Ken Wilber - One Taste: Daily Reflections on Integral Spirituality

ONE TASTE

Daily Reflections on Integral Spirituality

Ken Wilber

SHAMBHALA

Boston & London

2011

S HAMBHALA P UBLICATIONS , I NC .

Horticultural Hall

300 Massachusetts Avenue

Boston, Massachusetts 02115

www.shambhala.com

2000 by Ken Wilber

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wilber, Ken.

One taste: daily reflections on integral spirituality/Ken Wilber.[Rev. ed.].

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN 978-0-8348-2270-2

ISBN 978-1-57062-547-3 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Wilber, KenDiaries. 2. Spiritual biographyUnited States. 3. Spiritual life. I. Title.

BL73.W55 A3 2000

191dc21

[B]

00021871

Contents

I N THE PAST I have strenuously resisted going public. I am not a private person, in the sense of secretive; Im just not a public person, in the sense of seeking the limelight. Nonetheless, as one who has written extensively about the interior life, it seemed appropriate, at some point, to share mine. The following pages therefore contain a fair amount of what would ordinarily be considered private material. Still, in the last analysis, this is a philosophical more than personal journal: it deals primarily with ideas, and especially those ideas that orbit the sun of the perennial philosophy (or the common core of the worlds great wisdom traditions). In one area, however, this is a very personal journal: extensive descriptions of meditation practice and various mystical states, based on my own experience. (Those who wish a more personal account in other areas might consult Grace and Grit.)

Because this book is idea-focused, I have taken a few liberties with the order of the entries. Some theoretical pieces were moved up, because other entries dont make sense without them. Dates are generally accurate, but in a few cases they might be off because I sometimes made notes without dating them, so I entered these wherever it seemed appropriate. Some Naropa seminars originally occurred within a few days of each other; I have spread these out (otherwise, too much academic talk in one place); the dates are therefore not always accurate, but the excerpts themselves are. In any event, it should be remembered that these journals were not primarily meant to be a record of the details of my personal life, but rather a record of further attempts to convey the perennial philosophy.

Because the theoretical entries are fairly brief and self-containeda page or two, usually, a dozen pages at mostthe ideas themselves come in bite-size chunks. If you hit an entry that doesnt interest youone on politics, perhaps, or business, or artyou can easily skip to the next entry. If, however, you are reading these pages for the theoretical information, you should know that each entry builds on its predecessors, so skipping around is not the best idea.

If there is a theme to this journal it is that body, mind, and soul are not mutually exclusive. The desires of the flesh, the ideas of the mind, and the luminosities of the soulall are perfect expressions of the radiant Spirit that alone inhabits the universe, sublime gestures of that Great Perfection that alone outshines the world. There is only One Taste in the entire Kosmos, and that taste is Divine, whether it appears in the flesh, in the mind, in the soul. Resting in that One Taste, transported beyond the mundane, the world arises in the purest Freedom and radiant Release, happy to infinity, lost in all eternity, and hopeless in the original face of the unrelenting mystery. From One Taste all things issue, to One Taste all things returnand in between, which is the story of this moment, there is only the dream, and sometimes the nightmare, from which we would do well to awaken.

K.W.

Boulder, Colorado

Spring 1998

Y ou could not discover the limits of the soul, even if you traveled by every path in order to do so; such is the depth of its meaning.

H ERACLITUS

Thursday, January 2 7

Worked all morning, research and reading, while watching the sunlight play through the falling snow. The sun is not yellow today, it is white, like the snow, so I am surrounded by white on white, alone on alone. Sheer Emptiness, soft clear light, is what it all looks like, shimmering to itself in melancholy murmurs. I am released into that Emptiness, and all is radiant on this clear light day.

Friday, January 3

A while agosomewhere around ThanksgivingI started writing The Integration of Science and Religion: The Union of Ancient Wisdom and Modern Knowledge. The book is now done, and Im wondering just what to do with it. I wrote it with a specific audience in mindnamely, the orthodox, conventional, mainstream world, not the new-age, new-paradigm, countercultural crowd. I have no idea if I succeeded, and Im not sure exactly what my next step should be.

I need to figure out a way to do this type of intense work and still have some sort of social life. Every time Balzac had an orgasm, he used to say, There goes another book. I seem to have it exactly backwards.

After Treyas deathits been eight years this monthI didnt date for a year or so. Ive since had a few very nice relationships, but nothing quite right. I wonder...

Saturday, January 4

Some students have invited me to a ravean all-night dance party with techno music andahemcertain illegal substances. The kidsand these really are kids, twentysomethingsuse small amounts of Ecstasy, a drug that enhances empathy and group rapport. The atmosphere is communal, asexual or perhaps androgynous, and gentle but intensewith, for lack of a better term, a type of spiritual background. The music (e.g., Moby and Prodigy) generally lacks wordsthat is, lacks a referential nature, so the symbolic mind is not engagedand this allows, on occasion, little glimmers of the supramental, not to mention huge doses of the inframental.

Well, whatever disapproving parents may say about all that, I find it infinitely preferable to what we used to do at our dances, which was, basically, drink a six-pack of beer and throw up on your date. And as for baby-boomer parents cluck-clucking about illegal substances, ah, gimme me a break.

Still, I think Ill pass on the rave. But more power to em, I say.

Tuesday, January 7

This weekend is the Ken Wilber Conference in San Francisco. Im told its sold out and theyre looking for a bigger place to hold it. Im not sure whether thats good or bad.

Roger [Walsh] will be one of the main presenters. I wonder if he will tell his Neil Armstrong joke, which seems to be the funniest thing anybody can ever remember hearing:

When Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, his first words were, One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. The next thing he said was, Good luck, Mr. Gorsky. The little-known story behind those words: When Armstrong was a young boy, he overheard a heated argument coming from the neighbors bedroom window. Mrs. Gorsky screamed at Mr. Gorsky, Youll get oral sex when that little boy next door walks on the moon.

Wednesday, January 8

Got another letter from a woman who read my foreword to Francess book [Shadows of the Sacred: Seeing Through Spiritual Illusions, by Frances Vaughan]. Ive received so many letters from women who relate directly to the issues raised in it.

The foreword begins, Frances Vaughan is the wisest of the Wise Women I know. Such a wonderful concept: the woman who is wise, the woman who has more wisdom, perhaps, than you or I, the woman who brings a special knowledge, a graceful touch, a healing presence, to her every encounter, for whom beauty is a mode of knowing and openness a special strengtha woman who sees so much more, and touches so much more, and reaches out with care, and tells us that it will be all right, this woman who is wise, this woman who sees more.