Sex Ecology Spirituality: Encyclopedia II - Sex Ecology Spirituality - The structure and theses of SES

Sex Ecology Spirituality - The structure and theses of SES

Sex Ecology Spirituality - Introduction

• Wilber describes the deeply dysteleological perspective of contemporary philosophical naturalism as "the philosophy of 'oops'".
• He describes the spiritual inadequacies of philosophical naturalism as the source of the contemporary world's menacing ecological crisis.
• He describes his methodology as outlining "orienting generalizations"—points on which agreement can be found that will reveal a shared world-space.

Sex Ecology Spirituality - Book One

• Arthur Lovejoy's account of the Great Chain of Being is used to show how the mechanistic, materialistic modern worldview triumphed over the West's traditional, holistic, hierarchical view.
• The prevalence of pathological, dominating hierarchies throughout history has given hierarchy a bad name. But hierarchy is ultimately inescapable. Thus, we should concentrate on discovering which hierarchies actually do exist and on healing them.

• Arthur Koestler's account of holism and holarchy and Ludwig von Bertalanffy's General Systems Theory are used to describe (approximately) twenty tenets of all holons.
• Wilber calls the holistic version of the Great Chain of Being the "Great Nest of Spirit", because this account emphasizes that higher levels include as well as transcend lower ones.

• Erich Jantsch's account of co-evolution and self-organizing systems is described.

• Two fundamental aspects of existence are described: the "Right-hand path" (interiority) and the "Left-hand path" (exteriority).
• Gross Reductionism—atomism, for example—consists in reducing a whole to its parts. Subtle Reductionism—systems theory, for example—consists in reducing the interior to the exterior. Charles Taylor's work is used to show that the Enlightenment paradigm suffers from both Gross and Subtle Reductionism.
• When Individual and Social spheres are added to the Interior and Exterior aspects of existence, four quadrants emerge.

• Jean Gebser's account of the development of human consciousness is used to show how the West progressed from the magic to the mythic to the rational mentalities.
• This acknowledgment that all of existence is in development adds a third fundamental dimension—depth, or verticality—to Wilber's model of consciousness.

• Jean Piaget's theory of developmental psychology is used to describe the individual development of the contemporary human being.
• The "Pre/Trans Fallacy" is described. This is Wilber's term for "romantic" approaches, like deep ecology and ecofeminism, that mistake earlier and more exclusivist modes of being for more mature, more inclusive modes.

• Jürgen Habermas' account of socio-cultural development is used to describe collective human development.
• Vision-logic is described, a non-dominating, global awareness of holistic hierarchy, in which the pathological dissociations of Nature from Self, interiority from exteriority, and creativity from compassion are transformed into healthy differentiations.
• The validity claims of mystics are compared to Thomas Kuhn's account of scientific paradigms.

• The accounts of four mystics are used to describe the possibilities for further individual spiritual development.

• The Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson on nature mysticism
• The Christian saint Teresa of Avila on deity mysticism
• Meister Eckhart on formless mysticism
• The Hindu guru Ramana Maharshi on nondual mysticism

Sex Ecology Spirituality - Book Two

• According to the Neo-Platonist Plotinus' nondual metaphysics, "Ascending" philosophies are those that embrace the One, or the Absolute. "Descending" philosophies are those that embrace the Many, or Plenitude. Both ascent (driven by Eros, or creativity) and descent (driven by Agape, or compassion) are indespensible for a healthy, whole view.
• Plato's metaphysics, which also included both ascending and descending drives, is described.
• Plotinus' attack on Gnosticism is described in order to trace differences between healthy and pathological approaches to ascent.

• Attempts to repair modernism's fractured and flattened worldview are described, especially Schelling's existential idealism.

• The liberating advantages as well as the spiritually crippling disadvantages of the modern, scientific mentality are described.

• Charles Taylor's account of the effects of the Enlightenment paradigm is used to show how vertical depth was collapsed into horizontal span and how the ascending drive was dissociated into the "Ego camp" (Kant's and Fichte's Transcendent Ego) and the "Eco camp" (Spinoza's deified Nature).
• Utilitarianism is described as mistaking sensory pleasure for Spirit, which ultimately resulted in a fixation on hedonism and sex in modern society.

• Describes how the West tried to embrace the Many through science, but failed to embrace the One through mysticism.
• The result was the rise of Thanatos (Freud's death drive), and Phobos (existential fear), which are the respective pathological versions of Agape and Eros.

• Aspects of particular historical nondual views that could possibly heal the noetic fissures in the West are described, especially spiritual practice as understood by Zen & Dzogchen Buddhism.

• Includes a meditation on Emptiness as the ground of Being in which all entities are ontologically healed.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The structure and theses of SES", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki