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Integral Buddhism Seminar, 2007
Here Ken offers a wonderful synopsis of the difference between structures of consciousness and states of consciousness, and some of the theoretical obstacles he's encountered along the way toward developing this theory. Any of the great spiritual and visionary states of consciousness can be accessed by nearly anyone at any stage of consciousness. How a person will interpret any state experience, transcendent or mundane, will vary enormously depending on his or her level of development. Thus, there are actually “two kinds of higher,” both higher states and higher structures of consciousness. Fail to take either into account, and your ability to accurately understand and resonate with the full spectrum of reality will be severely compromised....
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It can be argued that the distinction between states and structures of consciousness is one of the most important contributions to the religious dialogue in centuries, and will certainly play a fundamental role in the future of spirituality on this planet. Mastery of the various states of consciousness (e.g. gross, subtle, causal, and nondual) determines the amount of freedom you can experience in this lifetime, which can be called "horizontal enlightenment", while development through the many structures of consciousness (e.g. magic, mythic, rational, postmodern, and integral) will determine the degree of fullness you can experience, known as "vertical enlightenment". To be fully enlightened you must therefore be both free and full, and by recognizing these "two kinds of higher" you will greatly enhance the amount of warmth, light, and consciousness you have to share with the rest of the world.
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For thousands of years the tradition of Guru Yoga, or unconditionally submitting yourself to a spiritual teacher, has been a remarkably effective method of helping dislodge people from the confines of chronic self-contraction. However, the practice of surrendering to a Guru has largely been seen as anathema to the modern West, mostly due to the strong cultural currents of rational individualism and postmodern egalitarianism—in this sense, traditional Guru Yoga is a full two epochs behind, and shows little sign of catching up. How can we begin to reconceptualize the Guru in order to survive in the modern and postmodern worlds, helping to craft a new form of "Spirit in 2nd-person" for the 21st Century?
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American writer O. Henry once said, in regard to his relationship with alcoholism, that he "was born six drinks under par." In such irreverent wit we can discern a valuable lesson for any integral practitioner—many of us are born with certain genetic ailments and other health issues, which often means a life of acute suffering, especially without access to proper medical treatment. In this clip, Ken discusses the role of medicine and other pharmacological approaches to mental health, as it applies to developing through structures of consciousness as well as training various states of consciousness. Is the use of pharmaceuticals and other drugs as a way to restore mental balance in any way "cheating" the game of evolutionary consciousness?
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Here Ken talks about the leading edge of his own thinking, as represented by some of the most recent books he is working on—including The Many Faces of Terrorism, Transformations of Consciousness, Overmind, Supermind, and the second volume of the Kosmos Trilogy. |
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According to all the world's great wisdom traditions, the secret to happiness is said to be remarkably simple: all we need to do is cherish others, to learn to love as deeply as we possibly can, to the bottomless depths of our souls. These words, however, are as easy to read as they are to write—truly opening ourselves to another human being, seeing through another's eyes and feeling another's heartbeat as our very own, is to embrace the impossible pain of existence. After all, beneath the veneer of day to day life, we all know the same hidden dread, the desperation and loneliness we were all born into. And through the sacred channel of human empathy, the veils of comfort, desire, and separation begin to fall away, slowly revealing the true face of the manifest world: suffering.
Where then, in the sulphur and shadow of this uniquely human hell, is our "happiness" to be found? Effortlessly we watch as the question undoes itself, and the flames of our suffering become just another texture of our salvation—the cool waters of liberation caresses our calloused skin, and together we can finally awaken from this nightmare. |
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Nothing has done more to shape the technological and social change of the past 50 years than the idea of "Moore's Law." Dating back to Gordon P. Moore's famous observation in 1965, technically the law states that the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit doubles every two years, which translates to both an increase in computational power and an overall decrease in cost. The law is also used as a general way to convey the exponential acceleration of technology itself. We can see these trends throughout every epoch of human history, as the amount of time required to advance through the major technological stages becomes shorter and shorter with each new breakthrough. For example, we can estimate a couple hundred thousand years of foraging, ten thousand years of agriculture, a few thousand years of horticulture, five hundred years of science and industry, and just over 50 years of digital technology, each new stage taking only a fraction of the time to come into fruition as the previous stage.
As science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke has pointed out, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. The gap between today and tomorrow is closing at a staggering rate, while the future continues to become more and more surreal. A perfect example comes from the work of inventor/futurist Ray Kurzweil, who often talks about a point sometime in the next 50 years when our rate of technological progress begins to approach the infinite—an event he calls "the Singularity." This essentially represents the event horizon of our own technological evolution, beyond which we simply cannot imagine. Is there actually something to the concept of the Singularity, or is it just a sort of mythical Rapture for tech geeks? What are the implications of such exponential advancement of technology to human consciousness? As data becomes more and more free, and therefore more and more ubiquitous, what role does the Integral vision play within the "global brain" currently under construction? |
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Here Ken walks us through three very different ways of experiencing the divine, known as the "Three Faces of Spirit" or the “1-2-3 of God,” which is the recognition that Spirit can be understood through three broad perspectives: Spirit in 1st-person (the great I or I AMness), Spirit in 2nd-person (the great Thou or You), and Spirit in 3rd-person (the great It or Web of Life). Particularly in the West, spiritual practitioners are often comfortable with Spirit in 1st-person (I am Spirit) and Spirit in 3rd-person (the great Web of Life is Spirit), but Spirit in 2nd-person (You are Spirit) knocks them off balance—as well it should, because Spirit in 2nd-person is, in every way, bigger than you, better than you, infinitely more than you.
This is precisely the blessing of Spirit in 2nd-person: absolute and total humility. Before this face of Spirit, the living Intelligence that sees every corner of your soul, that very One who bestows all grace, the only appropriate response is gratitude, humility, and devotion. Spirit in 2nd-person is the great ego-killer—and while 1st- and 3rd-person practices can without a doubt introduce you to your own Big Mind, they also leave plenty of room for your own Big Ego to follow you every step of the way. Rest assured that Spirit in 2nd-person—read: God Almighty—does not.
However, right alongside this humility comes a second paradoxical (but not contradictory) reaction—a sort of divine pride, as you begin to truly step into your own always-already perfection, assuming your role on the frontier of human evolution. Here Ken discusses exactly this paradox, as well as the incredible value of an Integral Approach to spirituality, because all three faces of Spirit are equally real—arising together as the seamless composition of this and every moment.
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