Further Steps to a Philosophy and Psychology of Awakening: An Evaluation of Ken Wi...

Description:
In this Volume the so-called "Integral" Philosophy and Psychology of Ken Wilber is evaluated, showing it to be Phenomenologically and Existentially ascending. In fact, according to Wilber spiritual development involves developing one structure after another, rather than Seeing through all structures into the unstructured Base of Dzogchen. He views Awakening as the top level of a succession of levels, and in particular as the final, top structure in a sort of Babel Tower in which each store is a new structure built on the previously built structures that constitute the lower floors, and (b) posits a single, universal sequence of Awakening for all of the different existing paths—Buddhist and non-Buddhist, gradual and abrupt, based on this or that different principle (such as for example that of renunciation, that of transformation and that of spontaneous liberation, which were briefly explained in Vol. I), etc. As noted in the Introduction and as shown in greater detail in the rest of the book, this is utterly mistaken, for (a) Awakening, rather than a built / produced / contrived / conditioned structure that rests on previously built structures (which as such in Buddhism's own terms would be subject to suffering and impermanence), is the unproduced / uncontrived / unconditioned / unmade / not induced / unintentional / uncontrived / uncompounded irreversible unveiling of the unproduced / uncontrived / unconditioned / unmade / not induced / unintentional / uncontrived / uncompounded true condition of the human individual and all other phenomena, and (b) the sequences of realization in the various gradual systems that claim to lead to Awakening are far from coinciding with each other; the sequences that Wilber has successively produced contradict the sequences of realization posited in all Buddhist gradual Paths and vehicles; and in nongradual Paths there is no foreseeable sequence of stages in the process of spiritual realization. In the terminology of Chögyam Trungpa, Wilber's system is an example of spiritual materialism. Moreover, his view of human evolution is clearly modern and Hegelian and as such is contrary to the view of Dzogchen and all genuine Wisdom traditions, according to which evolution is degenerative and now we are in the end of the Kaliyuga, when delusion has reached its paroxysm, giving rise to the ecological crisis that constitutes the reductio ad absurdum of delusion. And he claims that perfection will only be achieved after centuries—but if change is not immediate our species will destroy itself and such perfection will never be reached. According to him the right political ideology is midway between that of staunch Republicans and right wing Demats like Bill Clinton—whose government did not change his country's policy regarding greenhouse gases and ecological destruction. According to Wilber, Shakyamuni Buddha wouldn't be Awake in our time because "he hasn't integrated the structures developed since his time", and before Shakyamuni it was hardly possible for anyone to attain Awakening. According to the Dzogchen teachings, there have been Awake teachers since the very beginning of our species. In brief, according to Buddhism and Dzogchen, Wilber's system could hardly be more obviously inverted. Finally the ascender/descender debate is discussed from a Metaphenomenological, Metaexistential perspective, rather than in terms of regression or progression.

Back