Hi Mike and All,
Ken Wilber has moved on to what appears to be "Instant zen".
I don't know what to make of it yet, and would be interested in people's
views.
Namaste, ED
Ken Wilber's foreword to Big Mind/Big Heart by Genpo Roshi
February 04, 2007
Let me state this as strongly as I can: the Big Mind Process (founded by
Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi) is arguably the most important and original
discovery in the last two centuries of Buddhism. It is an astonishingly
original, profound, and effective path for waking up, or seeing
one's True Nature.
It is such a simple and universal practice it can be used in any
spiritual path you wish, or even just alone, by itself, as a practice
for realizing your True Naturewhich you can call God, Allah,
Jahweh, Brahman, Tao, Ein Sofit doesn't really matter, because
the core of the Big Mind Process is Emptiness itself, which, having no
specific content at all, can and does embrace anything that arises,
integrating it all.
What Dennis Genpo Roshi has done is not only the most original discovery
in Buddhism in the last two centuries, it is unbelievably simple, quick,
and effective.
In Zen, this realization of one's True Nature, or Ultimate Reality,
is called kensho or satori ("seeing into one's True Nature,"
or discovering Big Mind and Big Heart). It often takes five years or
more of extremely difficult practice (I know, I've done it) in order
for a profound satori to occur.
With the Big Mind Process, a genuine kensho can occur in about an
hourseriously. Once you get it, you can do it virtually any time
you wish, and almost instantaneously. It is nothing less than the
discovery of your True and Unique Self, Ultimately Reality, the Ground
of All Beingagain, call it what you like, for "they call it
Many which is really One."
But Genpo didn't work merely with Buddhism. He took some of the
central discoveries of Western psychologyparticularly Voice
Dialogue and subpersonalitiesand found an astonishingly effective
way to integrate the best of the East (or simply the best of the
contemplative traditions)which is finding one's True Nature and
Infinite Self or Infinite-Empty ConsciousnessBig Mind
itselfsatori itself!and then integrate that with some of the
best of the West (namely, working not with infinite Reality but with
finite reality and with finite selves, helping to make them conscious
and then healed and wholed). The wondrous part is that he then found an
easy and effective way to integrate the Infinite and the finite selves
(again, using the overall Big Mind/Big Heart Process).
Big Mind Process works with your own mind, with your states of
consciousness, just as they are now. What you don't know, if you
haven't had a satori or awakening of some sort, is that right now,
reading this page, is Big Mind, or God, or Spirit. And it is so close
and so obvious that you can't see it. But Genpo, in this book
(which is a simple handbook of how to do Big Mind/Big Heart practice
yourself), will show you that part of your own awareness, right now,
which is already enlightened, already one with Spirit, already fully
awakened.
And once you spot that, an entirely different world opens for you. The
book you have in your hands right now will, I can almost guarantee it,
open your mind's eye and show you how, in this very instant, Spirit
is fully and completely present, looking through your eyes, listening
with your ears, holding this book in its hands: right now! And it
always has been, but it was too close to see, too obvious to notice, too
simple to believe. This extraordinary discovery awaits you in this
book.
(We at Integral Institute have found this process to be so effective and
profound, that we have made it a central part of our programs, seminars,
and Integral Life Practice. You can see videos of Genpo doing this
process, and leading you through it completely, at Integral Naked at
www.integralinstitute.org <http://www.integralinstitute.org/> . You can
also find these types of videos on Genpo's own website, BigMind.org.
We have found the process to be around 97% effective, and that is why I
feel comfortable promising, or darn close to promising, that by the time
you finish reading this book, you will be among the enlightened ones,
even if with beginner's eyes. Of course, this initialbut very
stronginsight or kensho can be infinitely deepened if you want, and
Genpo gives simple instructions for how to continue meditating to deepen
this awakening. But awaken you will, I truly believe.)
Genpo did not include developmental psychology in this integration of
the best of the East and West, and for a reason: it simply does not
matter what stage of development you are at in order to do Big Mind
Process. It works at virtually any major stage of
developmentwhether you are at magic, mythic, rational, pluralistic,
integral, or super-integral: any stage can do Big Mind and awaken to the
ever-present, all-pervading, infinite Reality of All Being (again, name
it as you wish). But, if you want, you can study how these stages mesh
with the states of Big Mind: Genpo Roshi is a founding member of
Integral Spiritual Center (at Integral Institute), and has been
instrumental in studying ways to fit together stages of consciousness
with states of consciousness. Again, his work can be found at
IntegralSpiritualCenter.org, and at his own website BigMind.org. And you
can find all of this in a book that I happened to author, called
Integral Spirituality
<ftp://iitfs.atenlight.com/uberplex/live/Integralnaked/wwwroot/avantgard\
e/> .
But start here, with this book, and this simple but profound process,
and be prepared to find your own True Self, possibly for the first time,
but joyous in any event. And you will learn to integrate the finite or
dualistic selves (the skeptic, the controller, the victim, the damaged
child, the angry mind, the seeking mind, etc.) with the Infinite or
Non-dual Self in its many displays (Big Mind, Big Heart, Integrated
Feminine/Masculine, Great Joy, Great Gratitude, Integrated
Free-Functioningthe Ultimate Goal). A genuine taste of all of this
awaits your reading pleasure, my friend, and I am happy and hopeful for
you that you will simply relax the mind, rest in the present, let your
consciousness go free, for it has no wallsand then read this book,
or simply let it soak into you, let the words wash through you, and soon
enough, that "you" will be "YOU"which is to say, I
AMness, your own True, Infinite, and Eternal Nature: "before Abraham
was, I AM." This book is truly a handbook of Awakening to I AMness,
which is already looking out of your eyes right now.
I am adding my own blessings to these wonderful words of awakening that
this book contains, and may the merit of all of this be dedicated to
sentient beings everywhere, that they too may wake up and discover who,
and what, they really are. In that awakening, suffering can find no
purchase; in that enlightenment, hatred and anger can find no home;
gratitude and joy inexplicably arise in their place, dancing wildly in
the deepest clarity and most astonishing thankfulness, all of which
together provide an endless fountain of awakened joy, happiness,
compassion, and wisdom, pouring out of your mind and your heart (now
your Big Mind and Big Heart), and into the world in a gushing and
uncontrollably overflowing superabundance of radiance, release, bliss,
luminosity, celebration, and joy.
Now look at me, my friend, and listen, please, I'm truly serious:
isn't it time for you to wake up? How long have you been lost in
this dream? Can't you feel the wisdom holders shaking you, saying,
"Wake up, please, this is just a dream!" You know this,
don't you? You know that in the deepest part of your being, you can
wake up, don't you? You have been searching for how long now?
Well, it is time for the Great Search to end. As long as you are
searching, you are looking for a future moment that will be better than
this moment, but it is this moment that holds the entire key: why are
you running away from your own awakening?
So stop searching, take a breath, and start reading this manual for
Awakening to the present moment, and I think you will never be able to
look back. And then, if you and I ever meet, we will know each other,
won't we? With a twinkle in your eye, a slight smile on your face,
a radiance in your heart, you and I will look into the eyes of each
other and see the one and only Self, Big Mind, Big Heart, and the days
and nights of the endless search will have lost its dreadfully painful
meaning.
And we will have Dennis Genpo Merzel Roshi to thank, for discovering a
simple and original process of Awakening right now. And so I offer the
deepest bow to Genpo, offer the merit to all sentient beings, and into
your hands, with infinite blessings, I now pass on this extraordinary
book to you.
Ken Wilber
--- In [email protected], mike brown <uerusuboyo@...> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> Still in India and just letting you know I'm still alive (but a lot
thinner..).
> It's been an amazing experience so far and I've learned a lot from
being here.
> Just thought I'd add something to this thread. Has anyone read the
book by Ken
> Wilber: Grace and Grit (1991) about his wife who had, and died from,
cancer? A
> remarkable insight into dying, death and (ultimately) how to live.
Wilber
> himself (at the the time of writing) had been sitting (Zen) for 15
years and
> Treya, his wife, had been studying vipassana for 10 years. They both
> incorporated transpersonal pyschology, yoga, Tibetan Buddhism and the
teachings
> of Ramana Maharshi (something for everyone!) into their dealing with
cancer and
> I can say it's a very powerful book. If anyone has read it and would
like to
> discuss it, I'd be happy to oblige!
>
> Namaste,
>
> Mike
