I’m still in the middle of reading “The Integral Intake,” by
Andre Marquis. A wonderful, highly
recommended book.
Andre has taken Wilber’s AQAL, 4-quadrant model, along with
other works, and developed a remarkable guide to idiographic assessment for use
in Integral Psychotherapy.
On pages 113/114 he writes about Translative Spirituality
versus Transformative Spirituality.
He quotes Wilber on how Translative Spirituality is the
function of most religions, where a system of beliefs and rituals helps
decrease the suffering of the perceived separate self.
Whereas Transformative Spirituality “dismantles” the self,
shattering the illusion of a separate self.
The full Wilber quote goes “the self is not made
content. The self is made toast”
Which brings me to my current growing edge.
I am also reading and contemplating “The Illusion of
Conscious Will,” by Daniel M Wegner.
He documents in depth all of the studies that point toward
this illusion.
Perhaps one of most interesting experiments concerns the
voluntary movement of lifting one finger.
Brain activity begins about 500 milliseconds before the
actual movement. However, the experience
of conscious awareness of wanting to move your finger only occurs about 200
milliseconds before the actual movement.
The awareness of moving the finger begins at about 80
milliseconds before the actual movement, and then, the finger actually
moves.
This is only one experiment of many, pointing to this
illusion of conscious will. This is a 400+ page book after all…
One can experience this directly when the action is
faster. In martial arts the practice is
to have the movements occur without the conscious mind. The conscious mind cannot keep up with the
action.
But, the conscious mind will take credit for any successes,
or failures, that occur.
In his last chapter, Wegner discusses the difficulty in
trying to resolve the paradox of Free Will versus Determinism, particularly
where it relates to responsibility and morality.
To paraphrase Ramana Maharshi, there is no destiny, there is
no free will…
The Truth is only found in paradox…
Importantly, this relates to the structure of our penal
system.
We must only control the actions of those who hurt the other
or who are destructive.
We must not punish.
We must not jail those who we morally judge to hurt
themselves… read this as drug use or sex
workers.
We must provide the means for those with destructive actions
to see through this illusion of self…
To see more clearly, allows inner growth and the evolution
of self toward Self.
Decreases addictive behaviors.
This allows less of this unconscious information to express
itself in destructive actions.
There will always be individuals that need to be kept
separate from general society.
My own work involves the continued contemplation of this
small “s” illusory self, and its relationship to Self, i.e., All-That-Is and
All-That-Is-Not.
This contemplation involves seeing deeper and deeper, in an
attempt to drop more and more illusions.
Am I successful?
Only others can tell.
This illusory self can never be sure…
Namaste
