INTEGRATING ENLIGHTENMENT

WIE: I wanted to ask you some questions about Spiral Dynamics,* the system of human development pioneered originally by Clare Graves and more recently by Don Beck, who is interviewed in this issue of WIE. I know you've used Spiral Dynamics in your own work, and that you postulated at least two stages of spiritual development beyond Beck's basic model, which includes eight stages (and some preliminary evidence of a ninth stage). What are these higher stages of spiritual development, and why do you feel they need to be added to his model?

YK: I attended Don Beck's seminar in 1999, and it was the first time that I had seen a model of evolution that has thirty, forty, fifty years of research behind it. Clare Graves, Don Beck, Beck's former partner Chris Cowan, and, of course, Ken Wilber have done extensive research. It is no longer just a speculation. It's really based on actual human beings and their experiences. So to me, the value of Spiral Dynamics is that we can use this model for social transformation as well as for personal transformation.

Before I came across Don Beck, I had my own model of evolution, which was pretty much aligned with what he was speaking about. He talks about a First Tier of development with six stages and a Second Tier with basically two stages. But in my model, there were nine stages, so there was one more. When you carefully read the Spiral Dynamics description of the last stage—there are people who have actually gone beyond it. In my own life, I have met people who are actually beyond what I would call Homo Sapiens Holisticus, which is equivalent to the last stage, the TURQUOISE stage in Spiral Dynamics. The next stage I call Homo Sapiens Universalis, and it is the fulfillment of the promise and possibility of self-consciousness, which Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke talked about in his book Cosmic Consciousness, published over a century ago. This is the stage at which the involuntary movement of cosmic consciousness takes place for the first time. At this stage, one has the experience of spiritual illumination, cosmic epiphany, and cosmic awakening and becomes conscious of the ground of being of the whole. One comes to know the causative realm of existence. There are a few spiritual legends (perhaps like Babaji, whom you wrote about in your last issue) who point to an even further evolutionary possibility, Homo Sapiens Cosmicus, which is, I believe, another stage of evolution—the evolution of cosmic consciousness itself. So, based on my observation and my own thinking, I would say that there are other possibilities beyond the eighth stage of Spiral Dynamics. The individual examples are so few and far between that obviously Clare Graves wasn't able to interview those people. But through my own experience and through meetings with people I have known, I can infer these next stages of evolution from the eighth stage that Beck and Graves described.

WIE: Are there more stages beyond those as well?

YK: Yes, I assume so, because there's no end to the process of transformation, there's no beginning and no end. I don't know what kind of form the next stage would take, but the process goes on. I don't think we can really know the stage that is two stages beyond our own stage at this point. One stage beyond is pretty much all that you can have a sense of.

WIE: How does one move along these higher stages of development? In your book, Think Kosmically Act Globally, you write, "In fact it is only when you attain the stage of Homo Sapiens Integratus [YELLOW meme in Spiral Dynamics] that you start to have the awareness of the identity of the spiritual forces acting in the universe and in your consciousness." That is the stage of integral development, or Second Tier in Don Beck's model. You describe this stage as follows, "One becomes conscious of the interconnectivity of all humanity at all stages of development and starts integrating all humanity within oneself." So are you saying that spirituality, in a sense, really only begins at that stage?

YK: In my book, I talk about this in terms of peak experiences. At any stage it is possible to have these experiences, but until you reach Homo Sapiens Integratus, I don't think you can really integrate that spiritual force, that spiritual insight, into your evolutionary stream.

WIE: What makes that so significant?

YK: Well, you may have met people who have had some kind of peak experience but somehow their ego takes hold of it and then it is no longer there. It's become a fortification of the ego structure. And oftentimes what happens is that people stop their evolutionary growth right there. Some people live off their one spiritual experience the rest of their lives, writing books and teaching. So this state of being, state of consciousness, state of enlightenment can be achieved by anybody. But unless your informational learning leads to the point of integration, or this integral level of development, you won't be able to integrate metaformational insight into your being and consciousness, and so you won't be able to use it as an engine of creation, an engine of transformation. However, if you can, then enlightenment becomes a beginning, an initiation into further evolution and further transformation. Until then, enlightenment is like a sporadic, almost accidental, event.

WIE: So you're saying that at this integral level, you're able to consciously take up the process of your own transformation.

YK: Yes. That's what P.D. Ouspensky and many others mean when they talk about conscious evolution. It begins with the initiation of awareness into the further reaches of human potential. And then you see that so much more is possible for your consciousness, and you begin the process of learning and participating in that syntropic (anti-entropic) spiritual force existing within the universe. Many people may have genuine spiritual experiences, even children. I did. But I was not able to integrate it, and it became an agonizing experience for me. My ego was not mature enough to let go of itself and be able to integrate that experience into my own growth.

WIE: Agonizing because you were aware of a different possibility?

YK: Yes, because I had read so many books by that time about the possibility of enlightenment and about the Buddha and all kinds of spiritual people. So I knew there was something to my experience, but I didn't know what to do with it. But when something similar but more profound occurred later in my life, then the learning process, the evolutionary process, was able to begin.

WIE: In your quarterly journal, The Cosmic Light, you have written about authenticity. You say that this is one of the characteristics that is most essential in order to prepare for these higher stages. You write:

Authenticity is fundamental, more fundamental than spiritual enlightenment. Without authenticity, no genuine spiritual enlightenment is possible. Authenticity is the state of being committed to truth. ...Truth is simple, utterly so.... And no matter how simply a truth is stated, only those who have walked the path of understanding and evolution on their own can know and understand it authentically. The path of truth is the path least traveled.... Authenticity is the clarity of being in which there is no self-deceit.

Why is authenticity so fundamental, and why is it more important than even spiritual enlightenment?

YK: You see, our mind is extremely clever, and it has a tremendous capacity for delusion and self-deception. Authenticity is a counteraction for that self-deceit and tendency to delude oneself. I often quote P.D. Ouspensky's simple statement that the most difficult thing in life is to know what one knows and to know what one doesn't know and to know the difference between the two. It requires a kind of honesty and authenticity to be aware of this difference and to really examine one's body of knowledge. What is it that one really knows and that one doesn't know? This is the kind of discipline that one needs to exert in one's own life. It is essential for taking advantage of the spiritual experience that one has. Otherwise, it can turn into another form of self-delusion utilized by the ego. So a person needs to have humility and authenticity with regard to the truth of the experience that they do have. And this authenticity leads one to higher and higher levels or into a more whole knowledge and understanding of the truth that is revealed to one.

When one is true to oneself, when one is authentic, one becomes true to the evolutionary thrust for self-optimization that exists within oneself and within the universe. And that evolutionary thrust is a continuous unfolding process.


A CULTURE OF TRANSFORMATION

WIE: Ken Wilber, in his new book Boomeritis, writes, "Psychologists who track adult lifespan development find that most individuals go through a series of major transformations from birth to adolescence, whereupon transformation tends to taper off. Although many horizontal translations subsequently occur—the 'seasons of a person's life'—vertical transformations to higher levels tend to completely stop. From age 25 to around 55, very few vertical transformations occur." He concludes, "It's almost impossible to get an adult human being to transform." And Dee Hock, who I mentioned earlier, also says in this issue that there is so much resistance to change in individuals that it will likely take several cataclysms to provide the impetus for us to truly begin to transform our lives in significant ways. Do you agree with these sobering assessments of the capacity of human beings to transform themselves? And, if so, why is human transformation so difficult?

YK: First of all, in the whole educational system and in our culture, transformation is not a major topic of discussion. Of course, today, you and I and many of us are speaking about transformation, enlightenment, and spirituality, but this group is still a small minority of people. In our society, most people don't even know that the possibility of spiritual transformation exists. Children learn from the adults, and what is available for them is what Ken Wilber calls horizontal translation, which is more like an expansion of the same kind of experience and information over and over again. Vertical transformation may take place in the Himalayas, in the ashrams, in the monasteries, where people who are a little bit eccentric go, but it is not a part of the common culture in which we live.

So I think Ken Wilber and Don Beck and several others are making a great contribution to humanity through their writings, which are very accessible. They are helping to make evolutionary thinking and transformational ideas part of the human culture, which is essential for our next evolution. Otherwise, it will be merely a local phenomenon, because most people don't have any model; they just don't know. I will give you a very mundane example. People are now into eating sushi in this country. And coming from Japan, sometimes I am appalled by the kind of sushi they're eating. But they think that it is real sushi, because they don't know the real thing. They haven't been exposed to it. And most people are not exposed to the transformational possibilities of being human. Even for very intelligent, educated people, transformation is an entirely foreign concept. So that is something that we must change.

*The developmental model of Spiral Dynamics is explored in detail in an interview with Don Beck in this issue of WIE.