By Ken Wilber (from One Taste)
Monday, September 29
"It is not what a person says, but the level from which they say it, that determines the truth of a spiritual statement." He was a young professor, from a local college, and I had agreed to chat with him for an hour or so, late this afternoon.
"How do you mean that?" he asked.
"Well, anybody can say, 'All things are One,' 'All sentient beings possess Spirit,' 'All things are part of a great unified Web of Life,' or 'Subject and object are nondual.' Anybody can say those things. The question is, do you directly and actually realize that? Are you speaking with any sort of awakened authority, or are these just words to you?"
"What if they are just words? What does it matter?"
"Well, spiritual realities involve not merely statements about the objective world, but also statements of subjective facts, interior facts—and for those statements to be true when they come from your mouth, you must be directly in touch with those higher, interior facts, or else you are not being truthful, no matter how 'correct' the words might sound. It is the subjective state of the speaker, and not the objective content of the words, that determines the truth of the utterance."
"Yes, I see. But could you give some examples?" He was furiously scribbling, but I was not sure if he was taking notes or recording his own thoughts.
"Okay. Anybody can say 'All things are One,' so you have to determine the subjective state of consciousness—or the level of consciousness—of the person making the statement in order to judge its actual truth value, its truthfulness. We need to know the level of consciousness of the speaker in order to know what he or she actually means by 'All things.' Do they mean all gross-level things are one? All subtle-level things are one? All causal realities are one? Do they mean all of those taken together? You see, the simple statement 'All things are One' actually has a number of quite different meanings, and those meanings depend, not on the objective content of the words—which are the same in each case—but on the subjective level of consciousness of the speaker, which varies dramatically. You might be one with everything on a given level, but what if there are higher and deeper levels that you don't know about? You're not one with those, you see?"
"Yes. So how can you tell?"
"There are several tip-offs. Most of the books written about systems theory, Gaia, the Great Mother, ecopsychology, the new paradigm, and so on, are all written with reference to the gross, waking state. You can easily tell this because they never mention any of the subtle realm phenomena—nothing about the various meditative states, samadhis, interior illuminations, the extraordinary states of dream yoga, transcendental awareness, and so on. Nor do they mention the even higher states of causal formlessness. So when they claim to be 'holistic' and 'nondual,' they really aren't, not in any full sense. At best, they are at the level of nature mysticism, where consciousness is confined to union with the gross, waking state. This is fine as far as it goes, it just doesn't go very far. It is the shallowest of the spheres of mystical Oneness in the Great Nest of Spirit."
"How can you tell if their consciousness extends beyond the gross realm?"
"Once consciousness becomes strong enough to persist from the waking state into the dream state—once you start to lucid dream, for example, or once you enter into various types of savikalpa samadhi (meditation with form)—an entirely new realm becomes available to you—namely, the subtle realm—and this is unmistakably reflected in your life, your writing, your theorizing, your spiritual practice. You are no longer confined to thinking about the gross sensorimotor realm— your god is no longer merely green—but rather an extraordinary interior landscape opens to the mind's eye. If you are a painter, you are no longer confined to painting bowls of fruit, nature landscapes, or nudes. You can paint the subtle interior scenes, as with Surrealism and Fantastic Realism, or the interior meditation objects, as with Tibetan thangka painting. But none of those subtle objects can be seen with the eye of flesh."
"So when somebody at that subtle level says 'All things are One,' they mean something different than when the gross-realm theorist says that."
"Yes, quite different. Usually, when someone whose access consciousness is confined to the gross realm says 'All things are One,' they mean something like systems theory or ecopsychology—they mean all empirical phenomena are aspects of a unified process. But when someone also has access to subtle-realm consciousness, they mean all empirical and all subtle phenomena are aspects of a unified process. This is a much deeper and wider realization, which transcends and includes the gross realm."
"So their consciousness is actually stronger."
"In a sense, yes. Their awareness does not blank out at the threshold of the dream state. Because of their own development and evolution of consciousness, they can remain 'awake' even as the dream arises—or they can enter profound states of savikalpa samadhi and not go blank. And this 'strength' of consciousness becomes even greater at the causal stage of development, because you reach a type of 'constant consciousness' or 'constant witnessing capacity,' which means you are 'awake' or conscious through all three major states—waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. So consciousness becomes stronger and stronger, persisting through more and more changes of state, and this is reflected unmistakably in your life, your work, your theorizing, and so on. These signs are hard to miss."
"Yes, I can see that. So if you are at the subtle stage, you have access . . . ?"
"At the subtle stage you have access to a variety of forms of deity mysticism—interior illuminations, nada, shabd, various samadhis or meditative states, saguna Brahman (Deity with Form), prayer of the heart, dream yoga, most of the bardo realms, and so on. This is the subtle realm of deity mysticism. Because the subtle-soul transcends but includes the gross-sensorimotor realm, at the level of deity mysticism you also have access to nature mysticism, so those are not exclusive. But the lower, nature mystics tend to think you're nuts."
"And the causal..."
"Is the home of formless mysticism—pure Emptiness, the Abyss, the Unborn, ayn, nirodh, nirvikalpa, jnana samadhi, classical Nirvana or cessation. This experience (or 'nonexperience') of cessation is unmistakable and indelible. And when somebody has directly experienced that state, and they are writing spiritual books, believe me, they will write about that! And you will intuitively feel that they know what they're talking about."
"You also mention the nondual."
"Yes, once you push through causal formlessness—which is the home of the pure Witness—then the Witness itself collapses into everything that is witnessed through all three states. Vedanta calls this sahaja, which means the spontaneous union of nirvana (emptiness) and samsara (form); the Tibetans call it One Taste, because all things, in all states, have the same flavor, namely, Divine; the Taoists call it tzu-jan, which means 'of itself so,' or perfectly spontaneous. So when a person here says 'All things are One,' they mean every single thing in the gross and in the subtle and in the causal has the same One Taste. And that is very different from somebody awake only in the gross realm saying 'All things are One.' "
"I see, yes. That's why you said that"—he glanced at his notes—"it is the subjective state of the speaker and not the objective content of the words that determines the truth of the utterance."
"Yes, that's right."
"So we have a type of Oneness at the psychic level, at the subtle, at the causal, and at the nondual."
"Basically, yes. And those cover just the transpersonal, transrational types of Oneness or Union. There are also the primitive, prerational, prepersonal forms of 'oneness' or fusion. There is archaic or pleromatic fusion, or oneness with the physical world (which is typical of the first year of life). There is magical animism, or the indissociation of emotional subject and object, a type of vital-level oneness (which is typical of 1-4 yrs). And there is mythic syncretism, or the oneness of symbolic fusions (typical of 4-8 yrs). Of course, as Jean Gebser emphasized, these primitive types of cognition—archaic, magic, and mythic—are still available to all of us, although nested by deeper developments. And then we reach the rational forms of Oneness, such as systems theory, which are achieved by mature reason (or vision-logic)."
"Could you just list them all?"
"Pleromatic fusion, magical animism, mythic syncretism, rational systems theory, psychic or nature mysticism, subtle or deity mysticism, formless or causal mysticism, and nondual One Taste."
"And all of those," he said, "can make statements like 'All things are One,' and yet they all mean something totally different."
"That's it."
"Yes, I see, I see." He continued scribbling.
"Look, here's the point," I suggested. "There have recently been a plethora of books about how all things are part of a unified whole, we are all strands in the web of life, all things are aspects of a great unified process, the world is an organic living system, and so on—all of which are variations on 'All things are One.' But that statement in itself is perfectly meaningless, as we have just seen. Its truth depends entirely on the level of consciousness of the person making the statement.
"And that means two things: First, when you read these books, try to judge as best you can the actual depth of the writer—anybody can say 'All things are One.' Most of the books written about 'oneness with the world' are written from, and about, magical animism, mythic syncretism, or, at best, a type of rational systems theory. So try to find a writer addressing the transrational, not just the rational or prerational, levels of awareness. And second, the writer should be giving you, first and foremost, practices to help you awaken to a higher level of Oneness in yourself. Not just a new objective description of the world—that's worthless in this regard—but a series of subjective practices to change the level of your own consciousness.
"So these writers should be awakened to a higher Oneness—psychic or subtle or causal or nondual—and they should be giving you practices to help you awaken as well. At the very least, these writers should be giving you, not merely new ways to translate the world, but new ways to transform your own consciousness. And if they don't directly give you these practices, they should make it clear how centrally important they are."
I made him a cup of green tea, and we silently watched the light slowly fade as the sun disappeared behind the mountains. He seemed lost in intense thought, as if wearing an invisible Walkman receiving a song only he could hear. "Thank you," he finally said, and I walked him to the door.
Thanks for sharing and very good piece to read indeed !
Understanding all things are oneness is crucial to practice. There are basically six aspects on the understanding of "All things are oneness" :
http://www.fosss.org/basic/6jifo.html
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Hi, thanks for sharing...
However Ken Wilber is talking about a specific type of experience of oneness, which he delineates into Gross, Subtle and Causal, followed by Non Dual which is not a specific state but the condition of all conditions.
I must say that the only mysticism I haven't actually experienced before is the Subtle/Deity mysticism. This concerns those practice visualization and attaining oneness with their deity.
However, in my understanding only the Causal (I AM, Witness) and Non Dual can be considered as spiritual Realization, because it concerns our true nature and not a temporary state or experience. And then there are also those who haven't even touched any of these four transpersonal states (from gross to non dual), but nonetheless they talk about oneness, which means they are speaking from personal states of consciousness.
In Ken Wilber's words,
The basic idea is that in each of the 4 major natural states, you can have a peak experience or intensification of that state. One of the ultimate peak experience in any realm is to be one with the phenomena in that realm. To experience a oneness with all phenomena in the gross-waking state is a typical nature mysticism. To experience a oneness with all phenomena in the subtle-dream state is a typical deity mysticism. To experience a oneness with all phenomena (or lack thereof) in the causal-unmanifest state is a typical formless mysticism. To experience a oneness with all phenomena arising in gross, subtle and causal states is a typical nondual mysticism.
"It is not what a person says, but the level from which they say it, that determines the truth of a spiritual statement."
Yes, however the level from which it is said can only be recognized by those very close to that level itself. This is why the general advice ranges from "do nothing" to "in any moment you find yourself in, simply do what you're doing". Because if you attempted to do something different from the moment, the consciousness of the next moment is too much higher to enlighten the consciousness of this moment.
Consciousness of the next moment should be very plain in teaching the consciousness of this moment, for the very reason that there is no possible teaching for consciousness to enlighten. Even ambient music is too high to enlighten beginners. Otherwise there would only be a single flame in all of existence, for if there was a teaching, the higher consciousness which by virtue of knowing more about reality, would immediately teach the lower consciousness the teaching, and the lower consciousness would thus enlighten and perform whatever action the higher consciousness would have done.
Thus due to the next moment having a permanent teaching for this moment, this moment would always be enlightenment, for the lower consciousness, immediately enlightened by the next moment's higher consciousness, would thus perform the action of the next moment, which is of course to receive the next higher consciousness's teaching.
Mind joins mind at the point of non-duality, not in any dual perception. And until mind joins mind all the time, there is more practice to be done.
Treat yourself as this moment and then treat this moment as being enlightened by the next moment. Until you can bring the next moment closer to this moment, the next moment will not make sense compared to this moment, and thus no enlightenment. So you should treat the entire world as enlightenment, but very specifically it is the enlightenment of *you*, not of beings in general, or even humans in general. And while the enlightenment of *you* is indescribable (think of the all the things *you* still don't know!), it is always there, right now in this moment, teaching.
Originally posted by windwithoutair:Yes, however the level from which it is said can only be recognized by those very close to that level itself. This is why the general advice ranges from "do nothing" to "in any moment you find yourself in, simply do what you're doing". Because if you attempted to do something different from the moment, the consciousness of the next moment is too much higher to enlighten the consciousness of this moment.
Consciousness of the next moment should be very plain in teaching the consciousness of this moment, for the very reason that there is no possible teaching for consciousness to enlighten. Even ambient music is too high to enlighten beginners. Otherwise there would only be a single flame in all of existence, for if there was a teaching, the higher consciousness which by virtue of knowing more about reality, would immediately teach the lower consciousness the teaching, and the lower consciousness would thus enlighten and perform whatever action the higher consciousness would have done.
Thus due to the next moment having a permanent teaching for this moment, this moment would always be enlightenment, for the lower consciousness, immediately enlightened by the next moment's higher consciousness, would thus perform the action of the next moment, which is of course to receive the next higher consciousness's teaching.
Mind joins mind at the point of non-duality, not in any dual perception. And until mind joins mind all the time, there is more practice to be done.
Treat yourself as this moment and then treat this moment as being enlightened by the next moment. Until you can bring the next moment closer to this moment, the next moment will not make sense compared to this moment, and thus no enlightenment. So you should treat the entire world as enlightenment, but very specifically it is the enlightenment of *you*, not of beings in general, or even humans in general. And while the enlightenment of *you* is indescribable (think of the all the things *you* still don't know!), it is always there, right now in this moment, teaching.
I don't know what do you mean by 'consciousness of the next moment'.
As far as I know... there's only this moment, ever ;) An Eternal Now.
From the perspective of the Absolute, there is no higher and lower consciousness either. There is only ever Pure Consciousness, and It is You.