Participation, metaphysics, and enlightenment: reflections on Ken Wilber’s recent work
Ferrer, Jorge (2015)
Ferrer, Jorge
The Donner Institute, Åbo Akademi
2015
Kuvaus
Jorge Ferrer, Department of East-West Psychology, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, California
Jorge N. Ferrer, PhD, is core faculty of the department of East-West Psychology, as well as associate core faculty of the Integral and Transpersonal Psychologies (online) PhD program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), San Francisco. Formerly the chair of the East-West Psychology department from 2008–12, he is the award-winning author of Revisioning Transpersonal Theory: A Participatory Vision of Human Spirituality (SUNY Press, 2002) and Participation and the Mystery: Transpersonal Essays in Psychology, Education, and Religion (SUNY Press, forthcoming), as well as the coeditor (with Jacob H. Sherman) of The Participatory Turn: Spirituality, Mysticism, Religious Studies (SUNY Press, 2008). In 2009, he became an advisor to the organization Religions for Peace at the United Nations on a research project aimed at solving global interreligious conflict. He was born in Barcelona, Spain.
Jorge N. Ferrer, PhD, is core faculty of the department of East-West Psychology, as well as associate core faculty of the Integral and Transpersonal Psychologies (online) PhD program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), San Francisco. Formerly the chair of the East-West Psychology department from 2008–12, he is the award-winning author of Revisioning Transpersonal Theory: A Participatory Vision of Human Spirituality (SUNY Press, 2002) and Participation and the Mystery: Transpersonal Essays in Psychology, Education, and Religion (SUNY Press, forthcoming), as well as the coeditor (with Jacob H. Sherman) of The Participatory Turn: Spirituality, Mysticism, Religious Studies (SUNY Press, 2008). In 2009, he became an advisor to the organization Religions for Peace at the United Nations on a research project aimed at solving global interreligious conflict. He was born in Barcelona, Spain.
Tiivistelmä
This article critically examines Ken Wilber’s (2006) recent work from a participatory perspective of human spirituality. After a brief introduction to the participatory approach, I limit my discussion to the following four key issues: a. the participatory critique of Wilber’s work, b. the cultural versus universal nature of Wilber’s Kosmic habits, c. the question of (post-)metaphysics in spiritual discourse, and d. the nature of enlightenment. The article concludes with some concrete directions in which to move the dialogue forward.