Home / Authors / Ken Wilber

Ken Wilber

Ken Wilber Quotes

Writer

Ken Wilber is an American writer and philosopher, born on January 31, 1949. He is the founder of Integral Theory, which aims to integrate human knowledge, philosophy, psychology, and religion. Wilber's work covers a wide range of fields, including personal growth, spiritual development, and cultural studies.

Filter quotes by topic

All Spirit World Self Consciousness Ifs Mind Awareness Way Mean Spiritual Doe Soul Spirituality Ego Real Emptiness Firsts Humans Taste Levels

Famous Ken Wilber Quotes

“For what we don't realize today is just what the typical self of every previous stage failed likewise to comprehend: this is not the highest and greatest mode of consciousness which can be attained - there lie ahead the realms of the superconscious and the pitiful ego, by comparison, is as a speck of nothingness.”

Self Today Lying Realizing Consciousness Stage Ego Highest Realms Comparison Nothingness Typical Pitiful Specks

Book:The Collected Works of Ken Wilber: The Atman Project ; Up from Eden

Source: The Collected Works of Ken Wilber: The Atman Project ; Up from Eden

“In fact, at this point in history, the most radical, pervasive, and earth-shaking transformation would occur simply if everybody truly evolved to a mature, rational, and responsible ego, capable of freely participating in the open exchange of mutual self-esteem. There is the 'edge of history.' There would be a real New Age.”

Source: The Simple Feeling of Being: Visionary, Spiritual, and Poetic Writings

“What is it in you that brings you to a spiritual teacher in the first place? It's not the spirit in you, since that is already enlightened, and has no need to seek. No, it is the ego in you that brings you to a teacher.”

Needs Firsts Soul Spiritual Spirit Teacher Ego Enlightened Spiritual Teachers Ego And Soul

Author:Ken Wilber

“Evolution does not isolate us from the rest of the Kosmos, it unites us with the rest of the Kosmos: the same currents that produced birds from dust and poetry from rocks produce egos from ids and sages from egos.”

Doe Rocks Produce Evolution Ego Bird Currents Dust Sage

Book:Integral Psychology

Source: Integral Psychology

“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.”

Made Said Self Problem Might Powerful Taken Identity Taste Ego Remains Deeper Realms Psychics Gross Exclusive Unborn Identification Self Identity

Author:Ken Wilber

“When the thunder roars, do you not hear your Self? When the lightening cracks, do you not see your Self? When clouds float quietly across the sky, is this not your very own limitless Being, waving back at you?”

Self Sky Ego Clouds Cracks Thunder Floats Limitless

Book:One Taste

Source: One Taste

“"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.”

Mind Firsts Mean Soul Self Use Body Spirit Emotion Taken Stage Higher Taste Ego Embrace Deeper Witness Vehicle Psychics Erase Radiance Transcending

Author:Ken Wilber

“Put bluntly, the ego is not an obstruction to Spirit, but a radiant manifestation of Spirit. All Forms are not other than Emptiness, including the form of the ego. It is not necessary to get rid of the ego, but simply to live with it a certain exuberance.”

Form Spirit Certain Ego Including Manifestation Emptiness Radiant Obstruction Exuberance

Book:The Essential Ken Wilber

Source: The Essential Ken Wilber

“The ego is not a thing but a subtle effort, and you cannot use effort to get rid of effort - you end up with two efforts instead of one. The ego itself is a perfect manifestation of the Divine, and it is best handled by resting in Freedom, not by trying to get rid of it, which simply increases the effort of the ego itself”

Trying Two Ends Use Perfect Effort Divine Ego Increase Manifestation Subtle Perfect Man

Book:One Taste

Source: One Taste

“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.”

“Great art grabs you, against your will, and then suspends your will. You are ushered into a quiet clearing, free of desire, free of grasping, free of ego, free of the self-contraction. And through that opening or clearing in your own awareness may come flashing higher truths, subtler revelations, profound connections. For a moment you might even touch eternity; who can say otherwise, when time itself is supendend in the clearing that great art creates in your awareness?”

May Art Self Moments Might Desire Awareness Higher Quiet Ego Connections Eternity Profound Opening Revelations Great Art You Again Grasping Clearing Contractions

Author:Ken Wilber