The Religion of Tomorrow by Ken Wilber (2017)

Excerpts

Conclusion: The Evolution of Nonduality

Waking up and Growing up …

Emptiness is universally maintained, by the Paths of the Great Liberation, to be not-two with the world of Form. … And whereas Emptiness is a matter of states and Freedom, Form is a matter of structures and Fullness. … And while Emptiness has not changed since the Big Bang (or before), Form and Fullness have definitely changed, as the universe continued to evolve into more and more complex Forms, hence becoming Fuller and Fuller. As I noted earlier, we can see the universe get Fuller and Fuller (for example, in the Upper Right) as it evolves from subatomic particles to atoms to molecules to cells to organisms, and from there to photosynthetic organisms, to organisms with neural nets, to ones with reptilian brain stems, to limbic systems, to the triune brain, whose neural synapses outnumber all the stars in the universe.

The interiors of these holons (that is, in the Upper Left) have been evolving into more and more complex, Fuller and Fuller forms, as well, from prehension, to protoplasmic irritability, to sensation, perception, impulse, image, emotion, to—with humans—concepts, schemas, rules, formal metarules, vision-logic, para-mind, meta-mind, and higher (pushing into overmind and supermind). These basic interior holons support various worldviews, as we have seen, starting at sensorimotor and instinctive Archaic, and moving to image and symbol Magic, conceptual Magic-Mythic, rule/role Mythic, formal Rational, postformal Pluralistic, vision-logic Integral, and 3rd-tier Super-Integral.

Whilst waking up as not evolved (emptiness is still emptiness), growing up has evolved

But this leads to an inescapable conclusion: when compared to the Enlightened sages of, say, three thousand years ago, whose dual center of gravity was generally (Mythic, Nondual)—giving them the benefit of the doubt about being Nondual instead of the more common causal at that time—a fully Enlightened sage of today is not more Free (Emptiness is still the same Emptiness, and hence the same Freedom), but today’s sage is definitely Fuller (since there have evolved, from the time when Mythic was the highest structure, at least three new and higher structures—Rational, Pluralistic, and Integral—which today’s fully evolved sage would include).

Enlightenment defined as fully waking up and full growing up (relative to the hightest structure to have evolved at that time in history)

Genuine Enlightenment, in other words, is being one with both the highest state and the highest structure to have emerged and evolved at a given time in history. Assuming both sages achieved the Nondual state, and the earlier sage achieved at best the Mythic structure (while the modern sage achieves Integral structure), then for that Mythic/Enlightened sage, there are “over his or her head,” so to speak, at least three higher very real structures of the Kosmos (Rational, Pluralistic, and Integral), which the earlier sages were not one with, because those ontological levels hadn’t yet even emerged in any significant fashion. Today’s sage, on the other hand, realizing the same nondual Emptiness, is no Freer than the early sage but is certainly Fuller, having included in his or her Supreme Identity, at least three higher ontologically real levels of the Kosmos. The Emptiness of both confers the same Freedom, but the greater and more complex Form of the latter gives the modern sage a significantly greater Fullness, or more Being (although not more Emptiness). The earlier sages were fully Enlightened for their time; but would not be fully Enlightened for today, which the later sages are. (I like this definition of Enlightenment—being one with all states and structures at any given time—since it gives both sages their due, while also recognizing the undeniable gains of evolutionary unfolding.) This is something a Fourth Turning of the Wheel would want to take advantage of. Emptiness and Form are still nondual or not-two, but the world of Form has evolved—and is still evolving—following that inexorable “creative advance into novelty” via a process of “transcend and include,” and therefore the very identity of our modern sage is Fuller. He or she actually contains in his or her being up to three or so greater levels of reality, and a correspondingly greater, Fuller degree of Being. Of course, our modern sage might only be at Magic structurally, and hence would actually have less Fullness than our ancient Mythic sage. But by defining “full (or Integral) Enlightenment” as being one with all states and all structures that have emerged and evolved at a given point in history, the evolved sage of today would be no Freer, but significantly Fuller, than yesterday’s sage—and yet both would be considered Enlightened for his or her time, since both are one with the highest structure and highest state to have evolved at that time in history. (As I said, I really like this orientation, because it allows both modern and ancient sages to be “equally accomplished,” although one of them is “more evolved.”)

And that is perhaps the final thing that we would want to include in any Buddhism undergoing a Fourth Turning. Evolution carries on. Spirit-in-action carries on. The unfolding of higher and higher, more complex, and more conscious structures of reality carries on. And since Enlightenment involves a oneness with the entire universe, Enlightenment itself becomes richer and richer. What Whitehead called “the Consequent Nature of God” is quite similar to our Total Painting of All That Is, or the Totality of All Evolving Form (as opposed to the “Primordial Nature of God,” or our pure Emptiness, which doesn’t evolve, or enter the stream of time, at all). The Total-Painting God becomes Fuller and Fuller (as the Total Painting evolutionarily adds more and more levels of Being), and hence a oneness or union (or not-twoness) of Primordial-Emptiness God with that Total-Painting God also become richer and richer. Or one can think of it as the total union of Emptiness/Freedom and Form/Fullness. The Emptiness/Freedom of the Primordial Nature of God itself remains unchanging, or timeless (the Emptiness of a billion years ago is not different than the Emptiness of today—Empty is Empty),1 but the Form/Fullness nature of the Consequent Nature of God becomes evolutionarily Fuller and Fuller—and hence their union, their not-twoness, likewise becomes Fuller and Fuller. By including structure-rungs and their Views in a Fourth Turning, the Fullness of Buddha-nature (the Consequent Nature of God, the increasingly evolving Fullness of the Total Painting) becomes able to be tracked, thus increasing the Depth of our Enlightenment and the Degree of our Awakening (as Fullness becomes greater and greater), which is one of the primary goals of Buddhism from its very inception.

In short, since Enlightenment is the union of Emptiness and Form, although Emptiness (and its Freedom) doesn’t evolve, Form (and its Fullness) most certainly does, and thus the union of Emptiness and Form likewise must evolve in some ways—Enlightenment itself becomes richer and richer, Fuller and Fuller, one with a universe that itself is becoming bigger and bigger, larger and larger, wider and wider. This is not easily seen if you track only states leading to Emptiness and its emancipatory Freedom (because you track only the Emptiness of Form, not its increasing Fullness), but if you add structures and their path to increasing Fullness, you can begin following this increase in the depth, the richness, the Fullness of Enlightenment itself—real Enlightenment as the sum total of Waking Up and Growing Up. A Fourth Turning of Buddhism is consistent with Buddhism’s history and its own self-understanding and has much to recommend it (as does an integral orientation for every spirituality looking to become more inclusive). I join those students and teachers who argue that now, indeed, the time is ripe for such a Turning. The world is at a place in its overall evolution where, in the grand unfolding arc from subconscious to self-conscious to superconscious, or from prerational to rational to transrational, or from submental to mental to supramental, or from 1st tier to 2nd tier to 3rd tier, we are now on the verge of the unfolding of superconscious, transrational, supramental, 3rd-tier stages. We are standing on the edge of an Integral, then Super-Integral, revolutionary transformation. And what is conspicuously lacking is a conventional, cultural, common knowledge and understanding of the general stages of development in general, and the stages of spiritual development in particular. We are bereft of a true and comprehensive God; if ever there was a time that a real God or Goddess or Spirit was required, that time is now. We are moving into a period where “God is Everywhere,” and yet we have no idea whatsoever about what or where or how this God could even be.

We are talking blindfolded into the future – blinded by technology

+10. +sarcasm. +techno-solutionism.