All Blog Posts (32)

Enlightenment and the Logic of Being

In the Hindu renunciatory traditions, in particular Vedanta, the basic impetus driving the quest for release and "enlightenment" is the existential need to face, and in the end, overcome, death. This need, this impetus, can be traced through the Upanishads, back through the Brahmanas, back to the Aryan sacrificial cult itself. The cult was based upon the primordial duality of life and death, and the recognition that life comes from death. Later, the pure ritualism of the Brahmanas attempted…

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Added by kelamuni on January 31, 2011 at 7:50pm — No Comments

Hyperbole in Wilber's Rhetoric

I have at times referred to Kenny's use of hyperbole when referring to other individuals or their teachings. I take it that Kenny has picked up this particular rhetorical modality from the materials he uses, and that these materials in turn derive their attitude from tradition itself which has set certain precedents. In other words, my sense is that this curious penchant for hyperbole derives, at least in part, from tradition itself, specifically from the attitiude toward the "great sage" or…

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Added by kelamuni on January 31, 2011 at 7:48pm — No Comments

On the Use of the Term "Causal" in Wilber's Writings

The term "causal" (karana) can be traced back to the Book One of the Gaudapada Karika. Here are the pertinent verses:



11 Visva and Taijasa are conditioned by cause and effect. Prajna is conditioned by cause alone. Neither cause nor effect exists in Turiya.

12 Prajna does not know anything of self or non-self, of truth or untruth. But Turiya is ever existent and all-seeing.

13 Non-cognition of duality is common to both Prajna and Turiya. But Prajna…

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Added by kelamuni on January 31, 2011 at 7:47pm — No Comments

Wilber and Adi Da's Nirvanasara

It is fairly clear that even in Integral Spirituality, Ken remains attached to views put forward by Franklin Jones in Nirvanasara.



Whenever Ken instanciates "causal formlessness" with the "classical nirvana" of Hinayana Buddhism, he basically evokes views put forward in Nirvanasara, though Goleman's reification of Theravada "nirvana" in Varieties of the Meditative Experience can also be said to be at work in Ken's characterization.



As…

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Added by kelamuni on January 31, 2011 at 7:42pm — 4 Comments

Wilber on Translation and Transformation

Wilber's One Taste, which contains a series of journal entries edited for public consumption, contains a reflection on "transformation" and its relation with what he calls "translation" (One Taste, pp. 26-37). The journal entry is reprinted online as "A Spirituality that Transforms," and the core of the entry, a discussion of the distinction between transformation and translation, can be found in The Essential Ken Wilber.

In his journal entry, Wilber takes…

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Added by kelamuni on January 31, 2011 at 7:38pm — 1 Comment

Wilber on View and No View

In Integral Spirituality, Ken writes:

When one is in deep meditation or contemplation, touching even that which is formless and unmanifest-the purest emptiness of cessation-there are of course no conceptual forms arising. This pure "nonconceptual" mind-a causal state of formlessness-is an essential part of our liberation, realization, and enlightenment.



In the Theravada, or early Buddhism, this formless state of cessation (e.g., nirvikalpa, nirvana,…

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Added by kelamuni on January 31, 2011 at 7:35pm — 1 Comment

Structures and States in Wilber's Recent Work

One thing that is noticable in Wilber's most recent work is a continuing refinement and adjustment of the relationship between "states," "structures," and "stages." Gone, for example, is the highly problematic, and perhaps ridiculous, idea that we are all, somehow or other, "evolving" into the "subtle mind stage" of human development, as if, someday, the future evolution of man will involve everyone walking around in a dream-state.



In Integral Spirituality Wilber attempts…

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Added by kelamuni on January 31, 2011 at 7:30pm — No Comments

Wilber on Advaita Vedanta

On pages 201-205 of One Taste, after indulging in his typical penchant for hyperbole, Wilber offers us his "Introduction" to Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi. He says:

Ramana, echoing Shankara, used to say:



The world is illusory;

Brahman alone is real;

Brahman is the world.



The world is illusory, which means you are not any object at all -- nothing that can be seen is ultimately real. You…

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Added by kelamuni on January 31, 2011 at 7:30pm — 1 Comment

Facing Reality

Ever noticed that even though you can’t see your own physical face directly, you nonetheless know quite accurately how your own face looks in any given situation? It is as if you were looking at yourself from the outside. Obviously, the hours we've all spent standing in front of a mirror has resulted in the fascinating ability to generate an internal visual representation of your own face from within your…
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Added by Dawid Dahl on January 25, 2011 at 3:00pm — 2 Comments

Experiential evidence

Experiential evidence



“Do not go by oral tradition, by lineage of teaching, by hearsay, by a collection of texts, by inferential reasoning, by reasoned cogitation, by the acceptance of a view after pondering it, by the seeming competence of a speaker, or because you think, ‘The ascetic is our teacher.’ But when you know for yourselves, ‘These things are wholesome; these things are blameless; these things are praised by the wise;…

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Added by rltruthseeker on July 12, 2010 at 10:52pm — No Comments

Virtual Reality, Integral Consciousness, and TSK

The following is a blog post from a couple years ago. I'm reposting it now because I've discovered a nice video of the virtual art installation the blog is based on, which I'll post in a reply below.

Recently, through an essay by Ron Purser (a professor at San Francisco State University and a writer on TSK, Gebser, and related topics), I was introduced to the fascinating virtual art of Char…

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Added by Balder on May 8, 2010 at 1:21pm — 3 Comments

Raimon Panikkar vs. The New Atheists: The Ultimate Smackdown



In honor of Fr. Panikkar's recent passing, I am resurrecting an old blog on his work that I wrote several years ago. I wrote the blog in the context of an ongoing blogosphere debate, at the time, around the work of the so-called New Atheists and the role…

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Added by Balder on April 1, 2010 at 11:30am — 1 Comment

What paths lie ahead for religion and spirituality in the 21st Century? How might the insights of modernity and post-modernity impact and inform humanity's ancient wisdom traditions? How are we to enact, together, new spiritual visions – independently, or within our respective traditions – that can respond adequately to the challenges of our times?

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