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Ken Wilber

Ken Wilber Quotes

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Famous Ken Wilber Quotes

“Raindrops are beating, a large puddle is forming, there on the balcony. It all floats in Emptiness, in purest Transparency, with no one here to watch it. If there is an I, it is all that is arising, right now and right now and right now. My lungs are the sky; those mountains are my teeth; the clouds are my skin; the thunder is my heart beating time to the timeless; the rain itself, the tears of our collective estate, here where nothing is really happening.”

IfsHeartWatchesSkyTearsMy HeartRight NowMountainHappeningsRainSkinsCloudsTeethEmptinessCollectivesEstatesTimelessThunderLungsFloatsTransparencyHeart BeatRaindropsPuddlesBalconiesHeart Beating
Book:One Taste
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“What good is it to continue to focus on the exterior technological wonders before us - from indefinite life extension to computer/mind interlinks to unlimited zero-point energy to worm-hole intergalactic space travel - if all we carry with us is an egocentric red-mem Nazis and KKK? Do we really want Jack the Ripper living 400 years, zipping around the country in his hypercar, unleashing misogynistic nanorobots? Exterior developments are clearly a concern; how much more so are interior developments - or lack there of.”

IfsWantYearsMindCountryEnergySpaceWonderFocusDevelopmentComputerRedConcernHolesZeroTechnologicalNaziExtensionsUnlimitedInteriorsWormsExteriorSpace TravelEgocentricJack The RipperUnleashingKkk
Book:A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality
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“If humanity doesn't destroy the planet first, which is always a possibility because as Spirit threw itself out there, that included free will. So, if we don't blow ourselves up first, soul will become as common of a mature development in adults as mind currently is and, eventually, Spirit will become the common experience for humanity.”

IfsMindFirstsSoulSpiritHumanityCommonPossibilityPlanetsDevelopmentAdultsBlowFree WillMatureCommon Experience
Author:Ken Wilber
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“Each band or level, being a particular manifestation of the spectrum, is what it is only by virtue of the other bands. The color blue is no less beautiful because it exists along side the other colors of a rainbow, and "blueness" itself depends upon the existence of the other colors, for if there were no color but blue, we would never be able to see it.”

IfsAbleBeautifulSidesLevelsExistenceVisionVirtueSeeingParticularColorDependsBandBlueManifestationAweRainbowSpectrumExitColor Blue
Author:Ken Wilber
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“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.”

IfsRealSelfFactsWould BeAgeEarthSelf EsteemSelf HelpEgoCapableTransformationResponsibleEdgesRationalEsteemRadicalMutualMatureNew AgeShakingParticipating
Book:The Simple Feeling of Being: Visionary, Spiritual, and Poetic Writings
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“What would it mean if there were a theory that explained everything? And just what does "everything" actually mean, anyway? Would this new theory in physics explain, say the meaning of human poetry? Or how economics work? Or the stages of psychosexual development? Can this new physics explain the currents of ecosystems, or the dynamics of history, or why human wars are so terribly common?”

IfsHumansMeanDoeWarCommonStageTheoryDevelopmentEconomicsHistoricalCurrentsPhysicsEcosystemsDynamics
Book:A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality
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“If the majority of the "spiritual market" is drawn to prerational magic and myth, how do you reach the small group who are involved in genuine, laborious, demanding, transrational spiritual practice? This is very difficult, because both markets are referred to as "spiritual," but these two camps really don't get along very well-one is mostly translative, the other is mostly transformative, and they generally disapprove of each other-so how do you put them into one magazine without alienating them both?”

IfsWellsTwoSpiritualSpiritualityDifficultPracticeMagicGroupsInvolvedMajorityMythGenuineMagazinesCampsSpiritual PracticeSmall Groups
Book:One Taste
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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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“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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“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.”

IfsMayPersonsCultureOpportunityProcessUnderstandingTermChallengesChanceResultsHealingCompassionMoralMovementParticularTreatsSickCrisisIllnessHealJudgementSicknessEnlightenedSupportivePositivelyRestorationCondemnationBeing SickMoral Judgement
Book:The Essential 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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“The understanding of "evolutionary consciousness" is perhaps the most important thing lacking in spiritual practices today. Evolution means growth and development. This means that there are aspects of reality that have not yet arisen in our consciousness. But they will arise if we grow.”

IfsMeanImportantRealityTodaySpiritualGrowsUnderstandingGrowthConsciousnessPracticeDevelopmentEvolutionAspectImportant ThingsAriseLackingSpiritual Practice
Author:Ken Wilber
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“This transformation is already proceeding, and if we want to consciously find these evolutionary currents operating in our own being as well-if we want to consciously join Spirit-in-action-then the four quardrants can help us orient ourselves more effectively, can help us become more conscious of the evolutionary currents already flowing around us and through us and in us.”

IfsWantWellsHelpingActionSpiritFourConsciousTransformationCurrentsProceeding
Author:Ken Wilber
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“If Spirit has any meaning, it must be omnipresent, or all-pervading and all-encompassing. There can't be a place where Spirit is not, or it wouldn't be infinite. Therefore, Spirit has to be completely present, right here, right now, in your own awareness. That is, your own present awareness, precisely as it is, without changing it or altering it in any way, is perfectly and completely permeated by Spirit.”

IfsWaySpiritAwarenessRight NowInfinite
Author:Ken Wilber
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“Further, if Spirit has any meaning at all, then it must be eternal, or without beginning or end. If Spirit had a beginning in time, then it would be strictly temporal, it would not be timeless and eternal. And this means, as regards your own awareness, that you cannot become enlightened. You cannot attain enlightenment. If you could attain enlightenment, then that state would have a beginning in time, and so it would not be true enlightenment.”

IfsMeanEndsStatesWould BeSpiritAwarenessEternalEnlightenmentRegardBeing TrueEnlightenedTimeless
Author:Ken Wilber
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