Radiance of Being Section 3 Emergence

Chapter 8 Right in Front of our Eyes

Combs says personal growth is a natural implication of the perspective that views consciousness as a system near the edge of chaos.
How do higher levels of consciousness emerge?
Wilber believes that structures of consciousness tap into already existing states of consciousness. All people experience states of consciousness, waking, dreaming, and dreamless sleep. People interpret their peak experiences in terms of their dominate structure of consciousness. This may be why spiritual encounters seem different for different people. Yet the entire experience of the sacred is steeped in a sense of profound realness beside which oridinary reality pales by comparison.

Chapter 9 A Benchmark for Evolution
The Wilber-Combs Matrix represents states of consciousness in terms of the developmemtal structures through which they are experienced and the realms of being that lend them content.
How far can a person penetrate above their root structure?
Perhaps all states of consciousness are available but as we develop we gain stability in the higher states.
The developmental process is one of becoming objective about aspects of self which were previously identified as self. This process allows our essential nature more freedom. At the mental level we gain a sense of autonomy. At the integral level we experience a growing sense of identity with others. At the transpersonal level our emotions, thoughts, and sense of self become objective.
Cook-Greuter found the most advanced individuals struggling to free themselves of perceptions, emotions, and thoughts. At this level the advance in complexity characteristic of the former stages turns toward greater simplicity as well. Perhaps greater objectivity allows for the greater purity and simplicity experienced at the higher levels.
Sri Aurobindo says we look down at the buzzing mechanistic mind from a position of objective nonattachment. He says we must separate the active mind (a factory of thoughts) from the quiet Witness which observes, eliminates, accepts and/or corrects the thoughts.
Combs says complexity brings objectivity. Our conscious self becomes integrated into a single fabric made up of thoughts, emotions, and motivations that otherwise drift as disconnected attractors that control us without our knowledge. Objectivity brings wholeness and freedom from fragmentation. Many people can read the behavior and emotions of others better than their own behavior and emotions. Objectivity towards one's own inner process brings self-mastery and understanding. This requires allowing diverse and ambivalent emotions, thoughts, memories and beliefs to become conscious. Psychological growth is the natural progression to higher levels of development.

Chapter 10 While the Mind is Utterly Indivisible
Combs says consciousness is not thought, feeling, sensation, imagination, memory or desire. All of these are events. They are categories of mind not consciousness. Objects of consciousness can be divided, but consciousness, presence, can not.
Consciousness takes the form of its container. As the mind grows so does consciousness.

Chapter 11 A Condition of Complete Simplicity
This chapter is about spiritual work. Combs uses a coordinate system of spiritual paths.
Axis one: constructive vs. emergent evolution
Growth of consciousness can occur by the gradual accumlation of elements, the way intelligence develops. Or in emergent evolution there can be a rapid and abrupt emergence. Deep insight in psychotherapy can suddenly appear, for example.
Axis two: ontic vs. noetic traditions
Tne ontic emphasizes realization of higher more real levels of being. The noetic emphasizes insight, knowledge, and truth. Ontic progresses by a constructive evolution, noetic by emergent evolution. Jnana Yoga uses both. The goal is direct identification with the Self; consciously becoming one's own true nature, by direct intuitive penetration to the essence of being. Jnana teaches, not this, not this.
To the question "Who Am I?" Ramana Maharishi answered not body, not senses, not thoughts, not emotions. When only Awareness remained, he said, "That I Am."
Paul Brunton described the short path, the habit of constantly reminding ourselves of our true nature. He says this is a form of practice that "begins and ends with the goal itself."
Axis three: anabolic vs. catabolic practices
Anabolic processes are constructive while catabolic processes are destructive. Ontic paths stress anabolic,constuctive evolutionary development, while noetic paths stress catabolic, destabizing practices that result in emergent evolution.
In spiritual practices, the deconstruction of oridinary consciousness is accompanied by active construction of nonordinary forms of consciousness.
In meditation an upright posture is used to promote strength and clarity of mind. The most advanced meditators can carry this clarity into day-to-day life. Meditation involves attention, which is the single most important factor in the activity of mind. Focusing attention brings an increased intensity and vitality to one's entire experience.
Mantras are also used in meditation to develop one-pointed attention. Combs says some mantras seem to act as attractors for subtle states of consciousness. He speculates that the uninterrupted repetition of virtually any sound can have a disruptive effect on the attractor of oridinary consciousness.
Combs refers to the self, not as the Self or Atman, but as a reflection of it in this human personality that can serve as an organizing principle (logos) guiding spiritual growth. He says development often progresses through periods of stability
marked off by bifurcations.
Vipassana meditation focuses attention directly on the content of consciousness. Balance increases as objectivity toward our own mental and emotional reactions increases. Objectivity or nonattachment is the single most important aspect of personal growth. The Witness carries one into the Atman Itself. Disentanglement from uncontrolled thought and emotion brings a clearing of the spirit and a new sense of freedom and nobility. Returning to a quiet balance point even after experiencing excitement cuts short the prolonged involvement with content of consciousness.
Advanced meditators can become quite animated or angry at times but it doesnt last.
Even neurotic habits disturb us less, we accept ourselves for what we are and raise above our qualities and take them less seriously.
Combs explains the two major traditions of human spirituaity. Introverted traditions withdraw from the world and extroverted traditions are active in the world.
Introverted forms lead to nirvana - a oneness with the inexpressible reality which always exists but is not recognized.
Combs says non-ordinary states of consciousness seem to be grounded in a profound state of peace and are marked by high intensity. Extroverted tradtitions are marked by an active, outgoing, and compassionate involvement in the living world. A pattern of consciousness takes shape which opens into the realm of active realization.
Introverted meditation focuses and concentrates attention. Extroverted meditation opens to experience the levels of being. Consciousness moves toward an opening to ever-widening realms of experience - inner sensitivity grows in cognitive domains as well as felt or intuitive domains. All this emerges from the self-organizing quality of consciousness as an autopoietic event. It is the ascendancy of pure experience over thematizing mind - the condition of realization or originary awareness. Originary awareness glows with the inner radiance of being yet opens us to the world in its immediate concreteness. It goes beyond the thematizing mind of mental abstractions toward an experience of the immediate present.
Gebser said integral consciousess is the most advanced structure of consciousness we know about. Combs says it is the most highly evolved cognitive structure, an intellectual end of the road. For those who cling to the thematizing mind the outcome may be bleak. Those with spiritual aspirations may be able to open to the light of originary awareness.
Combs definition of consciousness as a subjective presence reminds us of actual moment-to-moment experience. Objects and events are immediate and fresh, free of intellectual thematizations and remain transculent to the inner light of being.
Sri Aurobindo emphasized the importance of the body as the physical location for the most advanced forms of experience.
The experience of orginary consciousness is globally stable but never static and resting.
Each structure of consciousness has its own form of creativity but it is the brilliance of the origin itself shining through. Creativity is akin to spontaneity and freedom. Freedom is not external to us but our very condition. The true spontaneity of naturalness is an expression of Being. Supercompleteness is an intensification of consciousness in its original simplicity and freshness.
It is " A condition of complete simplicity, costing not less than everything." T.S.Eliot

Chapter 12 Living an Integral Life
Combs says we are of-a-piece - mind, body, sould, and spirit. Honoring this fact allows us to become complete human beings. We need to include our personal relationships and how we participate in the social and natural world in order to live an integral life.
How does one live an integral life?
Combs states that Ken Wilber's AQAL model is the inclusive. We are invited to consider the content of each of the four quadrants as we attempt to balance our personal and communal lives.
Combs says that we must also consider the four levels of body, mind, soul, and spirit. We care for our body with a balanced diet and exercise plan. We keep our minds active with new ideas and activities. We feed our soul with art, music, poetry, human friendships, and intimate relationships. We nurture our spirit with prayer and meditation.
Gebser says we need to live all the structures of consciousness; the wonder of the mythic, the clarity of the mental, the uplifiting light of the Origin.
Taoism embraces all of the structures of consciousness that Gebser identified. Most Taoists are opposed to any kind of hierarchy of authority and recognize each other as friends along the path.
The goal of Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga is to transform every aspect of ourselves into divine nature.
George Leonard and Michael Murphy's integral transformative practice was the first integral developmental progrm. It is explained in detail in their book The Life We Are Given. It is a commitment that requires long-term practice. Combs says only this practice explicitly addresses the social and cultural half of Wilber's quadrants.
Integral growth is a growth in complexity and an inner sense of wholeness as well as a lessening of fragmentation. Our thoughts, emotions, and bodies become interconnected.
Combs says we must each find our own path into the integral life but we all share the one light of the Origin.