He Said / She Said

For smart women who need a laugh and guys who can handle it:

He said - I don't know why you wear a bra; you've got nothing to put in it.
She said - You wear pants don't you?

He said - Shall we try swapping positions tonight?
She said - That's a great idea - you stand by the stove & sink while I sit on the sofa, watch TV and fart.

He said - What have you been doing with all the grocery money I gave you?
She said - Turn sideways and look in the mirror!

He said - Why don't women blink during foreplay?
She said - They don't have time.

He said - How many men does it take to change a roll of toilet paper?
She said - I don't know; it has never happened.

He said - Whaddaya mean it's difficult to find men who are sensitive, caring and good-looking?
She said - They already have boyfriends.

He said - What do you call a woman who knows where her husband is every night?
She said - A widow.

He said - Why are married women heavier than single women?
She said - Single women come home, see what's in the fridge and go to bed. Married women come home, see what's in bed and go to the fridge.
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Bearing Witness

This is a "quote of the week" from Andrew Cohen, who is no stranger to anyone who follows this blog:

"The “rational” values of the culture that we live in may have freed us from the myths of the past, but unfortunately they have also undermined our capacity to have any faith in the unseen metaphysical domains of our innermost interiors. In the ancient premodern world, that unseen dimension was validated by shared myths and religious beliefs and was empowered by the supercharged energy of awakened consciousness in inspired prophets and seers."

"Today we no longer have myths to rely on to validate our spiritual illumination. Together we need to create a post-traditional consensus about the great significance and place of Spirit in the human experience. This has to be generated by those of us who have seen beyond the veil of appearances and have experienced those deeper metaphysical domains to such a profound degree that we’re willing to bear witness in public. But to be taken seriously, we must do so in a way that points us not only beyond the myth and superstition of the ancients but also beyond the naïve idealism predominant in so much of New Age thinking. We must be ruthless in our rationality in order to authentically transmit the light of the trans-rational God in the twenty-first century. This is an enormous task, but our willingness to take it on will slowly but surely make a profound difference."

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The Second Face of God - Part 4

Embracing Hierarchy

Conclusion of the series, The Second Face of God, a dialogue between Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilber, as published in EnlightenNext Magazine.

We left off last time with this quote from Andrew Cohen:

“The structure of the entire cosmos, all the way from its deepest interior to its furthermost exterior, is hierarchical. Hierarchy is actually its fundamental nature at all levels, including consciousness.”

We have seen how the postmodern ego resists embracing the reality of hierarchy as the very nature of the cosmos. While we can accept as true the fact that all life forms evolve from simple to complex through different stages of development, it is infinitely more challenging to recognize that at the level of consciousness, some people are more developed than others. Teaching ourselves to acknowledge, honor and respect authentic differences allows us to connect with Spirit as Other, the second face of God.

Wilber describes two main types of hierarchies: dominator hierarchies, in which one level dominates the other (the caste system is an example of this type) and growth or actualization hierarchies, also called holarchies, where each level is more whole than the previous one. A classic example would be atoms to molecules to cells to organisms - each level transcends and includes the previous level. Similarly, human growth, from individual to societal, also moves through broad stages - egocentric (me), ethnocentric (us), worldcentric (all of us) and cosmocentric (everything) - again transcending but including the previous stage. Egocentric and ethnocentric stages want to dominate; the higher stages want to include and embrace, displaying more love, more care and more consciousness. Once we understand these differences, we realize that when we submit our ego, at whatever stage we are at, we are simply inviting our own next higher stage to manifest.

Wilber: “This hierarchical perspective is not a way to put you down; it’s a way for me to understand my own unfolding, to understand the number of perspectives that I can take into account and, in so doing, to help me grow, develop, evolve. These actualization hierarchies ... are extraordinarily useful because they point out things that we just cannot see on our own.”

But here's the paradox: as Spirit becomes manifest, it embraces a host of different complex forms - as Wilber puts it, “all things are Spirit, but some are more Spirit than others”. Our task is to be able to make distinctions about the nature of difference in manifestation at many different levels. Cohen and Wilber stress the importance of entering into committed relationships with people who we trust and want to learn from - this is how we generate qualities such as humility and respect, qualities associated with the second face of God. We also need to share these kinds of perspectives with groups of like-minded people - inviting what Cohen describes as “a new spiritually enlivened cultural context” in which these qualities can emerge. In the absence of a group or teacher, individually we can contemplate a simple phrase such as “consent to the presence of God” daily, awakening within ourselves higher and deeper aspects of awareness which are in fact representations of the Divine.

Cohen: “The practice of the second face of God is always fundamentally challenging to the ego. But you can tell when people authentically begin to awaken to this dimension of Spirit. Suddenly they begin to express and demonstrate respect, honor, reverence, love and humility. This isn’t a false humility; it’s a natural result of developing a certain kind of introspective capacity - they begin to pay attention to their own motives. They awaken to a sense of higher conscience, a moral context for their own existence. It’s a moral awakening for the postmodern self, because what emerges is an authentic care for a higher context and a higher purpose - a sense of an inherent meaning and glory in life, a respect for other people, and a fundamental respect for that which is higher.”
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Previous posts in this series:
Second Face of God - Part 1
Second Face of God - Part 2
Second Face of God - Part 3
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Andrew Cohen: Guru
(n., Sanskrit): one who teaches spiritual liberation from his or her own direct experience or realization.

Self-described "idealist with revolutionary inclinations" and widely recognized as a defining voice in the emerging field of evolutionary spirituality, Cohen has developed an original teaching for the twenty-first century which he calls Evolutionary Enlightenment. He is also the founder and editor in chief of EnlightenNext magazine.

Ken Wilber: Pandit
(n., Sanskrit): a scholar, one who is deeply proficient and immersed in spiritual wisdom.

Self-described "defender of the dharma, an intellectual samurai", Wilber is one of the most highly regarded philosophers alive today, and his work offers a comprehensive and original synthesis of the world's great psychological, philosophical and spiritual traditions. His books include A Brief History of Everything and Integral Spirituality.

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Immerse yourself in the complete collection of Guru
& Pandit dialogues at enlightennext.org/gurupandit
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I smile when I'm angry, I cheat and I lie

I do what I have to do to get by

but I know what is wrong and I know what is right

and I'd die for the truth

in my secret life

- Leonard Cohen
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A Mathematical Formula for Success

We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give more than 100%. What does it really mean to give more than 100%? How would one accomplish that?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these troubling questions:

If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

then:
K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%
and
H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%
but
A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

Amazing indeed! Let's take it further...

B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T
2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%
A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G
1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 118%

So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that while Knowledge and Hard Work will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, it's the Bullshit and Ass-Kissing that will put you over the top.

Live long and prosper
- Mr. Spock
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Be Careful What You Wish For

A married couple in their early 60s were celebrating their 40th Wedding Anniversary in a quiet, romantic little restaurant. Suddenly, a tiny fairy appeared at their table. She said, "For being such an exemplary married couple and for being loving to each other for all this time, I will grant you each a wish."

The wife responded, "Oh, I have always wanted to travel around the world with my darling husband." The fairy waved her magic wand and - poof! - two tickets for the Queen Mary II appeared in her hands.

The husband thought for a moment and said, "Well, this is all very romantic, but an opportunity like this will never come again. I'm sorry my love, but my wish is to have a wife 30 years younger than me."

The wife and the fairy were deeply disappointed, but a wish is a wish. So the fairy waved her magic wand and poof! - the husband instantly became 93 years old.

The moral of the story: Most fairies are female ...

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The Second Face of God - Part 3

The Evolution of Spirit

Part 3 of The Second Face of God, a conversation between Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilber, as published in EnlightenNext Magazine.

We have seen how postmodern culture has reinforced the conviction that the individual self is the center of the universe and that our thoughts and opinions are the ultimate truth. This mindset has made it difficult for us to accept, let alone surrender to, the possibility that there is something that is higher, more evolved, than ME.

Let's again join Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilber as they discuss how the evolution of spirituality and religion through their different stages has failed to keep pace with our rapidly changing Western culture and consciousness.
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Wilber: Spirituality, or religion, has progressed over time through stages of growth. We can use Jean Gebser's developmental terms for the different levels: archaic, magic, mythic, mental-rational, pluralistic and integral. Like individuals and cultures, spiritual understanding evolves through those stages ... and at each of these stages, there are expressions of the three faces of God, of Spirit in first, second and third person. But in the West, the second-person view of Spirit developed from archaic to magic to mythic - with mythic being represented essentially by the Old and New Testaments - and there it got stuck. So for most people in the West today, Spirit in second person has become stunted and identified merely with God the Father, the old man with a white beard in the sky giving these dogmatic mythic commands.

We drastically missed the chance to have our larger cultural backgrounds of religion and education give us a head start on ego-transcendence. Even with the influx of Eastern traditions, people were attracted to third-person and first-person expressions of Spirit. They didn't go for second person because they didn't want to fundamentally submit. And they didn't know how; they didn't have role models for it.

Cohen: Yes. What it actually means to embrace the second face of God in a post-postmodern context is new territory... I've noticed that often people can begin to embrace some kind of feeling connection with whatever their own experience of God as Other is, but they still do it from the safe vantage point of the ego. Or, they may turn to ancient practices that are not necessarily appropriate for our time and culture. Individuals at the postmodern stage may feel okay taking up traditional practices, but that may not be the most authentic way to embrace a second-person relationship with Spirit at their own stage of development.

Wilber: You're right; we've spotted the problem but that is far, far removed from solving it. Even individuals who've realized they need to practice Spirit in second person too often go back to the only practices that are available, which unfortunately don't work.

Cohen: Because the practices are from an earlier stage of development, they feel inauthentic.

Wilber: Yes; they're reinforcing inauthentic modes that are pre-egoic rather than trans-egoic. Guru yoga, done correctly, is one way a student faces God as Other. The guru is apparently other - his or her consciousness is other than mine. Therefore, I need to submit to that guru, but I need to do it in very specific and careful ways. In authentic guru yoga, there is a very profound way of getting deeply in touch with the root of awareness and finding that it is One, that "my master is myself", and that is a fundamental way to transcend ego. When I realize a fundamental identity with the master, I am liberated from the master in a certain sense. But that's very different from how people imagine it.

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Next time the Conclusion: Embracing Hierarchy.

Andrew Cohen: "I've thought a lot about what it means for the postmodern self to embrace the second face of God without having to accept some outmoded traditional structure or mythic belief. And I think it boils down to something simple yet profound. It means embracing the recognition that the structure of the entire cosmos, all the way from its deepest interior to its furthermost exterior, is hierarchical. Hierarchy is actually its fundamental nature at all levels, including consciousness."
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Previous posts in this series:
The Second Face of God - Part 1
The Second Face of God - Part 2
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The Caring Husband

Better Late Than Never

A little known fact:

The first testicular guard "cup" was used in hockey in 1874; the first helmet was used in 1974.

So it would seem that it took 100 years for men to realize that the brain is also important.
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The Second Face of God - Part 2

The Postmodern Predicament

Part 2 of The Second Face of God, a dialogue between Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilber, published in EnlightenNext.

In Part 1 Cohen and Wilber introduced us to the three faces of God (as Self, as Other, and as the Cosmic Process itself) and laid the groundwork for our exploration into the often overlooked significance of the second aspect, God as Other. They talked about how, despite the many spiritual practices we can engage in, unless we can allow the existence of something beyond, and higher than, our individual selves and cultivate a genuine relationship with that, we will remain imprisoned within the cocoon of our self-centered egos.

In this section they provide a context in which this self-contraction develops and how it can become, as Cohen puts it, "the most fundamental obstacle to higher development."
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Cohen: I think this applies particularly to our generation and our generation's children who have grown up in the Western world in the last half-century. For many years I have been saying that the postmodern narcissistic separate self-sense is the most fundamental obstacle to higher development. Many people thought that I basically didn't get it, that this was an outmoded way of looking at things. But you only really discover what an enormous problem the narcissistic self-contraction is in relationship to how profound your interest is in transcending it. If you have no interest in transcending it, it doesn't seem to be a big problem. But if you authentically want to try to get on the other side of it, you discover that it's actually quite significant.

This is a delicate subject because the postmodern variation of the ego is, on one hand, a great gift to the evolutionary process, but on the other hand, it's a significant obstacle. In a positive sense, our ego, our capacity for individuality, is what makes it possible to become an integrally informed, evolutionarily enlightened human being. The more profound our individuation, the more powerfully Spirit can shine through us. So being profoundly individuated is not a bad thing. It's a gift of evolution, a gift of God, if you want to put it in theological terms. It's just that our narcissistic identification with the separate self, outside of any higher context, creates a big problem. The ego begins to see itself as the center of the universe, and the whole process inverts upon itself. Everything turns upside down.

When speaking about this problem, I always try to put it in this context and to make it clear that it's nobody's fault, because culturally we have been conditioned to be narcissists. I grew up in a secular family where there was no higher context for my or anyone else's existence. The basic message my parents and teachers repeatedly gave me was, "Sweetheart, you should do whatever is going to make you happy." So I was conditioned to see life as a vehicle for my pleasure, my happiness and my success - well-trained to be an absolutely self-centered human being. And I am not the only one. There are millions of us.

Wilber: That's right - the "me" generation. The downside of the [postmodern] relativistic, pluralistic stage is that it doesn't allow any truths outside of my own egoic truth. Postmodernity says, "What's true for me is true for me, and you have no right to challenge it." So the ego is supreme in its castle of "what is true for me."

Now this perspective has a certain relative truth to it, but it also has a magnificent falsehood to it ... the downside is that if nobody can say what is truth, then nobody can correct my egoic disposition. There is simply nothing that's going to let me grow, that's going to help me get over myself, that's going to point to a higher, truer, or more valuable stance than whatever I just happen to hold by whim. And this has been a problem in philosophy, in sociology and in spirituality.

Cohen: We are at a very interesting point in the evolution of culture. On one hand, Spirit has the capacity to shine through us in ways that may be unprecedented because of how highly integrated and sophisticated our individual self-sense has become. But the big problem is that our awareness has gotten stuck on and overidentified with this separate self and lost in its own separate world of extreme narcissism. The reason this is so tragic is that it makes it impossible for us to participate in life in the deepest and most profound way. To make a cultural revolution happen, awareness has to be liberated from narcissistic self-fixation so that it can overflow and discover who it really is as the Ground of Being and as the evolutionary impulse.

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Watch this space for Part 3 - The Evolution of Spirit
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If you like this thread and where it's going, here are some related RoadKill posts you might enjoy:

Sept. 9 - The Second Face of God - Part 1
July 24 - The Faces of Spirit
June 22 - Spirit is Higher
June 17 - Evolutionary Enlightenment 101
June 3 - Freedom in the Face of Fear
March 23 - Redefining Enlightenment For Our Time
March 21 - Whatever Happened to Truth?

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love to infinity and find me there
love to eternity and I will be there
love to the boundless corners of the Kosmos
and all will be shown to you
- Ken Wilber
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The Second Face of God - Part 1

Some highlights of the latest conversation between Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilber, reported in EnlightenNext Magazine, where they discuss why having a relationship to a transcendent God is the only way to bring the postmodern ego to its knees.

From the introduction by Andrew Cohen:

" So a couple of years ago, when my good friend Ken Wilber began to write and speak about what he called the three faces of God, I found the distinctions he was making both thrilling and clarifying. He articulated and put into a simple framework the different dimensions of the Divine that I had encountered. God as our deepest Self, God as the great all-knowing Other, and God as the entire cosmic Process. And he connects these three very different expressions of Spirit to the three fundamental perspectives that integral theory is built upon: first person, second person and third person, or I, You/We and It (see July 24/09 RoadKill Post). Spirit or God can be looked at through all of these perspectives which (as Ken often points out) correspond to the perspectives found in all major languages.

"First-person Spirit", Ken explains, "is the great I AM, the pure radical subjectivity or witness in every sentient being. Spirit in second person is the great Thou, something that is immeasurably greater than you could ever possibly be in your wildest imagination, something before which surrender and devotion and submission and gratitude are the only appropriate responses. And Spirit in third person is the great web of life, the Great Perfection of everything that is arising."

Wilber: Spirit in second-person is extremely important because it is spirituality in its relational form. It's Spirit in a form that can be communicated with.

Cohen: ...you can have an experience of the first face of God as the absolute subject or consciousness itself, but the ego doesn't necessarily have to bend its knee. And one can have an awakening to the third face of God as this Kosmic evolutionary process, and the ego still doesn't have to bend its knee. But when we enter into the subtle or not-so-subtle paradoxical dualism of having an "I/Thou" relationship with Spirit, the ego suddenly has no choice but to bend its knee. That's why, in a truly integral expression and understanding of Spirit, unless the second face of God is given quite a bit of importance, no matter how many experiences of Spirit as absolute subject or Spirit as Kosmic process an individual may have, the postmodern, narcissistic ego can remain firmly behind the wheel. Ultimately, to become an integrally and evolutionarily enlightened individual, the ego is going to have to come down at least on one knee, if not both.

Wilber: Absolutely. It is indeed the easiest thing in the world for the ego, the separate self, the self-contraction, to take up practices that deal with the first perspective of I-AM-ness and the third perspective of the great web of life, because neither of these ultimately demands a conscious surrender of ego ... But when you are orienting to Spirit in second person - to some aspect of Spirit that is Other to this separate self - that is what really breaks the ego down, what forces it to submit its own self-contracting ways. So the integral approach is to include all three of these perspectives ... I've found that since I introduced that notion, so many Buddhists in particular have come up and said guiltily, "I was practicing and practicing but ego was still intact because I didn't really think there was anything fundamentally greater than my own ego."

Coming soon - Part 2, The Post-Modern Predicament
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