452. Ken Wilber

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:

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview.

Interview recorded April 28, 2018.

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