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Integral World: Exploring Theories of Everything
An independent forum for a critical discussion of the integral philosophy of Ken Wilber
SEE MORE ESSAYS WRITTEN BY BRAD REYNOLDS
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Wilber's “Waking Up” is Not “Awakening” Fallacy
A Critical Appreciation of Ken Wilber's
Finding Radical Wholeness, Part 3
Brad Reynolds
“This Atman cannot be attained through the study of the Vedas,
nor through intelligence, nor through much learning.
He who chooses Atman—by him alone is Atman attained.
It is Atman that reveals to the seeker Its true nature."
—Mundaka Upanishad, III.2.3 (ca. 500 BCE)
Peeking at Wilber's “Waking Up” Fallacy
By relying on his over-simplified “5 Ups” version of AQAL Metatheory in his new book Finding Radical Wholeness: The Integral Path to Unity, Growth, and Delight (2024), Ken Wilber has conflated and flattened many of the subtle nuances needed to appreciate the various transpersonal state-stages of higher mystical development and how most forms of mysticism differ dramatically from Enlightenment. “Waking Up” or peak experiences, such as Unity consciousness, is NOT Divine Enlightenment or God-Realization as defined by humankind's Great Global Wisdom Traditions. As Wilber generally uses it now, Waking Up is more about “peak experiences” gained by the separate self. These are the lesser states of mystical development, not the utter transcendence of the self, which is how the Enlightened Masters define the ultimate state (or stage) in the evolution consciousness. As a result, when Wilber fails to clearly differentiate Waking Up experiences from Awakening or Enlightenment (as the Buddha defines that state), he creates as much confusion as clarity.
Nevertheless, the state-stages of “Waking Up” are indeed “peek” experiences offering glimpses and deep intuitions of “God” (depending on how you define that word) or of Spirit or our Divine Condition. They allow the self to peer into its own higher developmental potentials in the evolution of consciousness. Therefore, I am not diminishing their value. I simply want to highlight the difference between temporary states of Waking Up and full Awakening or Enlightenment, ultimately a stage of life or permanent adaptation. Wilber used to make these important clarifications in his earlier books, but for the past twenty years or so, and his last book in particular, he has muddled the situation. For example, in 1998, he published his view outlining the spectrum of mysticism in his book One Taste (1999), where he explained:
Peak experiences are relatively brief, usually intense, often unbidden, and frequently life changing. They are actually “peek experiences” into the transpersonal, supramental levels of one's own higher potentials. Psychic peak experiences are a glimpse into nature mysticism (gross level oneness); subtle peak experiences are a glimpse into deity mysticism (subtle level oneness); causal peak experiences are a glimpse into emptiness (causal level oneness); and nondual peak experiences are a glimpse into One Taste. As Roger Walsh has pointed out, the higher the level of the peak experience, the rarer it is. (This is why most experiences of “cosmic consciousness” [or Unity consciousness] are actually just a glimpse of nature mysticism or gross level oneness, the shallowest of the mystical realms. Many people mistake this for One Taste, unfortunately. This confusion is epidemic in eco theorists [and now with Ken Wilber]).[1]
I cannot account for this change in his current Phase-5 presentation, but I can observe it, so I must speak up, for I feel it's important. Yet, in a certain sense, it's also hard to complain because Wilber's writings expose people to esoteric teachings that most have never heard about or even knew existed. On the one hand, he's providing a noble service, helping many see beyond the confines of mythic religions and flatland reductionism to peer into the sacred dynamics of genuine spirituality (a central thesis of his book). On the other hand, with his “pointing-out instructions,” he's exposing a lot of people to esoteric teachings who haven't been properly prepared, so they become nothing more than intellectual stimulations or curiosities, not authentic states of Waking Up. There is a reason these types of exercises were “hidden” and considered secret teachings: they required preliminary practices to be effective.
Therefore, Wilber is exceeding the role of a pandit by suggesting, “You can immediately recognize this ever-present Enlightened Mind if somebody simply points it out to you”[2]—which, of course, he claims to do. Even more absurd, he announces he will show you how “you'll be using sex to directly Wake Up.”[3] But the “One Taste” of Enlightenment (or the Witness consciousness), doesn't happen this way, nor is it as simply realized as Wilber claims. Otherwise, you might wonder, why haven't Adepts done this in the past—that is, share pointing-out instructions to the masses (or anyone who could read a book)—since they are concerned with everyone's Enlightenment? If they could have, they would have, but they didn't because it's not possible. With his approach, Wilber is acting like a pseudo-Guru, more than a pandit (or scholar); therefore, he may be actually doing more harm than good [see Part 2]. Even as a “spiritual guide,” he is treading on a razor's edge, often unsuccessfully and even dangerously inept.
I have done a deep dive and immersed myself in studying the Great Tradition of Enlightened Adepts for decades (Reynolds, 2021), and after a thorough examination, I find no support for Wilber's interpretation of “Waking Up” as providing Enlightenment. At times, he does talk the talk—some sentences do sound like Enlightened prose, close to what an Adept might say—but if you look deeper, Wilber is presenting false Dharma. He wants to talk you into Enlightenment with his “Big” words and eloquent phrases. He wants you to accept his “5 Ups” integral approach as being better than ALL the previous Enlightenment Teachings of the past. As he likes to claim, “The Great Wisdom Traditions were almost completely unaware of [the] Growing Up process [or the other 'Ups'].”[4] I hope to show how Wilber's approach is not accurate and is actually deluding even if inspiring at times [see Part 5]. The situation is doubly difficult for me because he was my mentor, and I greatly admire (and love) him (Reynolds, 2004, 2006). But somebody has to say something.
With his new book, Wilber uses “Waking Up,” which for him means “being one with everything,” as if it is synonymous with Awakening. However, I find no evidence in the sacred texts of Enlightened Masters that “being one with everything” is a sufficient definition for Nondual Enlightenment. Listen to the samples I provide, carefully read what they say—read the original scriptures in full—for they have a different message than what Wilber is providing. Though some of his notions about “Waking Up” do recognize the progressive unfolding of higher states and stages of consciousness, Wilber usually associates it with being “one with everything.” This is not Enlightenment; it is merely the self “waking up” to or becoming aware of deeper truths that unfold during spiritual growth in awareness. Wilber's “Waking Up” is not Awakening to Ultimate Truth, though he will do his best to convince you otherwise. Wilber's “Waking Up” is a Unity consciousness, as he explains it, “that is a Loving Bliss and Blissful Love, Freedom embracing Fullness with all of its being. You're no longer free from the world, you're headlessly one with the world, whatever that world might be—gross, subtle, causal, turiya, turiyatita, or all of them.”[5] Wow, it sounds good; it sounds sexy; it can sound Enlightening, but it is skewed. It is a fallacy that must be called out.
You must decide whether to listen to either the Enlightened Masters or the Integral Pandit. Clever words instead of the conversion of your egoic habits; no wonder he thinks people will buy his program. You are ultimately one with Divine Consciousness, the Eternal “Brightness” of existence, the prior unity of all forms. You are one with God—which IS Happiness and Love-Bliss. As a result, then naturally (and consequently), you are also “one with” everything. See the slight (but crucial) difference? One tries to convince you through words in a book that you are Enlightened and will show you “the most complete Big Wholeness that has ever been offered in our history.”[6] This is a fallacy. The other, via Enlightened Masters, says it takes a lifetime of devoted sadhana and spiritual meditation (including ego-transcendence), as well as right living that supports bodily equanimity (such as proper diet, breathing exercises, fasting, and other practices). It's not surprising most people prefer the shortcut… which pandit Wilber capitalizes on. Enlightenment or real “Waking Up,” the genuine transformation of consciousness, takes the Practicing School (and usually Gurus), not just the Talking School (of philosophers and metaphysicians).
Waking Up to Awakening
When asked about his realization of Enlightenment, the Buddha declared, “I am Awake,” not “I am one with everything.” While Wilber's eloquent writing style may sound appealing, it conceals a perilous approach akin to what Adi Da labeled the “Talking School” rooted in the “conceit of Enlightenment” [see Part 2]. Scholars and pandits often think they know it all from studying texts and perhaps even having some profound experiences for themselves, but they still fall short of full God-Realization. Pandits are not Awakened Adepts. This attitude must be avoided if one is to realize the Enlightened State. This extended quote from Adi Da clarifies the issues involving Wilber's “conceit of Enlightenment”:
The beginner's mind [or pandit] begins to develop a conceit of prior Enlightenment. After all (so the beginner [or pandit] reasons), the Adept says that Enlightenment is the prior Condition, and we are already established in It; It is the case, and all approaches to It are exercises of that very obstruction to our Realization. Such reasoning leads to no practice, no spiritual discipline [and no Gurus].
Particularly people who are not truly and seriously established in the Spiritual Way of life use the rather wild and humorous confessions of Adepts to develop the conceit of no-practice, as if to propose that one need not be involved with meditation or Spiritual Teachers. One acquires such presumptions from popularizers of spirituality, university scholars of spiritual literature, and psychiatrists. Everybody wants God-Realization to require no effort, no way, no teacher or teaching. To have God-Realization right now is the consumer's ultimate goal.[7]
Amazingly, Wilber tells us not only will he “introduce some practices to help you authentically Wake Up,” but also, “you'll learn to be on a path to real Awakening every time you have sex.”[8] Can't get any sexier than that! However, it's interesting the Divine Library of sacred scriptures does not say the same thing—but Wilber apparently knows better. Notice that he does not provide references supporting his view; he just says it is so. “Waking Up,” more accurately, is a process of transpersonal development involving a spectrum of growth in awareness based on states and stages of self-transcendence (such as reflected in the “seven stages of life” following Adi Da's developmental model). He does mention them once in a while, such as with Daniel P. Brown's stages of meditation, but seldom.
Most often, he equates “Waking Up” with Awakening to Ultimate Truth, which, for him, means “being one with everything”—his so-called “One Taste.” Unfortunately, this definition is a distorted fallacy, I'm sorry to say. In his past books (Phases 1-4), this distinction was one of Wilber's vital contributions to transpersonal psychology. In one passage from his newest book, Wilber does acknowledge the spectrum approach: “This transformation [of Waking Up] involves a common spectrum of states of consciousness, that stretch from the constricted egoic self-contraction to the expansive, all-inclusive spaciousness of Enlightenment.”[9] Precisely! Yet, most of his new book is not as nuanced and accurate. The majority of his current approach offers only talk and “pointing-out instructions” as if that is enough for a reader to be transformed from a self-contracted egoic self to the unconditional state of Divine Enlightenment. But it is not.
It takes more than Talking School philosophy (or psychology); it takes more than pointing-out instructions to reveal your ever-present Awakened Awareness (although that is a good practice); it takes the Practicing School of self-transcending sadhana or spiritual disciplines, dedicated daily meditation, and, generally, such powerful catalysts as Guru Yoga to transform consciousness most effectively and permanently. I am not alone in this view; as Swami Vivekananda points out, “I could preach you thousands of sermons, but they would not make you religious until you practiced the method [of Yoga]. These are the truths of the Sages of all countries, of all ages.”[10] Wilber skips over this hard work because he is convinced that only his “5 Ups” will make you “whole.” Again, Enlightenment is about much more than realizing wholeness; it is about being liberated and set free of interior bondage to all forms and experiences by recognizing the Divine Nature of Reality and knowing “You are That!”
Nevertheless, let me take a moment to appreciate (and honor) the good work that Ken Wilber is doing: guiding people to the possibilities of transpersonal awareness beyond the conventional consumer culture and limits of scientific materialism, beyond postmodern relativism and traditional religious dogma. Wilber's new book, and his philosophy in general, attempts to offer an integral brand of spirituality—what he identifies as “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR), a term sociologists use—that places a premium on the direct experience of our Ultimate Reality (even if only a “peek”). Again, Vivekananda clarifies, “If there is a God, we must see Him; if there is a soul, we must perceive it; otherwise, it is better not to believe.”[11] The point, of course, is you can do the science of Yoga and have the direct experience for yourself to confirm the truth that these Sages and pandits openly declare.
For the Integral Pandit, this means a spirituality that is not dependent on magical rituals (or magic-typhonic consciousness), mythic stories (or mythic-rational thinking), or even institutional religions (which are often myth-based, not experiential). These traditional religious forms are the domain of the “prepersonal” and “prerational” structures of consciousness in the historical evolution of collective humanity (Gebser, 1986; Wilber, 1981, 1995, 1997). However, by jettisoning this “religious” aspect with his strong critiques (often aimed at Western Christianity), Wilber comes perilously close to rejecting the devotional quality inherent in genuine spirituality. His emphasis on Jnana Yoga (or the intellect) often downplays Bhakti Yoga (or the devotional heart). We need both heart and mind to be truly whole, but Wilber doesn't mention that much. Mythic thinking, for example, often contains archetypal potency pointing to transpersonal awareness if read metaphorically, not literally. Therefore, many myths, even the Virgin birth (which Wilber mocks), should not be so readily dismissed as the pandit-philosopher tends to do (often calling them “silly”). We need a more sophisticated reading of the evidence involving inner psychic and transpersonal experiences instead of collapsing them into one level called “Waking Up.”
Fortunately, by reviving a form of transpersonal spirituality or mystical awareness based on direct experience (not merely faith or belief), Wilber is attempting to satisfy the quest (and need) of “modern man in search of a soul” (as C. G. Jung would have it). This cannot be underestimated. For that, Wilber is to be commended and is one of the main reasons people are attracted to his work (and have been for decades). Integrating East and West, spiritual wisdom with science and industry, is the quest of the emerging “New Age” of humankind—what we might call an “Integral Age”—the potential for the next stage in humanity's evolutionary journey. Many visionary philosophers, such as Wilber, have predicted that the depths of the psyche hidden by Western materialism can re-awaken—or “wake up”—to activate the full spectrum of human possibilities (Elgin, Combs, Phipps, McIntosh, Walsh, et al.).
True, many people scoff at “new age” thinking (especially scientific materialists), as does Wilber himself when it's linked to magic-mythic beliefs. Yet, the initiation into higher states of consciousness has a huge following around the world (in all cultures) by many leading-edge thinkers using science and meditation, shamanistic practices, and other holistic techniques to awaken our full human potential. Hence, the moniker “Waking Up” that Wilber points to in his new book is really about the evolution of consciousness, individually and collectively. In this context, it is extremely useful. Although a small minority of people among the powerful political and economic forces operating in the world, millions are actively engaged in and dedicated to this emerging consciousness revolution. This is why Wilber wants to help people find an “integral path” to radical wholeness, resulting in “unity, growth, and delight” (as his subtitle announces). Or, by following Plato (and Wilber's Phase-4 books) in promoting the Good, the True, and the Beautiful for everyone in our emerging global culture (Wilber, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999).
Nonetheless, for the most part, I fail to see—nor does Wilber provide substantiating evidence—how his method of “pointing-out instructions,” based on the “Talking School” approach rather than the “Practicing School,” will initiate the change he proposes. Reading chapters in a book is insufficient, as I have mentioned earlier [see Part 2]. Practice or self-transcending sadhana (i.e., spiritual disciplines), and even Satsang or Guru Yoga with qualified Adepts, is necessary for genuine transformative (and permanent) development beyond temporary peak experiences. Pandits or scholars, religious authorities, and professors cannot perform the function of qualified Gurus and Spiritual Masters (Reynolds, 2024). Granted, modern people with science in hand (including Wilber) believe that thousands of years of spiritual history are now outdated and irrelevant, so they want to transform the Dharma (or the Teaching of Truth) to fit into postmodern times. I maintain, however, that only Awakened Adepts are qualified for that task, not intellectual pandits, professors, or philosophers. Once more, let me quote from the Upanishads showing the long-recognized necessity for concentrated practice (including ethical-moral disciplines) and access to authentic Gurus, etc., topics Wilber strangely overlooks:
He who has not first turned away from wickedness, who is not tranquil and subdued, and whose mind is not at peace, cannot attain Atman. It is realized only through the Knowledge of Reality… Atman is subtler than the subtlest and not to be known through argument. This Knowledge cannot be attained by reasoning. Atman becomes easy of comprehension, O dearest, when taught by another [i.e., a Guru]… who has become one with Atman, there can remain no more doubt about It.
(Katha Upanishad, I.2.8-9)
Tripping Out on Wilber
As another example, Wilber seems to be blind to the potential of entheogens or psychoactive plants and psychedelics to help generate the initiatory and direct experiences that catapult people into transpersonal awareness (he doesn't mention them once in his new book, 2024, nor in The Religion of Tomorrow, 2017). Such substances have been used for thousands of years of human spiritual history, reaching back to at least the Paleolithic shamanistic-tribal cultures (Muraresku, 2020). When used in a sacred manner, these revered substances can help initiate the conversion and “waking up” necessary to support a spiritual vision of the universe beyond the daily struggle for survival (in the gross waking state). They are much more potent than words in a book. It is these types of direct experiences (among others) that serve the all-important shift from egoic blindness and flatland materialism to an authentic spiritual lifestyle (or what Adi Da calls entering the “fourth stage of life”). Yet, Wilber overlooks them entirely (probably due to his own lack of direct experience). Science in the form of modern-day psychology is documenting this activity with reams of research and evidence.[12] In fact, there is probably no other single stimulant to assist in “Waking Up” than properly used entheogens [entheogen a neologism from ancient Greek meaning “seeing the divine within”: en- (within) theo- (divine) and -gen (creates)].
Since the 1960s, transpersonal psychology, spearheaded by Maslow and Grof et al., Wilber's initial professional publishing niche, has been at the forefront of this important research (Grof, 1992, 2009, 2019). Oddly, Wilber has entirely overlooked this experiential approach, preferring to offer “talk therapy” with his “5 Ups” and so-called “pointing-out instructions” (Wilber, 2024). Therefore, in harmony with the Adepts of the cross-cultural Perennial Philosophy, I claim that Wilber's approach is inadequate by itself, as are drugs and psychoactive substances (Reynolds, 2021). Psychedelics might open the “doors of perception,” but it takes actual sober discipline and daily meditation to enact permanent change and transformation in consciousness (Huxley, Smith, Kornfield, Watts, et al.). It can also require Spirit-Transmission (or shaktipat) from an authentic Guru (or Holy Site) to stimulate more profound consciousness development, a highly overlooked process in the West (Freimann, 2018; Reynolds, 2024). Again, Wilber is strangely silent on these matters. Instead, he offers his idealistic proposal that only the “5 Ups” will Enlighten you and the global community.
Finding Radical Awakening
Most importantly, another fallacy often overlooked by the casual reader is that Wilber's new book usually defines “Waking Up” as a Nondual “One Taste” by realizing that “you are one with everything,” which is far from what the Enlightened State is about (as his quote from One Taste above also recognizes). In Finding Radical Wholeness, Wilber describes Nondual Enlightenment as a “Unity consciousness” where “The sense of Self that stands back and witnesses the world dissolves in a pure unity with the entire world—and I am That…. I no longer Witness the mountain, I am the mountain.”[13] However, this type of “Unity consciousness” is best described as “Nature Mysticism” (as Wilber's above quote also recognizes) or realizing you are “one with” or interconnected with the Web of Life and the expanding universe of conditional forms (from atoms to galaxies and all living beings). This is a profound realization, without a doubt. Still, it is not Enlightenment (nor even accurately, the Witness consciousness) [see Part 4].
Wilber has elevated a lower state-stage of mysticism (psychic to subtle states, or, in Adi Da's terms, from the advanced 4th to early 5th stages of life)—also known as “Kosmic consciousness” and “cosmic consciousness”—to higher ones, even to the “Ultimate” state-stage (of Clear Light). However, Enlightenment or God-Realization is about realizing that “your” innermost consciousness (Atman) is identical to God (Brahman), not simply identical to all conditional forms or natural manifestations. Paradoxically, the ineffable Divine is utterly transcendent yet also immanent or all-pervading, thus all forms and conditions are naturally included (while simultaneously transcended). This makes no logical sense to the thinking mind; it is only realizable by the heart, not publishable. Therefore, “you are one with everything” only via God's or the Ground of Being's immanence or spiritual presence, the Spirit-Energy of the Divine that pervades all things, all possibilities, all universes. Spirit IS everything, and we are one with That.
“You,” as a person, are not one with “every thing” (or all holons) but only united with specific (and relative) causes and effects in your environment and life (on atomic, molecular, biological, social, and even karmic levels). The Buddhists call this “dependent origination” (or “interdependent arising”). Our sense of self is conditional, based on the body-mind complex and relative phenomena, which “hides” who we truly are. Only at the deepest level of prior unity arising from the Ground of Being or the Godhead are we “one with everything.” Any authentic integral teaching would draw this distinction, which Wilber used to do consistently. However, currently, he does not clarify this critical difference or even highlight the spectrum of mystical attainments when he uses his “Waking Up” moniker. For him, “Waking Up” has become an admixture of mysticism and Enlightenment reduced to “Unity consciousness.” He seems to care more about being one with the relative universe of form than realizing your Oneness with God, our True Self, the Unconditional Reality, the Divine Condition of all conditions. Such “cosmic oneness” (or Nature Mysticism), while profound and true at its own level of transpersonal realization, is not the primary realization of Awakening itself. Wilber seems confused while trying to sound mystical, conflating oneness or Unity consciousness with Nondual awareness (they are not the same), as this quote shows:
The goal of Waking Up was, through the direct experimental practices of meditation, contemplation, or yoga, to transform consciousness from that limited and contracted [egoic] state through several much more inclusive, open, and free states, to a genuine Wholeness, and pure Nonduality, an ultimate Unity consciousness or Kosmic consciousness, an absolute Oneness with the entire universe.[14]
Notice, again, how Wilber is emphasizing “Oneness with the entire universe,” not Oneness with the Divine Source or Condition of the universe. Even his description of Witness consciousness (or turiya) preceding this form of “Nondualism” does not sound like Divine Self-Realization [see Part 4]. Yet, he lumps them all under the banner of “the direct experience that we're calling 'Waking Up,' 'ultimate Unity consciousness,' 'Nondual awareness,' 'divine Oneness,' or 'One Taste' (Zen calls it 'satori'),”[15] so Wilber says. But Zen does not describe satori (Chinese, wu) as Unity consciousness (Suzuki, 1948; Chang, 1959). For example, according to an encyclopedia of Eastern philosophy and religion, “Satori means the experience of awakening ('enlightenment') or apprehension of the true nature of reality,”[16] and D. T. Suzuki described it as “looking into one's nature…acquiring of a new point of view in our dealings with life and the world… another name for Enlightenment (anuttara-samyak-sambodhi).”[17] Garma C. C. Chang is even more direct, “If suddenly the surging thoughts stop, one clearly sees that one's self-mind is originally pure, genuine, vast, illuminating, perfect, and devoid of objects.”[18] Again, one with Tao, Buddha-Nature, God, et al., not merely one with all objects.
As a scholar-pandit, Wilber fails to provide supporting references for his unique view. This is odd since the pandit used to excel at these complex differentiations, yet currently, he clouds the situation with ambiguous confusion. He oversimplifies, which is unnecessary (in fact, somewhat deluding). Granted, such subtle distinctions are difficult to articulate, but the Integral model makes this possible with its spectrum of spiritual experiences (Wilber, 2000). There are “Waking Up” states, and there is Awakening or Enlightenment, which transcends all states, stages, and the self altogether. The former is about Wholeness, the latter about Liberation (while remaining “always already” whole). If this is Wilber's solution for going mainstream, the integral project is paying a heavy price (and so are we).
One only needs to point to the Mahavakyas or “Great Sayings” of the Upanishads, the oldest nondual enlightened sacred texts of the world (800-300 BCE), to verify that Enlightenment is about our unity or oneness with God or Brahman, the Ultimate Reality, not merely recognizing your oneness with “everything” or with all forms. In a sense, these Mahavakyas are similar to the real Tibetan pointing-out instructions of Mahamudra and Dzogchen, although they're actually confessions by Adepts of Awakened Realization. For example, Aham Brahmasmi means “I am Brahman” from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad [Ch. 1, sec. 4, v. 10]—where “Brahman” is the Ultimate Reality (“Brahman is formless but is the birthplace of all forms in visible reality”). At the same time, the Mandukya Upanishad [Ch. 1, v. 2] tells us, Ayam Atma Brahma or “This Atman is Brahman”—where “Atman” is your innermost consciousness. And there is the Aitareya Upanishad [Ch. 3, v. 3] that declares Prajnanam Brahma, which means “Consciousness is Brahman.” Perhaps most famous of all is Tat Tvam Asi from the Chandogya Upanishad [Ch. 8, v. 7], which translates as “Thou Art That,” which does not mean “you are one with everything” but “You are God.” In other words, there is no “you” (or egoic separate self) who is “one with everything”; a more accurate description would be “I Am everything; everything is 'Me'” (which Enlightened Adepts often openly confess). In his new book, Wilber announces the Great Awakening to be the lesser Realization… and he'll clarify why whether he's right or wrong. I believe we should trust the Adepts more than the Pandit. Wilber, however, is always talking about “you,” “you this,” and “you that,” “you are witnessing,” “you are everything,” affirming the separate self more often than transcending it, unlike the confessions of the Enlightened Masters.
Wilber's Waking Up Fallacy
These “Great Sayings” or confessions by Enlightened Sages point to a significant difference between what Wilber says and what the Universal Tradition of Global Wisdom suggests about Awakening (or Waking Up to Enlightenment). While it is possible to say God (or Ultimate Reality) is every little thing, God is more than everything, as these quotes from two Sages from the West and East confirm. In the West, Plotinus (d. 270 CE) explained, “The One [God] is nowhere, yet nowhere it is not” [Ennead, V.5.8]. In the East, Huang Po (d. 848 CE) taught, “Your true nature is not lost in moments of delusion, nor is it gained at the moment of Enlightenment. It was never born and can never die. It shines through the whole universe, filling emptiness, one with emptiness…. It is all-pervading, radiant beauty: absolute reality, self-existent, and uncreated.”[19] They are not crudely saying, “I no longer Witness the mountain, I am the mountain,”[20] as Wilber maintains. It is not that “my” body-mind is the mountain, but rather the mountain and my body-mind are Brahman, are God, are Buddha-Nature, Dharmadhatu, et al., thus we and “the many” things are united in “The One” Divine Reality. I could provide a plethora of quotes from Awakened Masters in every religion and culture (and era) saying the same fundamental truth. How many does Wilber provide supporting his view? Basically none.
Thus, sadly, Wilber goes off-track by not consistently describing (or pointing to) true Divine Awakening (yet, at times, he does, making his work doubly confusing). He is focused on offering his own integral version of “Waking Up” (which is NOT Enlightened Awakening), diminishing the Great Wisdom Traditions by saying they are NOT adequate. Wilber falsely claims, “For almost their entire history, human beings were actually training themselves [via the Great Traditions] to be partial, fragmented, and broken.”[21] Instead, Wilber is going to offer us the “5 Ups” and “our new meaning of 'God' as total Wholeness,”[22] and save the world. However, I maintain the Enlightened Masters are correct, not Ken Wilber; this is my main point. We don't need a “new meaning of God”; we need to presently realize or know Real God for ourselves (arising as all things). Wilber is only partially correct; the Awakened Adepts are Enlightened or fully God-Realized. You choose who is best to listen to and study.
Notice that all of these enlightened statements of the Awakened Adepts—and there are many more—acknowledge our oneness with the underlying Ground of Being, the True Self (or Buddha-Nature), or the transcendent Divine Reality by whatever name, which is formless and eternal. True, everything (or every holon) is one with Brahman (or the Divine), without a doubt, because every single thing is one with the transcendent Source of all things; they arise from It. It's a very subtle distinction, granted, but one that integral philosophers and pandits must be attentive to. Another example (among countless) comes from the ancient “forest text” known as the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad [Ch. 3: sec. 4, v. 2], the oldest Upanishad, which clarifies there is, in fact, no separate self (since that is an illusion of relativity or impermanence)—so how could there be a permanent “you” or “unique self” who is “one with all things”? “You” as a relative person are one with Atman, the immortal Self, so only that makes you one with everything else (since all things arise within its embrace). These Sages affirm there is only the True Self (or Atman, which is Consciousness Itself) that pervades all things and only That is ultimately real since the relative person constantly changes and sooner or later dies:
You cannot see the seer of seeing; you cannot hear the hearer of hearing; you cannot know the knower of knowing. This Atman [or True Self], which is within everything, is your very atman [or relative self]. Anything else is the cause of separation and suffering.[23]
I realize this view of “no self” is confusing and appears ridiculous, especially to Westerners devoted to individualism and self-actualization. You can see why the integration of Eastern wisdom and Western values is so difficult and complicated. Yet paradoxically, it is the only way the self becomes free of fear, hate, and ignorance: Awakening to our True Self (or God). In this case, the sense of being a separate self or inner soul or egoic identity utterly dissolves in Enlightenment while the embodied person naturally remains. After the event of Awakening (satori), when egoic self-contraction and fear are released, only then is “everything” or the cosmos of conditional nature and the universal field of energy genuinely integrated without grasping or avoidance.
The Chinese Buddhist scholar Garma C. C. Chang explains how Zen sees the situation: “After one has attained satori, one should cultivate it until it reaches its full maturity until one has gained great power and flexibility…. Zen only begins at the moment when one first attains Satori [Awakening]… Satori is only the beginning, but is not the end of Zen…. Therefore, although Satori is merely the beginning, it is nevertheless the Essence of Zen. It is not all of Zen, but it is its Heart”[24] To a large degree, you can see that these Eastern Enlightenment traditions are indeed accounting for the other “Ups” (Cleaning Up, Showing Up, etc.) to stabilize the “Waking Up” experience, unlike Wilber, who suggests they are unaware of them [see Part 5].
Paradoxically, in the state of Enlightenment, there is “no self” who feels “one with” anything other than being one with “The One” itself or Godhead (or Brahman, Tao, et al.), which is the True Self or Consciousness Itself. After Awakening, the psycho-physical world or all forms appear more like a dream, as the Buddha said, not a sleepy-time dream where events are weird (like when you go to sleep and it evaporates the next morning) but rather all things are seen as the energic display of Spirit-in-action, an apparition of the Divine where all things will change and die and morph into other forms (and in that sense are like a dream). Therefore, we will be unhappy and suffer and fear others and be ignorant of our true condition until we “Wake Up” to this reality and truth. This is what the Sages advise.
In other words, what is realized in Enlightenment is that God is your consciousness—and YOU are THAT, i.e., Atman (or inner consciousness) IS Brahman (or the creative energy of the outer universe). Not merely “YOU are one with everything” but that EVERYTHING is Only One Divine “Buzz” or Spirit-Energy—as the mystics unanimously declare, and yes, Wilber, too, at times. This is how you feel the oneness with all things because every little thing (from quarks to quasars) arises within Consciousness (or God). Thus, you can call this whole “Reality” with the name God, Goddess, True Self, the Supreme Identity, etc., or Divine Consciousness (or Ultimate Reality), or “the Creator,” if you wish, or any of the traditional names for the ineffable, the unnamable. This includes not only the “ultimate Truth” but all of the “relative truths” too.
In Enlightenment, it does not matter if your relative self thinks the earth is flat or goes around the sun. What matters is “you” realize your true nature is Divine, Infinite, Eternal. This liberates your sense of being a self, not just making you feel connected with every little thing (since being interconnected on all levels of existence is always already the case). Once Enlightened, YOU (or the self-contraction) are set free and happy because you know you are one with God (aka Buddha-Nature, Atman-Brahman, etc.)! Indeed, this is the reason the Buddhists evoke this Awakened Awareness with what they call the “Mind Doctrine,” or, in modern terms, “the teaching of Consciousness,” which Professor Chang expertly explains:
This term [“Mind Doctrine”] is probably the best summary of all that Zen [and Buddhism in general] stands for, for what it teaches is the way to a full realization of Mind. Enlightenment [Satori] is merely another name for the complete unfolding of the “inner” mind [i.e., Awakening to Atman-Brahman, in Hindu terms]. Outside the deep and vast domain of Mind there is nothing to be enlightened about. Therefore, the sole aim of Zen is to enable one to understand, realize, and perfect one's own mind. Mind [Consciousness] is the subject matter and the keystone of Zen studies.[25]
Once the heart opens to this Ultimate Truth, a person's compassion and love will indeed extend to everyone and everything, boundlessly to Infinity, since it is all-pervading. It is the heart, according to esoteric spiritual teachings, that is the source of consciousness in the human body-mind, not the brain. This is closer to what the Buddha (and the Buddhists, Vedantists, Jesus Christ, et al.) teach, not what Wilber teaches in his new book. However, not surprisingly, at times, the pandit talks that way as well. Therefore, Wilber is partially correct when he insists, “The practice is quite literally to move from something (the ego), to nothing (the Witness), to everything (One Taste). Something to nothing to everything.”[26] You could just as easily (and more accurately say), “From something (the ego) to everything (Unity consciousness) to nothing (Enlightenment)…. Then returning or embracing something-everything that is naturally arising (in the “marketplace”).” This is, for example, what the Ten Ox-Herding paintings of Zen show. Consequently, the Sages say the so-called “God” (or Supreme Reality) “out there” is really “in here”—“the Kingdom of God is within you,” said Jesus (Luke 17:21)—because your consciousness (or Mind) is “everything” since it is God and God is everything… yet even more too (as we've said). How paradoxical! No wonder the logical mind is confounded and science can't make any measurements (thus claiming God is unreal or “all in your mind”).
For the Buddha, nirvana literally means “blowing out,” as in blowing out the flame of a candle, suggesting the transcendence or “blowing out” of the separate self as an illusion for it is arising within Buddha-Nature or Pure Consciousness. In Enlightenment, and after Enlightenment, “all things” (or all objects and forms) are felt and realized to be “empty” or transparent, a transcendent-immanent display of Light or Spirit, arising somewhat like a “dream” or shimmering apparition (often called an “illusion” which tends to confuse unenlightened people). Later, I will address this confusion further by reviewing Wilber's views on turiya versus turiyatita or “the Witness versus One Taste,”[27] where he single-handedly redefines traditional terms to fit into his new super-duper Integral Metatheory [see Part 4]. But his talk and pointing-out instructions are inadequate for initiating the “One Taste” of real Enlightenment, no matter what he says or regardless of how you may feel when reading his eloquent prose. It does not work like that, I'm sorry to say. Otherwise, the Adepts would have done just that (indeed, some have tried but were doomed to fail without the attending practices by those listening or reading). Another scholar-pandit from India put it this way:
In Buddhism, as in all Indian enlightenment traditions, the self, the ego, is the movement of pleasure which creates separation from all things; it is the chain which binds one to the bondage of pleasure and pain, of death and rebirth, which is an illusion. This is the first and last mystery that has to be penetrated and done [away] with, to come upon Enlightenment.[28]
When the Buddha was Enlightened—and Siddhartha Gautama (ca. 563-483 BCE) is the archetypal example of an enlightened human being—he did not claim to be “one with everything” but to be liberated from every little thing, all karmas, all possibilities, free of all objects. It has nothing to do with a subjective self who is “one with” anything—or suggesting that sex “can be used as a means of Waking Up”[29]—but instead, one is Awake and free of all things, including sexual desires (right? Hard to believe). Thus, have I heard, the Buddha uttered these words: “When I knew and saw thus, my mind was liberated from the taint of sensual desire, from the taint of being, and from the taint of ignorance. When it was liberated there came the awareness: 'It is liberated.' I directly knew: Birth is destroyed, the holy life [preliminary practices] has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more coming to any state of being”[30] (Majjhima Nikaya, 36). Now, that is Awakening explained better than what Wilber suggests with his “Big Wholeness” and big words, with his Big Talk. Although, yes, I agree: sometimes Wilber says it extremely well; nevertheless, we would do well to recognize when he's only partially correct and when he perpetuates fallacy.
Awakening: Clear Light Bliss
The Enlightened Masters have a message of happiness and liberation where the separative egoic self is transcended but then integrated into a searchless wholeness. I maintain this is the best “path to unity, growth, and delight,” so we should study the Adepts more than the pandits. As I have tried to emphasize, with Enlightenment, what you discover is not only are “you one with everything” but that you are one with the Source of everything, which is God, Allah, Buddha-Nature, Dharmakaya, Ein Sof, etc., the Ultimate Ground of Being, indescribable and ineffable. Only when “you” realize That, seeing that everything (or all objects) and all possibilities are appearing in or arising from that One True Divine Source or Ground of Being, or Consciousness Itself, will “you,” as a relative self, be truly Happy and Free. And is not the Freedom of Happiness and Radiant Love the supreme attainment? It is. To be Awake to the truth of reality (and self) as It IS.
Discovering you are one with everything—or Unity consciousness—is a profound step in the evolution of consciousness, but it does not set you free. Only by realizing you are One with God, which is “Love-Bliss” (as Wilber also indicates, at times, especially in his later “pointing-out” chapters)—by re-cognizing the “Clear Light of Bliss” arising from “the indestructible drop at our heart,”[31] as the Vajrayana Buddhists say—are you Fully Free because “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him,” as John the Apostle, a disciple of Jesus Christ, declared (1 John 4:16). It IS as simple (and difficult) as that. But it's true! Or, as another John sang during the first live worldwide satellite broadcast in 1967, “All you need is Love!” Imagine that! Love IS God, Love IS All. Awaken to That!
In other words, surprisingly, Wilber stumbles with his awkward and ever-shifting definitions of Waking Up, even though he coats it with beautiful words and partial truths. But he's on a self-proclaimed mission to create “a type of superholism (or Integral Metatheory) that will help you find all of the fundamental Big Wholenesses that are lying under your nose right now, if you knew where to look.”[31] Under your nose? Try your heart! Wilber is selling his program by justifying the search for wholeness, not reaffirming the transcendence of the self's constant seeking. In doing so, unfortunately, he distorts the Enlightenment traditions and Awakened Adepts, saying they missed the other “Ups,” so they are not “whole.” I hope to help counter (or clarify) this Wilberian fallacy in my critical appreciation reviews.
Awakening is about the Realization of Reality Itself (or Reality-Realization), also known as Divine Self-Realization, which only comes by transcending the ego-self and all seeking (even seeking for God or Nirvana or Big Wholeness), not merely discovering that “you deeply feel one with the entire universe, one with everything,”[33] as Wilber claims. Wilber thus markets his new integral message by promoting the difference between “Freedom” and “Fullness” (as if there's a difference when there is not)—for they are One, an Indivisible Prior Unity that is Divine. Oddly, he tends to place them in opposition by equating “Fullness” with “One Taste” (or “Big Wholeness”)—which he calls turiyatita—as the next or ultimate step (or stage) because being “Free” (as the “Witness”)—traditionally called turiya—is the lesser realization [see Part 4]. Therefore, this becomes Wilber's unique view of Divine Awakening or Enlightenment, a central thesis of his 2024 book. This is different than the universal message of most previous Awakened Adepts found in the Enlightenment traditions, which is why he tells us that his version of spirituality “is a radically unprecedented opportunity.”[34] This is because, according to the Integral Pandit, “there is no Wisdom Tradition anywhere in the world today that includes them all [the other “Ups”].”[35] I disagree. It's an ass-backward view of the Dharma. Somebody has to tell and pull back the curtain in front of the Wizard.
Divine Enlightenment is about transcending the self and its desires and aversions, of pleasures and suffering, of unity and separation, and simply accepting (or realizing) what always already IS (for it is Divine Love-Bliss). This is what the Buddha and other Enlightened Adepts emphasize. They and their Teachings are plenty adequate and true if fully understood. Gautama Siddhartha once explained to his devotee, “Sariputra, all dharmas, or phenomena, are marked with emptiness, they are neither produced nor stopped, neither deficient nor complete. Therefore, where there is emptiness, there is neither form, nor feeling, nor perception… nor objects of mind; there is no ignorance, nor extinction of ignorance; there is no suffering, nor origination, nor stopping, nor path; there is no cognition, no attainment, and no non-attainment”[36] (Conze, 1976). This liberating Realization of the Truth—whether called “Waking Up” or “Awakening”—is sufficient, unlike Wilber claims. Liberation (moksha) is IT. Your heart knows it is so, but “you” must realize it.
This is Awakening, not just Waking Up. As mentioned, Waking Up can best be seen as progressive steps or stages (and states) growing toward full Awakening via “Gradual Enlightenment.” Only after Awakening, in an instant of “Sudden Enlightenment,” or with an ego-death involving a once-in-a-lifetime breakthrough or “turnabout” in consciousness (in the words of the Lankavatara Sutra), are “you” naturally and freely integrated as a whole liberated person (jivanmukta). That's the Dharma (or closer than Wilber's version). This is more profound than becoming “one with the mountain” or even “I am the stars.”[37] Enlightenment is radically different from Wilber's version of “Waking Up,” though he'll do his best to talk you into his view. His redefinitions of turiya and turiyatita are an illusion created by his Talking School (which I will review in depth in Part 4).
True Divine Enlightenment or God-Realization—even Witness consciousness—does NOT mean the world and self are left behind, as Wilber seems to imply (which is why he wants to rescue the world of form or “save the phenomena”) with his version of “One Taste.” The self and world after Enlightenment continue to arise and thus are not avoided. Rather, all-and-All is seen in freedom or non-attachment, held in compassion and wisdom, integrated in true radical wholeness. These are not concepts that can be grasped; they must be realized by the complete transcendence of the ego-self (or “self-system”) in Enlightenment. “Growing Up, Opening Up, Cleaning Up, Showing Up” are all activities of the separate self. They are preliminary practices that are transcended-yet-included with full Waking Up or real Awakening, a point Wilber downplays. True, the “Ups” can continue even after Enlightenment since there is usually remaining prarabdha karma (or “leftover” habit patterns) for most people, even for some Adepts (but not all of them, especially the Avatars).
Overall, the Awakening of Enlightenment, whether gradual or sudden, takes dedicated daily practice, meditation, Grace, and probably Guru Yoga to be fully and truly realized. As a Zen proverb says: “The Truth should be understood through Sudden Enlightenment [satori], but the fact [or Complete Enlightenment, samyaksambodhi] must be cultivated step by step.”[38] Then the world (and self) is not abandoned but seen as shimmering light (or Spirit-Energy) arising as the One Indivisible Divine Reality, not merely “being one with everything” as a “super-integral” person of “superhumanity,”[39] in Wilber's words. The self is evaporated in God's Love, not merely as a separate self “in love” with God (that is the “fourth stage of life”).
See the subtle (but crucial) difference? Every little thing, including the self, is surrendered or sacrificed in Awakening (but not when progressively Waking Up).
This, I believe, is closer to the true Dharma Teaching, not what Wilber suggests. I know that it seems hard to accept that Wilber has gone astray since he's usually so adept on these matters, but these are delicate considerations. Yet, listen closely to the Enlightenment traditions; their wisdom is adequate, unlike what Wilber suggests. Listen to the Awakened Adepts, heed the wisdom-advice of the Enlightened Gurus, read their sacred texts, and do the practices they recommend. You cannot realize this from reading a book, or attending a lecture or weekend retreat, or hearing “pointing-out instructions.” That is the real “radical” (or “at the root”) teaching the Integral Pandit fails to fit into his Integral Plan properly.
Transcending the Wilberian “Waking Up” Fallacy
Wilber cleverly uses words (or mind forms), often correctly but sometimes incorrectly, as he pushes his ideas around modifying esoteric processes to fit into his version of the Integral Map. He wants you to believe that “discovering this Wholeness is what a real spirituality is all about.”[40] He does indeed have access to a wealth of spiritual knowledge; there is no denying that, and no one writes quite like Wilber does. But this is also why he can be so confusing and confounding, deluding and distracting. The pandit is desperately trying to persuade you that he is right in his assessment about Waking Up (and all the other Ups). If one does not know better, he can be convincing since he writes so well and shares spiritual ideas most people have probably never heard or studied. It's easy to believe him because, quite simply, much of what he says is true. As I said earlier, the situation is extremely difficult.
However, according to Ken Wilber, he is more correct than all of the Great Gurus of history (since most were premodern), including the Buddha. I claim this is a warning sign of his fallibility and exaggerations. In truth, Enlightenment is about the transcendence of the mind and the limitations of subjectivity, including all periods of collective history and culture (or any planet or realm in the universe). God-Realization is about peace of mind, liberation from suffering, seeing the Truth, knowing the Love-Bliss of Eternity. Therefore, it is not about merely “being one with” all the cultural stage-structures and worldviews of “Growing Up,” whether as science or myths, as magic or even shamanism or any other state-stage of self-development [see Part 5]. Wilber is literally suggesting that a modern Buddha is “more enlightened” than a premodern one because he or she knows about science and democracy or that the world isn't flat and the earth orbits the sun (examples Wilber uses). Surprisingly, Wilber points to the Buddha as being from an era of slavery, so there is no way, according to him, such a person can be “Fully” Enlightened. That is an appalling distortion of the quality of Enlightenment, which Wilber's Phase-5 teaching now consistently makes with his “evolutionary enlightenment” pronouncements. I can barely believe he would say these things, except it is in print and influences other people and teachers (e.g., Cohen, 2011; Almaas, 2014).
Unfortunately, Ken Wilber is not encouraging you to take up the hard work of actual spiritual practice or self-transcending sadhana; he only offers you answers by reading the chapters in his book, accepting his view, adhering exclusively to his Integral Map. He does not teach you how to discern and find an authentic Guru or accomplished Spiritual Master or Root Lama or how to commune with an Avatar's enlightened transmission field. For example, he does not review the psycho-physical esoteric anatomy of the human being or how to influence energy transformations in the psyche. Wilber expects you to believe everything he says, although he provides minimal scholarly evidence, even while criticizing previous understandings about Enlightenment. Some say his readings on science, such as about biological evolution, are distorted as well (Visser et al.), even if he is partially correct. Wilber simply states things as if they are all true. Sadly, reading and believing is not enough; you must enact the practices, do the Yogas, engage the injunctions (as Wilber used to emphasize) to see God face-to-face—“If there is a God, we must see It” (as Vivekananda said). I have found that finding an authentic Guru and Spiritual Teacher is also highly significant for actual spiritual growth, just as we've always been told. True, you must also learn how to adjudicate and discern the authentic Gurus from the fakes and resist your tendencies to cultism, but that is possible (Reynolds, 2024).
And, finally, Enlightenment or realizing God, the formless, boundless, nondual Absolute Reality and Truth, is a matter of Grace. There are no precise formulas; certainly, no promised pointing-out instructions that will Enlighten you or Wake you Up. Fortunately, it is often the Guru who provides the Grace, not a pandit. And, yet, even in the Guru's company, there are no guarantees since it takes God's Grace; it is a blessing beyond compare. Grace comes to those who practice and are prepared. It takes an open heart, not just a knowledgeable mind. Indian scholar-pandit Mukunda Rao nicely summarizes the point I am trying to make in his wonderful book The Buddha: An Alternative Narrative (2017) when he says:
Nirvana cannot be brought about by an act of will, engineered, or replicated through any method or sadhana whatsoever. At best, sadhana can prepare the ground for Enlightenment, but there is no guarantee that Enlightenment will occur. The search cannot bring it on; only the end of the search can, if at all. Of course, there has to be a search for it to be abandoned, the search that ceases with the realization that, finally, the very search is the barrier. It is the realization of the mind that it cannot solve the problem it created in the first place.[41]
Wilber boldly but falsely claims he will give you the secrets to Enlightenment—to “Wake Up”—since “you and I will be doing exercises to directly realize this ultimate state.”[42] However, all of the esoteric spiritual traditions deny this is possible in the way Wilber presents them. Again, you must do the yogas, meditate, contemplate the Divine daily, transcend the self's habitual patterns and mental obscurations, do the preliminary practices to prepare yourself for such “pointing-out instructions,” and, best of all, be open to receive Spirit-Transmission from an authentic Realizer. Wilber mentions none of this; he just asks you to buy and read his book… and even do “Integral Tantra” sex—how good can it get?
Consequently, the pandit fails to encourage you to find a genuine Guru or Root Lama who will appropriately discipline and guide you on the difficult journey of self-transcendence. Only then will the authentic (and vertical) transformation of mind, body, and psyche occur. But what a beautiful and happy undertaking true spiritual life is, the pinnacle of human endeavors. Transhumanism has no idea (or only ideas). Therefore, I am truly disappointed in suggesting that Wilber distracts us from the real task, not enlightening anyone. He's offering integral programs and methods—even suggesting sex as a way to realize God (a deluded debasement of real tantra)—not yogas of devotion and discipline. He recommends shortcuts instead of authentic practice, offers panaceas instead of self-transcending God-Realization. He's all Talking School, not Practicing School.
Self-transcendence is an extremely challenging process of letting go of habit patterns, deluded thinking, and self-identity. It involves religious or devotional and spiritual or energetic processes that purify and open the subtle energy currents of the body-mind complex before enlightened realization can be stabilized. It goes far beyond the conventional mind and even institutional or exoteric (“outer-directed”) religions; thus, it has usually been hidden in arcane, esoteric (“inner-directed”) texts or given with “a special transmission outside the scriptures, not founded on words and letters” (a saying traditionally attributed to Bodhidharma, ca. 6th-century CE). They didn't call them Mystery Schools simply because they reveal the “Mystery” of God. True, only the qualified advanced-tip few individuals usually reach these exalted depths of realization, so we do need philosophers and pandits helping to open the doors for more people in today's global environment; I agree, which, no doubt, is what Wilber hopes to do. For this, again, the wise pandit is to be commended (and thanked).
Nevertheless, it does not come easy, this Great Realization. Real Awakening is a “hard school”; therefore, it is not taught (or hardly mentioned) in the West. It is not on TV or in the movies; you can't attend Mystical Universities; it is esoteric or secret and “hidden” from the common masses, reserved for an elite few willing to look within and do the difficult Yoga of self-sacrifice. In this case, with his new book Finding Radical Wholeness, Wilber is exposing his readers to some of these esoteric teachings—which have become abundant in today's bookstores—so his words and ideas entice the uninformed and uninitiated. But he exaggerates what he can provide and deflects you from the authentic practices offered by the lineage of Realized Adepts (Dragpa, 2023). Amazingly (and even arrogantly), the Integral Pandit suggests only he and his “5 Ups” (which used to be four) have figured it all out (or will it be “6 Ups” in the next book?). But how can that be right (even if partially correct)? In any case, it's not nearly as easy as Wilber makes it sound. Ask any genuine Guru. Reading books, listening to pointing-out instructions, having tantra sex, and so on, is not enough, regardless of what Ken Wilber says. Listen to the real Spiritual Masters.
Only self-transcending Enlightenment—authentic Awakening—reveals our most fundamental and divine condition and frees the self from unhappiness and suffering, not gaining peak experiences or listening to pointing-out instructions. Waking Up is not Awakening. Wake up to that, folks. At best, peak experiences—which do offer a “peek” at our higher developmental potentials—are profound, no doubt. They act as “attractors” to our future evolution, yet these unfolding state-stages take dedicated practice and disciplined devotion, as the Great Adepts of the Global Wisdom Tradition emphasize. But not Ken Wilber; he maintains you only need to know about his “5 Ups” and “Big Wholeness” and listen to or read his inspiring prose. But, in truth, you cannot be merely talked into Witness Consciousness or have the “One Taste” of Nondual Enlightenment pointed out with words. Even the Zen poets fail to express it fully, though perhaps they come closer. It's never been as simple as Wilber suggests, unfortunately.
In summary, when Wilber claims that the Enlightenment Traditions of the world's religions only provide “one major type of Wholeness (the type that we call 'Waking Up'),”[43] yet is lacking in the others—and that only his Integral Way provides the whole truth or “Big Wholeness”—he twists the wisdom of the Awakened Adepts for his own purposes. Unfortunately, the Integral Pandit is subtly distorting, thus contorting and corrupting, the Wisdom of the most Wise for his own gains. He's diverting your attention from the practices and yoga that you must engage in to really Wake all the way Up—to be Awakened, Enlightened, God-Realized—to be free and truly happy. I encourage everyone to turn to the authentic Gurus, the Root Lamas, the world's genuine Spiritual Masters, and the Global Avatar—read the “Divine Library” inherited from our wisest Spiritual Heroes, women and men from all cultures and centuries—not merely the books of twenty-first-century philosophers and pandits. See for yourself! Do the Yoga! Awakening involves much more than reading a book, even one by Ken Wilber.
STAY TUNED FOR MY CONTINUING SERIES OF CRITICAL APPRECIATION REVIEWS
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Next (in Part 4), I will critically review Ken Wilber's confusion about traditional terms such as turiya and turiyatita, as the Witness consciousness and Nondual Enlightenment or “One Taste,” respectively, as he tries to fit them into his sequential model of higher mystical development. This will include a consideration of how Wilber interprets (or misinterprets) the Mahayana Buddhist Heart Sutra to fit into his version of “One Taste” in his attempt to “save the phenomena,” a project Westerners have been engaged in ever since Parmenides said only The One truly IS.
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Brief Bibliography
Adi Da Samraj, The Aletheon (2009, Middletown, CA: The Dawn Horse Press).
Adi Da Samraj, The Gnosticon (2010, Middletown, CA: The Dawn Horse Press).
Almaas, A. H., Runaway Realization: Living a Life of Ceaseless Discovery (2014, Boston: Shambhala Publications).
Chang, Garma C. C., The Practice of Zen (1959, NYC: Perennial Library, Harper & Row Publishers).
Cohen, Andrew, Evolutionary Enlightenment: A New Path to Spiritual Awakening (2011, SelectBooks).
Combs, Allan, Radiance of Being: Understanding the Grand Integral Vision; Living the Integral Life (2002, Omega Book).
Diener, Michael, The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen (1994, Boston: Shambhala Publications).
DiPerna, Dustin, editor, H. B. Augustin, editor, The Coming Waves: Evolution, Transformation, and Action in an Integral Age (2016, Occidental, CA: Bright Alliance).
DiPerna, Dustin, Streams of Wisdom: An Advanced Guide to Spiritual Development (2014, 2018, second edition, Occidental, CA: Bright Alliance).
Elgin, Duane, Awakening Earth: Exploring the Evolution of Human Culture and Consciousness (1993, William Morrow & Co).
Esbjörn-Hargens, Sean and Nicholas Hedlund, Big Picture Perspectives on Planetary Flourishing (2022, Routledge Studies in Critical Realism).
Freimann, Amir, Spiritual Transmission: Paradoxes and Dilemmas on the Spiritual Path (2018, Rhinebeck, NY: Monkfish Book Publishing), afterword by Ken Wilber.
Freinacht, Hanzi, The Listening Society: A Metamodern Guide to Politics, Book One (2017, Metamoderna).
Gebser, Jean, The Ever-Present Origin [Ursprung Und Gegenwart], (1949, 1953, 1986, Athens, OH: Ohio University Press).
Goddard, Dwight, editor, A Buddhist Bible: The Favorite Scriptures of the Zen Sect (1938, 1966, 1970, Boston: Beacon Press) with an Introduction by Huston Smith.
Grof, Stanislav, and Christina Grof, The Stormy Search for the Self: A Guide to Personal Growth through Transformational Crisis (1992, Reprint edition, Jeremy P. Tarcher).
Grof, Stanislav, LSD: Doorway to the Numinous: The Groundbreaking Psychedelic Research into Realms of the Human Unconscious (2009, Park Street Press; 4th Edition).
Grof, Stanislav, Realms of the Human Unconscious: Observations from LSD Research (2019, Souvenir Press).
Gyatso, Geshe Kelsang, Clear Light of Bliss: The Practice of Mahamudra in Vajrayana Buddhism (1982, 1995, London: Tharpa Publications).
Huxley, Aldous, The Doors of Perception (1954, 2009, HarperPerennial).
Kornfield, Jack, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path (2001, Bantam).
McIntosh, Steve, Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution (2007, NY: SelectBooks; 2013, Paragon House, Reprint edition).
Mitchell, Stephen, editor, The Enlightened Mind: An Anthology of Sacred Prose (1991, NYC: HarperCollins Publishers).
Muraresku, Brian, The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name (2020, NYC: St. Martin's Press).
Pema, Dragpa, An Integral View of Tibetan Buddhism: Preserving Lineage Wisdom in the 21st Century (2023, Occidental, CA: Bright Alliance).
Phipps, Carter, Evolutionaries: Unlocking the Spiritual and Cultural Potential of Science's Greatest Idea (2012, HarperPerennial).
Ramana Maharshi, The Garland of Guru's Sayings, translated by K. Swaminathan from the original in Tamil by Sri Muruganar (1990, 2020, Tamil Nadu, India: Prism Art Press).
Ramana Maharshi, The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi, edited primarily by Arthur Osborne (2006, San Rafael, CA: Sophia Perennis).
Reynolds, Brad, Embracing Reality: The Integral Vision of Ken Wilber—A Historical Survey and Chapter-By-Chapter Guide to Wilber's Major Works (NY: Tarcher/Putnam, 2004).
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NOTES
- Ken Wilber, One Taste (1999), pp. 314-315 [italic added).
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 13.
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 14.
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 41.
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 397.
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 69.
- Adi Da Samraj [Da Free John], from the Talk: “Seven Schools of God-Talk,” in The Song of the Self Supreme: Astavakra Gita (1982), translated by Radhakamal Mukerjee, Preface by Adi Da Samraj, pp. 45-46.
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 344.
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 23.
- Swami Vivekananda, Raja Yoga (1896, 1978, seventeenth printing), p. 6.
- Swami Vivekananda, Raja Yoga (1896, 1978, seventeenth printing), p. 4.
- “Since 2006, clinical research with psychedelics has seen a revival after years of inactivity; recent studies indicate their potential efficacy in treating a range of severe psychiatric conditions, including treatment-resistant depression, anxiety disorders, and alcohol and substance use disorders,” quoted in “A rapid narrative review of the clinical evolution of psychedelic treatment in clinical trials” by Ronit Kishon, Nadav Liam Modlin, Yael M. Cycowicz, Hania Mourtada, Tayler Wilson, Victoria Williamson, Anthony Cleare & James Rucker, in Mental Health Research, volume 3, article number: 33 (2024).
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 347.
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 19.
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 20 [caps in original].
- Michael Diener, The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen (1994), p. 180.
- D. T. Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism (1994), p. 229.
- Garma C. C. Chang, The Practice of Zen (1959), p. 111, to which he adds (p. 112): “Fortunately, in this incarnation, through the help and instruction of [right] teachers, the Prajna seed within you has had an opportunity to grow.” (p
- Huang Po, quoted in The Enlightened Mind (1991), edited by Stephen Mitchell, p. 67.
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 347.
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 10.
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 16.
- Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Chapter 3.4.1-2, quoted in Belief and Beyond (2019) by Mukunda Rao, p. 26 [italics added].
- Garma C. C. Chang, The Practice of Zen (1959), p. 52, 54 [pronouns changed to be gender-neutral throughout].
- Garma C. C. Chang, The Practice of Zen (1959), p. 42 [italics and caps in the original].
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 356.
- See: Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 351ff.
- Mukunda Rao. Belief and Beyond: Adventures in Consciousness from the Upanishads to Modern Times (2019), p. 41.
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 349.
- Gautama Buddha, quoted in Belief and Beyond (2019) by Mukunda Rao, p. 42.
- See: Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Clear Light of Bliss: The Practice of Mahamudra in Vajrayana Buddhism (1982, 1995).
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 11.
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 19.
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 439.
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 434.
- Gautama Buddha, quoted in Belief and Beyond (2019) by Mukunda Rao, p. 43; referenced Edward Conze, Further Buddhist Studies (Bruno Cassirer Ltd, Oxford, UK, 1976).
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 347.
- Garma C. C. Chang, The Practice of Zen (1959), p. 163.
- See: Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow (2017), p. 45, 225.
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 1.
- Mukunda Rao, The Buddha: An Alternative Narrative of His Life and Teaching (2017), p. 35.
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 26.
- Ken Wilber, Finding Radical Wholeness (2024), p. 9.
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