The One Two Three of God, or The 1-2-3 of God, by Ken Wilber

If you're looking for a general overview of Ken Wilber's "Integral" approach, I recommend Kosmic Consciousness. That 10-CD collection, in an entertaining interview format, lays out clearly the quadrants, levels, lines, states, and types that make up Wilber's grand map of everything. But this 4-CD collection focuses specifically on the question: how does Wilber's map apply to religion?

The "1-2-3" in the title refers to Wilber's most important distinction, that between the first person, second person and third person perspectives. You can apply this distinction to anything. You can imagine a doctor viewing a patient in the third person (as a collection of symptoms), in the second person (as a fellow human being), or in the first person (heal thyself). The ideal doctor would bring a combination of all three perspectives.

But what about religion? You can view religion as Gaia, the Great Web of Life, the world of nature—third person—It is out there, and I must bring my own actions into harmony with It. You can view God as the great Thou—second person—a loving external father, perhaps, with whom I want to perfect a relationship. Or you can view God in the first person: all is one. You can find all three approaches inside Yoga, for instance. The interviewer (Tami Simon, the founder of Sounds True Publishing), suggests that perhaps we progress from the third person view to the second to the first, but Wilber rejects that viewpoint, insisting that you can go all the way with any of the three perspectives. Meister Eckhart and Ramana Maharshi may both have found the same truth, but the former would always think of it fundamentally as a "thou," the latter as an "I." Neither perspective is better.

As always, the thing that strikes me most strongly about Wilber is his clarity of thought. When he lists the different levels that a culture or a person passes through, it doesn't sound like an arbitrary or artificial list (which is how most religious numerology strikes me): it sounds like common sense, articulated through psychological and sociological research. When I want to feel calm, mindful, meditative, or inspired, I turn to Thich Nhat Hanh or Eckhart Tolle. But when I want to feel like this whole spiritual thing actually makes sense, I don't know anyone better than Ken Wilber.


The 1-2-3 of God by Ken Wilber If you're looking for a general overview of Ken Wilber's "Integral" approach, I recommend Kosmic Consciousness. That 10-CD collection, in an entertaining interview format, lays out clearly the quadrants, levels, lines, states, and types that make up Wilber's grand map of everything. But this 4-CD collection focuses specifically on the question: how does Wilber's map apply to religion? The "1-2-3" in the title refers to Wilber's most important distinction, that between the first person, second person and third person perspectives. You can apply this distinction to anything. You can imagine a doctor viewing a patient in the third person (as a collection of symptoms), in the second person (as a fellow human being), or in the first person (heal thyself). The ideal doctor would bring a combination of all three perspectives. But what about religion? You can view religion as Gaia, the Great Web of Life, the world of nature—third person—It is out there, and I must bring my own actions into harmony with It. You can view God as the great Thou—second person—a loving external father, perhaps, with whom I want to perfect a relationship. Or you can view God in the first person: all is one. You can find all three approaches inside Yoga, for instance. The interviewer (Tami Simon, the founder of Sounds True Publishing), suggests that perhaps we progress from the third person view to the second to the first, but Wilber rejects that viewpoint, insisting that you can go all the way with any of the three perspectives. Meister Eckhart and Ramana Maharshi may both have found the same truth, but the former would always think of it fundamentally as a "thou," the latter as an "I." Neither perspective is better. As always, the thing that strikes me most strongly about Wilber is his clarity of thought. When he lists the different levels that a culture or a person passes through, it doesn't sound like an arbitrary or artificial list (which is how most religious numerology strikes me): it sounds like common sense, articulated through psychological and sociological research. When I want to feel calm, mindful, meditative, or inspired, I turn to Thich Nhat Hanh or Eckhart Tolle. But when I want to feel like this whole spiritual thing actually makes sense, I don't know anyone better than Ken Wilber.
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