There is a verse that says “As far as the East is from the West, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us”. KJV. Psalms 103:12.
When most people hear that verse, they think that as far “as the east is from the west” should be a really great distance.
The common meaning and interpretation are this:
If you started heading north, and just kept going, eventually you would loop over the top of the earth and begin heading South.
And then, after a while, you would reach the bottom of the earth and would begin heading North again.
So North and South can change back and forth in that way.
But East and West can’t.
Therefore, if you start traveling East, you will be forever traveling East.
East won’t become something else.
It won’t change to West.
Traveling West is the same thing.
If you travel West, you would just keep traveling West, without it becoming another direction.
The one never becomes the other, so they are infinitely separated, in the same way that your transgressions will be put far from you. and this explanation seems to fit the verse.
That your transgressions, sins, or missings of the mark will be removed from you by such a great distance.
However, there is an unknown mystical explanation that is perhaps better.
This spiritual exercise will help you experientially understand the meaning of the verse Psalms 103:12 KJV, which says, “As far as the East is from the West, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”
Table of Contents
This Exercise Points You To The Actual Place That Is As Far As The East Is From The West.
If you stand facing North and extend your arms out to the sides, from there, you will realize that your right arm is extending to the East, and your left arm is extending to the West.
You also have an East hand and a West hand.
It is helpful to have a little sticker or piece of tape to mark each of these locations, but you can still read along and understand it without the stickers.
Place the sticker that says East on your East hand, and the sticker that says West on your West hand, and then re-extend your arms outward to the sides.
Next, you also have an East elbow and a West elbow.
Take the East sticker from your East hand, and place that East sticker on the East elbow.
Take the West sticker from your West hand, place that West sticker on the West elbow, and then re-extend your arms once more, outward to the sides.
You also have an East shoulder and a West shoulder.
Place the East sticker on the East shoulder, and the West sticker on the West shoulder.
You also have an East side of the chest and a West side of the chest.
Place the East sticker on the East side of the chest, and the West sticker on the West side of the chest.
And your sternum, that bone right in the center of your chest, has an east side, where the east ribs connect. Place the East sticker on the place where the east ribs connect to the sternum.
Place the West sticker on the place where the West ribs connect to the sternum.
And as you do this, you will realize that the place that separates the East from the West is a straight and narrow place, in the exact place where you are.
Smack dab where you are.
Mystical Meaning Of The Verse: As Far As The East Is From The West…KJV Psalms 103:12.
Some people wonder about the mystical meaning of that verse.
The word “transgressions” means sin.
Sin is an archery term that means “missing the mark”, missing the bullseye.
Holding to that place beyond directionality, before the opposites arose, you are actually in the place that doesn’t miss the mark and the very same place that is “as far as the East is from the West”.
It isn’t to the right of you, because that would be East.
It isn’t to the left of you, because that would be West.
And even if you changed direction.
If you turned around and faced south, though the designation of your east arm and west arm would change, the constant is that straight and narrow place that separates them.
It is beyond opposites, and changelessly, in the exact place where you are standing.
It is the place where you point to when you say, Here I Am. This is Me.
This changeless place is not different than that which existed before the missings of the mark, before the arising of directionalities, before the arising of East and West in creation, and It is still there.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.
That is why there is the scriptural writing that says, “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” It is in Luke 17:21.
It isn’t obtained by going anxiously outward, or toward any outward shakable thing that can be sought after or newly arrived at.
You Are Already In The Sweet Spot.
You are already in the sweet spot- at the ground zero of your existence.
This is the place that you abide in and surf.
And it is because you are surfing this place, that you can recognize at the earliest departure, any leaning, any missing the mark, and find and return to that center. Not as a lean, not as a movement, but as a reconciliation.
So by selecting those two points, you have set up the equivalent of a yoke, or an old-fashioned scale within the human frame and are accurately detecting the subtlest departure from balance.
And you use all your heart, might, mind, and strength to “love Me more than these”, to “abide in Me”, and to have it preeminent over anything in the changing, external world.
You are not involved in the toiling and spinning of external efforting in the outer world, but rather, in the choosing, and holding to “the One good thing”.
This is the mystical explanation of the verse which asks, “…do you love Me more than these?” John 21:15
How To Find This Place Between Opposites.
This straight and narrow place between opposites, between East and West, this path, or way is not different from the location of the point you point to when you say, “This is Me”.
Indeed, when you point to yourself and say, “This is Me”, you wouldn’t point too far to the right of yourself, and you also wouldn’t point too far to the left of yourself.
But you would point directly at yourself and say, “Here I Am”.
This exact pristine place is found in the place between those two opposites.
And there is a place, a path, or a way between opposites, which is straight and narrow, that few find. It is that which separates the missings of the mark from you as far as the East is from the West.
Final Thoughts
There is a straight and narrow place mentioned in scripture.
A place which is as a “Treasure Hidden in a Field”.
It is possible to use the human frame to set up the equivalent of that Christian yoke, or old-fashioned scale, to gather two or more points, and to know what is in the midst of them; surfing the place between opposites.
This article describes how to find, abide in, and mystically surf this place: How To Surf Or Skateboard Without A Board: (The Spiritual Exercises).