Seven years ago, I presented this paper, "Becoming Spirit: Ken Wilber's Four Stages of Spiritual Unfolding and a Personal Exploration of Vipassana Meditation," at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. While my perspectives have evolved into a more non-dual approach (four years cooking in India will do that to a body-mind), I recently unearthed this paper and found it to hold several solid principles and guideposts to share. Each of us are at various points in the soul's non-linear unfolding. I've broken the hefty, theoretical paper down into five parts, which I'll be posting daily this week. May it inspire and nourish your spirit. As always, your comments are welcome.
Love,
Erin
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Ken Wilber’s Four Stages of Spiritual Unfolding
and a Personal Exploration of Vipassana Meditation
December 2004
Institute of Transpersonal Psychology
is the instant you leave the cushion.”
- Venerable Henepola Gunaratana
~ PART ONE ~
Introduction: Background and Scope
Thud.
I fall back onto the zafu with a mixture of relief and resignation. Okay, okay, I think to myself. I get it – again. No more spiritual “experiences” for the sake of experience. It’s back to the meditation cushion for me. Time to sit. Empty myself. Disidentify. Ah… the sweetest sound I ever heard: silence.
I’d just attempted one more spiritual weekend warrior workshop – this time on Native American Shamanic journeying – with the best of intentions. I’d hoped to be “getting back to my indigenous roots,” broaden my horizons, and – admittedly – surf the waves of altered states through drumming and journeying. Even without a promise of a cosmic peak experience or meeting an animal totem in the underworld, I have to admit that adding yet another feather in my spiritual cap – or tribal headdress, as it were – is not the answer to my personal transformation. I may not get to add another chant or drumbeat to my repertoire, but I happily forego such tools in favor of the sweetest sound I ever heard – silence. What works to truly transform my life – and has worked for the past three years – is the non-flashy, non-sexy, non-distracting practice of Vipassana meditation.
Over the past three years of my – admittedly spotty – experience with meditation, I have practiced getting clear, getting empty and letting go of fantasies of the mind. And yet, here I was being prompted to travel to the lower realms, meet an animal guide and let it speak to me. As the drumming progressed, all I wanted to do was be quiet and observe. I didn’t want to use my will nor my limiting thought processes to manufacture a journey. I had practiced enough mindful awareness to understand that if I have an altered state during meditation, that’s one thing; but to expect it, force it, or manufacture it wasn’t working for me. Staying present – right here, right now – was what truly called out to my soul.
The bottom line is that spiritual experiences in and of themselves have, quite frankly, become empty, even boring, to me. Although this became apparent many years ago, I had to, like the Buddha taught, continue to do more research and affirm the truth for myself. Hardly a quick fix, it’s become increasingly clear that spiritual practice is where the rubber meets the road on the journey to total awareness, or “enlightenment” if you will. Our efforts have got to carry over from the dharma hall into one’s day-to-day “householder” activities. In short, the work has to penetrate and transform our lives.
Ken Wilber is one transpersonal, or integral, theorist who advocates the same, holding that spiritual practice is a main force separating those on a path of spiritual translation to one of spiritual transformation (Wilber, 1997). In addition, a sincere, committed spiritual practitioner must strive to move beyond a flashy collection of experiences that look good and sound even better when we’re talking about them with a captive audience – spiritual materialism, in the words of the renowned “crazy wisdom” Vajrayana Buddhist master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
In this paper, I explore how deliberate spiritual practice evolves beyond “just another experience,” so that we embody, and truly become, spirit. I begin by offering a brief overview of Vipassana meditation. Next, I briefly examine Trungpa’s principal of spiritual materialism as it relates to Wilber’s delineation of translation and transformation. Finally, I examine Wilber’s “four stages of spiritual unfolding” as presented in his book One Taste (1997) – belief, faith, experience, and permanent adaptation – with an emphasis on the latter two stages as they relate to Vipassana meditation and my own individual practice.
(CONTINUED here.)
Thailand Sunset
Works cited in this series of posts:
Dhammadaro, A. L. (1998). Inner strength: sixteen talks Translated from the Thai by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Valley Center, CA: Metta Forest Monastary.
Smith, H. (1991). The world’s religions: completely revised and updated edition of The religions of man. San Francisco: Harper.
Tendzin, O. (1982). Buddha in the palm of your hand. Boulder, CO: Shambala Publications, Inc.
Trungpa, C. (1973). Cutting through spiritual materialism. Berkeley, CA: Shambala.
Wilber, K. (1997). A spirituality that transforms. What is Enlightenment magazine, 12.
Wilber, K. (1999). One taste: the personal journals of Ken Wilber. Boston, MA. Shambala.
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