The Sliding Scale of Enlightenment

Philosopher Ken Wilber poses a question that I’ve often wondered about: what does Enlightenment—total Enlightenment with a capital “E”—what does this mean in an evolving universe where creative advances accumulate in an ever-increasing totality? Wilber’s answer:

“Enlightenment is the realization of oneness with all states and all structures [or stages] that are in existence at any given time.”[1]

This means that the Buddha’s Enlightenment, over two millennia ago, was a complete Enlightenment at that time, but that it is only partial in comparison with what is possible now, for there are structures of consciousness now that were just not available then. The world moves on, continuously.

Enlightenment also has a twofold aspect in terms of the Buddhist distinction of Form and Emptiness, “where Emptiness is timeless, unborn, unmanifest, and not evolving, and Form is manifest, temporal, and evolving.”[2] The gift of Emptiness is freedom while that of Form is fullness.

Wilber takes evolution seriously. The structures of consciousness that unfold are not “pre-existing ontological structures in some eternally fixed Great Chain; they evolved and were laid down by factors in all four quadrants as they developed (or tetra-evolved) over time and became Kosmic habits of humanity, habits available to all future humans . . . That’s why evolution shows so many fits and starts; it’s a creative artwork, not an intelligent engineering product (because if so, that Engineer is an idiot).”[3]

Notes

[1] Ken Wilber. Integral Spirituality, p. 241.
[2] Integral Spirituality, p. 236.
[3] Integral Spirituality, p. 240, 242.