By Ken Wilbur
In a line: Becoming aware of the various boundaries we have erected in our minds, our society, even in our bodies and how to recognize these and dissolve them.
Chewing through the first few chapters of this book was a bit daunting and I like big words and complex ideas. That being said the chapters actually get lighter the further you read so don't be discouraged by it's weighty front end - it is a fabulous read and will give you lots to ponder...
I started to write an overview of how I understood the content, however that ran into several pages and didn't make a whole lot of sense - let's just say Ken Wilbur says it better.
Here's a list of my top ten (ok 12) quotes from the book - along with some commentary relevant to my reading:
1. "Who are you?" When you are describing or explaining or even just inwardly feeling your "self", what you are actually doing, whether you know it or not, is drawing a mental line or boundary across the whole field of your experience, and everything on the inside of that boundary you are feeling or calling your "self", while everything outside that boundary you feel to be "not-self". Your self identity, in other words, depends entirely upon where you draw that line.
This is at the core of the book's message, how and where we draw lines to individualize ourselves or in turn separate ourselves - from facets of our own persona, to our bodies, to experiences and things around us...
2. Eve, who by the way was really much wiser than Adam, usually held her tongue. That is, she declined to reciprocate with word magic, for she knew in her heart that words were a two-edged sword, and that he who lives by the sword, perishes by the sword.
In humanities growth we reached a point where labeling (words) and language developed, and began classifying things as separate, creating more and more boundaries. I had to include this quote however, because anyone who's ever tried to get me to communicate about things (especially emotions) knows I don't like to express myself in words - words draw lines and emotions definitely include both sides of all coins - so in speaking I choose this or that and then deny the rest, but because I actually feel many parts I end up sounding like a HUGE contradiction.
3. Yet, despite the obvious comforts of medicine and agriculture, there is not the least bit of evidence to suggest that, after centuries of accentuating positives and trying to eliminate negatives, humanity is any happier, more content, or more at peace with itself. In fact, the available evidence suggests just the contrary: today is the "age of anxiety," of "future shock," of epidemic frustration and alienation, of boredom in the midst of wealth and meaninglessness in the midst of plenty.
Here's where we constantly draw lines, good vs. evil, black vs. white, right vs. wrong, we separate everything and so deny the elements of those things that actually connect them. This does not mean there should be no such thing as morality etc. but more a recognition that even when you do something "right" there is still some "wrongness" in it.
4. A quote from the Buddhist text, the Lankavatara Sutra: "False-imagination teaches that such things as light and shade, long and short, black and white are different and are to be discriminated; but they are not independent of each other; they are only different aspects of the same thing, they are terms of relation, not of reality. Conditions of existence are not of a mutually exclusive character; in essence things are not two but one."
5. Buddha's teachings really says it all:
"Suffering alone exists, none who suffer;
The deed there is, but no doer thereof;
Nirvana is, but no one seeking it;
The Path there is, but none who travel it."
Stated positively: when it is realized that one's self is the All, there is then nothing outside of oneself which could inflict suffering. Stated negatively: this understanding is a liberation from all suffering because it is a liberation from the notion that there is a self which can suffer in the first place. As Wei Wu Wei put it:
"Why are you unhappy?
Because 99.9 percent
Of everything you think, and
Of everything you do,
Is for yourself -
And there isn't one.
6. To enter deeply into this present moment is thus to plunge into eternity, to step through the looking glass and into the world of the Unborn and the Undying. For there is no beginning to this present moment, and that which has no beginning is Unborn. In the same vein, there is no ending to this present moment, and that which has no ending is the Undying.
Definitely a deeper look at what "living in the moment means". Thinking in terms of no beginning and no end is what got us in trouble with boundaries in the first place. The infinity concept is so overwhelming we need to define it, draw it's lines and boundaries so we grasp it. But this only traps us in time, which in turn brings us a start and a stop...
7. We dwell in yesterdays and dream forever of tomorrows, and thus bind ourselves with the torturous chains of time and the ghosts of things not really present.
8. The person who is beginning to sense the suffering of life it, at the same time, beginning to awaken to deeper realities, truer realities. For suffering smashes to pieces the complacency of our normal fictions about reality, and forces us to become alive in a special sense.
Anyone close to me has probably felt or witnessed my own special brand of suffering - however for as many times as I thought "ignorance is bliss" I always chose the other path. Painful as reality is for me to process or accept sometimes, Lord knows I love to do things the hard way...
9. She has narrowed her boundaries so as to exclude the unwanted tendencies. These alienated tendencies are therefore projected as the shadow, and the individual is identified only with what's left: a narrowed, impoverished, and inaccurate self-image, the persona. A new boundary is constructed, and another battle of opposites is on: the persona vs. its own shadow.
Hmmm, sounds vaguely familiar...we all wish we could lose the parts of ourselves we don't want to see - if we are even self-aware enough to recognize what we may be ignoring or hiding. He also comments: "The more her little black heart clamors for attention, the more she resists it. The more she resists it, the more strength is acquires, and the more it demands her awareness."
10. Most people have a very strong resistance to accepting their own shadows, a resistance to admitting that their projected impulses and traits are theirs. A person resists his shadow, resists the disliked aspects of himself, and therefore projects them. An impulse (such as drive, anger, or desire) which arises in you and is naturally aimed at the environment, when projected, appears as an impulse originating in the environment and aimed at you.
We could all do with a seriously good look at this, not only in the action of the "projector" but as the object of being "projected upon". I press my own weaknesses upon those around me and then judge them for having those weaknesses. Or on the flip side, how often have I puzzled at a partner or friend accusing me of some emotion which is actually coming from themselves?
Apparently I hi-lighted a lot more than 10 quotes - so I will end with one final one: (but you get the idea, read the book for more insight...)
11. To find egoic meaning in life is to do something in life, and up to a point that is appropriate. But beyond the ego is beyond that type of meaning - to a meaning that is less of doing and more of being. As e.e.cummings put it: "If you can be, be. If not, cheer up and go on about other peoples' business, doing and undoing unto others 'til you drop."
To find centauric meaning in life - fundamental meaning - is to find that the very processes of life itself generate joy. Meaning is found, not in outward actions and possessions, but in the inner radiant currents of your own being, and in the release and relationship of these currents to the world, to friends, to humanity at large, and to infinity itself.
and ideally:
12. She is no longer exclusively identified with just her ego or centaur, and thus she is no longer suffocated by purely personal problems and dramas. In a sense she can let go of her individual concerns and view them with a creative detachment, realizing that whatever problems her personal self faces, her deeper self transcends them to remain untouched, free, open. She finds, haltingly at first but then with an ever-increasing certainty, a quiet source of inner strength that persists unperturbed, like the depths of the ocean, even though the surface waves of consciousness are swept with torrents of pain, anxiety, or despair.
