One Taste

1. Consciousness evolves through levels, from body to mind to soul to spirit

Human growth and development generally unfolds from body to mind to soul to spirit—not as a linear ladder, but as nested waves, with each wave enveloping its predecessor(s)—if all goes well.

The Great Chain of Being is a fundamental concept in Wilber's philosophy, describing the evolution of consciousness through increasingly complex and inclusive levels. This developmental process moves from:

• Matter/body: The physical, sensorimotor realm
• Mind: Emotional, mental, and rational capacities
• Soul: Subtle, psychic, and visionary experiences
• Spirit: Causal and nondual states of consciousness

Each level transcends and includes its predecessors, creating a nested hierarchy or "holarchy." This model integrates insights from:

• Eastern wisdom traditions
• Western developmental psychology
• Evolutionary theory
• Contemplative practices

Understanding this spectrum allows for a more comprehensive approach to human growth, spirituality, and the integration of diverse perspectives.

2. The pre/trans fallacy: Distinguishing prerational and transrational states

Both pre-rational states and trans-rational states are, in their own ways, non-rational. And so they appear quite similar or even identical to the untutored eye.

The pre/trans fallacy is a crucial concept for understanding spiritual development and avoiding common pitfalls. It refers to the confusion between:

• Prerational states: Infantile, regressive, or primitive consciousness
• Transrational states: Genuinely advanced spiritual or contemplative awareness

This confusion can lead to two types of errors:

1. Elevationism: Mistaking prerational experiences for spiritual enlightenment
2. Reductionism: Dismissing authentic spiritual experiences as regression

Examples of pre/trans confusion:

• Equating magical thinking with mystical insight
• Conflating emotional catharsis with spiritual liberation
• Mistaking psychedelic experiences for genuine enlightenment

Recognizing this fallacy helps differentiate authentic spiritual growth from regression or pseudo-spirituality, promoting a more discerning approach to consciousness exploration.

3. Integral practice: Engaging all levels of being for holistic growth

Take one or more practices from each of the levels of your own being—matter to body to mind to soul to spirit—and exercise all of them to the best of your ability, individually and collectively.

Integral practice is a comprehensive approach to personal development that engages all dimensions of human experience. Key components include:

Physical practices:

• Exercise, yoga, nutrition, sleep hygiene

Emotional/energetic practices:

• Breathwork, emotional intelligence training, body awareness

Mental practices:

• Meditation, cognitive therapy, journaling, critical thinking

Spiritual practices:

• Contemplation, prayer, service, ethical living

The goal is to create a balanced and synergistic approach to growth, addressing all aspects of the self. This multifaceted engagement accelerates overall development and helps prevent imbalances or blind spots in one's practice.

4. The four quadrants: A comprehensive map of reality and human experience

Given the Great Nest of Being—ranging from matter to body to mind to soul to spirit—how can we acknowledge, honor, and exercise all of those levels in our own being?

The four quadrants model provides a holistic framework for understanding reality and human experience. The quadrants are:

1. Upper-Left (Interior-Individual): Subjective experiences, thoughts, emotions
2. Upper-Right (Exterior-Individual): Objective behaviors, brain states, physical actions
3. Lower-Left (Interior-Collective): Shared cultural values, worldviews, meanings
4. Lower-Right (Exterior-Collective): Social systems, economic structures, technologies

Key insights:

• All phenomena have aspects in each quadrant
• Integrating perspectives from all quadrants provides a more complete understanding
• Neglecting any quadrant leads to partial or distorted views of reality

Applications:

• Personal development
• Organizational management
• Social analysis and policy-making
• Scientific research
• Spiritual practice

The four quadrants offer a powerful tool for navigating complexity and fostering genuine integration across disciplines and domains of human knowledge.

5. Authenticity over irony: The future of art and culture

It is not the object expressed, but the depth of the subject expressing it, that most defines art. And this shifts art and art criticism from irony to authenticity—a rather unnerving move, at least to today's eyes.

The exhaustion of postmodern irony has led to a call for greater authenticity and sincerity in art and culture. This shift reflects a broader cultural movement beyond the limitations of postmodernism:

From:

• Reflexive irony and cynicism
• Deconstructive approaches
• Surface-level engagement

To:

• Genuine expression and vulnerability
• Constructive and integrative approaches
• Depth and meaning-making

Challenges in this transition:

• Overcoming fear of sincerity and commitment
• Developing new forms of expression beyond ironic detachment
• Integrating multiple perspectives without falling into relativism

The future of art and culture may lie in exploring transrational and transpersonal realms, moving beyond both prerational naivety and rational skepticism to embrace deeper levels of awareness and creativity.

6. Development and regression: Understanding individual and cultural evolution

Development supplies the key—or certainly, a key—to this extremely difficult problem. Because in virtually all types of development that we are aware of, each succeeding stage transcends but includes its predecessor(s), and this gives us a natural, inherent, intrinsic ranking—a ranking of wholeness and depth.

Developmental theory provides a crucial framework for understanding both individual and cultural evolution. Key principles include:

Stages of growth:

1. Preconventional (egocentric)
2. Conventional (ethnocentric)
3. Postconventional (worldcentric)
4. Post-postconventional (kosmocentric)

Each stage:

• Transcends and includes its predecessors
• Offers greater depth, complexity, and inclusiveness
• Is "adequate" for its level but can be surpassed

Regression occurs when:

• Individuals or cultures move backwards to earlier stages
• Higher structures break down under stress or trauma

Understanding development allows for:

• Compassionate assessment of different worldviews
• Recognition of growth potentials and pitfalls
• Nurturing healthy individual and cultural evolution

This developmental perspective offers a nuanced approach to ethics, politics, and social change, avoiding both rigid hierarchies and flattening relativism.

7. One Taste: The nondual realization of unity with all of existence

There is One Taste. There is the Big Self, and it includes "farts, the smell of urine, a pack of lies and slander." And likewise, until the ecologists understand that the ozone hole, pollution, and toxic wastes are all completely part of the Original Self, they will never gain enlightened awareness, which alone knows how to proceed with these pressing problems.

One Taste refers to the nondual realization of ultimate unity with all of existence. This state of consciousness is characterized by:

• Direct perception of the non-separation between subject and object
• Recognition of the divine nature of all phenomena, both "positive" and "negative"
• Transcendence of dualistic categories while fully embracing the relative world

Key aspects of One Taste:

• It is not a belief or concept, but a lived experience
• It integrates absolute transcendence with full engagement in the world
• It fosters both equanimity and compassionate action

Implications of One Taste:

• Ecological awareness that includes both preserving and transforming nature
• Social engagement that combines acceptance and active change
• Spiritual practice that unites formless awareness with embodied living

One Taste represents the culmination of spiritual development, offering a profound resolution to the tensions between absolute and relative, transcendence and immanence.

8. The limitations of flatland holism and the need for genuine integration

A true holism is based on holarchy—a ranking of increasing wholeness, inclusion, embrace, and care. A true holism involves levels of love, as it were, and in both directions: Eros reaching up and Agape reaching down.

Flatland holism refers to reductionist attempts at integration that ignore crucial distinctions and hierarchies. Problems with flatland approaches:

• Equating all perspectives as equally valid
• Ignoring developmental stages and depth
• Reducing interior realities to exterior systems

A genuine integral approach recognizes:

1. Qualitative differences between levels of development
2. The importance of both horizontal and vertical integration
3. The need for critical discernment alongside inclusivity

Key elements of true integration:

• Acknowledging the partial truths in all perspectives
• Recognizing the limitations of each viewpoint
• Situating diverse insights within a larger developmental framework

By moving beyond flatland holism, we can create more nuanced and effective approaches to personal growth, social change, and environmental stewardship.

9. Spirituality must integrate with science and liberalism to be relevant

There are two major dialogues in the modern world that I believe must take place, one between science and religion, and then one between religion and liberalism.

The integration of spirituality with science and liberalism is crucial for its relevance in the modern world. This involves:

1. Dialogue between science and spirituality:

• Finding common ground in empirical investigation
• Exploring contemplative practices as forms of inner science
• Integrating third-person and first-person methodologies

2. Dialogue between spirituality and liberalism:

• Embracing individual rights and pluralism
• Moving beyond mythic and dogmatic forms of religion
• Developing a "post-liberal" spirituality that transcends and includes liberal values

Challenges in this integration:

• Overcoming mutual suspicion and misunderstanding
• Developing shared language and conceptual frameworks
• Balancing universal insights with cultural diversity

Benefits of integration:

• More comprehensive worldviews
• Ethical frameworks that combine universal principles with contextual wisdom
• Innovative approaches to education, healthcare, and social policy

This integration offers the potential for a more holistic and transformative approach to human development and societal progress.

10. Constant consciousness: Witnessing awareness through all states

With meditation, you begin to relax in your seat and just watch the movie of life, without judging it, avoiding it, grasping it, pushing it, or pulling it. You merely Witness it: you employ the mirror-mind, you rest in simple, clear, spontaneous, effortless, ever-present consciousness.

Constant consciousness refers to the development of witnessing awareness that persists through all states of consciousness:

• Waking
• Dreaming
• Deep sleep

Key aspects of this practice:

1. Cultivating non-reactive observation
2. Recognizing the unchanging "background" of awareness
3. Dissolving identification with transient experiences

Stages of development:

1. Intermittent witnessing in waking state
2. Lucid dreaming and dream yoga
3. Awareness in deep, dreamless sleep

Benefits of constant consciousness:

• Increased equanimity and emotional resilience
• Deeper insight into the nature of mind and reality
• Potential for nondual realization (One Taste)

Cultivating constant consciousness involves dedicated meditation practice, often under the guidance of an experienced teacher. This development represents a significant shift in one's relationship to experience, offering profound possibilities for spiritual growth and self-understanding.

Last updated: September 28, 2024