In a message dated 7/6/02 8:25:24 PM GMT Daylight Time,
DBuchanan@ClassicalRadio.org writes:
> And speaking of the perennial philosophy...
>
> I have to say that its strange that nobody has really responded to this
> idea. (Except for 3WD's defensive back-pedaling) It seems to lend a great
> deal of support to the MOQ and is a compelling idea all on its own, no? It
> seems relevant in so many ways, no? Hmmm. I'm a little disappointed that
> this idea didn't excite you. So, at the risk of beating a dead horse, let
> me
> throw those Wilber quote at you once more.
>
> "A TRULY INTEGRAL PSYCHOLOGY would embrace the enduring insight of
> premodern, modern, and postmodern sources. To begin with the premodern or
> traditional sources, the easiest access to their wisdom is through what has
> been called the prennial philosophy, or the common core of the world's
> great
> spiritual traditions. As Huston Smith, Arthur Lovejoy, Ananda Coomaraswamy,
> and other scholars of these tradtions have pointed out, the core of the
> prennial philosophy is the view that reality is composed of various LEVELS
> OF EXISTENCE (emphasis is Wilber's) - levels of being and of knowing -
> ranging from matter to body to mind to soul to spirit. Each senior
> dimension
> transcends and includes its juniors, so that this is a conception of wholes
> within wholes within wholes indefinitely, reaching from dirt to divinity."
>
> "It should be realized from the start that these levels and sublevels
> presented by the perennial sages are NOT the product of metaphysical
> speculation or abstact hairsplitting philosophy. In fact, they are in
> almost
> every case codifications of DIRECT EXPERIENTIAL REALITIES (emphasis is
> Wilber's), reaching from sensory experience to mental experience to
> spiritual experience. The "levels" in the Great Nest simply reflect the
> full
> spectrum of being and consciousness available for direct experiential
> disclosure, ranging from subconscious to self-conscious to superconscious.
> ... Such is the priceless gift of the ages. This is the core of the
> perennial philosophy, and, we might say , it is the part of the perennial
> philosophy that has empiricall benn found most dnduring. The evidence
> continues overwhelmingly to mount in its favor: human beings have avaiable
> to them an extraordinary spectrum of consciousness, reaching from
> prepersonal to personal to transpersonal states. The critics who attempt to
> deny this overall spectrum do so no by presenting conterevidence - but by
> simply refusing to acknowledge the substantial evidence that has already
> been amassed; the evidence, nontheless, remains."
>
> Thanks for your time,
> DMB
>
Hello DMB,
Perennial philosophy.
I am listening.
If we live long enough, and we have the benefit of a full compliment of
senses, we are privileged to experience growth and change.
We experience a change in quality as Pirsig may put it?
Without change - without differences in quality how could we differentiate
anything at all?
To turn that around, if all experience was experience of the same quality,
how could we notice change?
Perennial philosophy as you put it, concerns the most general pattern
available to experience: That of increasing quality.
Intellect may wish to conceptualise this shift in quality and will, it may be
argued, always generate the same analogues: Darkness/Light, Up/Down,
More/Less, Matter/Form, Potential/Actual, Chaos/Order, Virtue/Vice,
Perfection/Dissolution, Ying/Yang, Primitive/Advanced, Dynamic/Static...
Nothing Wilber says in the quotes you give has not been said before but in a
different context.
Plotinus could almost be saying what these quotes say for example.
Aristotle could almost be saying it too?
This is why the question has been asked: 'Why is this happening?'
That is more like the question Pirsig addresses and Wilber is not addressing
in the quotes you give.
And Pirsig's answer as you know, is Quality.
The common core.
A monism from which all levels and movements flow.
The Tao if you like?
The question is not so much, 'Why levels,' as, 'why levels anyway?'
The reason why no one may be getting excited about your quotes is that we
already know the bloody answer for Christ's sake.
Sneaking Wilber in through the back door like this will not wash.
He has a publisher and a promotional team working for him without you giving
him additional book sales also!
All the best,
Squonk.
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