From The Big Bang To The Big Three

Tune in for this interesting and insightful talk by Ken Wilber. Ken takes us on a blistering guided tour through the evolution of the Universe, describing how each of the “three faces of Spirit” has evolved from the Big Bang to this present moment.

Transcript

So third-person evolution, We can trace back to the Big Bang or the Big Flaring Fourth. And within a second after the Big Bang, The universe is so hot that a single digit followed by enough zeros to fill an entire line of print will give you an idea of approximately how hot the universe was. A stream of neutrinos, Protons, Neutrons, Electrons, And photons began to pour forth from this opening. If the cosmos had expanded one trillionth of a second faster, These neutrinos, Protons, Neutrons, And electrons could never have evolved into more complex forms. And yet a trillionth of a second slower, And everything would have collapsed back in on itself. So we're already seeing a type of highly sensitive set of criteria that leads some people to the creative design argument. And you can start to see why. But the point is that evolution was already occurring. These first particles were crashing into each other and either dissolving or moving on. A titanic battle began occurring between matter and anti-matter. And a mere one billionth of the original matter of the universe survived this clash. The vast, Vast amount of it dissolved, Evaporated in clashes between matter and anti-matter. And so evolution was well underway. Out of these evolutionary clashes, Enduring atoms emerged. Then a ripple of gravity enabled hydrogen and helium atoms to cluster together into a trillion huge clouds, Which a billion years later condensed into galaxies. Scientists right now think there are around a hundred billion galaxies, Each with up to a trillion stars. Then a truly extraordinary evolution. As stars burn, Their energy is generated by hydrogen converting to helium. When hydrogen is depleted, Gravity turns the helium into carbon and eventually iron. Energy conversion then becomes impossible and gravity takes over. Heat becomes so intense that only neutrons are left and these neutrons collapse back on themselves, Creating black holes. And these are entities where gravity is so intense, Nothing can escape, Including light. There's a whole series of theories about black holes actually on this side of the universe opening the white holes in another dimension. And that the matter that's being sucked into black holes from this side of the universe is appearing in big bang-like explosions on a parallel universe. And this is going on rather constantly. But this is part of the whole extraordinary revolution in physics and astrophysics that is going on and moving quite beyond quantum mechanics. When people refer to quantum mechanics as revolutionary breakthroughs in modern physics, That's a little misstated. Quantum mechanics is over a hundred years old. It's one of the oldest other physics branches we have around. But as black holes are being formed, Smaller stars instead exploded and this created supernova. These released enormous amounts of energy, Generated fusion, And created heavier elements and atoms necessary for life. Oxygen, Carbon, Nitrogen, Which were flung forth into the universe and began this evolution into living forms. All of which to this day are literally made from this stardust. Our bodies still contain the heavier elements that were made during this time. The physical gross body anyway literally is made of stardust. As Brian Swim points out, The cosmos is not a pluriverse, But a universe. All existing things originated from the same big bang and subsequent transformations, Including supernova. The universe is and remains a single entity event, Differentiated into different aspects. Quote, Although we today are just beginning to realize what it means to say that the universe acts in an integral manner, Future humans will take this for granted. So the cosmos, From the start, Was integral and it was evolutionary. According to integral theory and the one, Two, Three of spirit, This single material substance system or a single universe is simply part of the third person view of the single spirit itself, Which remains integral in all of its subsequent actions, With evolution itself being spirit in action or the manner and mode of spirit creating a manifest universe, Integral and evolutionary. And so it was from the very beginning to today. The creation of the material manifest universe, Focused on primarily by science and its third person perspective, Discloses what the traditions such as Vedanta call Prakriti or Maya. Correlated with material Prakriti is pure consciousness or Purusha, The first person dimension of spirit. The point is that in integral evolution, All four quadrants or the big three, The one, Two, Three of spirit are tetra evolving. Science picks up only the third person aspects, Material, Energy, Objective elements. We'll return to first person I and second person we in a moment, But they are also simultaneously evolving. Approximately five billion years ago, Our solar system came into being from the seeds of a supernova. Chunks of matter spun from the supernova, Including a proto sun and individual clumps that would condense into planets. The earth condensed at precisely the right distance from the sun to be conducive to the integral evolution of life forms. Then one of the most astonishing evolutionary transformations, In the history of the cosmos occurred, The emergence of life. It begins with a several hundred million year long bombardment of the earth by meteors, Resulting in the earth's surface literally boiling from the heat. When this cooled off, Rocks could and did solidify. Then came several million years of lightning, Which provided the catalyst for the earliest forms of life. But what else was involved is that as spirit manifests, It does so with an inherent tendency to self-organization. Known by many different names, We can call it Eros, The drive to self-organization through self-transcendence. It is Eros that is spirit's drive to creative emergence, And it would be active over and over and over again as spirit in action driving the creative emergence of the manifest world. Through the miracle of Eros and creative emergent tetra evolution, The first life forms, Prokaryotes, Which are without nuclei, Emerged. These are followed by eukaryotes, Or cells with nuclei, Together they were the forerunners of plants due to their development of photosynthesis, And animals due to their capacity to use oxygen for fuel. All of this occurred around two to three billion years ago. These cells are still active in us due to the transcend and include nature of evolution. These cells constitute up to 90 percent of our own cellulose structure. The stage was set for the tetra evolution of new, Higher, More complex, And more conscious life forms, And so they came. First the marine invertebrates, Then the out of the seas came plants, Then fish with bones, Amphibians at home in sea and land, Reptiles, Including for a while mighty dinosaurs, Mammals, Birds, Primates, And humans. All of these, Going all the way back to the earliest particles, Have four dimensions, Or the big three, First, Second, And third person dimensions, All of which evolved together in a tetra mesh of spirit inaction, Or Eros. The first three dimensions are the first three, The second, And the third spirit inaction, Or Eros. Self-organization through self-transcendence. And since that means transcend and include, All of us contain aspects of every single one of these creative emergent stages, Going all the way back to quarks, Electrons, Protons, And neutrons, Through heavier elements of carbon, Nitrogen, And oxygen, To the earliest cell forms, Prokaryotes and eukaryotes, To neural nets of the earliest animals, Biochemical pathways of the earliest plants, Reptilian brain stems of earliest reptiles, Limbic systems of older mammals, Prion brains of primates, And all of the mental structures of our own ancestors, Running from archaic worldviews to magic, To mythic, To rational, To pluralistic, To the beginning of integral. This is the objective third-person view of spirit in action as it creatively manifests an interwoven universe out of absolutely, Literally nothing except its own creative intelligence. In the one, Two, Three of spirit, This is dimension three and its extraordinary role in tetra evolution. While that's going on, Correlative with it is spirit in second person. The four major dimensions of existence are called the four quadrants. Every event can be looked at from the inside and the outside, And the individual and the collective. This gives us four dimensions that can be drawn as four boxes on a sheet of paper, The upper left or interior of the individual, Which is the eye space or first person perspective, The lower left or interior of the group, Which is the we space made of eye and you, And you is the second person perspective, The upper right or exterior of the individual, An objective scientific view of the individual and it space, Which is third person singular, And the lower right or exterior of the collective, An objective scientific view of the collective and its space or third person plural. The two right hand or objective dimensions are often treated together since they are both third person. Altogether then we have the one, Two, Three of any occasion, Including spirit. We just gave the third person view of evolution. There's another way of looking at events. Everything in the cosmos is a holon. A holon is a whole, Which is part of another whole. A whole atom is part of a molecule. A whole molecule is part of a whole cell. A whole cell is part of a whole organism and so on. Everything is a holon. Each holon by virtue of the fact that it is a whole part has four major drives. On its own level it has both agency and communion. Agency is the tendency to be just a whole, A drive to autonomy and separateness, While communion is the tendency to be a part, A member of a greater whole. Each holon also has a drive to reach up to higher holes, To transform to a higher whole, Which is eros, And each holon not only has a drive to reach higher, It has a drive to embrace its own lower elements, Which is agape. So a molecule, For example, On its own level has a drive to be an autonomous whole molecule agency, As well as a drive to be part of a larger system of other molecules, Communion. It also has a drive to reach higher and become a greater whole, Become a cell, That's eros, As well as a drive to reach down and embrace its own lower elements, Atoms and quarks, A drive called agape. We covered the right-hand exterior objective third-person aspects of evolution, The upper right and lower right dimensions. Now we're looking at the second-person dimension, The dimension of an other, Of a you, A thou, The lower left quadrant, A we, A thou, A collective. An integral theory maintains that all phenomena have a lower left quadrant, All the way up, All the way down. This means every individual is part of a collective, Every I is part of various we's. Atoms exist together in galaxies, Molecules exist together in plants, Cells exist together in plants and animals, Plants and animals exist together in ecosystems. The big three, Or one, Two, Three, Is also I, We and it, And all of them go all the way up, All the way down. Another way to say every phenomena has a lower left, Or we, Is to say every phenomena has communion, Has the drive that comes from being part of a larger collective of the same phenomena. Cosmologists maintain that from the Big Bang forward there are at least two tendencies shown by all phenomena, Differentiation and communion. Differentiation is agency, Or the drive to be a different, Separate and autonomous being. And communion is, Well, Communion, The drive to join with other similar phenomena and form I's into we's. And that is indeed what we find throughout evolution, A fine balance and mixture of agency and communion, Along with, Of course, Eros and Agape. Put differently, Every phenomena has a lower left quadrant, A mutual resonance of similar phenomena drawn together into larger collectives. This is why we find, For example, That in evolution, Selection operates not just on individuals, But on groups. Not only the third person, But the second person evolves. As does, We will see, The first person. Evolution is a tetra affair. When it comes to spirit, This means that not only can it be conceived and approached in objective third person terms, Which we briefly did, But also in inner subjective second person terms. Spirit can be approached as a great, Vast, Infinite you or thou, A caring, Conscious dimension. When humans can communicate with this great thou, To form a we, To form a communion of spiritual awareness. And indeed, Spirit in second person is, Worldwide, One of the most common and most often found forms of spiritual engagement. Spirit can be approached not just in third person terms, But also in second person. And as we will see, First person as well. As with all manifest phenomena, Human understanding of spirit in second person evolves. And it evolves through the basic stages of human evolution itself. Archaic, To magic, To mythic, To rational, To pluralistic, To integral and higher. Magic is the basic transition stage from the great apes to specifically human forms. The first of which is a magic world view. This is a view of animism, Where virtually all things, Animals, Plants, Objects, Humans, All have souls or spirits. There is generally no single god or goddess, But a plethora of many gods, Spirits and powers that need to be appeased via magical rituals, Including in many cases human sacrifice. The Old Testament story of Abraham and his son Isaac occurs right at the time this early magic stage is being outgrown. God orders Abraham to sacrificially kill his son. And Abraham dutifully is about to do so when God calls it off. This culture is moving out of tribal magic and into the next major stage, Warrior magic. Here God is very close to a terrorist. This stage is aggressive, Warlike, Vengeful, And its god is likewise wrathful and revengeful. With the Egyptians alone, For example, At God's behest, There are plagues of bloody water, Frogs, Gnats, Flies, Diseased cattle, Boils, Hail, Locusts, And finally God himself kills all firstborn Egyptian males. Not to mention killing the entire human race, Except Noah's family, With a flood. In the Old Testament there are 600 passages of explicit violence, A thousand verses describing God's own violence against humanity, And a hundred pages where God commands his followers to kill people. When spirit and second person is at this stage, Salvation is to be saved from the wrath of God and essentially go to heaven. Satan is the source of evil and is in constant battle with God for human souls. Then the important evolution from magic to mythic, From egocentric to ethnocentric, And from individual heroes to chosen peoples. This is a move from egocentric to ethnocentric, A chosen people with the one true path and the only savior. It is the stage of traditional values and conformist views. The Bible is literally true in every way. Unbelievers are infidels, Lacking souls, And worthy of death. It's called mythic because all the myths are taken to be literally true. Moses really did part the Red Sea, God really did rain frogs on the Egyptians, Mary really was a biological version. And it's ethnocentric, Meaning that it can take the role of other, It can consciously take second person. From this point on in evolution, There is not just a dimension of spirit that exists in second person, Which has been true since the Big Bang, But that humans can now be aware of this great thou, This ultimate reality that appears as an other. This is simply great spirit appearing as a thou, An infinite intelligence and cosmic creatrix that gives rise to the entire manifest universe and can be directly approached in what Martin Buber famously called the I-Thou relationship, A mutual relationship resonating between spirit and the heart of men and women. As evolution continues, This relationship will transform from communion with spirit to union with spirit to pure identity with spirit, What the Sufis call again the supreme identity. This is simply the second person perspective on liberation, Awakening, Unity consciousness, Pure non-duality. It is the source of guru yoga as well, Where one's guru as a you or other acts as and embodies spirit until you can embody it yourself. But at this early stage, The mythic stage, God in second person is still highly anthropomorphic, The stereotypical old bearded gentleman on a throne somewhere up there. Unfortunately, In the West, Spiritual intelligence has often been arrested at this stage, Leaving the next stage that of reason solely to science. This has been a cultural catastrophe of the first magnitude. There are simply few forms of spirituality higher than mythic literal and science and religion have been fundamental enemies in an ongoing culture war. The only way out of this disaster is for religious leaders to recognize both the one, Two, Three of spirit and the developmental nature of each of those perspectives. There is a science and religion at each major stage. We don't need religion frozen at the mythic stage. The incredibly important point about the next major stage, That of reason, Is that one's identity shifts from ethnocentric, The one and only chosen peoples, To world-centric, Where all people are treated fairly regardless of race, Color, Sex, Or creed. Spiritual intelligence evolves from mythic to reasonable, And an entirely new world of evidence and reason opens up. When spiritual intelligence moves from ethnocentric to world-centric, Consciousness itself becomes deeper, Wider, Higher, With more presence and radiance and love. At this stage, Spiritual teachers like Jesus are seen as universal, World-centric humanists, Teaching love and awareness and mindfulness. Heaven and hell are conditions on earth, Are states of mind, And depend on our awareness. In this modern, Rational, Scientific, Objective stage, Spirit in second person becomes demythologized. The old great gentleman is gone, And spirit appears as an infinite being with intelligence, As the intelligent creatrix of the entire manifest realm. Moreover, Spirit is now world-centric. Religions realize that spirit is equally present in every sentient being, Regardless of race, Color, Sex, Or creed. The modern stage begins to realize that spirit, Being ever-present, Can be found in all the major religions, And liberation can be found in each. This ends the religious wars of who has the only true path. All sophisticated religions have true and authentic paths when used consciously, Compassionately, And with love and care. The next stage, The pluralistic, Postmodern stage, Is radically egalitarian and is open to seeing spirit in second person, Present in all individuals and all spiritual paths. God is radically inclusive and all-embracing. Sin is oppressing others and not living up to our own potential. Liberation is a direct experience of spirit in second person, Whether a communion, Union, Or direct identity. Of course, Some individuals at this stage are atheists or agnostics, But for those who believe, Those are common forms. The biggest problem at this stage is confusing dominator hierarchies, Like the caste system, With growth hierarchies, Like atoms to molecules to cells to organisms, And then throwing them both out. This is a disaster because growth hierarchies are found in all of nature, Including the human mind, And are the ever more inclusive stages by which growth occurs. Again, Atoms to molecules to cells to organisms. There is no oppression in growth hierarchies. Molecules don't hate and oppress atoms. They love and literally embrace them, Include them. The same is true of human growth hierarchies in all multiple intelligences, Evolving through magic to mythic to rational to pluralistic to integral and higher. In a growth hierarchy, Each successive stage transcends and includes its predecessor, So it becomes more and more and more inclusive. This reaches a major milestone with the emergence of the integral stage. All previous stages, Magic to pluralistic, Which together are often referred to as first tier, Think that their values and their values alone are true, So there is constant warfare between them all. But the integral stage, Which Claire Graves called a monumental leap in meaning, Believes that there are partial truths in all preceding stages, And thus has a radically inclusive stance. Here spirit and second person transcends and includes the partial truths of all previous stages, Making the integral stage the first truly and fully inclusive, All embracing great other. As one moves into the next higher stages, The third tier stages, The highest and most integral stages to evolve yet, If one is following a path of spirit and second person, One can permanently move from communion to union to identity with great spirit. Long gone are views of spirit as magical elements or mythic parent figures in the sky. Spirit now appears as infinite intelligence, An eternal mystery that is all pervading, All inclusive, All liberated, The fundamental ground and goal of all being, And the basic creatrix of the entire manifest world, A creatrix that is the source of manifestation and tetra evolution throughout the entire cosmos. The miracle of creation is the miracle of great spirit, Known in third person wonder, Second person I-thou resonance, And first person true self identity. We've covered three and two, We can now briefly look at one or first person. According to the great wisdom traditions, Every single sentient being possesses a buddha mind or purusha consciousness or collective consciousness or conscious light from the godhead. In one sense, The consciousness in sentient beings is identical in all of them. As Schrodinger, Founder of quantum mechanics, Put it, And I earlier quoted, Consciousness is a singular, The plural of which is unknown. That is, There is one spirit, One consciousness, One self, One being throughout the cosmos. That is absolute truth. But as for relative truth, The forms of manifestation of this one consciousness, One self, This spirit in first person, Grow and evolve, Just like the other perspectives, Second and third. Of course, There's also a dimension of spirit, Which is pure emptiness, Pure unqualifiable awareness, Which is nette nette, Not this, Not that, Not first, Second, Or third person, Or any other characteristics. But we're talking about spirit with characteristics, Such as being, Consciousness, Bliss, Or first, Second, And third person aspects, And these evolve. The majority of philosophers, East and west, Have been panpsychists, Which means they believe consciousness goes all the way down, All the way up, And is present in at least a rudimentary form in all beings, Atoms to worms, To apes, To humans. And it is the form of the first person consciousness that evolves, And that is still evolving. Further, These first person forms of consciousness are correlated, Or exist along with the forms of second and third person perspectives. So atoms, For example, Possess a rudimentary form of awareness called prehension by Whitehead. Eukaryotes possess irritability, Or the capacity to respond to stimuli. Early multicellular organisms possess sensation, And animals with neural nets possess perception. Reptiles with their brain stem possess instincts, Sex, Food, And aggression. And mammals with limbic systems possess early emotions, Fear, Desire, Simple joy, Appetite. Apes possess images and symbols, And that leads to human beings and the evolution of their consciousness through the major stages, Magic to third tier. With regard to first person, The early stages of magic are egocentric or narcissistic, Which means they possess first person perspectives, But they are not self aware of this. They are unconscious. This changes dramatically at the rational stage, Where the gaining of a third person capacity makes it possible to introspect and become aware of first person consciousness itself. And here, For the first time, As human beings begin to explore their consciousness within, They begin to discover not only pre-rational dimensions, Or the lower awareness, The shadow, The repressed unconscious, But also the higher trans-rational, Transpersonal consciousness as well, Which is increasingly seen and felt as spirit in first person. Whether known as Atman, Purusha, Ruhark Adnai, Or Ma'atman, It is understood as one's true self, One's real self, The timeless and eternal and spaceless and infinite ground of all being. God, In other words, Is directly found within, A discovery that discloses the real self and brings eternal self liberation and ultimate freedom. The discovery of the true self shows men and women that they actually have at least two selves, One absolute and one relative. The absolute self is one's true self, One's divine and spiritual core that is eternally and timelessly one's deepest being. The relative self, The ego, The self-contraction, The separate self-sense, Is an illusory self, Which when clung to, Is the source of all suffering, Misery, And pain. And the goal of the paths of the great liberation is to reverse one's identity with this small, Finite self and discover one's true identity with a radically real and infinite self. Most contemplative schools maintain this discovery is best facilitated by the path of meditation and unfolds in four or five major stages, Gross to subtle to causal to witnessing to ultimate non-dual. We'll come back to these in just a moment. First let's return to the world-centric rational stage where one can especially begin the inward search for the true self in earnest. The first person I, At this stage, Feels an expansion from and beyond its ethnocentric group, Tribe, Nation, Creed, To a global identity with all humans, Regardless of race, Color, Sex, Or creed. Here consciousness has evolved and expanded from egocentric to ethnocentric to world-centric. At the next evolutionary stage, The pluralistic, Consciousness expands once again to a sense of identity not just with all humans but all living creatures. Spirit in third person appears as Gaia or indeed the entire universe. The major gap is the views and values of other stages. Since the pluralistic stage, Like all first tier stages, Thinks its views alone are real, This is remedied with the monumental leap in meaning that is integral second tier. Here first person consciousness can begin to not just recognize Gaia as second or third person reality but identify with it as a first person reality. All previous stages are taken up and included in the radical inclusiveness that is integral second tier. It's when we move into third tier, Trans-rational, Transpersonal integral stages, That not just temporary but permanent evolution through the meditative stages becomes easier and easier. Wakefulness or consciousness as such begins its development from gross egoic to subtle soul to true self causal to ultimate non-dual. Although we're focusing on first person forms of this development, It can and does occur through second and third person as well, Leading through the one, Two, Three of spirit to a radical and eternal and already accomplished self liberation. So we've seen that first, Second and third person perspectives evolve. But is it God evolving or just our interpretations evolving? I believe it's both. The traditions usually divide spirit into two aspects, What the Hindus call nirguna Brahman or spirit without any characteristics at all, A pure emptiness, And saguna Brahman or spirit with characteristics such as being, Consciousness bliss or first, Second and third person. Nirguna Brahman doesn't evolve at all. Pure emptiness has no parts or aspects that could evolve. But saguna Brahman evolves, Particularly its first, Second and third person aspects along with humans who are also evolving along those lines. And this evolution is still continuing today in all four quadrants or one, Two, Three. One example is, For instance, As evolution moves from rational to pluralistic to integral. Evolution itself becomes more and more conscious. By the time we reach integral, It is understood that evolution doesn't just touch third person reality or the exterior world, But touches first and second as well or all four quadrants. One's very eye starts to shift from a statically felt being to an urgently dynamic I am evolution. As nirguna Brahman, One still has access to timeless, Motionless emptiness. But as saguna Brahman, The manifest I is seen and felt as the very stream of evolution itself. Andrew Cohen and Craig Hamilton have, Of course, Made this a pillar of their teaching. This is just a good example of how integral evolution continues and alters everything it touches on the way to the supreme identity. And so there it is, A quick overview of the four quadrants or the three faces of spirit and their ongoing ever creative evolution. Whitehead said there were what he called three categories of the ultimate. The one, The many, And the creative advance into novelty. The creative advance into novelty by any other name, Evolution. And so after thousands of years of human beings watching and wondering just how and why something is created out of nothing, We know evolution is the manner and mode of spirit's creation. Is the very spirit itself creates the entire manifest world? Is in fact spirit and action itself? What an extraordinary, Thrilling, Amazing discovery which alters all our lives and changes our view of the universe irrevocably.

Reviews

Deep in insightful .. thank you!

Funny thing, i could follow along almost word for word as if i already could see this. Clearly.
I am eternally grateful. Thank you.

I was introduced to Ken Wilber’s teachings in 2008 during a www.living-compassion.org type workshop in NC. Every focus in my life at age 48 was touch, was changed. I also adore many of Ken Wilber’s textS. I love the focus of this life I live, NOW and I love this talk. I will listen again and again! www.gratefulness.org, ahimsa

This all sounds amazing AND I need to be able to read this in order to let it sink in. Just hearing for me does not do it. I love the connection with Martin Buber’s “I-Thou”, which has always been one of my favorite books.

Amazing information. WOW, just WOW.
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