Van: "Integral World" Aan: Onderwerp: Jorge Ferrer Datum: woensdag 16 april 2014 7:38 INTEGRAL WORLD MAILING LIST =========================== http://www.integralworld.net Newsletter Nr. 500 Amsterdam, April 16th, 2014 We celebrate this 500th Integral World Newsletter with a guest contribution by Jorge Ferrer, who offers a sustained reflection on Wilber's recent work, and two essays by top contributors Elliot Benjamin and David Lane about the meaning(lessness) of life. What more could you possibly want. Enjoy! Frank PARTICIPATION, METAPHYSICS, AND ENLIGHTENMENT - Reflections on Ken Wilber’s Recent Work - JORGE N. FERRER This paper discusses a number of key issues raised in the recent dialogue on the work of Ken Wilber between John Rowan and Michael Daniels, mediated by David Fontana and chaired by Malcolm Walley (Rowan, Daniels, Fontana, & Walley, 2009).* First, it responds to Rowan’s defense of Wilber’s work in the wake of the participatory critique. Second, it addresses the question of the cultural versus universal nature of Wilber’s Kosmic habits in dialogue with Daniels’s contribution. Third, it offers a critique of Wilber's integral post-metaphysics and contrasts this with participatory spirituality. Fourth, it discusses the nature of enlightenment, as well as meditation, integral practice, and spiritual individuation. The paper concludes with some concrete directions in which to move the dialogue forward. Read more: http://www.integralworld.net/ferrer3.html CONSCIOUSNESS INTERRUPTUS - The Temporal Context and the Self-Referential Trap - DAVID CHRISTOPHER LANE & ANDREA DIEM-LANE I liked Elliot Benjamin "Life, Death, Meaning, and Purpose" very much because it is a brutally honest essay about his existential angst when contemplating about how life may have no ultimate meaning or purpose. As Benjamin readily admits when confronted with a purely materialist universe, “this perspective leaves me feeling somewhat depressed when I think too much about it.” Yes, I think most of us deep down inside have an almost built-in resistance to the idea that this life as we are living now will come to an end with no hopes of something beyond it. Read more: http://www.integralworld.net/lane72.html LIFE, DEATH, MEANING, AND PURPOSE - ELLIOT BENJAMIN Sometimes I wonder if I lack a gene, or perhaps have an extra gene, that makes me “different” from other people. I never learned how to make chit-chat small talk, I never got the hang of picking up girls at bars, and parties where you just go around and get into conversations with everybody were always very uncomfortable for me. In a similar way, I wonder if I am just missing something here—or perhaps having too much of something here—when I read essays like David Lane's recent Integral World essay Understanding the Improbable [1] (written with Andrea Diem-Lane) where they strongly defend having a materialistic view of the world as being at least as, if not more, “meaningful” than having a spiritual view of the world. Read more: http://www.integralworld.net/benjamin64.html To SUBSCRIBE to this Integral World Newsletter or change your email address, click here: http://www.integralworld.net/pommo/user/subscribe.php To UNSUBSCRIBE, update your account by logging in. For explanation, see: http://www.integralworld.net/nl_faq.html