INTEGRAL WORLD MAILING LIST http://www.integralworld.net Newsletter Nr. 592 Amsterdam, November 24th, 2015 THE TWO MINUTE WARNING - Jainism and the Practice of Ahimsa - ANDREA DIEM-LANE Much of the violence that we as humans inflict on others happens in less than two minutes. Whether it is rage against a driver who abruptly turns into our freeway lane or anger from a surfer who takes off a wave we believed was ours alone. Michael Tobias in his book Life Force, writes at length about the ancient Jain practice of ahimsa, or non-violence, and how becoming acutely aware of the suffering of others can be mitigated if we just stopped and deeply thought about how much unnecessary pain and suffering we cause to a variety of life forms surrounding us. Read more: http://www.integralworld.net/diem-lane14.html THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES - Ferrer isn’t wearing any – Participatory is perennial - A reply to Hartelius - JOHN ABRAMSON I would like to thank Hartelius for his substantial and informative response to my article, 'The misunderstanding and misinterpretation of key aspects of Ken Wilber's work in Hartelius and Ferrer's (2013) assessment'. It opens the debate I have requested and my thanks to the editor for the opportunity of continuing this here. I would also like to acknowledge Hartelius' gripping style of delivery during which I have been variously likened in my manner of writing to Bill Clinton's denial of having sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky about my insistence that Wilber does not assert a single nondual ultimate. Compared to a climate change denier when I contended that Hartelius and Ferrer had missed the point about T.R.V. Murti's and Wilber's 'absolute'. Accused of almost reaching the point of dishonesty when I identified Wilber's complaint that Ferrer can deduce that he has shifted the ontological status of Kosmic habits to the inner realm (upper left quadrant) of the individual. Read more: http://www.integralworld.net/abramson2.html A STARTLING NEW ROLE FOR WILBER'S INTEGRAL MODEL - Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Perennialism (A Response to Abramson) - GLENN HARTELIUS Critics of Ken Wilber's work are unfailingly charged with misunderstanding his views. In a recent paper by John Abramson (2014), published in this journal under the title, “The misunderstanding and misinterpretation of key aspects of Ken Wilber's work in Hartelius and Ferrer's (2013) assessment,” Hartelius and Ferrer's paper, “Transpersonal Philosophy: The Participatory Turn,” appearing as Chapter 10 in The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Transpersonal Psychology, has met with this same charge. What Abramson (2014) has done is (1) to attempt to inflate semantic issues into the appearance of substantive ones, (2) to conflate Wilber's assertions with the logical arguments that would establish those assertions, (3) to critique the authors for using points made by Wilber himself, (4) to subtly assert the rightful primacy of Wilber's model by implying that any debate about it should take place on the territory of its assumptions, (5) to lodge complaints that the authors have failed to co-create some compromise between participatory and integral approaches, and (6) to hold out the prospect that a full account of Wilber's work would “comprehensively dispel” (p. 4) the misunderstandings to which Hartelius and Ferrer (2013) are allegedly subject. Through this retort, Abramson (2014) has attempted to create the appearance that Wilber's work remains a viable framework for enterprises such as transpersonal psychology—something that seems highly unlikely. This paper argues that Wilber does not offer a grand scholarly theory of everything, but a problematic metaphysical theory that may nevertheless continue to serve a limited popular audience. Read more: http://www.integralworld.net/hartelius1.html