Unity & Inter-dependence
'We are all One BIG Family!'

A human being is part of a whole, called by us the ‘Universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

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Common be your prayer;
Common be your goal;
Common be your purpose;
Common be your deliberation
Common be your wishes,
Your Hearts in Concord,
Your intentions in concord,
Perfect be the union among you.

-Rig Veda

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Jean-Jacques, one of the fathers of the modern Church, has said that "the first man who dared enclose and cultivate a piece of land " was the enemy "of the human race," that he should have been exterminated, and that " the fruits of the earth are for all, and that the land belongs to none "?

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If we are interdependent with everything and everyone, even our smallest, least significant thought, word, and action have real consequences throughout the universe.

Throw a pebble into a pond. It sends a shiver across the surface of the water. Ripples merge into one another and create new ones. Everything is inextricably interrelated: We come to realize that we are responsible for everything we do, say, or think, responsible in fact for ourselves, everyone and everything else, and the entire universe. Sogyal Rinpoche

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In today’s highly interdependent world, individuals and nations can no longer resolve many of their problems by themselves. We need one another. We must therefore develop a sense of universal responsibility . . . It is our collective and individual responsibility to protect and nurture the global family, to support its weaker members, and to preserve and tend to the environment in which we all live.

THE DALAI LAMA

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HINDUISM AND THE TEACHINGS OF SAI BABA

"There is only one religion, the religion of love.
There is only one language, the language of the heart.
There is only one race, the race of humanity.
There is only one GOD and He is Omnipresent."

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Hierarchies - excerpt by Ken Wilber

Much of the pluralistic misunderstanding of hierachy and its place in natural growth and development. Notice that each of the memes views the notion of hierarchy.

Purple (magic) recognizes few hierarchies, largely because as we see, it is preformal and preconventional.

Red (egocentric power) recognizes hierarchies of brute force (the basis of feudal empires),

Blue (Mythic order) has numersous and very rigid social hierarchies, such as the hereditary caste system, and hierarchies of the medieval church, and the intense social stratification of feudal empires and early nations.

Orange (individual achievement) decisively erodes blue hierarchies in the name of individual freedom and equal opportunity (orange hierarchies are quite distinct from blue hierarchies in that heredity and privilege yield to meritocracy and excellence)

By the time we get to Green, however, the sensitive self begins a concerted attack on , and condemnation of, virtually all types of hierarchies, simply because they have indeed often been involved in horrible social oppression. An aggressive antihierarchy stance is usualy an unmistakable hallmark of the green meme.

But with the emergence of second tier, hierarchies again return, this time in a softer, nested fashion. These nested hierarchies are often called growth hiersarchies, such as the hierarchy atoms to molecules to cell to organisms to ecosystems to biosphere to universe.

Each of those units, no matter how "lowly", is absolutely crucial for the entire sequence: destroy all atoms an you simultaneously destroy all molecules, cells, ecosystems, and so on.

At the same time, each senior wave enfolds or envelopes its predecessors - ecosystems contain organisms which contain cells which contain molecules - a development that is envelopment.

And thus each wave becomes more inclusive, more embracing, more integral - and less marginalizing, less exclusionary, less oppressive. (Each successive wave transcends and includes" - transcends its own narrowness to include others.)

The development spiral itself is a nested hierarchy or growth hierarchy, as are most natural growth processes. And, indeed, Beck and Cowan point out that nested hierarchies are a hallmark of second - tier thinking.

Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice and the Blade, calls attention to this important distinction by referring to "dominator hierarchies" and "actualization hierarchies." The former are the rigid social hierarchies that are instruments of oppression, and the latter are the growth hierarchies that are actually necessary for the self-actualization of individuals

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According to Sex,Ecologym Spirituality (SES) reality is fundamentally, composed not of particles, quarks, pointless dimensions, strings or membranes - but of holons.

A holon is a whole that is simultaneuosly a part of other wholes.

For example,

a whole quark is a part of a whole proton;
a whole proton is part of a whole atom;
a whole atom is part of a whole molecule;
a whole molecule is part of a whole cell;
which is part of a whole organism;
which is part of the whole Kosmos,
which is a part of a the whole Kosmos of the next moment,
and so ad infinitum
(what SES call "turtles all the way up, all the way down").

What all of those entities are, before they are anything else, are holons - they are whole /parts. The Kosmos is made of holons at various levels of organization (physical holons, emotional holons, mental holons, spiritual holons). This insight relieves us from saying that , for example the entire Kosmos is made of nothing but quarks, which is horribly reductionistic.

Rather each higher level of holons has emergent qualities that cannot be derived from , nor totally reduced to, its junior levels - and this gives us the Kosmos, not merely the cosmos.

The lower level of organization of a holon, the more fundamental it is; the higher the level, the more significant it is. Thus a quark is a very fundamental holon, because it is a part of so many other wholes (it is a sub-holon in atoms, molecules, cells etc.) A cell, on the other hand is more significant, because being higher on an organizational scale, it contains so many other holons within its own makeup (it contains, or signifies, molecules and atoms and quarks). Thus, the lower holons are more fundamental, the higher holons are more significant.The lower holons are necessary, but not sufficient, ingredients of the higher holons, which in turn give meaning to the lower holons. The higher holons contain more being because they contain so many other holons within their own makeup.

As explained in SES, there is ample evidence that there are no upper limits to holons ("turtles all the way up"). The question is, are there any lower limits? That is, are there any truly fundamental holons (which would be, by definition, parts of other wholes, but containing no parts themselves)? Is it turtles all the way down, too, or do we run into fundamental holons that cannot be further divided?

My (Ken Wilber's) position in SES is that it is, and always will be turtles all the way up and down - that every time we find what we think are the most fundamental units or holons, they are eventually found to contain even more fundamental holons. I suggested that, in fact, each time human consciousness evolves to a higher and more powerful level, it will discover deeper and more fundamental holons, and this is basically unending.

Well, string theory is just another

Above Excerpt from - The Theory of Everything, by Ken Wilber - Shambhala Press

 

All Quadrant, All-Level

The guiding vision of Integral Institute is best summarized by the phrase "all-quadrant, all-level" (AQAL). Although this phrase is taken specifically from the work of Ken Wilber, the idea itself is very general. It is basically a union of perhaps the two most widely shared cross-cultural views about reality: the Great Chain of Being; and first-, second-, and third-person dimensions.

The Great Chain maintains that reality consists of increasingly inclusive spheres of being and knowing, stretching from body to mind to soul to spirit. Each senior sphere "transcends but includes" its juniors, much as a cell transcends but includes molecules, which transcend but include atoms. Thus, spirit transcends but includes soul, which transcends but includes mind, which transcends but includes body--a series of concentric spheres reaching from dust to Deity.

The Great Chain is thus something of a misnomer. These levels are not linked in a linear fashion, like a chain; rather, each senior enfolds, includes, and embraces its juniors--it's really the Great Nest of Being. Although some cultural relativists have spent much of their time trying to deny the existence of anything universal (except for their own pronouncements), scholars of the world's wisdom traditions point out that virtually all of the great spiritual systems recognize at least these four realms of reality. (See, for example, Huston Smith's Forgotten Truth or Roger Walsh's Essential Spirituality.)

Thus, the "all-level" part of "all-quadrant, all-level" refers to the Great Nest of Being in any of its legitimate versions. The "all-quadrant" part refers to the fact that every major human language possesses first-, second-, and third-person pronouns--"I," "we," and "it"--which refer to subjective, intersubjective, and objective dimensions of reality (e.g., art, morals, and science; the Beautiful, the Good, and the True; Buddha, Sangha, and Dharma; self, culture, and nature, and so on).

The reason that every language contains these three pronouns is that language evolved in response to these very real dimensions, and these real dimensions are universally reflected in the structure of language itself.

Although scientific materialism spends much of its time trying to deny reality to the "I" and "we" dimensions and reduce the entire Kosmos to third-person "it" language, the effort is ultimately futile, as the structure of any existing language tells us. The point is that any integral view would want to honor and include the "I," "we," and "it" dimensions--would want to make room for art, morals, and science; the Beautiful, the Good, and the True; self, culture, and nature. (The "it" domain can be subdivided into singular and plural--it and its--and thus these four dimensions are also referred to as "the four quadrants.")

These two major realities (the Great Nest and the three dimensions), which are recognized by every major culture the world over, actually fit together quite specifically. Basically, each and every level of reality (body to mind to soul to spirit) has these four dimensions or four quadrants, so that we want to include body, mind, soul, and spirit as they manifest in self, culture, and nature. Thus, any truly integral view would be, at the very least, "all-quadrant, all-level." The only "requirement" for associates of Integral Institute is that they are comfortable with an AQAL view, since that is the general vision that guides the Institute itself. This is, after all, nothing but a combination the two basic realities recognized by every major culture the world over.

Excerpts from Ken Wilber's web forum

http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/formation_int_inst.cfm

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Come Together

by Andrew Cohen

[The following article was written as an introduction to the Spring/Summer 2001 issue of What Is Enlightenment? magazine, which explored the question "Can Enlightenment Save the World?" It comes to Enlightenment.Com by special arrangement with What Is Enlightenment? magazine.]

"In unity there is strength," the great Swami Krishnananda declared to the audience sitting before him in the satsang hall of his guru's ashram. It was 1984 and I was visiting Rishikesh, the holy pilgrimage town in the foothills of the Himalayas on the River Ganges. As the swami spoke, I was drawn into another dimension, beyond time. As this diminutive man gave his afternoon discourse, an extraordinary power entered the room; it was as if Krishna was revealing his true face to us, if only for an instant. "From the beyond there is a whisper," he said to us, "and if you listen closely enough, you will hear that whisper become a raging chorus, imploring all those who have the ears to hear its call to 'Come together-in unity there is strength.'

" He repeated the message again, "In unity there is strength. Come together, come together, come together. In unity there is strength, come together." I was stunned, overwhelmed, not by what he said but by how he said it. Indeed, by where those words had come from. I had never heard anything like it. It was so simple, and yet, it was everything. It was as if the swami had lifted the veil of illusion, however temporarily, allowing us all to hear the voice of God, or more importantly, the wish of our Maker: to come together in Her form; to come together as ONE.

It has always seemed obvious to me that the inevitable response to the spiritual experience should be the awakening of the impersonal desire to come together with others as one. The spiritual experience that liberates is the revelation of perfect nonduality, that glimpse of ultimacy that awakens in us the recognition of our own true nature-one without a second. Yet that awakening, for too many of us, more often than not remains only an inner experience. But, in the end, doesn't the fulfillment of that inner revelation of wholeness, of nonduality, have to be the outer manifestation of nonseparation?

Ever since I began teaching fifteen years ago, I have never been able to separate one from the other. And when an individual's experience of revelation was not followed by a spontaneous and ever-deepening experience of communion with others, I always doubted the depth and ultimate significance of what had occurred. Coming together, as Swami Krishnananda proclaimed, is what it's all about. More and more experts today seem to agree that the solution to the current world crisis of globalization, overpopulation, grinding poverty, pollution, and desecration of the natural environment, not to mention the spread of weapons of mass destruction, is not political or technological but spiritual. But what they seem to be not so clear about is how. And "How?" of course, is the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question.

The solution is spiritual, and that solution inevitably requires us to find a way to come together for the sake of everyone's survival, including all of life on the planet. But coming together seems to be the greatest challenge for the individual and for us as a species. In times of intense crisis like natural disasters or war, we do find reasons to come together, but interestingly enough, when the need to come together arises from a deeper calling, a spiritual calling that emanates from a more delicate and subtle place in our own selves, it is much harder for us to find the willingness or even the interest to do it. I have been doing battle in this arena for a long time now. Endeavoring to inspire human beings to try to come together for the highest of reasons: so that the spiritual revelation can become manifest here on mother earth. So that we can actually manifest that recognition of nonduality or perfect nonseparation as ourselves together. That is, after all, the ultimate fulfillment of the spiritual vision-where the inner revelation has become the outer reality.

Where we all have become empty vessels, transparent manifestations of that one Self as many, free from any need to see ourselves as being separate, free from any and all ego motivation to create separation on any level, gross or subtle. Then and only then will heaven become manifest right here on this earth.

But we don't want to do it. We don't want to go that far. Not yet. Not now. Never now. We have to begin to recognize that as long as the desire to be separate-to see ourselves as standing outside of or separate from others, from the world, from the whole universe-remains intact, it is inevitable that we will always find some reasonable justification to act out of ignorance or selfishness in ways that will cause harm. And it is that very desire to remain separate and to see ourselves as being separate, standing outside of and apart from the whole, that is, from the perspective of enlightenment, the manifestation of ego-the separate sense of self that can and will do almost anything to not have to surrender. Surrender for the sake of love, surrender for the sake of truth, surrender for everyone else's sake.

What motivates us to come together for a larger purpose is rarely more than survival or a mutual self-interest that caters strictly to the fears and desires of the separate sense of self. I remember, one day during the Gulf War, seeing on television row upon row of tank battalions moving forward in the desert, as the news commentator was explaining how many thousands of men and women had had to come together in a rare and highly refined degree of organization in order to support this extraordinary display of cooperation. In that moment, I was overcome by emotion; I was moved, deeply and profoundly-not by what they were doing, but simply by the recognition that that many people had truly been able to come together, if only momentarily, as one. If we do manage to pull ourselves together for the sake of our very survival, for the survival of our sons and daughters and of all the plants and animals and of the biosphere itself, will the sacrifices have been enough to catapult us into a completely different relationship to life and death? A relationship to life and death in which what would motivate us toward self-sacrifice would no longer merely be the preservation of life but would in fact be the evolution of life? What is evolution?

From the spiritual perspective, evolution is the movement from a self-centered relationship to life to one that is based upon the direct apprehension of the inherently undivided nature of life itself. It is that knowledge alone, directly perceived and recognized, that will have the power to completely transform our relationship to what it actually means to be a citizen of Spaceship Earth. Our evolutionary potential is so extraordinary, and yet now everything hangs in the balance. It's up to each and every one of us-not for our own sake, but for the sake of life itself. . . .

In unity there is strength. Come together, come together, come together.

Copyright Moksha Press 2001

Andrew Cohen has been a teacher of spiritual liberation since 1986. He is the founder of the award-winning magazine What Is Enlightenment? and author of numerous books on spiritual life, including the recently released Embracing Heaven & Earth. For more information about Andrew Cohen and his teachings please visit www.andrewcohen.org

What we do, say, think, and feel today will have an effect on tomorrow, spreading like ripples in a pond

This planet is our home - 1 planet - Our environment - our common ground

We are already united we just need to be in the position to be aware of it.

We are all cells on the body of God / Universe

We are linked physically through our breath and karma, emotionally through laughter and crying and karma, mentally through our thoughts and karma

Interconnectedness / Interdependence / Oneness / Unity of Life

The view of interdependence makes for a great openness of mind. In general, instead of realizing that what we expereince arises from a complicated network of causes, we tend to attribute happines or sadness, for example, to single, individual sources. But if this were so, as soon as we came into contact with what we consider to be good, we would be automatically happy, and conversely, in the case of bad things, invariably sad. The causes of joy and sorrow would be easy to identify and target. It would all be very simple, and there would be good reason for our anger and attachment. When, on the other hand, we consider that everything we experience results from a complex interplay of causes and conditions, we find that there is no single thing to desire or resent, and it is more difficult for the afflictions of attachments or anger to arise. In this way, the view of interdependence makes our minds more relaxed and open.

The Dalai Lama, A Flash of Lightning in the Dark of Night

We are all connected on all levels -

Physical Level

• by our breath - we breath the same air as Jesus and Buddha breathed (however there's probably less oxygen and more pollution now!)
• we exchange neutrinos every second, in fifty years you will have a different set of molecules in your body, in a month your liver will have new set of cells
• by our composition - we are all made up from the Same stuff Stars are made of - carbon, hydrogen, oxygen
• by performing similar actions - eg. by touching, feeling, hurting
• by our food chain, ecological web / systems
• by our environment - we are all on the same planet - walking the same Earth, drinking water that is connected to the whole world.
• by our genes & dna - in fact human DNA is very similar around the world.
• we are made from cells, molecules, atoms, protons, quarks, neutrinos

So water, hydrogen, breathing, and the Sun are very close to our fundamental true physical essence / source

Emotional Level

• Laughter & Sadness are contagious
• People are affected by moods of others -
• we are constantly transfering energy -stealing or losing energy
• we are triggered by similar predictable phenomena

so the potential for laughter and sadness is in our true nature

Mental Level

• when people meet in crowds / groups - people act as one - group think
• people can tap into Collective unconscious / subconscious
• telepathy - (although not strictly limited to the mental level) people can read other people's minds - or so it seems - also people get the same thoughts at same time - eg, patents - DNA
• Astral projection travelling, remote viewing, - seeing / feeling other space-times
• People with still, peaceful minds influence a shift in consciousness in others eg. Jesus, Mother Teresa etc.

peace, tranquility, boundlessness, non-locality, are close to our true essence

Spiritual Level

• We are one, we always were and will be one - the Great Breath of Life, The Great Spirit,
• Our higher self awareness is much closer to our true essence - which is Spirit - all pervading, non local, not limited by time or space
• Inspiration, Enthusiasm, Courage, Patience, Vigilence, Justice, Non-Judgement, Generosity, Compassion, Honesty, Integrity, Unconditional Love, are contagious and our natural state of being

Virtues, Love, Awareness is our True Nature

Karmic Level

While in existence we are connected through Karma - Law of Cause & Effect how you sow shall you reap, - on physical, mental, emotional, levels. On spiritual level there is no karma, there is just pure being and non being / unmanifest - pure potential for Karma to arise

So we see that no act is insignificant - a butterfly's wings can seem to cause a avalanche on the other side of the globe - we are all interconnected whether we like it or not!

In fact as one gets into it one realises - where does self finish? where are the boundaries of self - where does the mind finish? who set the boundaries?

some teach there is no self - as in no separate entity from the oneness of being

others teach we are individuals simultaneously in union

We are always in balance and connected. Imbalance and separation is an illusion.

We are always in union with GOD / Higher awareness - we just need to be in the position to experience it

awareness, holistic view

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We need to be whole - not split

Most people are so divided

Self divides under pressure.

One versus the Many

Singularity Constant

We need to unite:

• Seen with the Unseen
• Personal with Impersonal
• Material & Spiritual
• All pairs of opposites
• Motives and actions
• Walk & Talk
• Love & Awareness

Awareness of self as separate needs to drop ie. be un-self-consciously conscious, fully engaged and attentive in the present moment.

Freedom is the drop of limitation.

Can't integrate real with false. Need to drop the false.

It is ironic that people unite most during times of war - when they need to drop their self concernes for the greater good of all.

We need to come together to change the world - coming together for the sake of coming together - sharing, supporting, understanding and loving - and not for the sake of war.

what would life of love and service to all be like?!

Based on principles of

• Differentiate and integrate all styles, culture etc.
• Transcend and include all views
• Respect all
• Equality of opportunity for self expression
• Treat our neighnour like ourselves
• See Divine in all people
• External Law & Internal Wisdom united

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Sri Aurobindo wrote The Synthesis of Yoga , pioneering his integral approach to that field, and Haridas Chaudhuri, one of his students, wrote Integral Yoga ; he also founded the Californian Institute of Integral (formerly Eastern) Studies. For several years, Wilber has used the term "integral" for his approach too, as is evidenced by one of his most recent books, Integral Psychology (2000), and the Integral Institute he founded in the same year. The term "integral" is of course nobody's property, but when Jacobs states "Although he calls his approach an 'integral' theory, it appears more like a summation or at best a synthesis, rather than a unique integration", this looks much like a "more integral than thou" attitude. Moreover, Wilber has given, in Sex, Ecology, Spirituality , a powerfully original ontological and epistemological metasystem that, because of its completeness and coherency, is able to integrate many different systems, including Aurobindo's--Wilber's approach is thus a genuine and highly original integration, not a mere synthesis.

As have many critics of Wilber, Jacobs credits him for having created a magnificent unification of all human knowledge, in which both the scientific and the spiritual dimension are honored. However, at the end of his paper Jacobs gives air to his feeling of disappointment: "Although he incorporates higher spiritual planes in his model and seems to make Spirit the real basis, the model itself is strictly a mental formulation". Such a judgment makes one's mind go blank: how could a theoretical model of the human mind be other then a mental formulation? Wilber is not writing poetry, though he has his lyrical moments, but someone who tries to argue in an academic fashion for a spiritual worldview in a modern and postmodern cultural climate that is hostile or even indifferent to such matters.

As he said in an interview with Yoga Journal in 1987: "The whole thrust of my work is to make spiritual practice legitimate, to give it an academic grounding so people will think twice before they dismiss meditation as some sort of narcissistic withdrawal or oceanic regression. That's all."

That is not the same as reducing spirituality to rationality, as Jacobs seems to suggest throughout his article, as if he is expecting Wilber to provide us with a spiritual philosophy of life that answers all of our problems. Valuable as that may be in itself, Wilber's business may be characterized as the next-best thing. He tries to give a scientifically sound understanding of spirituality, even if that involves changing our very view of science itself. As Wilber has stated on many occasions, he is "a pandit, not a guru", and this in a way says it all. Expecting more from Wilber's presentation will be a major obstacle to any "strictly mental" discussion. Wilber himself again outlines his position in his recent "On the Nature of a Post-Metaphysical Spirituality: Response to Habermas and Weis" [posted on this site].

.............Holons - formop, rules, concepts, words, symbols, images

In cognitive development, for example, we have a developmental series that includes sensation, perception, images, symbols, concepts, rules (conop), and meta-rules (formop), among others. Each of those is a complex whole that includes as parts the previous wholes. Thus, an image is a pictorial representation of a perception--e.g., the mental image of my dog Fido looks more or less like the real Fido. As development continues, verbal symbols emerge, and symbols are images PLUS a nonpictorial capacity--e.g., the symbol or the verbal word "F-i-d-o" is an image that does not itself look like the real Fido--this symbol capacity is thus cognitively harder to accomplish than mere images, but it includes images in its higher makeup--that is, a symbol transcends and includes images.

Going further, a concept is a symbol that can represent not just a single object (the symbol Fido represents a single object), but a class of objects--e.g., the word "dog" represents not just Fido but all dogs--a higher capacity yet. So a concept is a symbol PLUS the capacity to connote--it transcends and includes symbols. Further yet, a rule is a mental operation that can operate on concepts--it transcends and includes concepts. And formop operates on conop--it transcends and includes rules. Thus, in each case, the whole of one level becomes a part of the whole of the next. This is not obvious to mere phenomenology, which is why it is missed by so many systems. But it is a good example of how and why holons are the fundamental entities of the manifest realm, in all four quadrants.--KW]

......

However, Wilber resists the simple explanation of the objective by the subjective -- as Jacobs seems to prefer -- where instead he pleads for a multi-causal analysis (or "all-quadrant, all-level"). As we can read in The Eye of Spirit : "We can now, for example, correlate states of meditative awareness with types of brainwave patterns (without attempting to reduce one to the other). We can monitor psychological shifts that occur with spiritual experience. We can follow the levels of neurotransmitters during psychotherapeutic interventions. We can follow the effects of psychoactive drugs on blood distribution patters in the brain. We can trace the social modes of production and see the corresponding changes in cultural worldviews. We can follow the historical unfolding of cultural worldviews and plot the status of men and women in each period. We can trace the modes of self that correlate with different modes of techno-economic infrastructure. And so on around the quadrants: not simply 'all-level', but 'all-level, all-quadrant'. Thus, modern-day integral studies can do something about which the great traditions rather badly failed: they can trace the spectrum of consciousness not just in its intentional but also in its behavioral, social and cultural manifestations, thus highlighting the importance of a multidimensional approach for a truly comprehensive overview of human consciousness and behavior" (p. 34-35). [See the "simul-tracking" and "tetra-evolution" sections in, for example, "An Integral Theory of Consciousness," V7 of the CW.]

Jacobs saves his strongest objection to the 4Q model for the end of this paragraph: "But the greatest limitation of Wilber's four quadrants is the danger that we may mistake them for something real! The reality he is categorizing and pigeonholing into four quadrants is a single, indivisible whole. Mind's attempt to capture it in clear abstract terms gives us a sense of security and satisfaction, but not real knowledge. Thought and language require the use of concepts and opposites for their self-expression. But whereas Sri Aurobindo constantly reminds us that any such division of reality is only perceptual (being is indivisible), Wilber seems to really believe in the separate existence of these four."

Listen to what Wilber writes in the preface of One Taste (1999), a volume that sings of the Oneness of existence from cover to cover: "If there is a theme to this journal it is that body, mind, and soul are not mutually exclusive. The desires of the flesh, the ideas of the mind, and the luminosities of the soul -- all are perfect expressions of the radiant Spirit that alone inhabits the universe, sublime gestures of that Great Perfection that alone outshines the world. There is only One Taste in the entire Kosmos, and that taste is Divine, whether it appears in the flesh, in the mind, in the soul" (p. viii). Pretty intellectual, huh?

contd...

In an autobiographical article in The Quest , published in 1995, Wilber explains: "The point of my books is not to get people involved in intellectual head trips. That is exactly what my books are attempting to stop, as those who have read them will readily acknowledge."

"So I have attempted to engage these [academic] people in their own game, and to play it very fast and hard, simply to get to this conclusion: at some point, you and I must stop this intellectual head-tripping, and begin actual spiritual practice. We must begin contemplation, or yoga, or satsang, or zazen, or vision quest, or any number of other genuine contemplative practices (there are hundreds of practices, I am mentioning only a few). But we must actually do this as a practice -- not talking religion, not chit-chat, but engaged, concerned, passionate, intense practice. "

And in that practice, all your books, all your thoughts, and all your ideas will fail you miserably. You will burn in the fire of your own primordial awareness, and from the ashes of the smoking ruins of the shattered ego there will spontaneously arise a new destiny in the stream of consciousness itself, and you will be taken, transformed, ravished and transfigured in the glory of the Divine, and you will speak with the tongues of angels and see with the eyes of saints, and glories upon glories will enwrap and uplift your soul, and the lost and found Beloved will whisper in your ear, and the Divine will sparkle so intensely in every sight and sound, the wind will hum the hallowed names of the radiant Divine, while the clouds will crawl across the sky just to call your name, and your very Self will resurrect as the entire Kosmos itself, the haunting sound of one hand clapping in each and every direction, and it all will be undone in that extraordinary hymn -- the hymn of spiritual practice." Now does that leave you breathless, or what?

More Integral Than Thou A Reply to Jacobs' "Response to Ken Wilber's Integral Theory of Consciousness" Frank Visser

(Spiritually we are all one! - there is no karma!)

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related books:

 

The Theory of Everything, Ken Wilber Paperback - 256 pages (April 2001) Gill & Macmillan; ISBN: 0717131637

One Taste, Ken Wilber - Synopsis A glimpse into the personal life and mind of a leading thinker.

Integral Psychology, Ken Wilber

Brief History of Everything Ken Wilber

Book Description

A Brief History of Everything is an engaging, accessible and friendly excursion into the history of consciousness. Wilber examines the course of evolution as the unfolding manifestation of Spirit, from matter (the cosmos) to life (the biosphere) to mind (human consciousness), including the higher stages of spiritual evolution, when Spirit becomes conscious of itself. In each of these domains of evolution, he finds, there are recurring patterns, and by looking closely at these patterns, we can learn much about the predicament of our world and the direction humanity must take if global transformation is to become a reality. Written in question-and-answer format, A Brief History of Everything is a compelling and provocative polemic about some of the most important issues of our time. About the Author Ken Wilber is the author of over a dozen books including Grace and Grit, The Marriage of Sense and Soul and A Theory of Everything.

The Marriage of Sense and Soul Ken Wilber - Book Description

While science has given humans the methods for discovering truth, religion remains the single greatest force for generating meaning. Yet the two are seen as mutually exclusive. In The Marriage of Sense and Soul Ken Wilber brilliantly shows how we can begin to think about science and religion in ways that allow for their reconciliation and union, on terms acceptable to both camps. He proves that science is compatible with the world's religions, and explains why integration is essential for a balanced life. One of the foremost thinkers in the realm of spirituality and mind, Wilber is uniquely qualified to write such a thesis. Synopsis In this work, Wilber shows how we can begin to think about science and religion in ways that allow for their reconcilliation and union, on terms acceptable to both camps

No Boundary , Ken Wilber

Quantum Questions : Mystical Writings of the World's Great Physicists ~Ken Wilber (Editor)

Sex, Ecology, Spirituality ~Ken Wilber

The Book : On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, by Alan Watts

Facets of Unity The Enneagram of Holy Ideas By A. H. Almaas

Related Authors & Teachers

Anaximander, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Plotinus, Lao-Tzu, Nagarjuna. by Karl Jasper

Mahavira, Mohammad, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus Christ...

George Leonard Roger Walsh Eckhart Tolle Don Beck Alan W. Watts

related articles

Rudolf Steiner

God is a DJ - Faithless

We are One - Faithless

• Li Ch'un-Fu's theory of Harmonization of the three teachings ( Confucianism,Taoism and Buddhism) Bartholomew P.M TSUI Journal of Chinese Philosophy Vol.13(1986) PP.69-100

related links

Ken Wilber Forum available on the web A very active Ken Wilber Forum is available at http://www.shambhala.com/wilber

www.growthonline.org

www.worldofkenwilber.com.

Related pages:

related pages

 

• Transformation in the workplace article by Maitreya Ishwara
• Introduction - Consciousness Movement
• Consciousness Projects
• unity
• Sort Planet Out
• sustainability - ecological homes
• business spirit - ethical investors
• USA events of Sept 11th 2001
• Environment

• Service to others
• Cultivate Virtues
  
• true purpose
• meditation
• proper breathing
• healing of the future
• overcome fear
• the negative ego won't survive

• future
• Visons & Prophecies

more: