In her introduction to this helpful and scintillating collection of short accessible passages from the scholarly writings of Ken Wilber, Kendra Crossen Burroughs salutes his full-spectrum model of stages of human growth and development, integrating the systems developed by psychology with those of the contemplative traditions. In 16 books, he has blended ancient wisdom with modern science as he has probed everything from evolutionary theory to anthropology to sociology.
"The mystics ask you to take nothing on mere belief. Rather, they give you a set of experiments to test in your own awareness and experience. The laboratory is your own mind, the experiment is meditation," writes Wilber in one excerpt. He sees this practice as "a way for the soul to venture inward, there ultimately to find a supreme identity with Godhead." Elsewhere, Wilber writes poignantly about ego, Spirit, and transformative spirituality.
The adventuresome reader will find plenty of material here to stretch the imagination: pieces on the Great Nest of Being as the core of perennial philosophy, the meaning of illness, the four stages of spiritual unfolding, and the modern quest for wholeness.