2:07 - we all know the story of course, but let's go through it again - from the 60s on, the only God / spirituality that was available was a blue / amber / mythic membership God / spirituality (God in second person)
2:28 - so we rejected that
2:35 - and were introduced to the eastern traditions (God in first person)
2:57 - and then we started in with systems theory, Gaia hypothesis, Tao of physics, etc. (God in third person)
3:22 - our concept of God in the second person seems to have been arrested at blue / amber / mythic membership
4:34 - suppressing God in second person really allowed ego to nest
4:57 - an embrace of God in second person comes with surrender, gratitude, humility - a bit of a sticky point with Boomers
6:08 - as soon as there is manifestation, then there is I Am, God in first person
20:36 - the kosmos relieves tension by escaping to a higher level of order - that is eros, self-transcendence through self organization
22:22 - all holons have four drives
22:33 - operating vertically are the drives of eros and agape; eros is the move upward, to attain higher and more encompassing embrace, agape is the reaching down and embracing what's already present
22:46 - operating horizontally are the drives of agency and communion
22:57 - pathological eros is phobos; transcend and repress
23:22 - pathological agape is thanatos, the urge to move down; regression
23:44 - agency is the drive to be autonomous
23:58 - pathological agency leads to alienation, separation, divorce from emotion; pathological communion leads to fusion, addiction to relationships, loss of autonomy, loss of freedom, loss of self in the union
25:09 - an individual holon has a distinct boundary
33:53 - wherever you find an I, there is a we
40:34 - are there horizontal stages social holons go through?
41:29 - artefacts are detachable, which is why social holons do not go through stages of development in the same way individual holons do
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
A Miracle Called We (Mar 11 2007) part 2
18:57 - people (green, particularly) have been known to create a holarchical model of increasing expansion that's a bit confused
19:46 - for example, an ecosystem is not an expanded holon, ranking higher than a nation
21:21 - the nature of this confusion is a misunderstanding of individual organisms and communities of those organisms, the difference between a forest and a tree (a forest is not a super tree)
21:56 - the we is not a super I, the individual members of a social collective are members in relational exchange, not parts
22:21 - individuals and collectives arise simultaneously (there's no first instance)
23:02 - (interiors and exteriors are there at all points on the scale, too, and hopefully you all know all this by now)
23:23 - an individual holon has a locus of intentionality, a capacity to engage in intentional activity
23:59 - when a dog gets up to walk, 100% of his atoms go along with him
24:14 - what Whitehead called the dominant monad
24:25 - an individual has a dominant monad; a collective has a dominant mode of discourse
26:19 - individual holons develop in stages
32:03 - operating definition of a social holon: individual holons and their exchange artefacts
35:40 - when we form a we, there is no dominant monad
35:58 - exploring the we from the inside is hermeneutics (the art and science of interpretation)
38:33 - shadows serve a function
59:14 - until you can argue for another person's position better than he can, you don't understand him
19:46 - for example, an ecosystem is not an expanded holon, ranking higher than a nation
21:21 - the nature of this confusion is a misunderstanding of individual organisms and communities of those organisms, the difference between a forest and a tree (a forest is not a super tree)
21:56 - the we is not a super I, the individual members of a social collective are members in relational exchange, not parts
22:21 - individuals and collectives arise simultaneously (there's no first instance)
23:02 - (interiors and exteriors are there at all points on the scale, too, and hopefully you all know all this by now)
23:23 - an individual holon has a locus of intentionality, a capacity to engage in intentional activity
23:59 - when a dog gets up to walk, 100% of his atoms go along with him
24:14 - what Whitehead called the dominant monad
24:25 - an individual has a dominant monad; a collective has a dominant mode of discourse
26:19 - individual holons develop in stages
32:03 - operating definition of a social holon: individual holons and their exchange artefacts
35:40 - when we form a we, there is no dominant monad
35:58 - exploring the we from the inside is hermeneutics (the art and science of interpretation)
38:33 - shadows serve a function
59:14 - until you can argue for another person's position better than he can, you don't understand him
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Shadow and Disowned Self (Feb 25 2007) part 5
1:49 - meditation is not a cure all
3:19 - we need both relative and absolute practices
5:30 - attaining awakening does not eliminate the separate self sense
9:14 - two things transmigrate, wisdom and virtue
9:32 - wisdom is understanding of emptiness (absolute bodhicitta)
9:52 - virtue is your capacity for compassion (relative bodhicitta)
13:26 - once again, you do not lose the ego when you advance spiritually; you lose exclusive identification with it
14:08 - if the fear is very extreme, you know you've struck gold
15:12 - it's hard to do this without a teacher
17:21 - when Big Mind is touched, there is no fear because there is nothing outside of Big Mind, and there is no grasping or desiring for the same reason
22:11 - the more types of self you create, the more types of death there are to die (creating stepping stones out of tombstones)
32:52 - Buddhism might be attractive to someone with a borderline sense of self to begin with
37:24 - prematurely letting go of an attachment can be experienced as a death
3:19 - we need both relative and absolute practices
5:30 - attaining awakening does not eliminate the separate self sense
9:14 - two things transmigrate, wisdom and virtue
9:32 - wisdom is understanding of emptiness (absolute bodhicitta)
9:52 - virtue is your capacity for compassion (relative bodhicitta)
13:26 - once again, you do not lose the ego when you advance spiritually; you lose exclusive identification with it
14:08 - if the fear is very extreme, you know you've struck gold
15:12 - it's hard to do this without a teacher
17:21 - when Big Mind is touched, there is no fear because there is nothing outside of Big Mind, and there is no grasping or desiring for the same reason
22:11 - the more types of self you create, the more types of death there are to die (creating stepping stones out of tombstones)
32:52 - Buddhism might be attractive to someone with a borderline sense of self to begin with
37:24 - prematurely letting go of an attachment can be experienced as a death
Friday, March 27, 2009
Shadow and Disowned Self (Feb 25 2007) part 4
12:01 - every level has its own wisdom
16:49 - there are at least four different definitions of spiritual
24:59 - development is a process of negating and preserving; both can go wrong
25:10 - negating wrong is repression; preserving wrong is addiction / fixation / arrested development
36:46 - you have to frustrate the level just a bit to encourage growth
37:15 - you can have too much or too little of anything
43:33 - shadows are an impulse that was once I
44:56 - a common spiritual seeker's mistake is to think that an advanced, enlightened being had no sexual drives, does not eat, has no intentionality, etc. (yeah, that's a big mistake)
45:12 - an advanced, enlightened being is not attached or identified with those things
48:54 - the standard method for growth: make subject object
53:38 - if you're a spiritual seeker, do not neglect your psychological growth
54:01 - you can go into emptiness at any psychological stage / structure / level, but when you come back, you'll still be at that same structure
54:31 - many popular teachers are hooked on nothing but states (Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie, etc.)
16:49 - there are at least four different definitions of spiritual
24:59 - development is a process of negating and preserving; both can go wrong
25:10 - negating wrong is repression; preserving wrong is addiction / fixation / arrested development
36:46 - you have to frustrate the level just a bit to encourage growth
37:15 - you can have too much or too little of anything
43:33 - shadows are an impulse that was once I
44:56 - a common spiritual seeker's mistake is to think that an advanced, enlightened being had no sexual drives, does not eat, has no intentionality, etc. (yeah, that's a big mistake)
45:12 - an advanced, enlightened being is not attached or identified with those things
48:54 - the standard method for growth: make subject object
53:38 - if you're a spiritual seeker, do not neglect your psychological growth
54:01 - you can go into emptiness at any psychological stage / structure / level, but when you come back, you'll still be at that same structure
54:31 - many popular teachers are hooked on nothing but states (Eckhart Tolle, Byron Katie, etc.)
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Shadow and Disowned Self (Feb 25 2007) part 3
4:49 - the shadow of green: the Jonah complex
9:45 - Ken's decided to drop the term 'psychic', which is good I guess; that term has been fairly exclusively co-opted by the new agers
9:53 - but it'll take me awhile to get used to saying "indigo - subtle - causal - nondual"
10:20 - and, honestly, paramind, metamind, overmind and supermind sounds incredibly goofy to me (but I suppose we're stuck with it now)
10:32 - by the time you get to psychic / paramind / indigo, you have permanently objectified all gross phenomena
10:40 - that's why nature mysticism experiences come about - oneness with the entire gross realm, because all of the gross objects have now been disidentified with
11:03 - at the subtle / metamind / violet / archetypal level all of the subtle objects have been objectified, bringing about lucid dreaming, etc.
11:41 - structures are inclusive, states are exclusive
12:50 - structures are the way that exclusive states become inclusive, structures are the way that you transcend and include, structures are the way that spirit permanently wakes up
13:11 - at the causal / overmind level it has access to permanent emptiness, but it also has access to all causal, all subtle and all gross objects - they've all been objectified
14:01 - the overmind is over all mind and there is permanent access to the causal state, just as at the metamind you have permanent access to all subtle states, and at the paramind you have permanent access to all gross phenomena
14:24 - gross, psychic, subtle, causal and nondual are states that can be experienced at any stage or level (the Wilber-Combs lattice)
14:59 - a transpersonal awareness state experience, being one with gaia, being one with all of nature (nature mysticism) can happen as a plateau state at any stage or level, but it only becomes a permanent orientation at psychic / paramind / indigo
16:00 - there's still going to be a separate self at psychic / paramind / indigo and at subtle / metamind / violet / archetypal, and then at causal / overmind you have access to the pure self, the true self, as causal emptiness
16:20 - that's the last form of dualism (the witness still separate from that which is witnessed)
16:27 - at nondual / supermind you have the last permanent dissolution of the separate self-sense as a permanent disposition in consciousness
21:10 - group shadows
22:03 - five types of unconscious - ground (potential), archaic, embedded, submergent, emergent
9:45 - Ken's decided to drop the term 'psychic', which is good I guess; that term has been fairly exclusively co-opted by the new agers
9:53 - but it'll take me awhile to get used to saying "indigo - subtle - causal - nondual"
10:20 - and, honestly, paramind, metamind, overmind and supermind sounds incredibly goofy to me (but I suppose we're stuck with it now)
10:32 - by the time you get to psychic / paramind / indigo, you have permanently objectified all gross phenomena
10:40 - that's why nature mysticism experiences come about - oneness with the entire gross realm, because all of the gross objects have now been disidentified with
11:03 - at the subtle / metamind / violet / archetypal level all of the subtle objects have been objectified, bringing about lucid dreaming, etc.
11:41 - structures are inclusive, states are exclusive
12:50 - structures are the way that exclusive states become inclusive, structures are the way that you transcend and include, structures are the way that spirit permanently wakes up
13:11 - at the causal / overmind level it has access to permanent emptiness, but it also has access to all causal, all subtle and all gross objects - they've all been objectified
14:01 - the overmind is over all mind and there is permanent access to the causal state, just as at the metamind you have permanent access to all subtle states, and at the paramind you have permanent access to all gross phenomena
14:24 - gross, psychic, subtle, causal and nondual are states that can be experienced at any stage or level (the Wilber-Combs lattice)
14:59 - a transpersonal awareness state experience, being one with gaia, being one with all of nature (nature mysticism) can happen as a plateau state at any stage or level, but it only becomes a permanent orientation at psychic / paramind / indigo
16:00 - there's still going to be a separate self at psychic / paramind / indigo and at subtle / metamind / violet / archetypal, and then at causal / overmind you have access to the pure self, the true self, as causal emptiness
16:20 - that's the last form of dualism (the witness still separate from that which is witnessed)
16:27 - at nondual / supermind you have the last permanent dissolution of the separate self-sense as a permanent disposition in consciousness
21:10 - group shadows
22:03 - five types of unconscious - ground (potential), archaic, embedded, submergent, emergent
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Shadow and Disowned Self (Feb 25 2007) part 2
1:29 - repression is not seeing your blind spots and ever more clever ways of not seeing
2:10 - your shadow is the opposite of what you're consciously aware of
2:33 - deliberately trying to "not feel anger" (a common mistake beginning Buddhists make) only guarantees repression
3:14 - getting in touch with your feeling is insufficient; it won't get you in touch with your shadow (which is, again, the opposite of what you're consciously feeling)
7:04 - how do you deal with the fear and suffering of the self contraction (the ego's fear of its own death)?
7:24 - first give awareness to the resistance to feeling the feeling
7:38 - and then give attention to the feeling
10:25 - paradoxical intentionality is a help in accessing the shadow
12:11 - the attempt to enter into transpersonal states without feeling fear is itself causing the fear
12:26 - if you assume responsibility for your feeling, you notice it, bringing it into your awareness, and out of your shadow
13:50 - fear essentially is the emotion / feeling of the separate self
15:30 - when the separate self dissolves, there's nobody to be afraid - there's just fear arising
20:51 - the fear incipient on a nondual experience is the fear of letting go of the sense of self
22:25 - observe the fear, thoroughly and completely
23:32 - the fear is a signal that you're getting to something important
43:26 - developmental sequences are responsible for most shadow elements
43:52 - symptoms and defenses are coming from two different levels; two different sequences, the structures and the fulcrums
44:38 - as the self moves through waking, dreaming and deep sleep states, each one of these states becomes objects of wakeful presence
50:07 - fixation or aversion can happen at any fulcrum or switchpoint
50:32 - some spiritual teachers are not at 2nd tier, but are conversant with causal states (Byron Katie)
51:30 - transpersonal states can still carry shadow elements
52:20 - 2nd tier green aversion is becoming common
54:03 - as are addictions to lower levels
56:50 - if your attachment is unconscious, you're repressing it
57:14 - Buddhism spots fixation, conscious attachment, not repression, unconscious attachment
2:10 - your shadow is the opposite of what you're consciously aware of
2:33 - deliberately trying to "not feel anger" (a common mistake beginning Buddhists make) only guarantees repression
3:14 - getting in touch with your feeling is insufficient; it won't get you in touch with your shadow (which is, again, the opposite of what you're consciously feeling)
7:04 - how do you deal with the fear and suffering of the self contraction (the ego's fear of its own death)?
7:24 - first give awareness to the resistance to feeling the feeling
7:38 - and then give attention to the feeling
10:25 - paradoxical intentionality is a help in accessing the shadow
12:11 - the attempt to enter into transpersonal states without feeling fear is itself causing the fear
12:26 - if you assume responsibility for your feeling, you notice it, bringing it into your awareness, and out of your shadow
13:50 - fear essentially is the emotion / feeling of the separate self
15:30 - when the separate self dissolves, there's nobody to be afraid - there's just fear arising
20:51 - the fear incipient on a nondual experience is the fear of letting go of the sense of self
22:25 - observe the fear, thoroughly and completely
23:32 - the fear is a signal that you're getting to something important
43:26 - developmental sequences are responsible for most shadow elements
43:52 - symptoms and defenses are coming from two different levels; two different sequences, the structures and the fulcrums
44:38 - as the self moves through waking, dreaming and deep sleep states, each one of these states becomes objects of wakeful presence
50:07 - fixation or aversion can happen at any fulcrum or switchpoint
50:32 - some spiritual teachers are not at 2nd tier, but are conversant with causal states (Byron Katie)
51:30 - transpersonal states can still carry shadow elements
52:20 - 2nd tier green aversion is becoming common
54:03 - as are addictions to lower levels
56:50 - if your attachment is unconscious, you're repressing it
57:14 - Buddhism spots fixation, conscious attachment, not repression, unconscious attachment
Monday, March 23, 2009
Shadow and Disowned Self (Feb 25 2007) part 1
3:30 - what is the difference between transcend-and-include and dissociate-and-repress?
4:33 - agency can go pathological in two ways
4:55 - there is pathological transcendence or pathological negation; repression, driven by Phobos
6:09 - there is pathological preservation; fixation, driven by Thanatos
6:46 - agency and communion are the horizontal drives; Eros (transcendence) and agape (embrace) are the vertical drives
7:06 - pathological Eros is Phobos; pathological agape is Thanatos
7:17 - pathological transcendence is repressing a lower level
7:25 - many transpersonal critics have confused transcendence with repression
8:15 - some aspect of view is what gets repressed
9:01 - muladhara chakra / fulcrum one - physical, gross, material plane
9:25 - in essentially every classical conception of the great chain, matter has always been ranked as the bottom rung; that's not going to work
9:40 - matter more correctly belongs as the exterior correlate of the interior
10:20 - this has been one of the stickiest points in spiritual studies: it's why transcendence has always struck scientific, materialist rationalists as metaphysical wispiness
11:41 - successful vertical development includes all the aspects of all levels
12:01 - healthy transcendence is no exclusive identification with any level
12:20 - what's transcended or negated is the limited view of each level
13:44 - the "I" is a small subset of the phenomena of any given level
13:57 - the view from a level is where our identity is centered
14:19 - you can dissociate or repress that view or you can remain attached or addicted to it
14:37 - the part of your consciousness that gets dissociated or attached will be split off into a sub-personality
16:19 - meditation is not a good tool for shadow work; it lets you see what's arising, but it won't tell you if what's arising is distorted
18:16 - pathological agency is alienation; pathological communion is fusion
57:53 - is 3 - 2 - 1 too cognitive for shadow work?
58:36 - 3 - 2 - 1 is introductory only
4:33 - agency can go pathological in two ways
4:55 - there is pathological transcendence or pathological negation; repression, driven by Phobos
6:09 - there is pathological preservation; fixation, driven by Thanatos
6:46 - agency and communion are the horizontal drives; Eros (transcendence) and agape (embrace) are the vertical drives
7:06 - pathological Eros is Phobos; pathological agape is Thanatos
7:17 - pathological transcendence is repressing a lower level
7:25 - many transpersonal critics have confused transcendence with repression
8:15 - some aspect of view is what gets repressed
9:01 - muladhara chakra / fulcrum one - physical, gross, material plane
9:25 - in essentially every classical conception of the great chain, matter has always been ranked as the bottom rung; that's not going to work
9:40 - matter more correctly belongs as the exterior correlate of the interior
10:20 - this has been one of the stickiest points in spiritual studies: it's why transcendence has always struck scientific, materialist rationalists as metaphysical wispiness
11:41 - successful vertical development includes all the aspects of all levels
12:01 - healthy transcendence is no exclusive identification with any level
12:20 - what's transcended or negated is the limited view of each level
13:44 - the "I" is a small subset of the phenomena of any given level
13:57 - the view from a level is where our identity is centered
14:19 - you can dissociate or repress that view or you can remain attached or addicted to it
14:37 - the part of your consciousness that gets dissociated or attached will be split off into a sub-personality
16:19 - meditation is not a good tool for shadow work; it lets you see what's arising, but it won't tell you if what's arising is distorted
18:16 - pathological agency is alienation; pathological communion is fusion
57:53 - is 3 - 2 - 1 too cognitive for shadow work?
58:36 - 3 - 2 - 1 is introductory only
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
The Shadow (Feb 11 2007) part 3
0:55 - the name of this game is transcend and include
1:31 - negate and preserve
1:39 - to grow you have to get bigger, to get bigger you have to let go of something smaller and grab hold of something bigger - there's a death and a life in every transformation
3:31 - the benefit of green was the multicultural respect, but without the integration
4:32 - the contribution of the west was the ability to take a global view, beyond a limited local view (attaining a high structural development)
5:25 - the contribution of the east and contemplative western traditions was the development of states
15:49 - five states in vajrayana and vedanta: waking (gross), dreaming (subtle), formless / deep sleep (causal), everpresent / witness, and nondual
22:50 - cognitive structures usually run one or two stages ahead of the self (center of gravity)
23:17 - phenomena arise, events arise, all being produced by the ultimate ground
23:40 - we can come to the awareness that phenomena and things are arising within our awareness
24:34 - we practice to deepen our structures and states
24:49 - and dysfunction can occur at any point
25:44 - the process is: you're in fusion with a state, you differentiate from it, then you integrate it
25:55 - remaining in fusion with a state is remaining attached, embedded, fused, fixed
26:04 - if the rest of your awareness continues to grow, this fused part will split off as a sub-personality (and will appear to you as other)
26:22 - for example, if you have become fixated with anger, you may see the entire world as angry, and as angry at you
26:36 - your feeling (phenomenology) is not enough to correct this, because you can't feel the problem
26:58 - psychodynamic treatment and interpretive therapy is necessary
27:08 - when we feel an emotion when we encounter an event, getting in touch with our feeling is insufficient; we must get in touch with the event
27:16 - that's how we find our shadow
29:37 - movement is changing predominant orientation of concern
31:26 - if you think losing your orientation of concern and identification with the gross, physical realm is something, losing your identification with the soul (going from subtle to causal) is a wallop
31:56 - losing that is usually the dark night (although really there are dark nights at each switch point)
32:22 - the insight of the nondual or tantric traditions: the goal is not to get off of samsara into nirvana; nirvana is not other than samsara, samsara is not other than nirvana
32:44 - dying to dying, letting go of letting go
33:34 - pathologies can happen at any point
35:12 - the nondual or tantric insights of vajrayana caused the rediscovery of the importance of the physical realm
36:55 - attaining advanced transpersonal and meditative states doesn't heal shadows or compensate for inadequate line development; you can't cover your structures by your states
38:20 - these waters are extremely tricky to navigate; attaining an advanced transpersonal state can actually trigger a regression (I call it the missionary urge)
45:17 - moving through a structure takes about five years
49:08 - the shadow cannot be seen by definition
52:26 - people make the mistake of thinking that Buddhism is about emptying the mind, having no thoughts
54:09 - there are times when you suspend the intellect, but it is a useful tool that can accomplish great things
55:10 - the east did not have structures or the shadow in their maps
56:12 - emotions such as anger can become repressed and denied in bodhisattva vows to not get angry
56:41 - the advice is to continue to apply the dharma practices and it will be taken care of, but that's not the case
57:23 - the by now perennial issue: spiritual teachers who are advanced in states but not in structures
57:33 - the pathologies particularly are in the physical realm
58:00 - some aspects of structures can be so deeply repressed that meditation will never uncover them
59:38 - an important contribution of the west: the separation of the value spheres; ethical, cognitive and aesthetic (morals, science and art; the good, the true and the beautiful)
1:31 - negate and preserve
1:39 - to grow you have to get bigger, to get bigger you have to let go of something smaller and grab hold of something bigger - there's a death and a life in every transformation
3:31 - the benefit of green was the multicultural respect, but without the integration
4:32 - the contribution of the west was the ability to take a global view, beyond a limited local view (attaining a high structural development)
5:25 - the contribution of the east and contemplative western traditions was the development of states
15:49 - five states in vajrayana and vedanta: waking (gross), dreaming (subtle), formless / deep sleep (causal), everpresent / witness, and nondual
22:50 - cognitive structures usually run one or two stages ahead of the self (center of gravity)
23:17 - phenomena arise, events arise, all being produced by the ultimate ground
23:40 - we can come to the awareness that phenomena and things are arising within our awareness
24:34 - we practice to deepen our structures and states
24:49 - and dysfunction can occur at any point
25:44 - the process is: you're in fusion with a state, you differentiate from it, then you integrate it
25:55 - remaining in fusion with a state is remaining attached, embedded, fused, fixed
26:04 - if the rest of your awareness continues to grow, this fused part will split off as a sub-personality (and will appear to you as other)
26:22 - for example, if you have become fixated with anger, you may see the entire world as angry, and as angry at you
26:36 - your feeling (phenomenology) is not enough to correct this, because you can't feel the problem
26:58 - psychodynamic treatment and interpretive therapy is necessary
27:08 - when we feel an emotion when we encounter an event, getting in touch with our feeling is insufficient; we must get in touch with the event
27:16 - that's how we find our shadow
29:37 - movement is changing predominant orientation of concern
31:26 - if you think losing your orientation of concern and identification with the gross, physical realm is something, losing your identification with the soul (going from subtle to causal) is a wallop
31:56 - losing that is usually the dark night (although really there are dark nights at each switch point)
32:22 - the insight of the nondual or tantric traditions: the goal is not to get off of samsara into nirvana; nirvana is not other than samsara, samsara is not other than nirvana
32:44 - dying to dying, letting go of letting go
33:34 - pathologies can happen at any point
35:12 - the nondual or tantric insights of vajrayana caused the rediscovery of the importance of the physical realm
36:55 - attaining advanced transpersonal and meditative states doesn't heal shadows or compensate for inadequate line development; you can't cover your structures by your states
38:20 - these waters are extremely tricky to navigate; attaining an advanced transpersonal state can actually trigger a regression (I call it the missionary urge)
45:17 - moving through a structure takes about five years
49:08 - the shadow cannot be seen by definition
52:26 - people make the mistake of thinking that Buddhism is about emptying the mind, having no thoughts
54:09 - there are times when you suspend the intellect, but it is a useful tool that can accomplish great things
55:10 - the east did not have structures or the shadow in their maps
56:12 - emotions such as anger can become repressed and denied in bodhisattva vows to not get angry
56:41 - the advice is to continue to apply the dharma practices and it will be taken care of, but that's not the case
57:23 - the by now perennial issue: spiritual teachers who are advanced in states but not in structures
57:33 - the pathologies particularly are in the physical realm
58:00 - some aspects of structures can be so deeply repressed that meditation will never uncover them
59:38 - an important contribution of the west: the separation of the value spheres; ethical, cognitive and aesthetic (morals, science and art; the good, the true and the beautiful)
Friday, March 20, 2009
The Shadow (Feb 11 2007) part 2
17:24 - cultural background must always be taken into consideration in our maps - this is the insight postmodernism gives us
17:30 - cultural backgrounds evolve (in stages)
20:35 - nondual awareness is always already present
20:42 - that's why you can't attain it, you are fully aware of it right now; it's called the gateless gate
20:55 - why practice? practice exhausts the mind that can't see this
21:31 - if any Buddhist teacher tells you that stages are an idea from the gaining mind, they have it half right (there's nothing to attain, but you still have to practice, and practice unfolds in stages)
22:20 - structure stages and state stages are different
22:30 - the incorrect way of fitting them together was to stack the psychic - subtle - causal - nondual states on top of the psychological structure stages (actually the transpersonal states can occur at any stage)
22:51 - why do post-centaur structures get mistaken for the transpersonal states? because those structures permanently objectify the transpersonal states, so it looks like a person is going through those states
23:44 - you have to be somebody before you can be nobody
23:49 - that's true for structures, but you can have a peak experience of any state at any level
24:00 - but structure peak experiences are impossible
26:43 - metamind permanently objectifies the subtle state
26:55 - overmind permanently objectifies the causal state
28:27 - not having any gaining ideas is a gaining idea
58:59 - Wilber's work is a map only
17:30 - cultural backgrounds evolve (in stages)
20:35 - nondual awareness is always already present
20:42 - that's why you can't attain it, you are fully aware of it right now; it's called the gateless gate
20:55 - why practice? practice exhausts the mind that can't see this
21:31 - if any Buddhist teacher tells you that stages are an idea from the gaining mind, they have it half right (there's nothing to attain, but you still have to practice, and practice unfolds in stages)
22:20 - structure stages and state stages are different
22:30 - the incorrect way of fitting them together was to stack the psychic - subtle - causal - nondual states on top of the psychological structure stages (actually the transpersonal states can occur at any stage)
22:51 - why do post-centaur structures get mistaken for the transpersonal states? because those structures permanently objectify the transpersonal states, so it looks like a person is going through those states
23:44 - you have to be somebody before you can be nobody
23:49 - that's true for structures, but you can have a peak experience of any state at any level
24:00 - but structure peak experiences are impossible
26:43 - metamind permanently objectifies the subtle state
26:55 - overmind permanently objectifies the causal state
28:27 - not having any gaining ideas is a gaining idea
58:59 - Wilber's work is a map only
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
The Shadow (Feb 11 2007) part 1
2:24 - personal manner is not the test for enlightenment
3:05 - your odds of getting enlightenment are greatly improved if you get your structures in shape so that they can be dropped
17:07 - techniques like 3 - 2 - 1 and Big Mind are first grade, intro only, shortcuts to give beginners a taste
17:35 - of course it should go without saying that you must go deeper in shadow work
22:21 - there's more truth in a bigger view (the reason for sangha, community)
22:51 - transformations are usually not fun
24:59 - good teachers produce students greater than themselves
28:16 - what should be negated and what should be preserved in the traditions
28:27 - we are at the edge of the fourth turning
28:47 - a lot of dying is involved
38:05 - bad things happening to you are not necessarily your doing, some things are genuinely chance happenings
38:28 - taking the karma generated by the other three quadrants and making the upper left quadrant solely responsible is a misunderstanding
43:46 - the west has a wonderful contemplative tradition that didn't really get woven into the culture as well as the eastern contemplative traditions did in theirs
43:57 - but western culture did allow orange to develop, in a way it didn't in the east
50:59 - when you work with a partner, your advancement can be more rapid
51:28 - a partner can catch your blind spots
3:05 - your odds of getting enlightenment are greatly improved if you get your structures in shape so that they can be dropped
17:07 - techniques like 3 - 2 - 1 and Big Mind are first grade, intro only, shortcuts to give beginners a taste
17:35 - of course it should go without saying that you must go deeper in shadow work
22:21 - there's more truth in a bigger view (the reason for sangha, community)
22:51 - transformations are usually not fun
24:59 - good teachers produce students greater than themselves
28:16 - what should be negated and what should be preserved in the traditions
28:27 - we are at the edge of the fourth turning
28:47 - a lot of dying is involved
38:05 - bad things happening to you are not necessarily your doing, some things are genuinely chance happenings
38:28 - taking the karma generated by the other three quadrants and making the upper left quadrant solely responsible is a misunderstanding
43:46 - the west has a wonderful contemplative tradition that didn't really get woven into the culture as well as the eastern contemplative traditions did in theirs
43:57 - but western culture did allow orange to develop, in a way it didn't in the east
50:59 - when you work with a partner, your advancement can be more rapid
51:28 - a partner can catch your blind spots
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Boomeritis Buddhism (Jan 28 2007) part 3
1:40 - when a peak realization occurs, what do you do? continue to meditate for five more years
2:12 - how do we get practitioners who are stuck in Boomeritis Buddhism to see this?
3:00 - have them look at some developmental books; Kegan, Spiral Dynamics, Wade, Cook-Greuter, etc.
4:39 - describe the behavior of a psychologically healthy human being
5:38 - it spirals between agency and communion
6:02 - spiral dynamics tracks the values line, and nothing else
8:08 - the secret of human development: making subject object; the subject of one stage becomes the object of the next
8:37 - eventually you exhaust all subjectivity, rendering everything as objects, and that which is aware of all objects is the Absolute Witness
9:30 - which is not another object / experience / phenomenon, it is the space in which all objects / experiences / phenomena arise
12:33 - even if someone disagrees with this model, the process of disagreeing requires them to think about it (making subject object), and will eventually move them forward
14:22 - what's the deal with cultural relativism anyway?
15:55 - the way through the postmodern dialectic: you take the position and apply the position to itself
16:21 - if all meaning / statements / truth is contextual / culturally relative, then so is deconstructionism
19:30 - Buddhism and postmodernism both see that meaning / statements / truth is contextual / culturally relative
21:17 - what Buddhism had a leg up on postmodernism was that it had a practice to arrive at ultimate truth
36:51 - two types of development: vertical (structure / stage / level) development
37:29 - and horizontal (state) development
39:01 - horizontal development can be had at any stage
39:36 - pathologies can occur throughout both of these developmental schemes
40:51 - if you move into a subtle state from a waking state and any of your identity remains in the waking state, that will be a split off subpersonality, or shadow
41:24 - this is how you can get shadows in both structures and states
41:31 - shadows are subjects that you did not make object, subjects you are still identified with
43:20 - you can attain psychic / subtle / causal / nondual states at any stage
44:56 - it would be great if teachers could help to advance people through stages as well
49:03 - most contemporary new age spirituality is green-subtle
50:12 - much of green has gotten used to combating the bad forms of hierarchies, ranking, judgmentalism, etc., that they rebel at the idea of any hierarchies
50:27 - internal hierarchies are hierarchies of inclusiveness
51:30 - saying ranking is bad is itself a ranking, saying judging is bad is itself a judgment
59:03 - meditation doesn't solve shadow issues
59:49 - every structure stage has a different type of shadow
2:12 - how do we get practitioners who are stuck in Boomeritis Buddhism to see this?
3:00 - have them look at some developmental books; Kegan, Spiral Dynamics, Wade, Cook-Greuter, etc.
4:39 - describe the behavior of a psychologically healthy human being
5:38 - it spirals between agency and communion
6:02 - spiral dynamics tracks the values line, and nothing else
8:08 - the secret of human development: making subject object; the subject of one stage becomes the object of the next
8:37 - eventually you exhaust all subjectivity, rendering everything as objects, and that which is aware of all objects is the Absolute Witness
9:30 - which is not another object / experience / phenomenon, it is the space in which all objects / experiences / phenomena arise
12:33 - even if someone disagrees with this model, the process of disagreeing requires them to think about it (making subject object), and will eventually move them forward
14:22 - what's the deal with cultural relativism anyway?
15:55 - the way through the postmodern dialectic: you take the position and apply the position to itself
16:21 - if all meaning / statements / truth is contextual / culturally relative, then so is deconstructionism
19:30 - Buddhism and postmodernism both see that meaning / statements / truth is contextual / culturally relative
21:17 - what Buddhism had a leg up on postmodernism was that it had a practice to arrive at ultimate truth
36:51 - two types of development: vertical (structure / stage / level) development
37:29 - and horizontal (state) development
39:01 - horizontal development can be had at any stage
39:36 - pathologies can occur throughout both of these developmental schemes
40:51 - if you move into a subtle state from a waking state and any of your identity remains in the waking state, that will be a split off subpersonality, or shadow
41:24 - this is how you can get shadows in both structures and states
41:31 - shadows are subjects that you did not make object, subjects you are still identified with
43:20 - you can attain psychic / subtle / causal / nondual states at any stage
44:56 - it would be great if teachers could help to advance people through stages as well
49:03 - most contemporary new age spirituality is green-subtle
50:12 - much of green has gotten used to combating the bad forms of hierarchies, ranking, judgmentalism, etc., that they rebel at the idea of any hierarchies
50:27 - internal hierarchies are hierarchies of inclusiveness
51:30 - saying ranking is bad is itself a ranking, saying judging is bad is itself a judgment
59:03 - meditation doesn't solve shadow issues
59:49 - every structure stage has a different type of shadow
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Boomeritis Buddhism (Jan 28 2007) part 2
2:54 - part of our practice is to allow the thinking mind to arise in the openness, emptiness
7:01 - there is a relative and an absolute truth, they're not two, but they're also not one
7:41 - we acknowledge all manifestations of the relative realm of form as they arise in samsara
9:54 - part of the problem is that when people have an experience of big mind / one taste, because it's not different from anything else that's arising, they confuse the phenomena of their relative egoic self as the absolute
20:22 - western psychology has developed a quite sophisticated hierarchy that makes finer-grained distinctions than eastern systems have
22:25 - so eastern traditions saw green and yellow / turquoise as the same level
26:00 - the pre-trans fallacy
26:08 - pre-verbal and trans-verbal are both non-verbal, but they are not the same thing; pre-conventional and post-conventional are both non-conventional, but they are not the same thing; pre-rational and trans-rational are both non-rational, but they are not the same thing
27:05 - in the popular western new age spirituality of the last thirty years, only two dimensions had been identified: egoic rationality (bad) and everything else (God)
27:32 - so a lot of crap has been identified as trans-rational, Buddha nature, Christ consciousness, spiritual advancement, etc.
35:10 - you're going to interpret your state experience according to your stage
35:52 - when someone at green says that everything is mutually interrelating and interpenetrating, it doesn't mean the same thing as when someone at second tier says that
39:33 - the chakra system is a good hierarchical model, but doesn't make enough distinctions
44:24 - most states don't occur in stages, they're just random experiences
44:53 - but trained states will unfold in stages
46:19 - the state someone can have is independent of their structure / stage / level
46:45 - meditation and/or other techniques of repeatedly exposing oneself to psychic / subtle / causal / nondual states can help advance one up a stage or so, but it helps to have the quadrants support that growth
47:05 - if the idea of hierarchies and ranking people doesn't sit well with you, you're green
47:41 - the problem is that green confuses "everybody is equal, no one is better or higher or lower than anyone else" (green values) with Maha Ati
47:51 - that's a confusing of relative and absolute truth, and that's Boomeritis Buddhism
49:10 - another problem: using emptiness as an excuse for unskillful behavior
49:35 - how helpful are the Mahayana teachings to our everyday lives?
49:45 - the idea of emptiness as lack of inherent existence is not really what the Buddha taught
49:56 - the Buddha's teachings on emptiness deal directly with actions and their results
50:04 - to understand and experience emptiness requires a personal integrity willing to admit the motivations behind your actions and an acknowledgment of the actual benefit and harm they cause
52:21 - the purpose of the Madyamaka dialectic is to dislodge any relative belief
52:48 - by showing that all phenomena are interdependent, that none of them have any inherent or absolute reality
52:58 - all phenomena depend on each other, none of them are self-contained or self-existing
53:15 - western Buddhist scholars looked at that and confused it with systems theory
53:50 - the short version (equally wrong): emptiness means no concepts, no rationality, whatever feelings come up, whatever you want to do is cool, man
54:35 - emptiness is neither conceptual nor non-conceptual nor both nor neither
55:03 - if you want to play with emptiness, do the work
55:11 - Americans tend to want to leap straight to Maha Ati, without putting in the necessary preliminary work
56:11 - (as well as conflating it with their green values)
58:32 - on the absolute plane there is neither self nor is there no-self
58:56 - nirvana and samsara both coarise; both are relative
59:02 - the tantric understanding is that all that arises in samsara is one with nirvana
7:01 - there is a relative and an absolute truth, they're not two, but they're also not one
7:41 - we acknowledge all manifestations of the relative realm of form as they arise in samsara
9:54 - part of the problem is that when people have an experience of big mind / one taste, because it's not different from anything else that's arising, they confuse the phenomena of their relative egoic self as the absolute
20:22 - western psychology has developed a quite sophisticated hierarchy that makes finer-grained distinctions than eastern systems have
22:25 - so eastern traditions saw green and yellow / turquoise as the same level
26:00 - the pre-trans fallacy
26:08 - pre-verbal and trans-verbal are both non-verbal, but they are not the same thing; pre-conventional and post-conventional are both non-conventional, but they are not the same thing; pre-rational and trans-rational are both non-rational, but they are not the same thing
27:05 - in the popular western new age spirituality of the last thirty years, only two dimensions had been identified: egoic rationality (bad) and everything else (God)
27:32 - so a lot of crap has been identified as trans-rational, Buddha nature, Christ consciousness, spiritual advancement, etc.
35:10 - you're going to interpret your state experience according to your stage
35:52 - when someone at green says that everything is mutually interrelating and interpenetrating, it doesn't mean the same thing as when someone at second tier says that
39:33 - the chakra system is a good hierarchical model, but doesn't make enough distinctions
44:24 - most states don't occur in stages, they're just random experiences
44:53 - but trained states will unfold in stages
46:19 - the state someone can have is independent of their structure / stage / level
46:45 - meditation and/or other techniques of repeatedly exposing oneself to psychic / subtle / causal / nondual states can help advance one up a stage or so, but it helps to have the quadrants support that growth
47:05 - if the idea of hierarchies and ranking people doesn't sit well with you, you're green
47:41 - the problem is that green confuses "everybody is equal, no one is better or higher or lower than anyone else" (green values) with Maha Ati
47:51 - that's a confusing of relative and absolute truth, and that's Boomeritis Buddhism
49:10 - another problem: using emptiness as an excuse for unskillful behavior
49:35 - how helpful are the Mahayana teachings to our everyday lives?
49:45 - the idea of emptiness as lack of inherent existence is not really what the Buddha taught
49:56 - the Buddha's teachings on emptiness deal directly with actions and their results
50:04 - to understand and experience emptiness requires a personal integrity willing to admit the motivations behind your actions and an acknowledgment of the actual benefit and harm they cause
52:21 - the purpose of the Madyamaka dialectic is to dislodge any relative belief
52:48 - by showing that all phenomena are interdependent, that none of them have any inherent or absolute reality
52:58 - all phenomena depend on each other, none of them are self-contained or self-existing
53:15 - western Buddhist scholars looked at that and confused it with systems theory
53:50 - the short version (equally wrong): emptiness means no concepts, no rationality, whatever feelings come up, whatever you want to do is cool, man
54:35 - emptiness is neither conceptual nor non-conceptual nor both nor neither
55:03 - if you want to play with emptiness, do the work
55:11 - Americans tend to want to leap straight to Maha Ati, without putting in the necessary preliminary work
56:11 - (as well as conflating it with their green values)
58:32 - on the absolute plane there is neither self nor is there no-self
58:56 - nirvana and samsara both coarise; both are relative
59:02 - the tantric understanding is that all that arises in samsara is one with nirvana
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Boomeritis Buddhism (Jan 28 2007) part 1
7:16 - if every religion and people has a different perspective, what is truth?
41:01 - Trungpa was completely honest about his failings
46:38 - there's a difference between structures of consciousness and stages of consciousness (yeah, I know, news to me, too)
59:17 - the secret to all relative growth is to see subject as object; seeing the shadows and ego-generated ideations helps to transcend them
41:01 - Trungpa was completely honest about his failings
46:38 - there's a difference between structures of consciousness and stages of consciousness (yeah, I know, news to me, too)
59:17 - the secret to all relative growth is to see subject as object; seeing the shadows and ego-generated ideations helps to transcend them
Friday, March 13, 2009
States and Stages (Jan 21 2007) part 4
11:51 - what is the role of compassion in enlightenment?
12:12 - compassion is not an absolute, compassion is relative bodhicitta - the enlightened mind (bodhi - enlightenment; citta - consciousness, mind)
12:38 - there's a relative bodhicitta and an absolute bodhicitta
12:42 - absolute bodhicitta is sunyata (emptiness), relative bodhicitta is compassion
13:00 - the practice of compassion will not lead you to enlightenment
13:25 - absolute bodhicitta awakens you from the dream, relative bodhicitta prevents the dream from becoming a nightmare
13:37 - the practice of compassion makes the dream as relatively comfortable as it can be
13:49 - but it won't wake you up
14:10 - should a person practice compassion before enlightenment, or after?
14:39 - you practice compassion before enlightenment, because after enlightenment, you tend to not want to change anything
16:58 - what is the relation between states and stages and compassion and sunyata?
17:20 - lines have structures / stages
17:35 - in Mahayana, sila is ethics, dhyana is meditation, prajna is illumination / awakening
18:22 - if you're dealing with the relative / form side, you're dealing with structures, if you're dealing with the absolute / emptiness side, you're dealing with the ultimate state
20:30 - crazy wisdom isn't wisdom
25:01 - it's healthy to have a sense of confidence and a sense of humility
28:29 - there's nothing more dangerous than a contemplative without direction - Merton
29:24 - we honor the traditions and the accumulated wisdom they offer,
29:45 - and we take the next step, begin the fourth turning
30:04 - you do not need to adopt pre-industrial, feudalistic, mythic, agrarian, patriarchal values of a religion in order to attain enlightenment
30:31 - at earlier stages of development, those values are perfectly appropriate
30:35 - but we also include each tradition's higher teachings
32:01 - is holding on to a tradition a filter?
33:36 - disengaging with the values of a particular religion is stage development
34:33 - we make the mistake of thinking that the limited values of a stage are the problem of a particular religion (e.g. Christianity)
34:45 - and so we reject that religion, thinking that it is that religion that is generating the stage
34:48 - we could develop through the stages while staying in one religion,
34:54 - but many jump from one religion to another
35:06 - but it must be realized that the modality of expression (a particular religion) is irrelevant to vertical stage development
35:14 - everybody is born at the beginning of the hierarchy, and everyone is at a particular level of the hierarchy
35:28 - so there needs to be a conveyor belt that can take people through the hierarchy
36:38 - god and spirituality mean different things to different levels - the hierarchy exists in all traditions, all paths, all lines
12:12 - compassion is not an absolute, compassion is relative bodhicitta - the enlightened mind (bodhi - enlightenment; citta - consciousness, mind)
12:38 - there's a relative bodhicitta and an absolute bodhicitta
12:42 - absolute bodhicitta is sunyata (emptiness), relative bodhicitta is compassion
13:00 - the practice of compassion will not lead you to enlightenment
13:25 - absolute bodhicitta awakens you from the dream, relative bodhicitta prevents the dream from becoming a nightmare
13:37 - the practice of compassion makes the dream as relatively comfortable as it can be
13:49 - but it won't wake you up
14:10 - should a person practice compassion before enlightenment, or after?
14:39 - you practice compassion before enlightenment, because after enlightenment, you tend to not want to change anything
16:58 - what is the relation between states and stages and compassion and sunyata?
17:20 - lines have structures / stages
17:35 - in Mahayana, sila is ethics, dhyana is meditation, prajna is illumination / awakening
18:22 - if you're dealing with the relative / form side, you're dealing with structures, if you're dealing with the absolute / emptiness side, you're dealing with the ultimate state
20:30 - crazy wisdom isn't wisdom
25:01 - it's healthy to have a sense of confidence and a sense of humility
28:29 - there's nothing more dangerous than a contemplative without direction - Merton
29:24 - we honor the traditions and the accumulated wisdom they offer,
29:45 - and we take the next step, begin the fourth turning
30:04 - you do not need to adopt pre-industrial, feudalistic, mythic, agrarian, patriarchal values of a religion in order to attain enlightenment
30:31 - at earlier stages of development, those values are perfectly appropriate
30:35 - but we also include each tradition's higher teachings
32:01 - is holding on to a tradition a filter?
33:36 - disengaging with the values of a particular religion is stage development
34:33 - we make the mistake of thinking that the limited values of a stage are the problem of a particular religion (e.g. Christianity)
34:45 - and so we reject that religion, thinking that it is that religion that is generating the stage
34:48 - we could develop through the stages while staying in one religion,
34:54 - but many jump from one religion to another
35:06 - but it must be realized that the modality of expression (a particular religion) is irrelevant to vertical stage development
35:14 - everybody is born at the beginning of the hierarchy, and everyone is at a particular level of the hierarchy
35:28 - so there needs to be a conveyor belt that can take people through the hierarchy
36:38 - god and spirituality mean different things to different levels - the hierarchy exists in all traditions, all paths, all lines
Thursday, March 12, 2009
States and Stages (Jan 21 2007) part 3
6:33 - structure = probability cloud (50% at the level, 25% above it, 25% below it)
10:32 - use it or lose it
12:18 - chakras have a structure and a state
13:11 - each chakra has an ida, pingala and a central channel - those are states, with a waking, dreaming, nondual aspect
15:03 - even an awakened zen master continues to sit - use it or lose it
18:14 - it's easy to mistake a peak experience as full enlightenment
18:57 - you can actually end up worse off
19:30 - a major problem arises when you start to think that some of your misunderstandings are backed by the authority of God
21:27 - enlightenment is an accident - meditation makes you accident prone (you'll come across this saying often)
26:26 - anyone can have a peak experience and sustain it into a plateau experience
30:38 - two things can happen with sustained practice in one line
30:57 - stage development can occur in the line
31:25 - a line can become a state transformative practice - you can have a psychic / subtle / causal / nondual state experience at any stage in the line
34:19 - there's a difference between a temporary state and a permanent stage trait acquisition
34:51 - stations are plateau experiences, not structures / stages
35:25 - when a temporary state becomes a permanent trait, that's applying just to a station, just a plateau
35:51 - we have to acknowledge the stage within the line the state is operating in
36:45 - permanent traits are not structures
36:51 - temporary states do not become structures, they become permanent plateaus
37:21 - states and stations / plateaus are both first person experiences, structures are third person assessments
41:20 - the more you experience states that are above your present interpretive capacity, the more it helps move you up
43:06 - learning a state in one line tends to make it easier to access that state in another line
48:03 - does the shadow develop?
49:19 - lines are independent
49:25 - the shadow can develop all the way up
50:12 - it is possible for damaged / broken / dissociated shadow elements to be present in the higher stages of development,
50:18 - but it is less and less likely, because it is less and less likely that a shadow-burdened person will develop that high
52:30 - what is needed for nondual realization is to realize that your fundamental identity is emptiness, and that it is one with everything that arises
52:47 - you can have that realization at any level / stage
57:35 - you learn select things from a teacher, not anything in areas the teacher is not competent in
58:58 - learning vertical development is the integral contribution to spiritual study
59:15 - people have different values and perspectives, as they travel through the psychic / subtle / causal / nondual states
10:32 - use it or lose it
12:18 - chakras have a structure and a state
13:11 - each chakra has an ida, pingala and a central channel - those are states, with a waking, dreaming, nondual aspect
15:03 - even an awakened zen master continues to sit - use it or lose it
18:14 - it's easy to mistake a peak experience as full enlightenment
18:57 - you can actually end up worse off
19:30 - a major problem arises when you start to think that some of your misunderstandings are backed by the authority of God
21:27 - enlightenment is an accident - meditation makes you accident prone (you'll come across this saying often)
26:26 - anyone can have a peak experience and sustain it into a plateau experience
30:38 - two things can happen with sustained practice in one line
30:57 - stage development can occur in the line
31:25 - a line can become a state transformative practice - you can have a psychic / subtle / causal / nondual state experience at any stage in the line
34:19 - there's a difference between a temporary state and a permanent stage trait acquisition
34:51 - stations are plateau experiences, not structures / stages
35:25 - when a temporary state becomes a permanent trait, that's applying just to a station, just a plateau
35:51 - we have to acknowledge the stage within the line the state is operating in
36:45 - permanent traits are not structures
36:51 - temporary states do not become structures, they become permanent plateaus
37:21 - states and stations / plateaus are both first person experiences, structures are third person assessments
41:20 - the more you experience states that are above your present interpretive capacity, the more it helps move you up
43:06 - learning a state in one line tends to make it easier to access that state in another line
48:03 - does the shadow develop?
49:19 - lines are independent
49:25 - the shadow can develop all the way up
50:12 - it is possible for damaged / broken / dissociated shadow elements to be present in the higher stages of development,
50:18 - but it is less and less likely, because it is less and less likely that a shadow-burdened person will develop that high
52:30 - what is needed for nondual realization is to realize that your fundamental identity is emptiness, and that it is one with everything that arises
52:47 - you can have that realization at any level / stage
57:35 - you learn select things from a teacher, not anything in areas the teacher is not competent in
58:58 - learning vertical development is the integral contribution to spiritual study
59:15 - people have different values and perspectives, as they travel through the psychic / subtle / causal / nondual states
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
States and Stages (Jan 21 2007) part 2
4:16 - you have to present the information in a way the audience can hear
5:32 - the world traditions offered types of non-ordinary reality
6:13 - you got access to these non-ordinary realities through non-ordinary consciousness
6:49 - there was ordinary, rational, egoic reality (bad), and there was anything that was not rational, not ego, non-rational (God) (note: pre-trans fallacy!)
8:17 - stages unfold in a sequential order
9:51 - the higher you got in stages / levels, the wider they got
11:22 - the stages of enlightenment didn't match with the stages of psychological structures
12:04 - states can unfold in stages, though it's more common in structures
12:36 - the incorrect way of fitting them together was to stack the psychic - subtle - causal - nondual states on top of the psychological stages
13:21 - many people who had spiritual experiences weren't very developed through the stages
15:12 - people are in a state and a structure at all times
16:05 - you can be at any structure of consciousness and have any state experience
17:55 - there are two different types of growth, vertical growth (through the structures / stages of consciousness) and horizontal growth (through states)
23:39 - the self moves through the levels, identifies with the level, then disidentifies with the level, and then integrates it
25:11 - the self moves through states, also
27:55 - it's useful to talk about a center of gravity in a dual sense
30:19 - the traditions, Vedanta particularly, saw the differences between the structures (sheaths) of consciousness and the states of consciousness and the bodies
31:00 - states and structures are independent
31:07 - be careful to note that though we often use the terms structures and stages interchangeably, actually structures and (some) states both do have stages
33:24 - structures are spirit's permanent unfolding, complexifies in physical matter until full awakening
33:52 - but you can experience any state at any stage / structure / level, all the way up to full enlightenment
34:20 - states are the samsara offramp to awakening, structures are the evolutionary path to awakening
34:28 - which is better? you want both, you want to engage in the evolutionary game and not be identified with it (the two truths doctrine, being in both the relative realm and the absolute realm)
36:21 - structures and states develop independently
40:43 - the Bodhisattva approach is to approach and affect people where they're at, and invite them, give them opportunities to grow if they want to or need to
41:29 - allowing each stage to be what it is, helping each stage to be the healthiest it can be
56:46 - the world is whole, but seen differently by different people (a nested hierarchical view)
57:41 - Judging and ranking is mandatory
59:10 - the dark night is seeing paradise, and realizing that only 2% agrees with you
5:32 - the world traditions offered types of non-ordinary reality
6:13 - you got access to these non-ordinary realities through non-ordinary consciousness
6:49 - there was ordinary, rational, egoic reality (bad), and there was anything that was not rational, not ego, non-rational (God) (note: pre-trans fallacy!)
8:17 - stages unfold in a sequential order
9:51 - the higher you got in stages / levels, the wider they got
11:22 - the stages of enlightenment didn't match with the stages of psychological structures
12:04 - states can unfold in stages, though it's more common in structures
12:36 - the incorrect way of fitting them together was to stack the psychic - subtle - causal - nondual states on top of the psychological stages
13:21 - many people who had spiritual experiences weren't very developed through the stages
15:12 - people are in a state and a structure at all times
16:05 - you can be at any structure of consciousness and have any state experience
17:55 - there are two different types of growth, vertical growth (through the structures / stages of consciousness) and horizontal growth (through states)
23:39 - the self moves through the levels, identifies with the level, then disidentifies with the level, and then integrates it
25:11 - the self moves through states, also
27:55 - it's useful to talk about a center of gravity in a dual sense
30:19 - the traditions, Vedanta particularly, saw the differences between the structures (sheaths) of consciousness and the states of consciousness and the bodies
31:00 - states and structures are independent
31:07 - be careful to note that though we often use the terms structures and stages interchangeably, actually structures and (some) states both do have stages
33:24 - structures are spirit's permanent unfolding, complexifies in physical matter until full awakening
33:52 - but you can experience any state at any stage / structure / level, all the way up to full enlightenment
34:20 - states are the samsara offramp to awakening, structures are the evolutionary path to awakening
34:28 - which is better? you want both, you want to engage in the evolutionary game and not be identified with it (the two truths doctrine, being in both the relative realm and the absolute realm)
36:21 - structures and states develop independently
40:43 - the Bodhisattva approach is to approach and affect people where they're at, and invite them, give them opportunities to grow if they want to or need to
41:29 - allowing each stage to be what it is, helping each stage to be the healthiest it can be
56:46 - the world is whole, but seen differently by different people (a nested hierarchical view)
57:41 - Judging and ranking is mandatory
59:10 - the dark night is seeing paradise, and realizing that only 2% agrees with you
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
States (Nov 6 2006) part 4
2:07 - two truths doctrine, two kinds of awareness
3:31 - pure awareness is seen through a particular perspective
4:24 - pure awareness doesn't give you access to higher stages
5:28 - Japanese zen masters supported atrocities - why?
6:26 - you can be enlightened at any stage
10:58 - your altitude colors/informs/structures your observations
14:42 - where is Santa Claus? Where is the square root of -1?
17:21 - different forms of body work allow access to different states
17:42 - practicing in a group of more developed practitioners accelerates your development, objectively and subjectively
18:32 - does it make sense to practice in the company of individuals who are at a more vertically advanced stage?
19:29 - body movement creates an energetic state in the body and a correlative state of consciousness
20:15 - Sophia Diaz and South Indian temple dancing
21:13 - eight years of practice before you're allowed a public performance
21:24 - every body movement not only elicits a state of consciousness in the person doing the dance,
21:35 - but will elicit the same state of consciousness in the person watching the dance
21:44 - hundreds of body positions and movements designed to evoke the subtlest shades of consciousness
22:56 - if you're in a group that's a tad ahead in structure development and state development, it can help accelerate your own development
23:13 - this is true due to modeling, and because of subtle energy generation
25:05 - the more you're plunged into states of consciousness that are higher than your present state, then not only do you open to these states, you more quickly develop through stages
25:25 - peak experiences of higher structures can't happen
26:44 - meditation can move adults through stages consistently
27:36 - the energies of meditation can be used to cement the values of any level
28:30 - yoga is a practice in its own right
30:09 - does marathon meditation correct emotional imbalances?
30:54 - he was learning profound things of freedom, but not much of fullness
31:02 - freedom is in touch with nirvana, fullness is in touch with samsara
38:24 - the ascending path selects for cognitive emphasis, de-emphasizing emotion and interpersonal
44:11 - present meditation as attention training
50:07 - match the stage with the phase of the business cycle
50:37 - take the altitude of every worker into consideration
53:51 - is enlightenment the same as taking LSD?
54:02 - no
54:05 - psychedelics can give an experience of one taste, the cosmic void, but it's temporary, it's not a structure
3:31 - pure awareness is seen through a particular perspective
4:24 - pure awareness doesn't give you access to higher stages
5:28 - Japanese zen masters supported atrocities - why?
6:26 - you can be enlightened at any stage
10:58 - your altitude colors/informs/structures your observations
14:42 - where is Santa Claus? Where is the square root of -1?
17:21 - different forms of body work allow access to different states
17:42 - practicing in a group of more developed practitioners accelerates your development, objectively and subjectively
18:32 - does it make sense to practice in the company of individuals who are at a more vertically advanced stage?
19:29 - body movement creates an energetic state in the body and a correlative state of consciousness
20:15 - Sophia Diaz and South Indian temple dancing
21:13 - eight years of practice before you're allowed a public performance
21:24 - every body movement not only elicits a state of consciousness in the person doing the dance,
21:35 - but will elicit the same state of consciousness in the person watching the dance
21:44 - hundreds of body positions and movements designed to evoke the subtlest shades of consciousness
22:56 - if you're in a group that's a tad ahead in structure development and state development, it can help accelerate your own development
23:13 - this is true due to modeling, and because of subtle energy generation
25:05 - the more you're plunged into states of consciousness that are higher than your present state, then not only do you open to these states, you more quickly develop through stages
25:25 - peak experiences of higher structures can't happen
26:44 - meditation can move adults through stages consistently
27:36 - the energies of meditation can be used to cement the values of any level
28:30 - yoga is a practice in its own right
30:09 - does marathon meditation correct emotional imbalances?
30:54 - he was learning profound things of freedom, but not much of fullness
31:02 - freedom is in touch with nirvana, fullness is in touch with samsara
38:24 - the ascending path selects for cognitive emphasis, de-emphasizing emotion and interpersonal
44:11 - present meditation as attention training
50:07 - match the stage with the phase of the business cycle
50:37 - take the altitude of every worker into consideration
53:51 - is enlightenment the same as taking LSD?
54:02 - no
54:05 - psychedelics can give an experience of one taste, the cosmic void, but it's temporary, it's not a structure
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
States (Nov 6 2006) part 2
2:50 - freedom and equality are contradictory
11:50 - should we let go of form to arrive at unity / nondual or connect with and embrace form to arrive at unity / nondual?
16:00 - the meditative paths and states of consciousness (horizontal enlightenment)
17:00 - the difference between structures and states
18:15 - five major states of consciousness according to the great traditions
25:12 - the subject has structures and co-creates phenomena
34:26 - structures allow you to see the level
35:03 - people were doing spiritual practice, meditation, contemplation, etc., and nobody knew that structures were tilting/filtering/coloring what they were seeing
36:22 - you find none of this in the traditions
36:31 - the relation of states and structures
39:35 - the state isn't wrong, but the structure interprets it according to its values
43:40 - do we expand our attachments for nondual awareness or cut our attachments for nondual awareness?
44:44 - two ways of knowing, witnessing knowing and touching/feeling knowing
45:58 - masculine and feminine types of practice
46:20 - the tantric path
46:51 - let's start with imagining sexual congress
47:46 - use bliss to meditate on the higher stages
49:35 - as bliss, you cognize emptiness
50:21 - bliss manifests as compassion
53:38 - the feminine path isn't faster
54:14 - every path involves a breaking of attachment (death process)
55:30 - shadow stuff still comes up
56:06 - spirituality is hard, rough work, no matter what path you choose
57:31 - do you do both anyway, or are they incompatible?
58:40 - the two types of zen practice, koan and sitting
59:03 - John Daido Loori
1:00:52 - gross to subtle to causal
11:50 - should we let go of form to arrive at unity / nondual or connect with and embrace form to arrive at unity / nondual?
16:00 - the meditative paths and states of consciousness (horizontal enlightenment)
17:00 - the difference between structures and states
18:15 - five major states of consciousness according to the great traditions
25:12 - the subject has structures and co-creates phenomena
34:26 - structures allow you to see the level
35:03 - people were doing spiritual practice, meditation, contemplation, etc., and nobody knew that structures were tilting/filtering/coloring what they were seeing
36:22 - you find none of this in the traditions
36:31 - the relation of states and structures
39:35 - the state isn't wrong, but the structure interprets it according to its values
43:40 - do we expand our attachments for nondual awareness or cut our attachments for nondual awareness?
44:44 - two ways of knowing, witnessing knowing and touching/feeling knowing
45:58 - masculine and feminine types of practice
46:20 - the tantric path
46:51 - let's start with imagining sexual congress
47:46 - use bliss to meditate on the higher stages
49:35 - as bliss, you cognize emptiness
50:21 - bliss manifests as compassion
53:38 - the feminine path isn't faster
54:14 - every path involves a breaking of attachment (death process)
55:30 - shadow stuff still comes up
56:06 - spirituality is hard, rough work, no matter what path you choose
57:31 - do you do both anyway, or are they incompatible?
58:40 - the two types of zen practice, koan and sitting
59:03 - John Daido Loori
1:00:52 - gross to subtle to causal
Sunday, March 1, 2009
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