Ken Wilber - 13 July

Ken Wilber is one of the most important pioneers in the field of consciousness in this century. Read everything he writes. It will change your life.

Deepak Chopra, M.D.

When Ken Wilbers thought walks through your mind, the door to the next higher level becomes visible. Anyone seeking to update the wisdom traditions of their lineage needs his reality and consciousness maps. The kabbalah of the future will lean on Kens work.

Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

After reading Wilber, its impossible to imagine looking at the world the same way again.

Mitchell Kapor, founder of Lotus, Inc.

Wilber blends a perceptive sensitivity to the nuances of spiritual life with a profound intellectual sophistication. The upshot is a pleasure to read: accessible, deep, provocative, and ultimately very moving.

Michael Lerner, author of Spirit Matters and The Politics of Meaning

The twenty-first century literally has three choices: Aristotle, Nietzsche, or Ken Wilber.

Jack Crittenden, Ph.D., author of Beyond Individualism

ABOUT THE BOOK

Ken Wilber is a pioneering thinker who has developed an integral theory of everything that embraces the truths of both Eastern spirituality and Western science. Yet while he is best known for his scholarly research into the worlds contemplative traditions, Wilber is also an accomplished spiritual practitioner and mystic in his own right. In order to highlight the personal wisdom of this popular author, the editors of The Simple Feeling of Being have assembled a collection of inspirational, mystical, and instructional passages drawn from his publications. These heartfelt writings, born of Kens own meditation practice and inner experiences, include:

• Poetic passages of contemplative insights and reflections
• Inspired descriptions of Spirit, Nondual Awareness, the Witness, One Taste, and other topics
• Commentary on the spiritual contributions of figures such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Saint Teresa of vila, Meister Eckhart, and Ramana Maharshi
• Anecdotes of personal experience and glimpses into Wilbers inner world
• Practical spiritual instructions and guided meditations

KEN WILBER is the author of over twenty books. He is the founder of Integral Institute, a think-tank for studying integral theory and practice, with outreach through local and online communities such as Integral Education Network, Integral Training, and Integral Spiritual Center.

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THE SIMPLE FEELING OF BEING

Embracing Your True Nature

Ken Wilber

Compiled and edited by

Mark Palmer, Sean Hargens,

Vipassana Esbjrn, and Adam Leonard

SHAMBHALA

Boston & London

2011

SHAMBHALA PUBLICATIONS

Horticultural Hall

300 Massachusetts Avenue

Boston, Massachusetts 02115

www.shambhala.com

2004 by Ken Wilber

Cover design by Jim Zaccaria

See , for further copyright information.

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. The simple feeling of being: embracing your true nature / Ken Wilber; Compiled and edited by Mark Palmer... [et al.]

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN 978-0-8348-2293-1

ISBN 978-1-59030-151-7 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Spiritual life. I. Palmer, Mark. I-I. Title.

bl624 .w535 2004

204.4dc22

2003026741

We are part and parcel of a single and all-encompassing evolutionary current that is itself Spirit-in-action, the mode and manner of Spirits creation, and thus is always going beyond what went beforethat leaps, not crawls, to new plateaus of truth, only to leap again, dying and being reborn with each new quantum lurch, often stumbling and bruising its metaphysical knees, yet always getting right back up and jumping yet again.

And do you remember the Author of this Play? As you look deeply into your own awareness, and relax the self-contraction, and dissolve into the empty ground of your own primordial experience, the simple feeling of Beingright now, right hereis it not obvious all at once? Were you not present from the start? Did you not have a hand to play in all that was to follow? Did not the dream itself begin when you got bored with being God? Was it not fun to get lost in the productions of your own wondrous imagination, and pretend it all was other? Did you not write this book, and countless others like it, simply to remind you who you are?

CW 2: Up from Eden, 304

Contents

W HILE KEN WILBER is known prominently for his development of the Integral Approachwhich some critics regard as the most comprehensive and inclusive philosophy availableWilbers writings are ultimately grounded in his commitment to spiritual practice and the truths that are revealed through the wondrous opening of body in mind, mind in soul, soul in Spirit.

As the worlds foremost integral philosopher, Wilber has achieved rare distinction through his unique, all-inclusive framework. This theoretical framework not only explores the vast range of potential in self, culture, and nature, but is also deeply committed to honoring Spirit in its myriad forms. Wilbers efforts are nothing short of a profound manifestation of the bodhisattva vow to liberate all sentient beings, through the honoring and integration of all perspectives.

Ken Wilber continually invites his readers to recognize the value of words and concepts as a means for going beyond words and concepts entirely to a direct realization of Emptiness or Reality itself. This is also the path of jnana yoga, where one studies the world and accumulates knowledge, until they are cracked open to the Mystery by the very profundity of the manifest realm.

In many mystical traditions, there are often two components to any visualization or meditative practice: the creation stage and the completion stage. In the first, one creates through ritual visualization a complex image or mandala, which represents the sacred dwelling of a particular divine energy. In the latter, one transforms oneself into a divine energy (such as compassion or wisdom) and then dissolves the entire visualization into emptiness, leaving only the Clear Light of primordial awareness.

Likewise, throughout his many books and articles, Wilber invites his readers to visualize the Kosmos as a four-quadrant mandala with multiple layers (such as levels, lines, types, bodies). In effect, Wilber, through his theoretical musings, is providing his readers with meditation instructions by which they can transform the world into a divine integral palace. At the end of sections, chapters, or books, Wilber reminds readers that they are this mandala, they are the awareness that brings forth and discloses this world matrix. As a result, the entire intellectual edifice dissolves into Suchness, and the integral map becomes a springboard into the waters of the Eternal Now. In this way Wilbers work, even at its most intellectual, has always been in the service of remembering Spirit. He offers a clarion call to all sentient beings to awaken as the Source that is always already the point and play of life.