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Ken Wilber

Ken Wilber Quotes

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Famous Ken Wilber Quotes

“To be "integrally developed" does not mean that you have to excel in all the known intelligences, or that all of your lines have to be at level 3. But it does mean that you develop a very good sense of what your own psychograph is actually like, so that with a much more Integral self-image you can plan your future development.”

MeanDoeSelfLinesLevelsKnownPlansDevelopmentVery GoodIntelligenceOur FutureYour FutureGood SenseFuture Development
Book:Integral Spirituality: A Startling New Role for Religion in the Modern and Postmodern World
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“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.”

SelfTodayLyingRealizingConsciousnessStageEgoHighestRealmsComparisonNothingnessTypicalPitifulSpecks
Book:The Collected Works of Ken Wilber: The Atman Project ; Up from Eden
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“I'll tell you what I think. I think sages are the growing tip of the secret impulse of evolution. I think they are the leading edge of the self-transcending drive that always goes beyond what went before. I think they embody the very drive of the Kosmos toward greater depth and expanding consciousness. I think they are riding the edge of a light beam toward a rendezvous with God.”

ThinkingSelfLightSecretConsciousnessGreaterGrowingEvolutionDepthEdgesImpulseRidingSageExpandingBeamTranscendingRendezvous
Book:A Brief History of Everything
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“The point of the overall meditative path is to have Wakefulness (or Consciousness as Such) transcend and include all state-realms, so it ceases to "black out" or "forget" various changes of state (such as dreaming and deep sleep), and instead recognizes a "constant Consciousness" or ever-present nondual Awareness, the union (and transcendence) of individual finite self and infinite Spirit.”

SelfStatesDreamSpiritIndividualBlackSleepForgetConsciousnessPathAwarenessInfiniteConstantUnionsVariousCeaseRealmsFiniteTranscendenceDeep SleepAll State
Book:The Fourth Turning: Imagining the Evolution of an Integral Buddhism
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“Conscious business.. business that is conscious of inner and outer worlds.. would therefore be business that takes into account body, mind, and spirit in self, culture, and nature. Put differently, conscious business would be mindful of the way that the spectrum of consciousness operates in the Big Three worlds of self and culture and nature.”

WorldWayMindSelfGodBodyBigsWould BeSpiritCultureSpiritualityThreeBusinessConsciousnessSelf HelpConsciousAccountsSpectrumOuter Worlds
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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“Bad Gardens copy, good gardens create, great gardens transcend. What all great gardens have in common are their ability to pull the sensitive viewer out of him or herself and into the garden, so completely that the separate self-sense disappears entirely, and at least for a brief moment one is ushered into a nondual and timeless awareness. A great garden, in other words, is mystical no matter what its actual content.”

SelfMatterMomentsSpiritReligionSpiritualityAbilityCommonAwarenessGardenNo Matter WhatDisappearSeparationSensitiveCopiesGardeningTimelessMysticalViewersBrief MomentsGreat Garden
Author:Ken Wilber
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“Perhaps the best place to begin with an integral approach to business is with.. oneself. In the Big Three of self, culture, and world, integral mastery starts with self. How do body and mind and spirit operate in me? How does that necessarily impact my role in the world of business? And how can I become more conscious of these already operating realities in myself and in others?”

WorldMindDoeSelfBodyBigsRealitySpiritCultureThreeBusinessRolesSelf HelpApproachConsciousImpactOneselfMasteryMind And BodyBest Place
Author:Ken Wilber
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“Were you somebody different a thousand years ago? Will you be somebody different a thousand years from now? What is this One Self that is forever your own deepest being? Must you believe the lies of time? Must you swallow the insanity that One Spirit does not exist? Can you show me your Original Face, of which there is One and Only One in all the entire World?”

WorldYearsBelieveDoeDifferentSelfShowsFacesSpiritLyingForeverThousandYears AgoOriginalsUnityInsanityThousand YearsShow Me
Book:One Taste
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“Great art suspends the reverted eye, the lamented past, the anticipated future: we enter with it into the timeless present; we are with God today, perfect in our manner and mode, open to the riches and the glories of a realm that time forgot, but that great art reminds us of: not by its content, but by what it does in us: suspends the desire to be elsewhere. And thus it undoes the agitated grasping in the heart of the suffering self, and releases us - maybe for a second, maybe for a minute, maybe for all eternity - releases us from the coil of ourselves.”

HeartDoeArtSelfEyeTodayPastDesireSufferingPerfectMinutesGloryEternityUnityRichesReleaseRealmsElsewhereTimelessGreat ArtGrasping
Author:Ken Wilber
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“In the stillness of the night, the Goddess whispers. In the brightness of the day, dear God roars. Life pulses, mind imagines, emotions wave, thoughts wander. What are all these but the endless movements of One Taste, forever at play with its own gestures, whispering quietly to all who would listen: is this not yourself? When the thunder roars, do you not hear your Self? When the lightning cracks, do you not see your Self? When clouds float quietly across the sky, is this not your own limitless Being, waving back at you?”

MindSelfPlayNightEmotionForeverImagineSkyMovementTasteDearCloudsWaveEndlessWanderCracksStillnessGesturesGoddessLightningThunderFloatsLimitlessPulseWhisperingBrightnessDear God
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.”

MadeSaidSelfProblemMightPowerfulTakenIdentityTasteEgoRemainsDeeperRealmsPsychicsGrossExclusiveUnbornIdentificationSelf Identity
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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“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.”

SelfTimeForeverPureNotionHorribleTimelessEverlastingSuccessionLive ForeverDuration
Book:Grace and Grit: Spirituality and Healing in the Life and Death of Treya Killam Wilber
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“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?”

MayArtSelfMomentsMightDesireAwarenessHigherQuietEgoConnectionsEternityProfoundOpeningRevelationsGreat ArtYou AgainGraspingClearingContractions
Author:Ken Wilber
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