I been watching the DNC convention like I did the RNC’s and despite the interesting news that its computer was hacked in the spring by Putin’s “Trump superpac” revealing emails of the DNC plotting to sabotage Bernie’s campaign, the night’s activities have been going smoothly with Sander’s speech unlike Cruz’s rallying his supporters to vote for Clinton. I have been up early listening to MSNBC’s The Morning Joe Show, and its take on the convention so far is upbeat compared with what was seen as the dark-knight-rising experience at the RNC convention.
When the convection coverage ended the other night, I passed by my bookcase and there was Ken Wilber’s book No Boundary looking up at me ‘vibrating’ with its cover of overlapping waves from drops falling into a pool of water. I first read this book in Beijing in 1989 underlining many points and after examining its table of contents turned to re-read Chapter 9, The self in transcendence, wondering why had I not been fully living these principles? It may be that I was not then experiencing Wilber’s ideas such that they left a mark on me in writing about what was then happening. However, only by looking back at my journals can this be confirmed.
The idea of no boundary reminds us of the recent experience of Pope Francis saying we need bridges between Nations not a Trump wall between Mexico and the US. No Boundary is about understanding boundaries first within one’s Self and then between Self and Others, which is about understanding “our selves in transcendence”. What seems to be emerging in our current political climate is that Republicans seem intent on erecting boundaries which Wilber writes goes against the evolutionary unfolding movement to no boundaries. The evolutionary movement of mankind is outward toward greater Globalization, not moving backward to Nationalism and trying to re-capture our exported manual jobs from China. The evolutionary-logic of Trump’s party is not on sound Darwinian ground as pointed out by Wilber.
It has been several years since I last read this book and so I looked up Ken Wilber on Wikipedia and also an update on his Integral theory. I then watched Wilber’s introduction to integral spirituality published on Aug 4, 2015. This clip is long running an hour 45 minutes but I found it so accurate in laying out a framework to understand our World NOW – especial interesting is its insight into the reality of terrorism. It even addressed what the emails the DNC got tagged on, whether Bernie was an atheist, indicating a lower level of spiritual thinking by these staffers. Wilber see the processes of our political life as retarded and offers an interesting developmental framework, centered in part on Carl Jung’s individuation, Abram Maslow’s self-actualiztion, and Eric Fromm’s having vs being.
Wilber’s introductory Youtube clip’s description says: “Ken Wilber offers an introduction to a spirituality that honors the truths of modernity and post modernity—including the revolutions in science and culture—while incorporating the essential insights of the great religions. You will learn how this new evolution in spirituality combines the enlightenment of the East, which excels at cultivating higher states of consciousness, with the enlightenment of the West, which offers developmental and psychodynamic psychology—each contributing key components to a more integral spirituality. On the basis of this integral framework, a radically new role for the world’s religions is proposed. Because these religions have such a tremendous influence on the worldview of the majority of the earth’s population, they are in a privileged position to address some of the biggest conflicts we face. By adopting a more integral view, the great religions can act as facilitators of human development: from magic to mythic to rational to pluralistic to integral—and to a global society that honors and includes all the stations of life along the way.”
Enjoy Wilber’s thought as we finish experiencing the DNC convention and then get ready for the election ‘reality show’ unfolding next? More at http://www.interspirituality.com.
SAScherling
Ken Wilber | Introduction to Integral Spirituality
