Recognizing and Transcending the 'Duality' Pitfall in 'Waking Up"

In the "waking up" teaching of The SuperHuman Operating System taught by Ken Wilber, et. al., four (or five) states of existence are taught:

1. waking (gross body)
2. dreaming (subtle body)
3. deep sleep (formless causal/ground of being)
4. Turiya ("the fourth")
5. Turiyatita ("beyond the fourth")

The process of "waking up" involves a progressive awakening of individual consciousness in each of these states.

The description of these five states is actually five categories of conceptualization, five ways of conceptualizing experience -- of putting words to it. All conceptualization is dualistic in the sense that it indicates differences and implies states that are separate from each other; it also implies that someone or something makes the transition from one to the other. All duality is conceptual; there exists no duality in reality, but only conceptually.

There exists a little problem with this description. If these states are separate and distinct, how does individual consciousness make the transition from one to the other? Are there little bridges made of something else that connect the states? And what is it that makes the transition?

Allow me to de-dualize the description.

Let's start at deep sleep.

Ordinarily, we don't register deep sleep consciously. We are unconscious in deep sleep. Our attention no longer makes subject-object distinctions, but rests in its source; memory no longer records the content of experience, but rests, unformed, in its source; imagination no longer forms images, but rests in its source; intention no longer moves, but rests in its source. Identity formation no longer occurs, so there is neither experience nor experiencer.

Because that is all so, we have no recollection of the deep sleep state. We carry nothing from the deep sleep state into either the dream state or the waking state. So, we say, we were unconscious.

However, it is possible to get an intuition of the formless ground of being by approaching it from the waking state.

The procedure involves a progressive dissolution of the distractions of attention. Those distractions are like clouds that obscure the clear sky. As distractions settle, thoughts become fewer and farther between; images become fewer and farther between. In the space between thoughts and images, an ordinary, silent, imageless field is intuited. It is without content, without center, without size, and perfectly continuous with our existence or sense of being conscious. It is our own ground of being, our own nature.

It has, as its single property, a kind of scintillating radiance. "Scintillating" means, fizzy. It's like the white noise between radio stations or the "snow" on old-style television sets, between stations. Every point within that radiance comes into and goes out of existence faster than we can remember, and all points come into and go out of existence in an asynchronous fashion, so no form congeals within the formless field. It is "self" with no defined sense of self. Neutral. Faceless face. No subjectivity.

Within that field, forms may arise, gathering density. This is the beginning of dreaming, imagining. Those forms are made of the scintillating substance of the formless ("causal") field and are given apparent substance by the ability of attention to locate them by their persistence, by their activity, and by the direction of their changing. They are made of the formless field the way ocean waves are made of water molecules. The scintillations form locations of coherence. In fractal mathematics, it's called, "islands of order in a sea of chaos".

Dreaming exists in subjectivity. In terms of the AQAL matrix, we experience dreaming in the left-hand quadrants.

However, for every left-hand quadrant, there exists a right-hand quadrant; for every "inner" experience, there exists an "outer" experience that can be seen by others.

In dreaming, that "outer" experience can be measured with electronic instruments for brain activity (EEG) and muscular activity (EMG). The subtle body (left-hand quadrants) always has a correspondence in the gross body (right-hand quadrants).

Note that the waking state cannot be distinguished from the dreaming state; when dreaming, we are convinced we are awake -- the exception being when we have awakened within a dream and recognize we are dreaming! Then, the only difference between the dream state and the waking state is the content; more possibilities exist within the dream state. But the sense of consciousness in both is the same.

The waking state is made of the same "substance" as the dreaming state: it is the modification of the ground of being into coherent forms. The "causal" state, undergoing modification, is the dream state and is the waking state -- the way waves are the modification (or movements) of water. Waves of water are "something added" to the mere existence of water molecules, a higher level of organization. Waves are an "emergent" the way dreams and waking state experiences are emergents of The "causal" Ground of Being.

Thus, it is said, that Brahman (the "one true self") projects the Universe of all things and selves from "itself" and re-absorbs the Universe of all things and selves into "itself".

So much for the dualistic conceptualizations of "waking", "dreaming", and "deep sleep" -- or "gross", "subtle", and "causal".

With this way of conceptualizing, there exists no need for "little bridges" between states, nor need there exist "someone" who is transitioning between states. The "someone" is a modification of the "causal" substance; the self is "the imagined/remembered owner of memory". Feel that, for a moment.

When imagination is defeated by formlessness, when memory is defeated by formlessness, when attention can locate nothing in formlessness, when intention is at rest in formlessness, we say we have a tacit intuition of the Ground of Being of Reality.

That inclusive, tacit intuition, we call, Turiya. Turiya recognizes that gross, subtle, and causal are of one substance. Thus,

Whether a man dispassionately sees to the core

or passionately sees the surface,

core and surface are essentially the same --

words making them seem different

only to express appearance.

If words be needed,

"wonder" names them both.

From wonder into wonder

existence opens. 

~~ Lao Tzu, 

The Tao Teh Ching, Stanza 1
Witter Bynner translation

Turitytita is Turiya, beyond the attraction and distraction of conceptualization
and so, ordinary experience, non-dual, in the sense,
"not-two"
and
"not not-two"

One more thing:
The TetraSeed

is both the subtle body (left-hand quadrants)

IMAGINATION | INTENTION | ATTENTION | MEMORY

and the gross body (right-hand quadrants)

SENSE OF DIRECTION | ACTIVITY | LOCATION | PERSISTENCE

arising mysteriously in the formless causal field.

Note the correspondence with:

EROS | AGENCY | COMMUNION | AGAPE

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

copyright 2017 Lawrence Gold

The 'Red' Infection | a Spiral Dynamics/Integral Somatic View

This entry is for people familiar with Integral Spirituality, as taught by Ken Wilber, et. al., or with Spiral Dynamics.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Up to the present time, human history has been governed by the immature and partial motivations and capacities of First-Tier humanity.

It's fast approaching time when we will have a different situation -- with the leading edge of human evolutionary development governing the larger body of humanity -- but not through political means, but through release of the deeply ingrained habits of mind, the development of new and superior human capacities.

In present time, we see a heavy preponderance of "Red Meme", "booting-up more and more power", mentality. This kind of development roughly corresponds to the concern of a two-year old:  the development of their capacity to exercise power. It's one step beyond potty training.

And, obviously, it has its place. It's necessary to have the ability to exercise power -- power over oneself and over ones circumstances (and to some extent, people). It's also necessary for the power you exercise to be well-regulated.

Unfortunately, some individuals never seem to outgrow the "booting up power" stage; they are perpetual two-year olds -- with power. And, as we have observed, a two-year-old will not willingly relinquish power.

As a result, we have later stage memes, "Amber/Blue", and "Orange", that are heavily infected with residual "Red Meme" motivations.

"Amber/Blue" concerns itself with organized group behavior, and with it, group-approved values -- which is to say, shared memories that form the backdrop of a shared culture. These people exist in a mature childhood stage, receptive and prone to reinforce what has been learned, still obedient to the imposed official values of time and place. This pattern is helpful when organizing a family, a tribe, a walled city or a nation-state.

However, when "Red power drive" combines with "Amber/Blue" authoritarianism, what do you get? Barking Dog Authoritarianism -- and the dog means it.

The Healthy Development of Orange Meme
With "healthy Orange", power takes a new form. Instead of being confined within the tribe (or corporation) and pitted against everyone else in a hormone-driven thrill of acquisition and power, it starts seeing the next-larger level of organization: integration. It sees the possibility of mutual complementarity, trustworthy relationships, shared overall intention (the greatest good for the greatest number) and the valuation of ingenuity -- ingenuity in rendering obsolete the solutions of the past and ingenuity in creating the next life-supporting developments. This exists within the Field of Possibility.

Barking Dog Authoritarian Orange
However, whereas a well-balanced Orange has the competence to apply power in a well-organized way and the competence to organize power, Barking Dog Authoritarian Orange wants to apply power more and more.  It is aggressively expansive in a mono-maniacal, crazed ecstasy -- like an adolescent-on-hormones with a one-track mind; it wants to throw off the rules and "have its way"? This description of Barking Dog Authoritarian Orange is also a description of "sick Capitalism". Toooo much Red. It is adolescent, but in a King Kong sort of way.

Need to tone down the Red.

Green
Even the Green meme (or "structure stage") has been infected with excessive Red-ness. It takes the form of something different from Barking Dog Authoritarianism: Wagging Tail Authoritarianism With A Barking Dog in the Doghouse: "political correctness" and "lovingkindness" -- where the price paid is self-oppression for the sake of ideals. Oy.

Self-Oppression: Anger turned inward, being "down on oneself", guilty, ashamed that we aren't Spiritual enough, or as Spiritual as we would hope others believe we are -- and therefore aspiring to be innocent, comfortable being oneself, and loving all beings. We do that precisely because we believe we're not that -- and we know it. Hoo, boy.


Which brings us to the punch line of this entry:
Humanity has been run by First-Tier interests with an excess of Red and subversion of Amber/Blue, Orange, and even Green by Red. The Reds are in control.

We, Second-Tier Humanity 
will, at some point and in some way, have to take Red in hand.

At least two general approaches are possible -- and a third.

1. Put Red in its proper place, its proper proportion.
   
   That means we may have to become at least as Red as Red, to face Red down -- and that might involve military and police.


2. Red must self-subjugate itself before Second-Tier -- or accept subjugation by Second-Tier.

Now, do you seriously, for a moment believe that Red will self-subjugate before Second Tier (or anyone else, for that matter?). Do you believe that even if Second-Tier subjugated Red, that Red would stay subjugated? Well??

Therefore, I think it cannot be accomplished that way, the usual First-Tier way that seeks dominance -- and still, Red must not be permitted to taint the higher stages with poorly-regulated excess.

It must be accomplished differently.

Instead of being accomplished through imposition, as in First-Tier mentality, I suggest it may be accomplished, instead, through release.

One possible means is through introduction of new tendencies into the morphogenetic field. The morphogenetic field is a world-wide field of consciousness that shapes the genetics and the behavior of living beings. It's what makes popular opinion have felt force; what makes laughter and tears contagious, what makes you want to yawn when you see another yawn; what makes sacred places have a distinct feeling, what attracts individuals to, and repels us from, each other.  See the writings of Dr. Rupert Sheldrake for more information.

Introducing new tendencies into the morphogenetic field means what it sounds like it means: a new medium of control by which the behavior and development of individuals may be tempered from "behind the scenes", first through a dissolution and release of old, fixated, binding patterns of thought, feeling, and action to allow things to change, and then through introduction of new, intelligent, benign tendencies into that field. There are experimental -- and personally accessible -- means for that, about which I will say more, later.

With the Red Infection quelled, Amber/Blue can be tempered, wholesome and whole, as a developmental stage favoring generative creativity and the emergence of imaginative capacity, tempered by the "safe zone" of tradition.

At the edge of that safe zone is where "Healthy Orange" comes into play, in reorganizing how economics carries itself out along many lines of intelligence, world-wide.

Healthy Orange favors ingenuity, and yet retains the flavor of a well-tempered life. Where the exercise of power is concerned, the question, "Could it be done?" always followed by, "Should it be done?" Ingenuity empowered by capacity and flavored by Wisdom: the recognition that effects spread far and wide and the willingness to temper the urge to action. "Keep it in your pants."

AND:

Healthy Green
The role of Green is to temper all the previous stages of develop sufficiently that they may all be considered fairly (for their virtues) and integrated into their proper place -- the "momentous leap into Second-Tier".

If Green were not infected with Red, Green would allow equal consideration of previous stages of development, including their truth-claims -- and so foster the great Leap to Integral (which includes all previous forms of consciousness without giving permanent privilege to any one of them) --  and without imposing the universally deconstructive righteousness that negates healthy social and behavioral structures along with the unhealthy and renders knowledge into pap: ineffectual nonsense.


The quandary we have, for the moment, is, "How do we temper Red, when Red doesn't want to be tempered." "Persuade a man against his will, he remains an unbeliever, still."

I suggest: Influence the morphogenetic field, the ocean of evolutionary potential in which we all live.

The question that must follow: How?

I leave you, for now, with that question. There is an answer, however, and so, more to come.