Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: A very very worthwhile book. Wilber at his best.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: A very very worthwhile book. Wilber at his best.
Rating:
Summary: A very important and helpful book
Review: Author Ken Wilber irritates some and amazes others. With his increasing popularity and acclaim has come deeper criticisms. Unfortunately, most of the critics misrepresent Wilber's views. As an academic student of sociology and philosophy, I know that Wilber *generally* covers all the bases. He explains why the mechanistic or reductive views of reality are illogical and false. He calls them "flatland" because they limit reality to the data coming from the physical senses - a surface phenomenon. Wilber argues, with a great many philosophers, sages and gurus, that the realms of the mind are equally as "real" as the physical. He describes with authority the basic agreement among all spiritual traditions about the "Great Chain of Being," or the spectrum of reality (physical-mental-spiritual). And he does so without resorting to what logical positivists (e.g., R.Carnap) used to call "metaphysical construction."In "The Eye of Spirit," Wilber covers all that and adds a beautiful chapter called "Always Already," in which he lucidly and almost poetically affirms what the great non-dual traditions have always taught: that "spirit" and the totality of "God Realization" is already 100% present in your consciousness right now. Meditation and spiritual practices, then, are just ways to help people realize this "always already" fact - which is good news for the many people whose spirituality is spontaneous and without much if any "discipline."
Rating:
Summary: A very important and helpful book
Review: Author Ken Wilber irritates some and amazes others. With his increasing popularity and acclaim has come deeper criticisms. Unfortunately, most of the critics misrepresent Wilber's views. As an academic student of sociology and philosophy, I know that Wilber *generally* covers all the bases. He explains why the mechanistic or reductive views of reality are illogical and false. He calls them "flatland" because they limit reality to the data coming from the physical senses - a surface phenomenon. Wilber argues, with a great many philosophers, sages and gurus, that the realms of the mind are equally as "real" as the physical. He describes with authority the basic agreement among all spiritual traditions about the "Great Chain of Being," or the spectrum of reality (physical-mental-spiritual). And he does so without resorting to what logical positivists (e.g., R.Carnap) used to call "metaphysical construction." In "The Eye of Spirit," Wilber covers all that and adds a beautiful chapter called "Always Already," in which he lucidly and almost poetically affirms what the great non-dual traditions have always taught: that "spirit" and the totality of "God Realization" is already 100% present in your consciousness right now. Meditation and spiritual practices, then, are just ways to help people realize this "always already" fact - which is good news for the many people whose spirituality is spontaneous and without much if any "discipline."
Rating:
Summary: Zen Meets West
Review: I may not always understand Ken Wilber, but I compel myself to read his books. Even though I probably only skim the surface of his deep vision, I think that Wilber knows something that I should know. In the excellent Foreward to this book, Jack Crittenden observes that Ken Wilber provides "a coherent and consistent vision that seamlessly weaves together truth claims from such fields as physics and biology; the ecosciences; chaos theory and the systems sciences; medicine, neurophysiology, biochemistry; art, poetry and aesthetics in general; developmental psychology and a spectrum of psychotherapeutic endeavors, from Freud to Jung to Piaget; the Great Chain theorists from Plato and Plotinus in the West to Shankara and Nagarjuna in the East; the modernists from Descartes and Locke to Kant; the Idealists from Schelling to Hegel, the postmodernists from Foucault and Derrida to Taylor and Habermas; the major hermeneutic tradition, Dilthey to Heidegger to Gadamer; the social systems theorists from Compte and Marx to Parsons and Luhrman; the contemplative and mystical schools of the great meditative tradtions, East and West, in the world's major religious traditions" (pp. viii-ix). Wilber "reworked" these dozen essays in 1996 into "a new book" (p. xvii), integrating "the best of ancient wisdom with the best of modern knowledge" to give us a "pattern that connects all of life, of the Kosmos, of Spirit. His work amounts to a guide to the secrets of life--biological, social, cultural and spiritual life" (pp. xi-xii). The writing here is heady, and perhaps too deep for most readers to absorb all at once. Although they may not offer the easiest access to Wilber's integral vision, these essays will reward those readers who work their way through their depths. In his essay, "The Integral Vision," Wilber takes an "all-level, all-quadrant" approach to honor the entire spectrum of consciousness, "integrating art, morals and science; self, ethics, and environment; consciousness, culture and nature; Buddha, Sangha and Dharma; the beautiful and the good and the true" (p. 35). The essay, "In a Modern Light" demonstrates that "both the quality of humanity's spiritual understanding, and the form of its presentation, are deepening and becoming more adequate in modern times, not less" (p. 62). "Let us appreciate the past," Wilber writes, "honor it, be thankful for it successes, upon whose base our present consciousness rests--but let us release its hold on us" (p. 67). In the collection's final essay, "Always Already," Wilber soars. G. Merritt
Rating:
Summary: Like "black rain on the temple roof."
Review: I may not always understand Ken Wilber, but I compel myself to read his books. Even though I probably only skim the surface of his deep vision, I think that Wilber knows something that I should know. In the excellent Foreward to this book, Jack Crittenden observes that Ken Wilber provides "a coherent and consistent vision that seamlessly weaves together truth claims from such fields as physics and biology; the ecosciences; chaos theory and the systems sciences; medicine, neurophysiology, biochemistry; art, poetry and aesthetics in general; developmental psychology and a spectrum of psychotherapeutic endeavors, from Freud to Jung to Piaget; the Great Chain theorists from Plato and Plotinus in the West to Shankara and Nagarjuna in the East; the modernists from Descartes and Locke to Kant; the Idealists from Schelling to Hegel, the postmodernists from Foucault and Derrida to Taylor and Habermas; the major hermeneutic tradition, Dilthey to Heidegger to Gadamer; the social systems theorists from Compte and Marx to Parsons and Luhrman; the contemplative and mystical schools of the great meditative tradtions, East and West, in the world's major religious traditions" (pp. viii-ix). Wilber "reworked" these dozen essays in 1996 into "a new book" (p. xvii), integrating "the best of ancient wisdom with the best of modern knowledge" to give us a "pattern that connects all of life, of the Kosmos, of Spirit. His work amounts to a guide to the secrets of life--biological, social, cultural and spiritual life" (pp. xi-xii). The writing here is heady, and perhaps too deep for most readers to absorb all at once. Although they may not offer the easiest access to Wilber's integral vision, these essays will reward those readers who work their way through their depths. In his essay, "The Integral Vision," Wilber takes an "all-level, all-quadrant" approach to honor the entire spectrum of consciousness, "integrating art, morals and science; self, ethics, and environment; consciousness, culture and nature; Buddha, Sangha and Dharma; the beautiful and the good and the true" (p. 35). The essay, "In a Modern Light" demonstrates that "both the quality of humanity's spiritual understanding, and the form of its presentation, are deepening and becoming more adequate in modern times, not less" (p. 62). "Let us appreciate the past," Wilber writes, "honor it, be thankful for it successes, upon whose base our present consciousness rests--but let us release its hold on us" (p. 67). In the collection's final essay, "Always Already," Wilber soars. G. Merritt
Rating: 
Summary: A Brief Criticism of Everything
Review: In the literary theory chapters of this book, Wilber summarizes the history of, and modern trends in, literary criticism, pointing out their flaws and excesses more or less accurately. While he doesn't provide any information that can't be learned from one good undergraduate survey course in lit-crit, his style is engaging, and for those who know little or nothing about the field, it suffices. But while Wilber seems to have mastered the art of cataloging and criticizing, when it comes time to present the alternative, he just sits back and laments how we just don't know how to appreciate good painting anymore, from "the eye of spirit," which is essentially a pseudo-spiritual soap-box. The conclusion is an impassioned cry for...nothing. Wilber is not necessarily "wrong" in his analysis of things, which is why I think the average reader is impressed with him. But you won't learn anything you can't find in Cliff's Notes. Underneath it all lies the same old New Age sensibility dressed up in academic clothes. When you really try to locate what it is that's being advocated, it just isn's there. Finally, it's hard to get over what seems to be a fundamental contradiction at the root of Wilber's approach: all forms of art-crit are inadequate, yet they can all be integrated into a satisfactory method. I suspect the reason Wilber doesn't do presentations and lectures is simply that his notions do not stand up well to questioning. There's a reason his books are stacked in the New Age sections of bookstores, folks. Save your money. DT
Rating:
Summary: Sign of the times
Review: Ken's book was great for the Psych and philosophy part, I don't know enough about the arts and literature to get the arguments he was saying. But I am highly trained in Psychology, and it was on the mark!
Rating:
Summary: Wilber's vision is unique and important
Review: There are some people that suggest that Wilber has been too repetitive in his last few books. That he's simply been repeating the same basic refrain over and over again. I can understand that criticism, but I disagree with it. Wilber's theory of integration is both complex and important, and I find it incredibly useful to have new books in which he expands the examples of his theory. My own feeling is that the integral theory is a very important theory to understand, so the more in depth Wilber goes, and the various diffirent paths of exploration he goes at his thory from, the happier I am, as I feel like I have a greater grasp of what he's speaking about. As an aside, there is a wondeful novel called We All Fall Down by Brian Caldwell which seems to take quite a bit of Wilber's theory, and even mentions him several times in the book. The novel is a great example of a man caught trying to transform his life into something better, but who is able only to translate. It's about the frustration and difficulties in trying to move up to the next level of consciousness. Techinically, it's set in a Christian framework, but it elevates past that small structure and uses it to really bring home quite a few of Wilber's theories. It's a wonderful novel and I'd highly recomend it to any fan of Wilber.
Rating:
Summary: Sign of the times
Review: This book contains many very interesting observations about various theories and political movements and how the people involved in them see themselves as in opposition to each other when in fact they are complementary in many ways. The author tries to explain how this fragmentation is caused by a certain type of consciousness that is also at the root of many of our modern environmental and social problems. I think this is a timely book that allows us to expand our consciousness and evolve out of the contemporary rut of the modern age. While the author tries to examine this from a relatively objective and critical view from above, it is also important to be mindful of the fact that the root of this type of thinking is also caused by the type of consciousness so problematic of our times. There is another highly regarded book called "The Ever-Transcending Spirit" by Toru Sato that addresses this in an extremely inspiring and accesible way. These are the types of books that really remind me of the joy of learning.
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