The Experiencer

Bear with me here- I know short and sweet works best, but some things need to be expanded upon in reaching an understanding.

My friend Julie, at Musings of a 24 Y.O. Idealist, “nudged” by a conversation at Andrew’s backstreetpetshop recently wrote pensively on the subject of ‘reading vs. experience’ which is worth a review of both blogs and all comments regarding. I believe most who commented were in agreement; the middle way of reading and digesting spiritual materials for learning and growth has merit but one must then experience as directly possible for one’s self the level of truth conveyed…to see it in action.

OK- cutting it short here, I’m already bored and I’m the one doing the writing.

Ken Wilber is coming out with his new book, “Integral Spirituality” late this year and there is a brillant feature in this month’s What Is Enlightenment Magazine well worth picking up if you’re a fan of Wilber (even if you’re not, what Wilber has constructed with his Integral Philosophy of “I, We, It and Its” and “AQAL” or ‘all quadrants, all levels’ is nothing less than mind blowing and as Andrew Cohen says in the WIE article, Ken's integral theory will probably will be taught as a standard in high school one day in the future).

For those familiar with Wilber who can grasp the ‘mostly complex’ significance of his embrace of AQAL in his construct of an integral philosophy you’ll be interested to know he has now added eight ‘zones’ or perspectives to his four quadrants (damn it! How much can we be expected to keep up with)!

My dear Soul- friend, Trevor at The Sound of Diesel Musing first introduced me to Ken Wilber a year ago and since then I have labored, loved, despised, laughed, contemplated, dismissed, and eagerly returned again and again to Ken’s works and ideas for inspiration. It also seems that his name is popping up more and more with President Clinton even singing his praises at a recent speech.

The Point of all this rambling: I think Wilber’s integral philosophy is very important and his broad- embrace of spiritual diversity inspiring…enough so that his philosophy warrants investigation of the most attentive kind- and that means reading further, exploring further ideas before experiencing. Even Ken says that any model of integral philosophy must be ‘user friendly’ and it’s true: nothing amounts to anything if you can’t understand it (and Ken’s philosophy takes some reading and re- reading- but it’s possible to grasp: more than that- if I can, anyone can!) and put it into practice.

More later…now I am REALLY, REALLY bored!

Thanks Julie, Andrew and Trev for your inspiration…and to Meredith, at Graceful Presence for the constant reminder that Clear Mind is behind all.