Is a 3-sided pyramid a real pyramid?

Most people have heard of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, sometimes refer to as Maslow's pyramid. When Abraham Maslow proposed his theory in 1943, it struck a chord with the collective consciousness and it quickly became mainstream. What Maslow proposed was sound but how he presented his idea gave rise to an unexpected side-effect.

Arranged in the shape of a pyramid, the needs are arranged from base to apex...physiological to transcendence. The unintended side-effect is that most of us concentrate on the base first and work upward, leaving transcendence as the last item on our to-do list. Some of us don't have enough resources to get past the first 3 levels. Some of us do have enough resources, but are having so much fun at the first 3 levels and prefer to stay there instead of advancing. The excuses are too many to list here.

Delaying the journey inward for the sake of fulfilling physiological needs first is sad but it happens all too common. I am not here to say anything different about Maslow's proposal, but I do want to rearranging how he presented his needs.

Let's start out with 3 basic “needs”: the love for God, the love for others, and the love for self. And let's make it simple in the begining by arranging them into circles that are linked, specifically called the "trinity circle". The love for self would include most of Maslow's lower needs, the love for others the middle-level needs, and the the love for God the upper level needs.  All three needs are interrelated. None is isolated from the rest.

We can even reshape this trinity circle into the shape of a pyramid in keeping with the original intent of Maslow. It would look like a 3-sided pyramid and its cross-section would look like a triangle with 3 equal areas. No matter where you slice this pyramid from base to apex, the three areas are always present and equal.  So whichever stage you are in your life, you are always aware of all three needs.  Unlike Maslow sequential manner of satisfying needs, this pyramid requires a simultaneous manner.

In case a young whipper-snapper were to pull up this blog 50 years from now and start to rearrange my “rearrangement”, I'm going to make another leap. The trinity circle is actually a symbol of one circle. The love for God, the love for others and the love for self is in actually the same thing... just Love.  And Love must exist along side its counterpart Fear.  So we come full circle to the one symbol that has been around for thousands of years.