In this final installation of Paul and Ken's discussion, we explore the need for the Christian Church to begin to return to its roots—namely, a return to states of mystical experience.
As Paul puts it, "Christianity began in Palestine as an experience, it moved to Greece and became a philosophy, it moved to Italy and became an institution, it moved to Europe and became a culture, and it moved to America and became a business! We've left the experience long behind."
We know that early Christianity was ablaze with these sorts of transcendent states, yet these states of consciousness have been almost entirely scrubbed out of mainstream Christianity over the centuries. One of the most important goals of Integral Christianity is to return to this emphasis upon direct experience, with the understanding that each of us is capable of having the exact same experiences as the great mystics themselves.
Paul and Ken go on to discuss one of the most important contributions Ken Wilber has made to our shared understanding of spiritual reality: the Three Faces of God. Put simply, the Three Faces represent three very different ways of relating to Spirit:
God in 3rd-person (or "the infinite face of God" as Paul calls it) is often described as the "great web-of-life," and is frequently experienced when observing objects of miraculous beauty such as the Grand Canyon, exquisite music, transcendent art, or the mind-boggling elegance of deep-space photography.
God in 2nd-person (or "the intimate face of God") is traditionally defined as the "I-Thou" relationship with the divine, where Spirit is experienced as a living intelligence that we can actually interact with in our own lives. As Ken often says, borrowing from renowned theologian Martin Buber, in the "I-Thou" relationship, God is the hyphen connecting the I and the Thou.
God in 1st-person (or "the inner face of God") refers to the actual direct phenomenological experience of God, in the form of satori, kensho, ecstatic reverie, and other sorts of "peak experiences" of the divine. These are most frequently exercised through some form of contemplative practice, such as meditation or prayer, in which we can directly experience consciousness as the "singular to which the plural is unknown"—and the effortless, open awareness behind all of our experiences is recognized as the consciousness of God (or Godhead, as Christian mystics might prefer).
Listen as Paul and Ken reflect upon the Three Faces of God, and demonstrate how closely they mirror Christ's actual words and teaching.
For someone who likes to talk so much about spirituality, we don't get to hear about Ken Wilber's personal spiritual life very often. In this extraordinary clip, Ken offers an intimate recounting of his own subtle state experiences and spiritual practices, past and present, offering us a unique insight into Ken's ongoing spiritual development.
This week's Daily Evolver takes a look at 2012 through the lens of Integral futurism. In this conversation, Jeff and David begin by looking at the two major themes that are culturally associated with 2012: apocalypse and transformation. They explore ways to help us contract less in the face of our current apocalyptic challenges, and to inquire more deeply into the transformational possibilities of what is emerging.
