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 Who: Ken Wilber, founder of Integral Naked and Integral Spiritual Center, creator of Integral Life Practice, and author of Integral Spirituality, and Diane Musho Hamilton Sensei, fully-transmitted teacher of Genpo Roshi’s Big Mind Process, veteran Integral Institute trainer, and leader of the first-ever Integral Zen Seminar.
Relevance: Is evolutionary awareness one of the top three factors informing your spiritual practice?—if not, you might be missing a BIG piece of the picture. If you regard concern for the environment as part of being a responsible world citizen, do you consider the crucial role that interior development has in facilitating widespread sustainable behavior?—if not, you might be part of the “flatland” problem, not the integral cure. Do you know about the two kinds of enlightenment, and which one your chosen spiritual path is aiming for?—if not, you might be walking blind on your path to realization. Learn about all this and more, with Ken Wilber in dialogue with spiritual practitioners just like you.
(For those interested in Integral Buddhism, don’t worry about missing Integral Zen. Integral Mahamudra: Mandala of Awakening with Patrick Sweeney, Terry Patten, and Diane Musho Hamilton Sensei is just a few weeks away—May 21-23—and there are a few spots left! This is sure to be a sold-out event, so don’t hesitate to learn more about this exciting first-of-its-kind offering.)
For all Integral Institute seminars, professional, personal, and spiritual, check out the Integral Training website.
Question: What kind of importance should we place on evolutionary consciousness and awareness regarding our spiritual practice?
Ken’s answer goes straight to the point: “It’s one of the three or so most important considerations for spirituality today.” To explain why this is so, Ken first delves into the two kinds of enlightenment found most often in the world’s spiritual traditions: an “emptiness-only” formless realization, and a “union-with-all-that-is-arising” nondual realization. A nondual realization is literally one with the entire world of form—and we now know that the world of form is evolving!
Here’s why evolution matters: If you are not hip to the fact that we live in a world that develops, you are going to have a partial enlightenment; and if you have a partial enlightenment, you are going to be a crappy bodhisattva. Knowledge of evolution was not part of the world of form when Buddha lived, so he’s off the hook—but you’re not. If you don’t take responsibility for this new realization, who will? There’s no better place to start the exploration than with this jam-packed interaction.
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Question: As the current environmental crisis is one of the “pressing spiritual challenge of our times,” what can be done to practically address this issue?
A typical—i.e., simplistic and non-integral—answer goes something like this: “Get people to behave in an environmentally-friendly manner.” Ok, how? An Integral answer goes something like this: “Recognize the fact that people who are at an egocentric or ethnocentric level of development do not, and cannot, see or care about environmentalism. This is 70% of the world population. If you want to make a real difference in how the environment is treated, work to help people develop to worldcentric and integral levels of development, and equally important, elect and educate integral leaders who will implement policies everyone else will be obligated to follow.”
Most pro-environment stances are crippled by the same flaw: they fail to recognize the absolutely crucial role interior development has in their cause. Will you let yourself be crippled by the same partial view, or will you embrace a truly Integral Approach? Listening to this dialogue is the perfect way to begin this contemplation.
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Question: Is there such a thing as an integral approach to native and shamanic traditions?
Ken responds, “Absolutely.” In every spiritual tradition—East, West, North, South—there are teachers who recognize that in addition to honoring the gifts of their lineage, there are ways that they can make their tradition more comprehensive, complete, and integral. This kind of work progresses at the speed with which people step forward to take on this task, and due largely to the regressive and anti-integral flavor of native and shamanistic traditions as taught by American boomers over the past several decades, things have been unfortunately slow. However, as recognized by Integral Spiritual Center teacher Roger Walsh, these traditions have an enormous amount to offer, particularly regarding subtle states of consciousness.
The brave gentleman who initiated this conversation is working to bring an integral approach to a tradition that has been near to his heart for decades. If you also have some practice, tradition, or lineage that you want to make more integral, this conversation is a wonderful hit of inspiration.
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Question: What’s next?!
This is probably the greatest honor a participant can give to the teachers and organizers of an integral event that hasn’t even finished yet: "When can we do this again? I’m ready to go!" Ken is quick to give credit where credit is due: Diane is fully transmitted in both the Big Mind Process and in the Integral Approach, and is one of our finest teachers. It’s because of teachers like her—and the thirty teachers at Integral Spiritual Center, such as Father Thomas Keating, Rabbi Zalman, Sally Kempton, Patrick Sweeney, David Deida, and more—that seminars are such a success. Rest assured, more are on the way, including Integral Mahamudra: Mandala of Awakening with Patrick Sweeney, Terry Patten, and Diane, this May 21-23 in Denver.
Interested in learning more about Integral Institute seminars with teachers who regularly get cumulative scores of 9.8 or more from participants? This dialogue is a wonderful way to wet your appetite…. (And then be sure to check out Integral Training and Integral Spiritual Center)
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Question: “Can you speak to the relationship of evolutionary consciousness in relationship to the bodhisattva vow?”
Ken responds that, traditionally, the bodhisattva vow is a vow to “liberate all sentient beings” so that they may recognize their own ever-present Big Mind and True Self. What evolutionary awareness does is reveal a second dimension of the Enlightenment process that must now be a part of how a bodhisattva functions in the world, because although pure nondual Emptiness does not evolve or change, sentient beings do. With each new structure of consciousness, Spirit has a new way to understand itself, which is not simply recycled samsara dressed up to look like something new, but a stunning and grand act of emergent creativity on a Kosmic scale—one which you are invited to participate in, if you really want it.
How to get started? An Integral Life Practice Starter Kit is the best place to get a hands-on taste of everything that you are, and can become. It’s the bodhisattva’s tool-chest for the 21st century.
Why Integral? Because only an Integral Approach understands that the higher you progress up structures of consciousness, the longer you will be able to rest in the recognition of your own Big Mind and True Self, and thus have the chance to co-create, in earnest, Spirit’s moment-to-moment manifestation of the evolving Great Perfection we call home. |
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Question: “What is this ‘subtle body’ I keep hearing about, and what does it have to do with reincarnation?”
Ken explains that, as proposed by the great Wisdom Traditions, such as Vedanta and Vajrayana, human consciousness has at least three primary components: states, structures, and bodies. The three major states are waking, dreaming, and deep sleep, a simple version of structures is the chakra system (when looked at in their developmental aspects), and bodies are necessary to support both states and structures. Put simply, for every mind there is a body—they are the support structures of consciousness, giving us at least a gross bodymind a subtle bodymind and a causal bodymind. The claim of reincarnation theories—generally speaking—is that the subtle and casual bodyminds can separate from the gross bodymind at death, enter an intermediary subtle-dream plane (such as the bardo), and then proceed to reincarnate in another gross bodymind from there. (This overall topic of reincarnation was recently discussed in-depth with a group of JFKU Integral Theory Certificate students who visited Ken’s loft, to be posted soon).
Why Integral? Traditional conceptions of between-life realms and reincarnation often rely heavily on metaphysical schemes such as the Great Chain of Being. The problem is, traditional metaphysics, even without going into the issue of reincarnation, cannot adequately respond to postmodern criticism—which is why an Integral Post-Metaphysics is needed, and that is just what you will find suggested here.
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