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Ken Wilber

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Famous Ken Wilber Quotes

“The great and secret message of the experiential mystics the world over is that, with the eye of contemplation, Spirit can be seen. With the eye of contemplation, the great Within radiantly unfolds. And in all cases, the eye with which you see God is the same eye with which God sees you: the eye of contemplation.”

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Book:The Simple Feeling of Being: Visionary, Spiritual, and Poetic Writings
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“It is in the union of the Ascending and the Descending currents that harmony is found, and not in any war between the two. It seems that only when the Ascending and the Descending are united can both be saved. And if we - if you and I - do not contribute to this union, then it is very possible that not only will we destroy the only Earth we have, we will forfeit the only heaven we might otherwise embrace.”

IfsTwoWarSeemsMightEarthFoundHeavenUnitedHarmonyEmbraceUnionsCurrentsSavedDescendingForfeitAscending
Book:A Brief History of Everything
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“THE ULTIMATE METAPHYSICAL SECRET, if we dare state it so simply, is that there are no boundaries in the universe. Boundaries are illusions, products not of reality but of the way we map and edit reality. And while it is fine to map out the territory, it is fatal to confuse the two.”

IfsWayTwoStatesRealityUniverseSecretProductsFineIllusionUltimateDareBoundariesMapsTerritoryMetaphysicalEditsNo Boundaries
Book:No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth
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“A language possesses utility only insofar as it can construct conventional boundaries. A language of no boundaries is no language at all, and thus the mystic who tries to speak logically and formally of unity consciousness is doomed to sound very paradoxical or contradictory. The problem is that the structure of any language cannot grasp the nature of unity consciousness, any more than a fork could grasp the ocean.”

TryingProblemSpeakLanguageSoundConsciousnessOceanStructureUnityBoundariesConventionalDoomedConstructsContradictoryUtilityMysticForksParadoxicalNo Boundaries
Book:No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth
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“Meditation, then, is not so much a part of this or that particular religion, but rather part of the universal spiritual culture of all humankind--an effort to bring awareness to bear on all aspects of life. It is, in other words, part of what has been called the perennial philosophy.”

Has BeensPhilosophySpiritualCultureEffortMeditationAwarenessParticularBearsAspectUniversalHumankindAspects Of Life
Book:Grace and Grit: Spirituality and Healing in the Life and Death of Treya Killam Wilber
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“The integral approach is committed to the full spectrum of consciousness as it manifests in all its extraordinary diversity. This allows the integral approach to recognize and honor the Great Holarchy of Being first elucidated by the perennial philosophy and the great wisdom traditions in general... The integral vision embodies an attempt to take the best of both worlds, ancient and modern. But that demands a critical stance willing to reject unflinchingly the worst of both as well.”

WorldFirstsWellsPhilosophyConsciousnessVisionModernWorstWillingHonorDemandDiversityApproachTraditionExtraordinaryAncientCommittedCriticalRejectsSpectrumStanceBest Of Both WorldsGreat Wisdom
Author:Ken Wilber
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“In other words, the real problem is not exterior. The real problem is interior. The real problem is how to get people to internally transform, from egocentric to sociocentric to worldcentric consciousness, which is the only stance that can grasp the global dimensions of the problem in the first place, and thus the only stance that can freely, even eagerly, embrace global solutions.”

PeopleFirstsRealProblemConsciousnessSolutionsEmbraceDimensionsInteriorsStanceReal ProblemsExteriorEgocentric
Book:Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution, Second Edition
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“Global consciousness is not an objective belief that can be taught to anybody and everybody, but a subjective transformation in the interior structures that can hold belief in the first place, which itself is the product of a long line of inner consciousness development.”

FirstsLongBeliefLinesConsciousnessTaughtProductsDevelopmentTransformationStructureObjectivesInteriorsSubjectiveLong Lines
Book:Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution, Second Edition
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“Saving the biosphere depends first and foremost on human beings reaching mutual understanding and unforced agreement as to common ends. And that intersubjective accord occurs only in the noosphere. Anything short of that noospheric accord will continue to destroy the biosphere.”

FirstsHumansEndsUnderstandingHuman BeingsCommonDependsSavingReachingAgreementMutualAccordBiosphereMutual Understanding
Book:Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution, Second Edition
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“In other words, all of my books are lies. They are simply maps of a territory, shadows of a reality, gray symbols dragging their bellies across the dead page, suffocated signs full of muffled sound and faded glory, signifying absolutely nothing. And it is the nothing, the Mystery, the Emptiness alone that needs to be realized: not known but felt, not thought but breathed, not an object but an atmosphere, not a lesson but a life.”

NeedsBookRealityLyingFeltSoundKnownMysteryObjectsLessonsPagesGloryShadowSymbolsAtmosphereEmptinessMapsGrayTerritoryBellyAbsolutely NothingFadedSignifying
Book:The Simple Feeling of Being: Visionary, Spiritual, and Poetic Writings
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“The Realization of the Nondual traditions is uncompromising: There is only Spirit, there is only God, there is only Emptiness in all its radiant wonder. All the good and all the evil, the very best and the very worst, the upright and the degenerate- each and all are radically perfect manifestations of Spirit precisely as they are. There is nothing but God, nothing but the Goddess, nothing but Spirit in all directions, and not a grain of sand, not a speck of dust, is more or less Spirit than any other.”

SpiritEvilPerfectWonderWorstTraditionDustRealizationManifestationEmptinessSandGoddessGrainRadiantDegeneratesSpecksPerfect ManGrains Of SandUncompromising
Book:The Eye of Spirit: An Integral Vision for a World Gone Slightly Mad
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“Gaia's main problems are not industrialization, ozone depletion, overpopulation, or resource depletion. Gaia's main problem is the lack of mutual understanding and mutual agreement in the noosphere about how to proceed with those problems. We cannot rein in industry if we cannot reach mutual understanding and mutual agreement based on a worldcentric moral perspective concerning the global commons. And we reach the worldcentric moral perspective through a difficult and laborious process of interior growth and transcendence.”

IfsProblemProcessDifficultUnderstandingGrowthMoralPerspectiveIndustryResourcesAgreementMutualInteriorsTranscendenceReinsIndustrializationOverpopulationMutual UnderstandingGaiaOzoneOzone DepletionResource Depletion
Author:Ken Wilber
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“Early morning, the orange sun is slowly rising, shining forth in empty luminous clarity. The mind and the sky are one, the sun is rising in the vast space of primordial awareness, and there is just this. Yasutani Roshi once said, speaking of satori, that it was the most precious realization in the world, because all the great philosophers had tried to understand ultimate reality but had failed to do so, yet with satori or awakening all of your deepest questions are finally answered: it's just this.”

WorldMindSaidRealitySpaceMorningSunSkyAwarenessEmptyUltimateShiningPhilosopherAwakeningClarityRealizationRisingOrangeLuminousEarly MorningUltimate RealityGreat PhilosophersSatori
Book:One Taste
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“If a culture treats a particular illness with compassion and enlightened understanding, then sickness can be seen as a challenge, as a healing crisis and opportunity. Being sick is then not a condemnation or a moral judgement, but a movement in a larger process of healing and restoration. When sickness is viewed positively and in supportive terms, then illness has a much better chance to heal, with the concomitant result that the entire person may grown and be enriched in the process.”

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Book:The Essential Ken Wilber
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“As Hubert Benoit said, it is not the identification with the ego that is the problem, but the exclusive nature of the identification. When our self-identity expands beyond the ego, into the deeper psychic, then even into the Unborn and One Taste, the ego is simply taken up and subsumed in a grander identity. But the ego itself remains as the functional self in the gross realm, and it might even appropriately be intensified and made more powerful, simply because it is now plugged into the entire Kosmos.”

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Author:Ken Wilber
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“"Transcending the ego" thus actually means to transcend but include the ego in a deeper and higher embrace, first in the soul or deeper psychic, then with the Witness or primordial Self, then with each previous stage taken up, enfolded, included, and embraced in the radiance of One Taste. And that means we do not "get rid" of the small ego, but rahter, we inhabit it fully, live it with verve, use it as the necessary vehicle through which higher truths are communicated. Soul and Spirit include body, emotions, and mind; they do not erase them.”

MindFirstsMeanSoulSelfUseBodySpiritEmotionTakenStageHigherTasteEgoEmbraceDeeperWitnessVehiclePsychicsEraseRadianceTranscending
Author:Ken Wilber
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“Conscious means "having an awareness of one's inner and outer worlds; mentally perceptive, awake, mindful." So "conscious business" might mean, engaging in an occupation, work, or trade in a mindful, awake fashion. This implies, of course, that many people do not do so. In my experience, that is often the case. So I would definitely be in favor of conscious business; or conscious anything, for that matter.”

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Author:Ken Wilber
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“The Self doesn't live forever in time, it lives in the timeless present prior to time, prior to history, change, succession. The Self is present as Pure Presence, not as everlasting duration, a rather horrible notion.”

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Book:Grace and Grit: Spirituality and Healing in the Life and Death of Treya Killam Wilber
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“Evolution occurs in the world of time and space and form, whereas Spirit's primordial nature is finally timeless and Formless, prior to the of evolution but not other to it. We do not find Spirit or Emptiness by reaching some evolutionary Omega point in time, but rather by stepping off the cycle of time and evolution altogether (or ceasing to contract into it).”

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Book:The Eye of Spirit: An Integral Vision for a World Gone Slightly Mad
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“The very desire to seek spiritual enlightenment is in fact nothing but the grasping tendency of the ego itself, and thus the very search for enlightenment prevents it. The 'perfect practice' is therefore not to search for enlightenment but to inquire into the motive for seeking itself. You obviously seek in order to avoid the present, and yet the present alone holds the answer: to seek forever is to miss the point forever. You always already are enlightened Spirit, and therefore to seek Spirit is simply to deny Spirit.”

FactsSpiritualSpiritDesireOrderGrowthAnswersPerfectPracticeForeverMissingEgoMindfulnessEnlightenmentSeekingDenyTendenciesMotiveEnlightenedGraspingSpiritual EnlightenmentPerfect Practice
Author:Ken Wilber
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“But the fundamentalists, the "creationists," seize upon these vacancies in the scientific hotel to pack the conferences with their delegates. They see the opening-creativity is an absolute-and they equate that absolute with their mythic god, and they stuff this god with all the characteristics that promote their own egoic inclinations, starting with the fact that if you don't believe in this particular god, you fry in hell forever, which is not exactly a generous view of Spirit.”

IfsBelieveFactsSpiritStuffViewsCreativityHellForeverParticularAbsolutesDon't BelieveStartingOpeningGenerousCharacteristicsHotelPacksInclinationConferencesDelegatesVacancy
Book:A Brief History of Everything
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“So it is a good idea to start simple, I think, and be very careful. There is a spiritual opening in the Kosmos. Let us be careful of how we fill it. The simplest is: Spirit or Emptiness is unqualifiable, but it is not inert and unyielding, for it gives rise to manifestation itself: new forms emerge, and that creativity is ultimate. Emptiness, creativity, holons.”

ThinkingGivingIdeasSpiritualFormSpiritSimpleCreativityUltimateCarefulOpeningManifestationEmptinessGood IdeasBe CarefulSimplestUnyielding
Book:A Brief History of Everything
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