Excerpts from http://www.kenwilber.com/blog/show/48
To help unfold it, here’s a simplified version of the Path of
the Great Liberation, which actually has two paths united in it.
Start by noticing that you have two basic arenas of awareness: that
which is seen, and that which is the Seer, the Witness, your True
Self.
Now, you can see your
ego, you are aware of it right now. You are aware of the ego
or self-contraction, you can feel it in this moment. And you can
feel your self-contraction because, in reality, it is an object,
not a subject. It is not a real subject or True Self at all. Yet we
tend to always be identifying with the ego or self-contraction,
which is what I am not, and forget to rest as the
Witness, which is what I
am. We are the feeling Witness, not the felt ego.
It’s a classic case of mistaken identity, a mistake called
samsara, maya, sin, illusion, etc.—and probably given its best,
shortest definition by Patanjali, founder of yoga: “Bondage is the
identification of the Seer with the instruments of seeing.”
Now both sides of awareness are necessary—the phenomenal or
manifest or relative realm of objects, and the ultimate or absolute
or nondual realm of the one and only Subject or True Self—the One
Self in us all, and the Self of all that is. YOUR True Self is the
same True Self in all sentient beings, so by resting in the
Witness, you will know the entire Kosmos from within….
(We will come back to this, and I’ll give a very effective
experiential exercise for contacting your own True Self right
now….)
The True Self is marked by a radical inclusiveness, so
radical it is sometimes hard to understand. It embraces everything
that is arising with no exceptions whatsoever—ozone hole, car
crash, beautiful sunset, terrorist attack, Bach music: all the
same. This is why it is often called Mirror Mind. If something good
arises, it impartially reflects that with complete nonattachment.
If something bad arises, it impartially reflects that, with no
aversion at all.
You can notice that part of your awareness right now: clouds
float by in the sky, thoughts float by in the mind, sensations
float by in the body, sounds float by as well—there is an aspect of
your awareness that simply Witnesses or Notices, without judgment
or condemnation, everything that is arising. The Mirror Mind is
always there, even if we forget it. It witnesses Hitler in
precisely the same
way it witnesses Mother Teresa. Again, radical inclusion.
On the relative plane, however, judgments are made and should be
made. This is the plane where they are relatively real. As Buddha
said, “Choose good, avoid evil, this is the path”—the path, that
is, in the relative realm of objects.
In the relative realm, more inclusive is better than less
inclusive, more depth is better than less depth, more love is
better than less love, second tier is better than first tier, more
compassion is better than less compassion. In the absolute realm
(of your own impartial Witness of all that is arising), all of
those are absolutely
equal. (As we said, the Mirror Mind reflects Hitler and
Teresa equally). But in the relative or phenomenal realm, Teresa is
better than Hitler, and so on.
Here is the point: idiot compassion is a confusing of relative
and absolute paths. Idiot compassion is not only afraid to ruffle
feathers, it is afraid to make judgments and rankings and
holarchies and gradations and so on, because it confuses total
nonjudgmentalism (which applies only to Mirror Mind) with the realm
of objects where judgments should be made. What is supposed to
happen is that, resting in Mirror Mind, and reflecting everything
equally as it arises, relative judgments arise within that space
and are made about things that are better or worse, good or bad,
true or false, and so on. So you should feel both a radical impartially (or
total inclusion) as the ground of everything arising in your own I
AMness or Witness, and some things that arise
within all space are definitely judged better and worse than
others.
So, both the self-contraction and idiot compassion are cases of
mistaken identity, and you can feel—and overcome—this
mistake in this very moment, if you follow a few pointing out
instructions (which I will give in a moment). As we saw, the ego or
self-contraction is merely and actually an object, it’s not what
you really are, it’s not even a real subject, it’s just an object,
it’s seen, it
can’t see anything. Objects can’t see, only subjects can. But we
mistake the seen
ego for the Real
Seer, the True Self—we mistake the temporal ego for our
timeless I AMness.
That’s the first mistake of confusing the relative, objective,
phenomenal ego for the absolute Self that I AM.
The second mistake is to similarly confuse the radical
nonjudgmentalism of the Real Self (or Mirror Mind) with the
phenomenal world where judgments should and must be made. Thus, on
the relative plane the path is “Do good, avoid evil, this is the
path.” On the absolute or nondual plane, however, the path is
choiceless
awareness, beyond good and evil, reflecting each
impartially, or simply resting in the pure Presence of this moment,
the simple feeling of Being, the Witness of this and every moment,
and let it all come rushing through in radical nonattachment and
purest equanimity—the vast and infinite Mirror Mind that, Chung Tzu
says, “grasps nothing, seeks nothing, receives but does not
keep.”
Both paths are to be practiced together in the genuine nondual
Path of the Great Liberation—a Great Liberation that occurs each
and every moment—right now—that one’s identity shifts from a false
self (the seen ego, the self-contraction) to the True Self (Big
Mind or Mirror Mind, the infinite I AMness in each and every
sentient being), embracing all that arises in the brilliant clarity
and luminosity of the infinite shine of Mirror Mind. That is the
aim of the nondual paths of Liberation, and the aim of Integral
Life Practice as well.
In ILP, with regard to the relative path, we follow the
Prime Directive: work diligently to protect and
promote the greatest depth for the greatest span. But in the
ultimate or nondual path, we allow everything to be
exactly as it is. Choiceless awareness, without
judging, condemning, condoning, grasping, or keeping—no accepting
or rejecting, no judging or not judging, all in the timeless Now of
Mirror Mind.
But to confuse the two paths (as opposed to integrating them) is
to wind up missing the truths of both. You apply relative traits to
the absolute and end up dualistic (e.g., a realized sage embraces
just heaven but never hell) and then both truths actually go to
hell. This is the world of idiot compassion, and unfortunately, the
very characteristics of the green meme make this confusion
extremely common: a spiritual path with Manjushri carrying a wooden
spoon instead of the sword of discriminating wisdom (prajna),
whereupon depth disappears from the world almost immediately,
leaving in its place a placid sea of the herd mentality, holding
its breath lest it speak too loudly, ruffle a feather, and find
that “the person who caused it must go away”—and in green,
everybody is afraid of going away, of uttering a single thing that
sets in motion a judgment of real wisdom or
compassion.
I will come back to this, as I said, and give those pointing out
instructions for the Great Liberation. But I want to quickly point
out that, with reference to idiot compassion, I put a few sentences
in the post that carried its real message, knowing that those who
had eyes of wisdom and compassion, not flatland wisdom and idiot
compassion, would see the few sentences in the blog that called to
them: “People will make up their own minds. I just wanted
them—wanted us—wanted you—to have some other facts and perspectives
to take into account when making up your mind… which I hope will be
to include both
sides, all sides, in a larger picture. I already have moved to do
so in my own mind, and I hope that you will too, because there is
room for all in Big Mind, in a third-tier embrace of the entire
Kosmos. Things float by as clouds in the sky, with effortless ease
in the all-inclusive Presence that is witnessing this screen, and
this room, and this world, arise in luminous clarity and radiant
splendor… and that is why it all rolls off the back so easily, when
all is said and done, for all are textures of your very own Self,
alone in the Alone….”