1. Is Buddhism Evolving? (Traleg Rinpoche and Ken Wilber)

    from Integral Life Plus

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    On October 21st, 2006, Venerable Traleg Rinpoche and Ken Wilber met in Boulder, Colorado for an event attended by over 200 people. Born in Tibet, Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche, recognized by His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa as the ninth incarnation of the Traleg Tulkus, is president and director of Kagyu E-Vam Buddhist Institute, Melbourne, Australia. We are honored to share with you some memorable moments from this event. This is the first of a four-part…

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  2. Zen teaches the insight of the Buddha, that meditation brings an end to suffering. As esoteric as this may sound, it's an empirical fact. Ordinary people meditate and find their experience—their entire world—transformed. The poetry of their language is not myth, but an effort to do justice to their experience. When you taste the deep clear intelligence at the heart of being, nothing is left untouched. If you wish to claim your heritage as the Buddha,…

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  3. The Buddhist tradition has numerous skillful methods for trapping the dualistic mind. In this video series, Patrick Sweeney, a Buddhist teacher of the Mahamudra tradition, creates an environment where the dualistic mind can relax, where we can step out of chronological time, out of the predictability of our own story line, and out of the next moment of "me." Dropping the identity project, we can open to something unconditioned. Co-facilitated with…

    # vimeo.com/12328139 Uploaded 2,059 Plays / / 0 Comments

  4. If a piano falls on your head, your next stop is the Bardo. But according to Ken, if a big blue pancake falls on your head, you've merely realized nondual enlightenment! In this video clip, Ken explains emptiness and form, consciousness and the world, and your own syrup-splattered Original Face. Om nom nom nom! Art by John Inglis

    # vimeo.com/12323930 Uploaded 843 Plays / / 0 Comments

  5. Integral Life Teaser

    from Integral Life Plus

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Integral Buddhism

Created by Integral Life Plus

From an Integral perspective, we can see both the good news and bad news of the situation that Buddhism in the West finds itself in. Having blossomed in a largely postmodern context in both Europe and North America, Western Buddhism has inherited many of the qualities of its green, relativistic backdrop, including the inherent limitations.

To begin with, this world of samsara is without end. The process of translating Buddhism

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From an Integral perspective, we can see both the good news and bad news of the situation that Buddhism in the West finds itself in. Having blossomed in a largely postmodern context in both Europe and North America, Western Buddhism has inherited many of the qualities of its green, relativistic backdrop, including the inherent limitations.

To begin with, this world of samsara is without end. The process of translating Buddhism in the West is beyond its infancy, but has reached somewhat of an adolescent plateau. From this plateau, one can become complacent, using Buddhist practice to avoid personal issues, and perhaps to reclaim aspects of power or control that one is insecure about.

The notion of structure-stages and states-stages is very helpful here. Few contemplative teachers—let alone their students—are aware of the vertical dimension of growth through structure-stages (such as magical, mythical, rational, pluralistic, and integral stages of psychological growth). As always, state experiences are interpreted from the stage that one is at--in this case, extraordinary experiences of awakening are interpreted from a green altitude, from which one is unable to see their own embedment. From this altitude, certain limitations become apparent. Non-conceptuality—and by extension, anti-intellectualism—is subtly identified with Emptiness, in defiance of a remarkable intellectual tradition. Absolutistic thinking is confused with absolute truth. And any challenge to the green altitude is taken as a challenge to Buddha nature itself.

The great Buddhist teachers all had a common denominator: they were unwilling to let themselves become permanent objects of awareness. In every case, they placed the onus of interpreting his experiences squarely on him. They insisted that he take responsibility for his own growth, and just when he would begin to get comfortable, they would pull the rug from underneath his feet. As the Buddha himself said on his deathbed, "be lights unto yourselves, that you may discover that which I've realized." There are no guarantees on the spiritual path; in Western, green-oriented Buddhism, this is difficult to accept.

Patrick's suggested way to move forward: a truly Integral Buddhism. But in its absence, the tradition has taken on several flavors in the West. In one form, "Boomeritis Buddhism," a tradition known for its selflessness is adopted with utter narcissism. In another, a scientific materialistic view prevails, reducing profound states of consciousness to the brainwaves they exhibit. The stakes are enormous: after all, understanding the context and its potential traps can take decades off our journey as spiritual students….

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