessly as the dreams, but until then I don't think I can solve this as a riddle. I'm curious, but think that understanding it involves other means. What those are I just don't know.
Hi J.K.,
Driving in this morning I was listening to an interview of a guy whose ideas I've been exploring this past week, Fr. Charles Moore. When I heard the conclusion of the interview and I heard his description, I thought it sounded like Double 3. I took a few minutes to transcribe that section, thought you might find it parts of it contentious, but perhaps revealing & helpful…
There is nothing gentler than the presence of the divine in all of us, and nothing more powerful. I have a way of saying this is powerful, and it's a diagram of Solomon's Seal, which is a spherical triangle, one inside the other, both golden, and it makes a corridor. It suggests a whole mine, a hall of mirrors in there. One of the greatest, most important spiritual exercises is to find a mirror, and take your hand mirror, and then go between the two mirrors and watch how it leads off in both directions. I call that the Hall of Mirrors. It always turns to the right. Very interesting. And a mystical thing happens to you. I first did it when I was fourteen. Solomon's Seal is really about this hall of mirrors that comes from looking within. Ecstasy means to stand outside yourself and look within - that's what ecstasy means. And this ecstasy of the discovery of truth and the insight into the presence of the divine comes from looking within. Ah-ha! Well, well. Now, Carl Jung did some marvelous research in which he pointed out the two alternative aspects of ourselves: one is the self he calls it, and the other is the ego. I keep coming back to this… when you depress self-respect, the ego grows up out of sight to compensate, and that is schizophrenia. But the Hindus say you're supposed to concentrate on getting rid of the ego. They're making a terrible mistake. That's not what we ought to do; we instead raise our self-respect. And when we raise our self-respect, the ego comes back down again. I have a thesis about that: that it's the feminine in us that understands that. The male is too much locked into the testosterone and the ego to grasp the fact that you don't have to fight, you just have to supplement. If you supplement and nourish the self, the ego comes obligingly down, and the two come together and become helpful to each other instead of opponents. And this is what Jung calls the psyche. The psyche contains natural divinity, the natural divinity of the human psyche. And how does this all happen? Well, it's between the two columns: the ego and the self. They are joined together by the Egyptian winged disc, which is also an arc of the ages. And it's a door in between that opens, and that's Solomon's Seal. And as the door opens, you proceed into the Hall of Mirrors, and you perceive the presence of the manifesting power with your heart-mind, dwelling behind the curve at the end of the Hall of Mirrors which goes on infinitely. And as you perceive that presence, you are filled with the joy of life, and the purpose of it, without being able to describe it because you don't need to describe something you know.
Thanks, Andy. You spurred my interest enough to do a search, and guess what I found on Google? - A recent post of your's is currently ranked #5 for the query Fr. Charles Moore. ;)
Another friend recently pointed out the Seal of Solomon, and I must say it's interesting, but I especially like the reference to mirrors. I have two signature quotes. Here are both:
“It's a game. In the end, you spin a football.”
“Wouldn't it be wild if we all woke up one day and realized all we'd really been doing all this time was looking in a mirror?”