With over two-dozen published books translated in nearly as many languages, Ken Wilber has created what is widely considered the first truly comprehensive Integral Map of human experience. By exploring and integrating the major insights and conclusions of nearly every human knowledge domain in existence, Wilber created the revolutionary AQAL Integral Framework. In short, the Integral Approach is the coherent organization, coordination, and harmonization of all of the relevant practices, methodologies, and experiences available to human beings. Wilber states: “You can’t [realistically] honor various methods and fields, without showing how they fit together. That is how to make a genuine world philosophy.” He is the founder of the nonprofit think tank Integral Institute, co-founder of the transformational learning community Integral Life, co-founder of Source Integral exploring the nature of Integral Society, and the current chancellor of Ubiquity University.
Ken’s site: kenwilber.com
Some of Ken’s many books:
- The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions
- Integral Buddhism: And the Future of Spirituality
- Integral Meditation: Mindfulness as a Way to Grow Up, Wake Up, and Show Up in Your Life
- Trump and a Post-Truth World
Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.
Interview recorded April 28, 2018.
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.
YouTube Video Chapters:
- 00:00:00 – Welcome to Buddha at the Gas Pump
- 00:04:54 – From Graduate School to Writing a Book
- 00:10:43 – The Meditation Technique and Awakening Experience
- 00:16:03 – The State of Witnessing during Meditation
- 00:21:34 – The Witness and Radical Oneness
- 00:27:16 – The Illusion of Waking Up
- 00:32:41 – Overpowering Fear from Repressed Anger
- 00:38:16 – The Importance of “Cleaning Up” in Spiritual Practice
- 00:44:00 – The Role of Spirituality in Human Development
- 00:49:12 – The Three Major Groups of Development Lines
- 00:55:03 – The Different Levels of Growing Up
- 01:00:52 – The stages of moral development
- 01:05:50 – Honoring and Including Different Perspectives
- 01:10:54 – Expressing Authentic Enlightenment
- 01:15:57 – The Recent Discovery of Growing Up Levels in Spiritual Systems
- 01:20:35 – Development of Cognitive and Emotional Intelligence
- 01:25:31 – Different lines of development
- 01:30:57 – The need for waking up, growing up, and cleaning up in spiritual practice
- 01:36:40 – The Evolution of Spiritual Pursuit
- 01:41:39 – The Problem of Overthinking in Philosophy
- 01:46:27 – The Unity of Nirvana and Samsara
- 01:52:06 – Differentiating Relative and Ultimate States of Consciousness
- 01:57:23 – Dissolving into Oneness
- 02:03:03 – Working with Good Maps and the Importance of Spiritual Growth
- 02:07:07 – Aurobindo’s Influence on Integral Yoga
- 02:13:38 – Spirit, consciousness, and the four quadrants
- 02:19:31 – Describing Ultimate Reality
- 02:25:19 – The Problem of Describing Ultimate Reality
- 02:30:58 – President Trump: A Sociocultural Analysis
- 02:37:36 – The Stages of Growing Up
- 02:42:14 – Exploring Ken Wilber’s Books and Resources
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