journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:17 AM Page i

Statement of Transition

Since 2003, IJTS has been owned and published by Douglas A. MacDonald, Ph.D.
Saybrook Graduate School. When Saybrook agreed to take Co-Editor
over the journal from the University of Hawaii and then Associate Professor of Psychology
managing editors, Sam Shapiro and Philippe Gross, it was University of Detroit Mercy
explicit in telling us that it would guarantee funding for email: pneumaticscope@can.rogers.com
only three years. At this time, the promised three years of
funding are completed and Saybrook has informed us that Harris Friedman, Ph.D.
it is no longer willing or able to provide support for the Co-Editor
journal; consequently, this issue of IJTS is the last under the Research Professor of Psychology
sponsorship of Saybrook. We want to thank Saybrook for its University of Florida
sponsorship in which it fully lived up to its commitment! Professor Emeritus, Saybrook Graduate School
Recognizing the promise and importance of IJTS in email: harrisfriedman@floraglades.org
the transpersonal area, we have explored various options
with regards to finding a new sponsor for the journal, such
as through talking to many other educational institutions
that offer transpersonal studies. The Floraglades Foundation
(see <floraglades.org>), which was created by one of us
(Harris Friedman) to address global issue of sustainability,
has now agreed to support IJTS during this transition.
However, we conclude that IJTS, as an international
journal, suffers from the fact that subscription cost are a
financial burden to those in some parts of the world, espe-
cially considering the expenses of international postage.
Consequently a strategic decision has been made to transi-
tion IJTS into an electronic journal that will be provided
with free access to all through the internet. The journals
new website will be at <transpersonalstudies.org>. Our
intention is to annually post articles accepted to IJTS as an
online issue, as well as to take as many articles as we can
from previous issues and archive them online. We also hope
that this website might provide linkages to various transper-
sonal schools and events, as well as an electronic gathering
place for various transpersonal groups and individuals
throughout the world to interconnect (e.g., we hope to pro-
vide a listserv and other means of fostering global commu-
nications among transpersonal communities). Submissions
of transpersonal papers should be made to
harrisfriedman@floraglades.org. In addition, we welcome
ideas and other contributions to help guide and support the
journal during this transition--please feel free to contact
either of us.

Statement of Transition i
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:17 AM Page ii

Editors Introduction

disciplines acceptance within mainstream psychology.

T
his volume of the International Journal of
Transpersonal Studies starts with an article we con- In addition, this issues Special Topics focuses on syn-
sider extremely important, Beyond Mind II: cretism in transpersonal studies. It features Gebsers
Further Steps to a Metatranspersonal Philosophy and Integral Consciousness and Living in the Real World:
Psychology by Elas Capriles. This article lucidly challenges Facilitating its Emergence Using A Course In Miracles, by
Wilbers well-known ontogenetic holoarchy model, claiming Cornelius J. Holland and Douglas A. MacDonald,
it is based on a delusion and its complicated gradations are Corporate Perspectives On The Vedic Meditative Practice,
only gradations of delusion; this article also challenges other Upasana, by P. S. Rao and P. N. Murthy, and Manifest,
well-known transpersonal models, such as Washburns and Hidden, and Divine Self: Introduction to Sefirot Aikido,
Grof s. Compellingly, it presents a strong case for an alterna- by Jack Susman. These articles are discussed further in the
tive view that could have major impact on transpersonal Special Topics Introduction.
thought. Much longer than most journal articles, it is Finally, this will be the last issue of the International
included in its entirety to give justice to the powerful per- Journal of Transpersonal Studies under the ownership of
spective it presents. Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center. Future
In the Phenomenological Study of the Impact of issues will move to an online format, starting with Volume
Induction Technique and Instruction on Visual Mental 26 in 2007. For information on this, see the Statement of
Imagery Associated with Shamanic Journeying to the Lower Transition or visit <transpersonalstudies.org>.
World, Adam J. Rock explores shamanic journeying
imagery through varying different shamanic induction tech-
niques and instructions to explore mental imagery. This Douglas A. MacDonald, Co-editor
study combined an experimental design with phenomenolog- Associate Professor
ical analysis in a unique way suggesting how methodological University of Detroit Mercy
pluralism can be used to creatively conduct transpersonal
research. Likewise, Nikolai Gruzdev and Dimitri Spivak, in Harris Friedman, Co-editor
An Exploratory Investigation into the Association of Professor Emeritus, Saybrook Graduate School
Neuroticization, Cognitive Style, and Spirituality to and Research Professor, University of Florida
Reported Altered States of Consciousness in Women
Experiencing Childbirth, employed an interesting quasi-
experimental design for studying womens pre- and post-par-
tum experiences of transpersonal altered states of conscious-
ness, using a variety of transpersonal and more convention-
al psychological measures. Both of these studies show the
utility of empirical research for transpersonal studies.
In Transpersonal Education: Problems, Prospects and
Challenges, Paul F. Cunningham presents the need for
bringing transpersonal psychology into the psychology cur-
ricula at an undergraduate, as well as graduate, level. He
argued for the importance of having an authoritative, stan-
dard undergraduate textbook that could both introduce
undergraduates to the discipline and further facilitate the

ii The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25

journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:17 AM Page iii

Transpersonal
Studies
T H E I N T E R N AT I O N A L J O U R N A L O F

Volume 25, 2006

Table of Contents

Statement of Transition i
Editors Introduction ii
Harris Friedman and Douglas A. MacDonald
Beyond Mind II: Further Steps to a Metatranspersonal Philosophy and Psychology 1
Elas Capriles
Phenomenological Study of the Impact of Induction Technique and Instruction on
Visual Mental Imagery Associated with Shamanic Journeying to the Lower World 45
Adam J. Rock, Ph.D.
An Exploratory Investigation into the Association of Neuroticization, Cognitive Style, and Spirituality to
Reported Altered States of Consciousness in Women Experiencing Childbirth 56
Nikolai Gruzdev and Dimitri Spivak
Transpersonal Education: Problems, Prospects and Challenges 62
Paul F. Cunningham

SPECIAL TOPIC: SYNCRETISM IN TRANSPERSONAL STUDIES

Syncretism in Transpersonal Studies:
Introduction to this Issues Special Topics Section 69
Harris Friedman
Gebser's Integral Consciousness and Living in the Real World:
Facilitating its Emergence Using A Course In Miracles 70
Cornelius J. Holland
Douglas A. MacDonald
Corporate Perspectives On The Vedic Meditative Practice Upasana 77
P. S. Rao
P.N. Murthy
Manifest, Hidden, and Divine Self: Introduction to Sefirot Aikido 83
Jack Susman

About Our Contributors 97

Board of Editors 98
Association for Transpersonal Psychology2008 India Conference 99
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:17 AM Page iv

iv The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25

journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:17 AM Page 1

Beyond Mind II:

Further Steps to a Metatranspersonal Philosophy and Psychology
Elas Capriles
University of The Andes
Mrida, Venezuela

Some of Wilbers holoarchies are gradations of being, which he views as truth itself; however, being is
delusion, and its gradations are gradations of delusion. Wilbers supposedly universal ontogenetic
holoarchy contradicts all Buddhist Paths, whereas his view of phylogeny contradicts Buddhist Tantra and
Dzogchen, which claim delusion/being increase throughout the aeon to finally achieve reductio ad absur-
dum. Wilber presents spiritual healing as ascent; Grof and Washburn represent it as descentyet they are
all equally off the mark. Phenomenologically speaking, the Dzogchen Path is descending, but not in
Washburns or Grof s senseand transpersonal is not a synonym of sanity. A synthesis of Wilber, Grof,
Washburn, Jung, Laing, Cooper and non-transpersonal authors in the framework of Wisdom traditions is
imperative.

his paper is called Beyond Mind II because it fur- (3) The third aspect is its energy or thukje (thugs

T ther explores the territory I dealt with in the paper

Beyond Mind: Steps to a Metatranspersonal
Psychology that in 2000 was published in Volume 19 of
this journal. For this paper to be properly understood, it is
important to know that the Dzogchen teachings speak of
Dzogchen qua Base, Dzogchen qua Path, and Dzogchen
qua Fruit, and to have at least a minimal understanding of
each of these concepts. Briefly stated, they can be described
as follows:
(I) Dzogchen qua Base is the original condition of
total completeness/plenitude and perfection, which
is the true nature of the individual and of the uni-
verse in its totality and which consists in actual
Buddhahood with its three kayas.1 This condition
has three aspects:
(1) The first one is the essence or ngowo (ngo bo)
aspect, which is voidness. When the Base is com-
pared to a mirror (as in the Semde [sems sde]
series of Dzogchen teachings), the essence or
ngowo aspect of the Base is illustrated by the
mirrors emptiness: since the mirror contains no
fixed form, it can reflect and manifest all forms.
When Dzogchen qua Base is divided into two
aspects only, this is its katak (ka dag) or primor-
dial purity aspect.2
(2) The second aspect is its nature or rangzhin
(rang bzhin), which is reflectiveness or luminos-
ity. In terms of the mirror, this is the aspect that
causes it never to stop reflecting so long as it con-
tinues to be a mirror.
rje), which consists in the uninterrupted process
of manifestation of appearances. These appear-
ances are empty of self-nature (Skt., swabhava
shunyata; Tib., rang stong), for they are not sub-
sistent andin terms of the similedepend on
the mirrors reflectiveness to manifest, and both
on the mirror and on the whole of other appear-
ances to be what they are.3 When Dzogchen qua
Base is divided into two aspects only, the nature
or rangzhin and the energy or thukje aspects of
the Base are subsumed under the lhundrub (lhun
grub) or spontaneous perfection aspect.4
In its turn, the energy aspect of Dzogchen qua Base
manifests in three different ways:5
(1) As dang (gdangs) energy, which is originally
beyond the inside-outside distinction but which,
once all three ways of manifestation of energy are
active, seems to constitute an interior dimension;
all mental experiences of thought, fantasy and so
on are expressions of this.
(2) As rlpa (rol pa) energy, which does not allow
the inside-outside and subject-object dichoto-
mies to establish themselves; its characteristic
expressions are most vivid yet immaterial visions,
which often feature non-Jungian archetypes.
(3) As tsel (rtsal) energy, which seems to consti-
tute an external, objectively existing dimension;
its most characteristic expression is the material
world.
Finally, this condition has three possible functionings:

Beyond Mind II 1
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:17 AM Page 2
(1) Nirvana, in which Dzogchen qua Base is per-
fectly realized and functions consummately;
(2) The neutral condition of the base-of-all or
kunzhi lungmaten (kun gzhi lung ma bstan), in
which an element of stupefaction
conceals/inhibits the self-reGnition6 of
Dzogchen qua Base so that nirvana is not mani-
fest, yet samsara is not functioning either, and
which if prolonged by meditational techniques
may become a nirvikalpa absorption character-
ized by nirodha or cessation;7 and
(3) Samsara, in which Dzogchen qua Base is per-
ceived invertedly, for the phenomena of energy
are perceived as though, rather than being insep-
arable from the essence and nature aspects of the
Base, they existed independently of these aspects
and of all other phenomena (i.e., as though they
were self-existent).
II) Dzogchen qua Path is the temporary patency of
Dzogchen qua Base while one is treading the Path of
Awakening. Its divisions will not be discussed here;
suffice to say that in Dzogchen the first level of real-
ization is the dharmakaya, which manifests when the
true condition of dang energy is realized and thus
the true condition of the essence aspect of the Base
is disclosed; the second level is the sambhogakaya,
which manifests when the true condition of rlpa
energy is realized and thus the true condition of the
nature aspect of the Base is unconcealed; and the
third level is the nirmanakaya, which manifests
when the true nature of tsel energy is realized and
thus the true condition of the energy aspect of the
Base is unveiled.
(III) Dzogchen qua Fruit is the uninterrupted
patency of Dzogchen qua Base that constitutes the
Fruit of Dzogchen. This Fruit corresponds to the
indivisibility of the three kayas, which are now for-
ever patent and the functioning of which cannot be
impeded or disturbed.
The Gradation of Being
The myth of lila (i.e., of the hide-and-seek of primor-
dial awareness with itself ) and the related degenerative
vision of spiritual and social human evolution and human
history, were transmitted by Wisdom-traditions reportedly
sharing common origins and having Mount Kailash as their
most sacred placesuch as the Bn tradition of the
Himalayas, the Shaiva tradition of India, the Zurvanist tra-
dition of Persia, the newer Tantric schools of the different
religions of India and the Himalayas, the Ismailian tradition
and so on.8 Both the myth and the vision in question make
the point that human life involves the arising, in and as the
2 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
consciousness of each and every individual, of unawareness
of the true condition of reality (first of the senses the term
avidya has in the Dzogchen teachings), and then of the illu-
sion that each and every consciousness, rather than being in
all cases the function of a single primordial Gnitiveness,9 is
a separate experiencer-doer in an alien universe of self-exist-
ing multiplicity (second and third of the senses the term
avidya has in the Dzogchen teachings).10 This is the core of
the delusion that Heraclitus called lete11 and Shakyamuni
called avidya, which progressively develops until, having
reached its full development and thus completed its reduc-
tio ad absurdum, it disconnects itself: in the myth of lila,
deluded consciousness, by treading the Path of Awakening,
dissolves in the unveiling of the Base that is the true nature
of all reality, initially for limited periods while on the Path,
and then irreversibly as the Fruit; in the degenerative view
of spiritual and social evolution, the dissolution of deluded
consciousness in our species puts an end to the Age of
Darkness, Age of Degeneration or Iron Age of one cycle,
and the recovery of awareness (of ) the true condition initi-
ates the Perfect Age, Age of Truth or Golden Age of a new
cycleor, in the last time cycle of a given world system, ini-
tiates an equally perfect concluding Millennium, such as
prophesized in the Kalachakra Tantra, in the Book of
Ismailians, in the Apocalypse and so on.
The teachings of Dzogchen Atiyoga and of the Ancient
or Nyingmapa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism in general
represent the cosmic cycle, aeon, or kalpa as a process of
gradual strengthening and acceleration of the vibratory
activity at the root of the delusory valuation of thought and
the ensuing delusion, the most basic manifestation of which
is the phenomenon of being. Thus this phenomenon
becomes progressively more accentuated as the cycle
unfolds, so that as the degree of being (i.e., the degree of
delusion) gradually increases, a gradation of being is pro-
duced.12 However, in the later stages of development of the
cosmic cycle, for any given individual the degree of being
will also be directly related to the extent to which he or she
manages to elude the naked experience of being (an elusion
that may be boosted by spiritual techniques). Just as the psy-
cho-cosmic structure of the Divine Comedy is inverted in
relation to the standard views according to which Heaven is
straight over us rather than being straight under us, the
degrees of being increase and decrease in directions that are
inverted in regard to the commonsense view of modernity
and to that of systems such as Ken Wilbers integral psy-
chology,13 which reproduce the modern view of human
evolution and history as a process of progressive perfecting
of the human spirit and society, in direct contradiction with
the traditional views of India, China and Tibet (Wilber,
1981, 1995, 2000).14
In Beyond Mind (Capriles, 2000b) and other works
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:17 AM Page 3
(Capriles, 1986, 1989, 1994, 2000a, 2003, 2004, 2005,
work in progress 1) I explained how the above vibratory
activity, which seems to emanate from, or to be concentrat-
ed in, the center of the body at the level of the heart, charges
and sustains thoughts of the three types we have considered,
giving rise to the pivotal phenomena of samsara, such as: the
phenomenon of being; the cleavage that separates the men-
tal subject and the continuum of what appears as object; the
appearance of self-existence and ultimate importance of
entities; the disruption of Total Space-Time-Awareness that
gives rise to space, time and knowledge, etc. The vibrations
at the root of delusory valuation are spasmodic contractions
that take place in the heart chakra or focal point, which
could be partly compared unto repetitive handclaps trying
to produce the illusion that someone concrete and substan-
tial holds something concrete and substantial. At the begin-
ning of the cosmic cycle, the strengthening and increase of
the rate of this vibratory activity, and hence the intensifica-
tion of all that results from it, takes place in a most slow,
imperceptible way; however, as the cycle unfolds, it becomes
progressively evident that there is no concrete, substantial
grasping subject and no concrete, substantial grasped
object, and hence the compulsion to obtain the illusion that
a concrete, substantial grasper is grasping a concrete and
substantial entity exacerbates itself, making the strength and
the pace of the spasmodic contractions increase ever more
rapidly. As the progressive strengthening and acceleration of
the vibratory activity at the root of delusory valuation caus-
es the phenomenon of being to become progressively more
accentuated, it makes the cleavage that separates the mental
subject from the continuum of what appears as object more
extreme, causes the appearance of self-existence and ulti-
mate importance to increase, makes ones experience of
space to become narrower and more fragmented, and caus-
es the velocity of the passing of time to increase. However,
in the same proportion in which the appearance of self-exis-
tence and ultimate importance increases, it becomes even
more evident that there is nothing solid or substantialand
the more evident the fact that there is nothing solid or sub-
stantial, the more vibratory rates accelerate in an attempt to
find proof of solidity and substantiality, in a typical mani-
festation of the Thanatic positive feedback loops15 which
are at the root of the processes and experiences I have
expressed in terms of the symbolism of the Divine Comedy
and so on (Capriles, 1986, 1994, 2000a, 2000b, 20003,
work in progress 1, work in progress 2).
As the cycle approaches its term, the acceleration of
time becomes so rapid as to make itself perceptible, and at
the term of the cycle, the conflict that developed through-
out the cycle attains the level of total conflagration, while
vibratory rates reach a threshold beyond which they cannot
go on, and so they crumble like a dog falling flat after try-
ing to bite its own tail with ever-increasing speedupon
which time crumbles (Padmasambhava, 1977). As time
crumbles, the phenomenon of being, ek-sistence,16 space,
time, becoming, the cleavage separating the mental subject
from the continuum of what appears as object, the illusion
of ultimate importanceand in general all that develops
along with the basic human delusion, which has attained its
zenithinstantly dissolves, putting an end to samsara.
Therefore, the new Golden Age, Age of Perfection or Age of
Truth beginsor, alternatively, we enter the equivalent final
Millennium prophesized in the Kalachakra Tantra, in the
Book of Ismailians, in the Apocalypse and so on.
Thus it is clear that there is a partial analogy
between the degenerative evolution in human phylogeny
and the ontogenetic processes I have represented in terms of
the Divine Comedy. In fact, the cosmic time cycle is also a
meditative experience undergone by the human individual
(Padmasambhava, 1977), in which wayward patterns devel-
op toward the threshold at which delusion may sponta-
neously crumble and Dzogchen qua Path (i.e., the uncon-
cealment of the true condition of all reality) may manifest,
making fully patent the total plenitude and perfection of
Dzogchen qua Basewhich is what the Divine Comedy rep-
resents as passing through the hole at the bottom of Hell. As
I have noted in the above mentioned works, henceforth the
process will consist in the repeated manifestation of
Dzogchen qua Path, which will go along with the sponta-
neous liberation of basic human delusion that progressively
neutralizes the latter and which ideally concludes with the
establishment of Dzogchen qua Fruit.17
When the phenomenon of being and all that develops
interdependently with it reaches the point at which the
naked experience of the being of the human individual has
become too unpleasant to bear, bad faith (Sartres
[1943/1980] term for self-deceit) becomes necessary for he
or she to lead a smoother life and for putting the lid on
those of his or her reactions which would catalyze the posi-
tive feedback loop resulting in the runaway of the degree of
being, the velocity of time and so on, to the threshold at
which samsaras loops would have the possibility of sponta-
neously deactivating themselves. In fact, we have seen that
being unable to elude the fact that there is nothing substan-
tial to grasp, being unable to elude the naked experience of
the being of the human individual which is anguish, or
being unable to elude the naked experience of becoming the
entity that others perceive as our self which Sartre
[1943/1980] inaccurately called shame (Capriles, [1977,
1986, 1997, work in progress 1]), would give rise to reac-
tions which might activate the positive feedback loop at the
root of the systems runaway. It is in order to prevent this
and make life bearable that bad faith must turn anguish into
residual anxiety, and must try to turn into pride the naked
Beyond Mind II 3
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:17 AM Page 4
experience of becoming the entity that others perceive as
our self.
Moreover, at any given stage in the development of the
cosmic cycle, the degree of effectiveness of bad faith will
determine how high an individual will ascend in samsara. In
fact, we manage to climb through the realms of samsara to
the extent that we manage to elude the experience of our
being and thus to dilute our conscious experience of
beingthat is, to the extent that we gain control over the
mechanisms having the power to contain the reactions that
would activate the positive feedback loop at the root of the
systems runaway. Therefore, at any moment in spiritual and
social degenerative evolution, the state with the least degree
of being may be the peak of experience18 that constitutes
the summit of samsaraand so the gradation of being may
be roughly represented by the symbolism of the
Vajracharyas hat, which places the realm of sensuality at the
top, the realm of form in the middle, and the realm of form-
lessness at the bottom.19 This is why it is the creation of a
deficiency in the mechanisms that sustain birth and death
(i.e., in bad faith and whatever spiritual techniques we may
apply in order to perfect bad faith), insofar as it permits the
runaway of the system toward the threshold level, which
allows the human individual to have the meditative experi-
ence of the aeon or kalpa. Thus both at the level of the
species (at least once delusion has developed to a certain
extent) and at the individual level, the degrees of being are
directly related to the modification by means of bad faith
(whether or not boosted by spiritual techniques) of the
experience of being.
To sum up, the more vibratory rates increase and the
more powerful and developed the phenomenon of being
becomes, the higher the degree of being. Therefore, in terms
of the development of the cosmic cycle, aeon or kalpa, the
degree of being was lowest at the beginning of the cycle,
when the phenomenon of being barely arose in human
beings and, if the necessary conditions were present, it lib-
erated itself spontaneously at some pointupon which a
state of Communion beyond the delusory valuation of
thought manifested. Then the phenomenon in question
progressively develops through the cycle, and despite the
above-noted fact that we develop bad faith/elusion in order
to be able to bear the painful experience of being, it gradu-
ally intensifies, reaching its maximum degree at the very end
of the cycleafter which it can crumble and a new cycle can
begin.
On the other hand, in terms of the psychological state
of an individual at any given point of the evolution of the
cycle, the higher he or she climbs in samsara, the lesser the
degree of his or her being, and the lower she or he descends
in samsara, the higher the degree of her or his being.
However, contrarily to what happens with the development
4 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
of being through the time cycle, in this case from a certain
standpoint the degree of being may be said to be inversely
proportional to the level of delusion, for the degree to which
we manage to elude the bare experience of being corre-
sponds to the degree of delusion in the third sense the terms
avidya and marigpa have in the Dzogchen teachings: as the
inability to realize delusion as such.20 This is the main rea-
son why going up in samsara may make it more difficult to
surpass the manifestation of being, whereas going down and
obtaining the maximum degree of being may help the phe-
nomenon of being liberate itself spontaneously.
The above implies that also the Path may be explained
in terms of a gradation of being: whether we explain it in
terms of descending through Hell and, by continuing in the
same direction, then ascending through Purgatory and later
through the Heavens toward the Empyrean, or whether we
explain it in terms of the meditative experience of the aeon
or kalpa, we are speaking of a runaway of the phenomenon
of being unleashed by a deficiency in the mechanisms of
elusion or bad faith, which allows us to fully experience the
conflict inherent in the basic contradiction at the root of
samsara, providing us with a springboard from which to
plunge into nirvana (i.e., into Dzogchen qua Path). It is
because of this universal principle, that I have never struc-
tured my explanations of the Path in terms of a vertical pro-
gression from the states of greater conflict located at the bot-
tom, up through ever less conflicting states, to perfect irre-
versible Awakening or Enlightenment at the summit. It is
thus clear that the structure of Dantes Divine Comedy
(according to which the Awakened condition is not reached
directly by ascending, but by first descending) and the struc-
ture of the aeon or kalpa, are somehow analogous and most
relevant in regard to human psycho-cosmology.
Ken Wilbers Inverted Gradation of Being and Inaccurate
Holoarchies in General
Ken Wilber has produced a series of hierarchic classi-
fications of consciousness and experience (which at some
point he decided to call holoarchies), all of which have
been structured contrarily to the Divine Comedy, for they
represent each of the successive levels on the Path as lying
above the preceding one and place the Awakened condition
at the top, as though it were to be reached by a progressive
process of ascent. In 1977, Wilber (1977/ 1993) posited the
initial, single hierarchy of three basic levels, which I
reviewed in Beyond Mind (Capriles, 2000b); these levels
were: (1) of the ego, which is at the base of the hierarchy;
(2) existential, located in the middle of the hierarchy; and
(3) the Mind, at the top of the hierarchy. He defined these
as follows (Wilber, 1993, p. 8):
Now the Ego Level is that band of consciousness
that comprises our role, our picture of ourself, our
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:17 AM Page 5
self-image, with both its conscious and unconscious
aspects, as well as the analytical and discriminatory
nature of the intellect, of our mind. The second
major level, the Existential Level, involves our total
organism, our soma as well as our psyche, and thus
comprises our basic sense of existence, of being,
along with our cultural premises that in many ways
mold this basic sensation of existence. Among other
things, the Existential Level forms the sensory refer-
ence of our self-image: its what you feel when you
mentally evoke the symbol of your self-image. It
forms, in short, the persistent and irreducible source
of separate I-awareness. The third basic level, here
called Mind, is commonly termed mystical con-
sciousness, and it entails the sensation that you are
fundamentally one with the universe. So where the
Ego Level includes the mind, and the Existential Level
includes both the mind and the body, the Level of Mind
includes the mind and the body and the rest of the uni-
verse.
Giving continuity to Maslows overestimation of peak
experiences (Maslow, 1970),21 at the time of writing the
above, Wilber seems to have viewed as the aim of all spiri-
tual Paths the attainment of the sensation of being funda-
mentally one with the universea wording that applies
quite precisely to the experience of the formless realms that,
according to Buddhism, constitute the summit of samsara,
in which there is a mental subject that knows an infinitude
appearing as object and that identifies with this infinitude,
but which does not apply to nirvana, where there is no
apparently separate mental subject who may feel either one
with anything, or different from anything. Moreover, indi-
vidual liberation (Skt., moksha or mukti) was for him the
comprehension of the mental level (Wilber, 1977; 2nd
Ed. 1993, p. 9)which, if taken literally, would consist in
the intellectual understanding of the level wherein one has
the sensation of cosmic oneness.
In fact, levels belong to what Buddhism calls conven-
tional truth, the Sanskrit term for which has the etymolog-
ical meaning of deluded [pseudo] truth, and are proper of
the Ferris wheel-like gloomy-go-round called samsara: the
vicious circle of experience that involves climbing to higher
states and then falling into lower, gloomier ones, and which
features a summit (the highest of the four formless
absorptions and corresponding realms, in which there is
neither perception nor absence of perception, and which is
characterized by the experience of cosmic unity22) and a
bottom (consisting in the lowest realm of the sphere of sen-
suality [Skt. kama loka or kamadhatu], which is the bottom-
most level of the naraka or purgatories [non-eternal hells]:
the avichi naraka or uninterrupted purgatory, in which
the experience of separation and division reaches its ceiling).
On the other hand, according to the higher Buddhist teach-
ings, nirvana is the condition of absolute equality in which
there is no I that may ascend of descend, and which is
attained by Seeing through the conditioned experience of
samsara into the unconditioned primordial reality that was
concealed by that conditioned experience. That which is
specifically Dzogchenthough Chan and Zen Buddhism
involves a roughly analogous explanationis the explicit
consideration of the base-of-all or kunzhi wherein neither
nirvana nor samsara are active as a third possibility besides
samsara and nirvana.23
With the passing of time, the number of levels in
Wilbers hierarchic classifications of consciousness and
experience multiplied, but for a long time he did not dis-
criminate among, the different types of hierarchy. By 1982
(Wilber, 1982), the levels were: (1) the physical; (2) the bio-
logical; (3) the mental (no longer intended to correspond to
Awakening, for now the term indicates the level of ego,
logic and thought); (4) the subtle (of non-Jungian arche-
types, transindividual, intuitive); (5) the causal (formless
brilliancy or luminosity, perfect transcendence), and (6) the
absolute (consciousness as such, which would be the source
of all other levels). Note that the description of the causal
level Wilber offers us in this book perfectly responds to the
state known as base-of-all or kunzhi (kun gzhi), wherein nei-
ther samsara nor nirvana are active, as manifest when one
cozily remains in the experience of the inner luminosity of
dang (gdangs) energy known as tingsel (gting gsal)24 without
reGnizing this luminosity (a reGnition that would turn it
into an instance of the dharmakaya),25 or in nirvikalpa
experiences of the samten bardo26 (bsam gtan bar do) or
bardo of meditative absorptionand may also correspond
to the vaguely defined state of turiya-ananda of the
Mandukya and Taittiriya Upanishads. Finally, Wilber tells us
that the sixth and last is, more than a level, the true condi-
tion of all levels: it is the unconditioned foundation that is
hidden by the countless conditioning mental constructions
and that the Dzogchen teachings refer to as Dzogchen qua
Base, but which Wilber somehow turned into the Summit
of his hierarchy of spiritual states.27
So far as I know, Wilber has not ceased offering his
readers hierarchical schemas (which lately he has preferred
to call holoarchical).28 By 1996 (Wilber, 1996), the levels
were organized in different systems: one involving three
groups of levels described by Ervin Laszlo (Laszlo, 1987, p.
55); two involving five levels each; another one involving
nine basic structures of consciousness; a twofold one
involving twelve levels (the great holoarchy in Plotinus and
Aurobindo); and the one involving four series of thirteen
levels each that Wilber calls the four quadrants.29 Among
these systems, the first one, involving three groups of levels,
responds to the need to distinguish degrees of complexity in
Beyond Mind II 5
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:17 AM Page 6
reality so that science and technology will not trample on
the dignity of human existents and will not instrumentally
manipulate the whole of reality (which I have acknowledged
in various works [Capriles & Hocevar, 1991, 1992;
Capriles, 1994, work in progress 2]).30 However, the one
that posits nine basic structures of consciousness or ful-
cra, plus a tenth category that, according to Wilber, is not
so much a fulcrum or separate level, but is rather the very
Essence of all levels, of all states, of all conditions (and
which as such also seems to correspond to Dzogchen qua
Base but which is presented as Dzogchen qua Summit31), is
another hierarchical (holoarchical) division of states of
consciousness of the type criticized above, as well as in other
of my works (Capriles, 1999, 2000a, 2000b).
In fact, though each of Wilbers subsequent concep-
tions was intended to introduce an improvement in regard
to the immediately preceding one, two basic inaccuracies of
Wilbers (1977) hierarchy of states of consciousness persist-
ed in all following onesand, furthermore, some of these
introduced new inaccuracies as well (one of these being the
idea expressed in Wilber [1996] that truly nondual tradi-
tions view Awakening as involving the subject-object duali-
ty, which will be discussed toward the end of this section).
The two inaccuracies dating from 1977 that persisted in
posterior hierarchies (which then Wilber decided to call
holoarchies) laid in:
(1) Wilbers failure to discriminate between: (a) sam-
saric transpersonal conditions (and in particular the form-
less absorptions and the corresponding realms, which will
be considered in a note below), in which bondage is far sub-
tler and hence far more difficult to undo than in samsaric
personal conditions; (b) the transpersonal condition of the
neutral base-of-all, in which, as we have seen, neither sam-
sara nor nirvana are active, and in which the precious
human birth is squandered, and (c) the transpersonal con-
ditions of nirvana in which true release and true sanity lie.
(2) His insistence on continuing to posit hierarchical
(holoarchical) classifications of samsara and nirvana
whichlike the classifications featured in the Upanishads
present Awakening or Enlightenment as being attained by
ascending through progressive levels until a plane lying
above all other planes, and his insistence on presenting these
classifications as though they applied to all Pathsdespite
the fact that the latest versions Wilber produced of these
classifications frontally contradict the sequences of realiza-
tion posited in all Buddhist Paths. Furthermore, Wilber
overlooks the fact that, in a phenomenological, ontological
sense,32 the Path to Awakening consists in Seeing through
the multiple layers of conditioned experiences that make up
samsara, into the unconditioned Dzogchen qua Base which
those experiences concealso as to discover the uncondi-
tioned condition of absolute equality in which there can be
6 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
no hierarchy or holoarchy whatsoever, and thus put an end
to the delusory valuation of levels and to the illusion of an
I that may ascend or descend.33 Therefore, the inadver-
tent reader may get the impression that the Path in no sense
involves the undoing of the conditionings produced by the
process of ontogeny, and is likely to conclude that
Awakening is attained by building successive states (which,
being built, would be conditioned), above the preceding
ones.
Among the fulcra Wilber posited in 1996, the sixth
(the centaur or existential level) is defined as involving: (a)
the integration of mind and body; (b) the authenticity of
not eluding basic anguish (i.e., not eluding that which,
according to Heidegger [1996], is inherent in being-for-
death, and which, according to Sartre [1943/1980], is
inherent to the being of the human individual), and (c)
what Jean Gebser (1986) called aperspectival freedom,
deriving from the fact that one no longer privileges any
point of view over the plethora of other viewpoints at ones
disposal. Then the transpersonal levels begin: in the seventh
fulcrum, which Wilber calls psychic level, the sensation of
a separate identity dissolves momentarily (e.g., when, in the
contemplation of nature, the illusion of someone separate
from nature who is perceiving it disappears). In the eighth,
which he refers to as the subtle level, the individual con-
tacts non-ordinary strata of perception and subtle non-
Jungian archetypes. Finally, Wilber characterizes the ninth
fulcrum as nondualwhich implies that it must be beyond
the cause-effect relation, the subject-object duality and so
onand yet he paradoxically refers to it as the causal
level.
In none of the genuine Paths with which I am famil-
iar, does the practitioner have to go through all the fulcra
posited by Wilber, and to do so precisely in the order he
establishes. The first level of realization may in fact be pre-
ceded by the relative authenticity Wilber associates to the
sixth fulcrum, which lies in developing to some degree a
capacity not to elude the experiences Kierkegaard (1968,
1970) referred to as despair, Angst, fear and trembling,
and so forth, or the experience of Angst as manifest in what
Heidegger (1996) called being toward the end, or what
Sartre (1943/1980) called angoise, nause and so onand
which may be somehow related to the stage of paranoia
posited by David Cooper (1971). However, the bare expe-
rience of the being of the human individual that consists in
basic anguish, does not in any sense involve the integration
of mind and body which, according to Wilber, is also inher-
ent in the sixth fulcrum; on the contrary, this experience
arises when the contradiction inherent in the delusion
called avidya or marigpa initially becomes evident and
hence turns into conflictand one of the aspects of the
contradiction that turns into conflict is precisely the illuso-
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 7
ry mind-body schism. Furthermore, as will be seen below,
the most advanced practices of Dzogchen, which are to be
applied when there is already a great degree of body-mind
integration, in a stage that is subsequent to the realization of
voidness, to the realization of absolute truth and to the
whole of the stages posited by Wilber (but which compre-
hends the manifestation of visions of rlpa energy, which
are somehow like those Wilber associated to the eighth ful-
crum), are based in experiencing in its bareness the anguish
and distress inherent in the being of the human individual.
To conclude, we have seen that according to Wilber the
sixth fulcrum, which in his system is supposed to precede
the realization of voidness, involves what Jean Gebser called
aperspectival freedom, deriving from the fact that one no
longer privileges any point of view over the plethora of
other viewpoints at ones disposala result that in all high-
er Buddhist Paths results from the realization of voidness
beyond the subject-duality in the state of absolute truth and
that, as I have shown in Capriles (2005), can only derive
from this realization (and which, therefore, it cannot be
prior to it).34
Moreover, though Wilber has studied Dzogchen,35 he
is positing a progression of realization beginning at the sev-
enth fulcrum that he wrongly takes for the nirmanakaya
(but which I have been unable to identify as corresponding
to any of the levels of realization that obtain in the genuine
Paths with which I am familiar), followed by the eighth ful-
crum that he mistakenly identifies with the sambhogakaya
(but which I have been unable to identify as any of the lev-
els of realization that obtain in the genuine Paths with
which I am familiar), and concluding at the ninth fulcrum,
which he confuses with the dharmakaya (but which I have
been unable to identify as any of the levels of realization that
obtain in the genuine Paths with which I am familiar). In so
doing, not only does he mistake for the three kayas experi-
ences that are not these kayas, but he also posits a sequence
of the kayas opposite to the one that is characteristic of the
Dzogchen teachings and in particular to that of the
Upadeshavarga or Menngagde series of teachingswhich
begins with realization of the dharmakaya, continues with
realization of the sambhogakaya and concludes with realiza-
tion of the nirmanakaya.36
A sequence of realization beginning with the nir-
manakaya, continuing with the sambhogakaya, then featur-
ing the dharmakaya, and concluding with the swabhavikaya
that consists in the indivisibility of the first three kayas, is
posited in the Buddhist Tantras37 of the Path of
Transformation. As we have seen, this inversion of the
sequence of realization of the kayas proper of Dzogchen
Atiyoga, the universal ancestor of all vehicles,38 is related
to the fact that, though in both systems the names of the
kayas are the same, what the names indicate is not the
samewhich is evidenced by the fact that, as I have noted
elsewhere (Capriles, 2000a, 2003, 2004), the final realiza-
tion of the Inner Tantras of the Path of Transformation,
which these Tantras call swabhavikaya and view as the
fourth and last kaya to be attained, corresponds to the stage
of Direct Introduction to Dzogchen that is the precondition
of genuine Dzogchen practice and that, in the
Upadeshavarga series of teachings, is prior both to the prac-
tice of Tekch (khregs chod) that must establish the dhar-
makaya and to the subsequent practice of Thgel (thod rgal)
that must establish the sambhogakaya and finally result in
the nirmanakaya. Therefore, the levels of realization that
Dzogchen Ati calls sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya go far
beyond the final level of realization of the inner Tantras of
the Path of transformation and by no means can be attained
through the methods of these Tantras.
In fact, in the Menngagde series of Dzogchen Ati, but
not so in the Inner Tantras of the Vajrayana, the dhar-
makaya is the correct apprehension of the dang (gdangs)
form of manifestation of energy in the practice of Tekch;
the sambhogakaya is the correct apprehension of the rlpa
(rol pa) form of manifestation of energy in the practice of
Thgel; and finally the nirmanakaya is the correct appre-
hension of the tsel (rtsal) form of manifestation of energy
that obtains as the result of carrying the practice of Thgel
to a given threshold: this is why the Dzogchen teachings
place so much emphasis on these forms of manifestation of
energy, which are ignored in the Anuttarayogatantras of the
Sarmapa and in the Nyingma Tantras of the Path of
Transformation, and in all lower vehicles as well.39
In fact, in Tekch the practitioner works mainly with
the katak (ka dag) aspect of the Base, which is voidness, and
with the dang form of manifestation of energy, which con-
stitutes all thoughtsand it is when the true condition of
the dang energy is reGnized, that the dharmakaya or first
aspect of Awakening manifests. In Thgel the practitioner
works mainly with the lhundrub (lhun grub) or sponta-
neous perfection aspect of the Base, which comprehends
the absolutely uncontrived and unrestrained spontaneity of
our Gnitiveness (and in particular the positive feedback
loops that make up the Thanatos), and with the rlpa (rol
pa) form of manifestation of energy, which gives rise to the
immaterial visions that arise during the practice of Thgel
and it is when the true condition of the rlpa energy is
reGnized, upon which the mental subject that seemed to be
perceiving it disappears, that the sambhogakaya manifests.
Finally, the nirmanakaya only manifests in a stable manner
once integration with the visions of rlpa energy in the prac-
tice of Thgel has neutralized the tendency to experience
phenomena as external objects, and so we no longer experi-
ence ourselves as separate from the phenomena of the
material world constituted by tsel (rtsal) energy: the rlpa
Beyond Mind II 7
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 8
and tsel forms of manifestation of energy have fused and
there is no longer anything that may interrupt the condition
of indivisibly or jerme (dbyer med) that constitutes the nir-
manakaya (cf. Capriles [2003] or, for a more in depth expla-
nation, Capriles [work in progress 2]).
The fact that the sequence of realization of the kayas
on the Path of transformation coincides with the one Wilber
seems to posit in the 1996 work we are considering does not
at all mean the holoarchy we are considering coincides
with the sequence of realization on the Path in question. To
begin with, in the 1996 work that we have been consider-
ing, Wilber seemingly intended to equate the nirmanakaya
with what he called psychic level, but his description of
this level was ambiguous enough as to apply equally to
transpersonal samsaric states, to neither-samsaric-nor-nir-
vanic transpersonal states, and to some nirvanic states
though apparently not so to the nirmanakaya as conceived
by any Buddhist system (Wilber, 1996, p. 202):
... a person might temporarily dissolve the separate-
self sense40 (the ego or centaur) and find an identity
with the entire gross or sensorimotor worldso-
called nature mysticism. Youre on a nice nature walk,
relaxed and expansive in your awareness, and
wham!suddenly there is no looker, just the moun-
tainand you are the mountain. You are not in here
looking at the mountain out there. There is just the
mountain, and it seems to see itself, or you seem to
be seeing it from within. The mountain is closer to
you than you own skin.
If we identify with the world qua totality, the subject-object
duality is still present, for it is the mental subject that identi-
fies with the object qua totalityand in such a case what has
taken place is an experience of the formless
realms.41However, after speaking of identification, Wilber
uses the expression disappearance of the observer, which
implies that there is no longer a mental subject that may
identify with this or thatin which case we would not be
speaking of the formless realms, which like all samsaric con-
ditions involves the subject-object duality. Neither in nir-
vana, nor in the neutral condition of the base-of-all or kun-
zhi lungmaten (kun gzhi lung ma bstan) wherein neither
samsara nor nirvana are active, is there a mental subject or
an observer; however, since in individuals who are not
intensively training in a genuine Path of Awakening it is
hardly possible that an initial manifestation of nirvana may
take place fortuitously while taking a walk through nature,
relaxed and open, we can be certain that if the observer dis-
appears in such circumstances, what has manifested is an
instance of the neutral condition of the base-of-all. In par-
ticular, what the Inner Tantras of the Path of Transformation
refer to as the nirmanakaya does not manifest in the fortu-
8 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
itous manner in which the occurrence described by Wilber
is supposed to come about, nor does it consist in a particu-
lar type of apprehension of the phenomena of the natural
world.
Then comes the eighth fulcrum, which Wilber calls
the subtle level, in which he asserts that we contact non-
ordinary strata of perception and subtle non-Jungian arche-
types. It must be remarked that per se the manifestation of
non-ordinary strata of perception and subtle non-Jungian
archetypes does not correspond to any level of realization,
for such experiences may take place in psychosis or upon the
ingestion of a psychedelic drug. Realization does not at all
depend on what is it that manifests, but on how does it man-
ifest: genuine manifestations of Dzogchen qua Path must
necessarily involve the reGnition of the spontaneous aware-
ness in which, as in a mirror, experiences manifest, and
therefore they must give rise to the spontaneous liberation
of conceptuality and hence of dualism; in the particular case
of visions of rlpa energy, upon the spontaneous liberation
of conceptuality the vision remains, but there is no longer
the illusion that it is an object appearing to a subject, or that
it is manifesting in an external dimension: it is this that is
referred to as the sambhogakaya. If visions manifest but there
is no such reGnition and hence no spontaneous liberation
of conceptuality, what has manifested is a vulgar illusory
experience or nyam (nyams) of clarity (which initially man-
ifests in the neutral condition of the base-of-all, but imme-
diately, upon being recognized, manifests as a samsaric expe-
rience of the realm of form [rupadhatu or rupa loka]).
Furthermore, Wilber associates this fulcrum, in which
he thinks the sambhogakaya is realized, with the dread of
voidness I have called panic, which cannot manifest in the
stage of the Path in which the sambhogakaya is realized
(which in the Upadeshavarga series of Dzogchen teachings
corresponds to the practices of Thgel and the Yangthik
[yang thig]). Only human beings of lower capacities go
through the experience of panic, and they go through it in
earlier stages of the Path, before the initial realizations of
voidness and of absolute truth, rather than in a stage that is
far posterior to these realizations and that immediately pre-
cedes the consolidation of unsurpassable, complete
Awakening. Second dharmachakra and Madhyamika litera-
ture tells us that the dread of voidness that Wilber associates
to this fulcrum is proper of the shravakas, and that it is this
fear that distinguishes them from beings of Mahayana
capacitiesthe reason why Shakyamuni did not transmit
the Prajaparamita Sutras to his direct disciples, but entrust-
ed them to the king of the nagas for him to bestow them on
the prophesized Nagarjuna, being that his direct disciples
were shravakas and hence these teachings would have
inspired panic in them, which could have scared them away
from the dharma. The second of the five paths of the grad-
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 9
ual Sutrayana is that of preparation [Skt., prayoga marga;
Tib., sbyor bai lam], which in the Mahayana is so called
because the practitioner is preparing for the transition to the
first supramundane path, which is the path of Seeing [Skt.,
darshana marga; Tib., mthong lam], in which voidness is
directly realized beyond the duality of subject and object,
and the absolute truth of the Mahayana is disclosed;42 in
this vehicle, the third of the four levels of the path of prepa-
ration is the one called forbearance of the unborn, for in
it practitioners become increasingly familiar with the con-
cept and the incipient intuitions of emptiness that previous-
ly inspired terror in them, and finally overcome fear of
emptiness; since terror of emptiness can no longer manifest
even in the last level of the path of preparation, which is pre-
vious to the direct realization of voidness beyond the duali-
ty of subject and object that discloses the absolute truth of
Mahayana, far less can it manifest in the stage in which the
sambhogakaya is realized in the practice of Dzogchen, which
is incomparably more advanced. Furthermore, the
Mahamudra tradition asserts that upon listening to teach-
ings concerning emptiness for the first time, beings of high-
er capacities experience a great joy that may even make all
their hair go on end; beings of middle capacities have no
extreme reactions, and beings of lower capacities experience
terror. The same may happen when the bioenergetic volume
increases for the first time to a level in which the ensuing
panoramification of the focus of conscious awareness and
permeabilization of the limits of this focus causes us to
glimpse the voidness of all entities: beings of higher capaci-
ties may experience great joy, whereas those of lower capac-
ities may experience dreadthis being the reason why Lama
Anagarika Govinda (1973) wrote that upon the increase of
the bioenergetic volume [Skt., kundalini; Tib., thig le]
beings who are not rightly prepared could undergo experi-
ences of terror. It is true that, for example, when the prac-
tice of Tekch, in which the dharmakaya manifests again
and again, is boosted by the practice of Ch (gcod), dread
can be experienced; however, this dread, rather than being
panic, is terror before what may be believed to cause injury
and death.
We have seen that Wilber related the bare experience
of the being of the human individual in Angst, angoise and
so on, to the stage he referred to as the sixth fulcrum.
However, the being of the human individual continues to
manifest in post-Contemplation so long as Dzogchen qua
Fruitirreversible Buddhahoodhas not been attained,
and the function of the most advanced practices of the
Upadeshavarga series of Dzogchen teachings, such as those
of Thgel and the Yangthik, which are catalyzed by the
wrathful mandalas (cf. Capriles [1989, 2000a, 2000b, 2003,
work in progress 1, work in progress 2]) and which are the
ones in which the visions Wilber associated to the eighth
fulcrum arise, have the function of making us experience in
its bareness the anguish inherent in the being of the human
individual each and every time this mode of being mani-
fests, so that the associated feeling may be employed as an
alarm reminding us to apply the pit instructionsor, if we
are advanced enough, so that delusion liberates itself spon-
taneously upon arising without there being need for apply-
ing any instructions (it must be stressed once more that the
basic experience of the anguish inherent in the being of the
human individual has nothing to do with what I call panic,
which is what Wilber associates to the manifestation of the
visions of rlpa energy).43 Though at this stage there is a
very high degree of mind-body integration like the one
Wilber associates to his sixth fulcrum, unlike the latter this
phase is not previous to the realization of voidness or of
absolute truth, but is far beyond this realizationfor, as
noted above, it is the stage immediately preceding the tran-
sition from the Path to the Fruit of irreversible, unwavering
Buddhahood (which in Dzogchen involves the absolute
integration of awareness with the body and the whole of
physical reality, and which may result in special modes of
death, or even in deathlessness44).
According to Wilber, the ninth fulcrum, which he
posits as the last, nondual level (for, as we have seen, the
tenth is not so much a fulcrum or separate level, but is
rather the very Essence of all levels, of all states, of all con-
ditions), is the one in which what Mahayana Buddhism
calls voidness or emptiness (Skt., shunyata; Tib., stong pa
nyid; Chinese, kung; Japanese, ku) is realized. In order to
place this fulcrum in perspective, we must begin by distin-
guishing voidness qua nyam (nyams) or illusory experience,
from voidness as a most essential aspect of the absolute truth
of the Mahayana: the Dzogchen teachings compare the for-
mer (which may consist in any experience of nonconceptu-
ality, of lack of characteristics and so on, or in the concep-
tual realization that entities do not exist in the way in which
they appear to exist45) to a reflection in the mirror that rep-
resents the primordial awareness inherent in Dzogchen qua
Base, and explain the latter (which is better referred to as
freedom from all conceptual extremes in the condition of
nirvana [cf. Capriles, 2004, 2005]) as the realization of the
primordial awareness represented as the mirror, in a gnosis
free from the illusory subject-object duality that makes
patent the fact that all phenomena are empty in the sense of
lacking self-existence or substance (Skt., swabhava shunyata;
Tib., rang stong).46 In Dzogchen practice, the nondual real-
ization which, being an instance of nirvana (and as such of
what the Mahayana calls absolute truth), emphasizes void-
ness over anything else, is the unveiling of Dzogchen qua
Base in the Tekch practice of the Dzogchen Menngagde or
Upadeshavarga (which has rough equivalents in other series
of teachings): this realization is nondual insofar as it involves
Beyond Mind II 9
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 10
the instant dissolution, like feathers entering fire, of the sub-
ject-object duality47and yet it privileges voidness insofar
as the essence aspect of the Base, which is voidness, is most
prominent in it (in all subsequent levels of realization void-
ness it evident as well, but is not the most outstanding
aspect). However, voidness qua illusory experience can be
used for realizing the voidness aspect of absolute truth, or
for obtaining the realization of the condition of Dzogchen
in which its essence or ngowo aspect, which is voidness, is
most prominent: for this to occur, the awareness in which
voidness qua illusory experience manifests and which is
compared to a mirror must be reGnized so that the all-lib-
erating nondual gnosis manifestsupon which delusorily
valued thoughts liberate themselves instantaneously, and
hence the subject-object duality resulting from the delusory
valuation of the super-subtle thought-structure the teach-
ings call the threefold thought-structure [Tib., khor gsum]
instantly dissolves. Given Wilbers definitions, one wonders
how his ninth fulcrum is different from the psychic level,
for if, as he seems to believe, the latter were really an
instance of nirvana involving the dissolution of the observ-
er before a natural phenomenon, it would necessarily
involve the realization of voidness48 beyond the subject-
object duality, and hence it should be a realization of the
voidness aspect of the absolute truth of the Mahayana.
According to Wilber, the ninth fulcrum corresponds
to Enlightenment (i.e., to what I call Awakening); however,
Wilber posits two different types of Enlightenment, which
in his views are the respective Fruits of two different tradi-
tions (Wilber, 1996, pp. 236-23749):
There are two rather different schools about this
Enlightened state, corresponding to the two rather
different meanings of Emptiness that we dis-
cussed.
The first takes as its paradigm the causal or
unmanifest state of absorption (nirvikalpa, nirodh).
That is a very distinct, very discrete, very identifiable
state. And so if you equate Enlightenment with that
state of cessation, then you can very distinctly say
whether a person is fully Enlightened or not.
Generally, as in the Theravadin Buddhist tradi-
tion and in the Samkhya yogic schools, whenever
you enter this state of unmanifest absorption, it
burns certain lingering afflictions and sources of
ignorance. Each time you fully enter this state, more
of these afflictions are burned away. And after a cer-
tain number and type of these entrancesoften
fouryou have burned away everything there is to
burn, and so you can enter this state at will, and
remain there permanently. You can enter nirvana
permanently, and samsara cases to arise in your case.
The entire world of Form ceases to arise.
10 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
But the Nondual traditions do not have that as
their goal. They will often use that state, and often
master it. But more important, these schoolssuch
as Vedanta Hinduism and Mahayana and Vajrayana
Buddhismare more interested in pointing out the
Nondual state of Suchness, which is not a discrete
state of awareness but the ground or empty condi-
tion of all states. So they are not so much interested
in finding an Emptiness divorced from the world of
Form (or samsara), but rather an Emptiness that
embraces all Form even as Form continues to arise.
For them, nirvana and samsara, Emptiness and
Form, are not two...
...dualismsbetween subject and object, inside
and outside, Left and Rightwill still arise, and are
supposed to arise. Those dualities are the very mech-
anisms of manifestation. Spiritthe pure immedi-
ate Suchness of realitymanifests as a subject and
an object, and in both singular and plural formsin
other words, Spirit manifests as all four quadrants.
And we arent supposed to simply evaporate those
quadrantsthey are the radiant glory of Spirits
manifestation.
But we are supposed to see through them to
their Source, their Suchness. And a quick glimpse
wont do it. This One Taste has to permeate all lev-
els, all quadrants, all manifestation.
Thus according to Wilber there are two kinds of traditions:
(1) ones which he defines as dualistic and which regard
Awakening as a state of nirodha or cessation free from the
subject-object duality, and (2) ones which he categorizes as
nondualistic and which seek a supposedly Awake condition
in which dualism continues to arise, but in which the dual-
istic experience in question seems to be somehow impreg-
nated by the single taste of the essence of all reality. Though
Wilber lists Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism (the latter
including the Tantras of the Path of Transformation and the
Tantras of the Path of spontaneous liberation of Dzogchen
Atiyoga) among the nondual traditions, in terms of the non-
dualistic Buddhist systems, which are the Madhyamaka
School of philosophy of the Mahayana, the Tantras of the
Path of transformation and the Tantras of the Path of spon-
taneous liberation, none of the two alternatives Wilber
posited may be regarded as genuine Awakening, for all such
systems make it clear that the nirvanic realization of the
nondual condition while on the Path and the consolidation
of the nirvanic nondual condition as the Fruit is not a con-
dition of nirodha or cessation, and yet it involves the dissolu-
tion of the subject-object duality. In fact, since the subject-
object duality results from the reification of the supersubtle
thought structure known as the threefold thought-struc-
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 11
ture,50 and since subject and object are mutually relative,
absolute truth (which by definition cannot be relative) can-
not be the object of any mind or conventional attention, but
has to manifest in the patency of a primordial gnosis (Skt.,
jana; Tib., ye shes) beyond the subject-object duality. We
read in the Lankavatarasutra, of the Third Promulgation
(Suzuki, 1932/1956, p. 64):51
Mahamati, that which is characterized as being pro-
duced by the threefold thought-structure (Tib., khor
gsum) [consisting in subject, object and their interac-
tion] is consciousness, whereas that characterized as the
essential nature that is not so produced is primordial
gnosis. Then again, Mahamati, that which is charac-
terized as not to be attained is primordial gnosis,
since in each of us sublime primordial gnosis does not
emerge as a perceptual object of realization, but is
manifest [nondually] in the manner of the moons
reflection in water, [which is not at a distance from the
water in which it is reflected].
The fact that the gradual Mahayana Path, as understood by
the founders of the Madhyamaka School, assert that realiza-
tion must involve the dissolution of the subject-object dual-
ity, is proven by verse XIV.25 of the Chatuhishatakasha
strakarika by Aryadevas (Capriles, 2005; Napper, 2003):52
The seed of cyclic existence (samsara) is a consciousness;
objects are its sphere of activity.53
In its turn, verse IX.2 of Shantidevas Bodhichary-
avatara expresses the Prasangika interpretation of
Madhyamaka in this regard (Capriles, 2005):
The relative and the absolute
are what is known as the two truths;
the absolute is not an object of
knowledge to the mind,
for the mind [and all of its objects are what is]
considered as the relative.
In fact, according to the original Madhyamaka Prasangika
School, in the gradual Path of the Mahayana, the absolute
truth, both as it manifests on the Path and as it manifests as
the Fruit, consists in a realization, utterly beyond the sub-
ject-object duality, of the true nature of all phenomena
(Skt., dharmata; Tib., chos nyid), in which the voidness
(Skt., shunyata; Tib., stong pa nyid) of those phenomena
becomes patent. Dudjom Rinpoche wrote (Dudjom
Rinpoche, J. Y. D., 1991, vol. I, p. 206):54
During Contemplative absorption, when balanced
in the expanse of [all] phenomena without condi-
tions to be clarified or established, both modes of
Madhyamaka (the Outer that includes Prasangika
and Swatantrika and the Inner that includes
Mahamadhyamaka) make no distinction regarding
the cessation of all elaborate signs of the subject-
object dichotomy therein.
And also (ibidem, vol. I, p. 215):55
Therefore, the inconceivable primordial gnosis that
is the [ultimate] Truth is a great purity of natural
expression, transcending the symbolic range of the
subject-object dichotomy.
Further evidence that according to Madhyamika philosophy
the realizations of the Mahayana involve the dissolution of
the subject-object duality is provided in the exhaustive dis-
cussion of this subject in two recent works of mine
(Capriles, 2004, 2005). At any rate, in the gradual
Mahayana the realization of absolute truth that, as the
Madhyamaka school emphasizes, is beyond the subject-
object duality, initially manifests upon the transition to the
third path (Skt., marga; Tib., lam), called the path of
Seeing (Skt., darshana marga; Tib., mthong lam) and the
corresponding first level (Skt., bhumi; Tib., sa), called the
joyous level (Skt., pramudita bhumi; Tib., rab tu dga ba
sa), and henceforth continues to manifest in the
Contemplation state throughout the fourth path, which is
called path of Contemplation (Skt., bhavana marga; Tib.,
sgom lam or sgom pai lam) and which comprehends levels
two through ten. However, in these levels it is always fol-
lowed by the re-installation of samsaric delusion and there-
fore of the subject-object, giving rise to what is known as a
post-Contemplation statethough in it the delusion in
question manifests with lesser strength, for there is some
awareness of the apparitional character of all phenomena.
This awareness of the apparitional character of phenomena
results from the filtering down into the dualistic post-
Contemplation condition, of the realization of the true
nature of all phenomena by a nondual awareness while in
the Contemplation state, which somehow impregnates the
dualistic post-Contemplation state with the taste of the
single essence of reality. Therefore, this filtering down can
only derive from the manifestation, over and over again, of
the Contemplation state in which there is no subject-object
duality, and by no means could it result from pointing out
the state of nondual Suchness from the state in which this
nondual Suchness totally concealed by the subject-object
duality and without achieving the dissolution of this duali-
ty: so long as there is a frog at the bottom of a deep well, no
matter how much you point to him the limitless sky, he will
continue to take it for a small luminous blue circle sur-
rounded by dark walls. Finally, upon attainment of the fifth
path, which is the path of no-more-learning (Skt., ashaik-
shamarga; Tib., mi slob pai lam), corresponding to the
eleventh level (called all-pervading light: Skt., saman-
taprabha bhumi; Tib., kun tu od sa), the state of absolute
Beyond Mind II 11
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 12
truth beyond the subject-object duality consolidates in such
a way that the delusive subject-object duality, and therefore
a post-Contemplation state, never manifests again: there is
no frog to whom the limitless, nondual sky may be con-
cealed, and no well to conceal it from himand hence there
is unrestricted freedom. (Even the Gelugpa school of
Tibetan Buddhism and the Madhyamaka-Prasangika philo-
sophical school, which do not admit that the dualistic con-
sciousness that manifests in samsara arises in a nondual
awareness as nondual awareness [of ] consciousness of
object, do admit that in the Fruit consisting in
Buddhahood, rather than a dualistic consciousness, what are
at work are nondual gnoses involving neither a mental sub-
ject nor an object.56) In fact, Dudjom Rinpoche writes con-
cerning Shakyamunis Awakening (ibidem, vol. I, p. 421):57
As he became a perfectly realized Buddha, the whole
earth trembled and all the psychophysical bases
which were to be purified of the subject-object dichoto-
my awakened to the primordial gnosis free of duality,
in the impeccable mansion of the dharmakaya,
which is the middle way.
The same applies to the Path of transformation of the
Vajrayana, which in the ancient or Nyingmapa tradition
consists of the Mahayogatantra and the Anuyogatantra, and
in the new tradition consists in the Anuttarayogatantra. On
the Path, a Contemplation state in which the illusory sub-
ject-object duality completely dissolves, alternates with a
post-Contemplation state in which duality manifests anew,
but delusion has been mitigated insofar as there is some
awareness of the apparitional character of phenomena. In
the Fruit, the subject-object duality arises no more, as delu-
sion is utterly transcended. In the Gytrul Gyamtso Gy
(sGyu phrul rgya mtsho rgyud), a Tantra of Mahayoga, we
read:58
In the manner of a clear reflection in the ocean,
without making an echo in the mind, the sponta-
neous awareness of direct realization that has no
object as referent... concludes the view of study,
reflection and Contemplation.
Finally, it is on the Path of spontaneous liberation of
Dzogchen Atiyoga that the dissolution of the subject-object
duality is most abrupt, and therefore most clear. As we have
seen, in the Upadeshavarga series of teachings, the practice
of Tekch consists in the reGnition of the true condition of
thoughts, which is the dharmakayaupon which all types
of thought instantly liberate themselves spontaneously, put-
ting an end to the subject-object duality that results from
the delusory valuation of the super-subtle thought structure
known as the threefold thought-structure. Dudjom
Rinpoche writes (ibidem, vol. I, p. 309):59
12 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
[The term] Dzogchen thus refers to the sublime
truth that is to be realized through the primordial
gnosis of individual spontaneous awareness, free from
the subject-object dichotomy, and which is described
under various names...
Since there are subject and object only while the delusory
valuation of thought is active, so long as these manifest the
subject grasps at the objectwhich is why these two are
referred to as the grasper and the grasped. Dudjom
Rinpoche writes (Dudjom Rinpoche, J. Y. D., 1979, p. 22):
The two deadly enemies which have bound us to
samsara since beginningless time are the grasper and
the grasped. Now that by the grace of the guru we
have been introduced to the dharmakaya nature
residing in ourselves, these two are burnt like feath-
ers, leaving neither trace nor residue. Isnt that delec-
table!
Once the practice of Tekch has been developed to a certain
degree, it is boosted by the practice of Thgel, which acti-
vates the dynamics of spontaneous liberation established in
the practice of Tekch as soon as the dualism of subject and
object begins to arise, so that this dualism liberates itself spon-
taneously that very moment. In a record time, this burns
away the propensity for the duality in question to manifest,
and so what I am calling Dzogchen qua Fruit, in which the
subject-object duality arises no more, can be consolidated
more rapidly than on any other Path. Shri Simhas
Chittalaka reads (Dudjom Rinpoche, J. Y. D., 1991, vol. I,
p. 357):60
Having purified the five propensities of the subject-
object dichotomy, and, by the expressive powers of the
five primordial gnoses, having overpowered the level
of bounteous array, the result gathering the five
Awake families is obtained.
The Dzogchen teachings explain that the subject-object
duality arises as the product of the delusory valuation of the
super-subtle thought-structure called threefold thought-
structure, in a nondual primordial awareness that in itself
is nonthetic, nonpositional and nonreflexive. Furthermore,
they compare dwelling in a state of nirodha or cessation to
cutting ones own neckand, in fact, when the subject-
object duality dissolves as nirvana manifests, a total freedom
of awareness is at work, rather than there being sheer
unawareness or an arresting of Gnitiveness such as the one
called nirodha or cessation.
It is true, nonetheless, that the Madhyamaka-
Prasangika philosophical school of the Mahayana, the
Tantras of the Path of transformation of the Vajrayana and
the Tantras of the Path of spontaneous liberation of
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 13
Dzogchen Ati, (1) point out the empty, nondual substrate of
all states, and (2) posit the nonduality of samsara and nir-
vana. However, as shown above, (1) the empty, nondual
substrate of all states can only be realized in a gnosis in
which the subject-object duality does not manifest, for the
nondual condition cannot become an object, and the dual-
ism introduced by knowledge in terms of the subject-object
duality conceals this nondual condition; furthermore, as we
have seen, the traditions in question aim at the irreversible
consolidation of this gnosis in which the subject-object
duality does not manifest. In regard to (2), the point is that
ordinary individuals are not aware that they are in samsara
or that there is a nirvana that represents the solution to all
of the drawbacks inherent in samsara; therefore if they are to
have the possibility to surpass samsara together with the
drawbacks inherent in it, they need to learn about these two
conditions, so that they may aspire to nirvana and work
towards it. However, this gives rise to a strong thirst for nir-
vana and aversion to samsara which, being instances of sam-
saric emotionality and dualism, sustain samsara and block
the way to nirvana. It is as an antidote to this, and not
because they fail to understand that nirvana is a specific
condition that is devoid of the illusory subject-object duali-
ty, that the vehicles and schools in question teach the non-
duality of samsara and nirvana at this later stage. It would be
a most unfortunate mistake to interpret this teaching as
meaning that we must conserve the subject-object duality
that manifests only in samsara, and while remaining in sam-
sara coming to believe that we have attained nonduality and
that as such we have become better than those who are
established in nirvana (which would be a really pathetic
delusion, for nirvana is the only condition in which the
nonduality of samsara and nirvana is truly realized).
In order to clarify the meaning of nonduality in truly
nondual traditions and hence prevent confusions, it is
mandatory to understand the meaning of nonduality in
regard to the Base, Path, and Fruit. From the standpoint of
the Base (the Outer Madhyamaka would say from the
standpoint of absolute truth), all realms of experience are
non-dual, for the Base is inherently free from duality or plu-
rality. However, when the delusion called avidya or marigpa
manifests in the second and third meaning the terms have in
the Dzogchen teachings, the illusion of duality and plurali-
ty veils the basic nonduality and nonplurality of all phe-
nomena, and thus there arises the need to tread the Path in
order to surpass that illusion in the realization of the nond-
ual, nonplural true condition of the Base. The essence of the
Path is the unveiling of the nondual Base, which, insofar as
the illusory subject-object duality is a most essential aspect
of the veil that is to fall in this unveiling, involves the tem-
porary dissolution of this dualityand yet does not involve
nirodha or cessation, for in the resulting condition primor-
dial Awareness is utterly free and unhindered. Finally, the
Fruit is the condition in which the illusory subject-object
duality no longer arises to conceal the inherently nondual
Base, and hence the patency of nonduality has been irre-
versible consolidated, and the perfect, unhindered freedom
of Awareness can no longer be arrested. (As we have seen,
also the neutral condition of the base-of-all is free from the
illusion of duality; however, rather than being a manifesta-
tion of liberation or Awakening, the base-of-all is a condi-
tion of nirodha or cessation in which the perfect, unhin-
dered freedom of Awareness is arrested, and in which it is
impossible to apply the practices leading to Awakening
which is the reason why higher Buddhist teachings consider
that dwelling in it represents a deviation from the true Path
and an obstacle to Awakening.61)
The fact that Wilber believes that the subject-object
duality continues to manifest in the fully Awake condition
makes it possible for him to claim that the ninth fulcrum
that he views as full, final Awakening involves what differ-
ent Brahmanic traditions have called the disinterested wit-
ness or sakshin, which according to all of the traditions fea-
turing the concept is separate and different from its object.
The Yoga darshana of Patajali, which in the traditional clas-
sification of the six orthodox Brahmanic darshanas or philo-
sophical systems is coupled with Kapilas Samkhya darshana,
is universally acknowledged to be dualistic insofar as it
affirms the existence of a plethora of souls, on the one
handthe male Purushas that are defined as being inher-
ently different and separate from the objects of knowl-
edgeand of the female Prakriti, which is identified with
nature, on the other. In this system, the disinterested witness
or sakshin is the freedom of Purusha from the hold of the
naturally active Prakriti, to be achieved by developing a per-
fect aloofness before the latters movementswhereby
Purusha regains its naturally passive condition.62 In the
Upanishads, in the Vedanta Sutra, in Gaudapadas Mayavada
(which incorporated views of the Yogachara school of
Buddhist philosophy) and in the Adwaita Vedanta philoso-
phy of Shankaracharya (which absorbed from the
Madhyamaka school of Buddhist philosophy all it could
absorb without coming to contradict the basic tenets of
Brahmanism)all of which, each in its own way and to its
own degree, are supposed to be nondualisticthe disinter-
ested witness or sakshin appears to roughly correspond to
that which Kant called pure apperception and that according
to the German philosopher is the condition of possibility of
the empirical apperception that consists in awareness that one
is perceivingwhich thus may correspond to Sartres Soi or
Self, provided that we understand the French authors defi-
nition literally and take it to mean nonthetic, nonposition-
al awareness that consciousness is aware of an object differ-
ent from itself. Bina Gupta defined as follows the concep-
Beyond Mind II 13
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 14
tion of the sakshin in the allegedly nondual tradition begin-
ning with the Upanishads (Gupta, 1947/1998):
1. The witness-consciousness, in spite of being the
base of all knowledge, is different from the known
object. It is the ultimate subject; it can never become
an object of knowledge.
2. It is the element of pure awareness in all knowl-
edge. It is an immutable, indivisible reality.
3. It shines with its own light; it is self-luminous.
4. It is different from the empirical individual [jiva],
who knows and enjoys. In other words, it is different
from the empirical individual trapped in the three-
fold state of wakefulness, dreaming and dreamless
sleep.
Thus in all traditions the sakshin is a consciousness that, in
spite of being a subject and excluding all objects, does not
get involved with these objects. Though the Adwaita
Vedanta philosophy of Shankaracharya proclaims itself to be
nondual (adwaita), it might be incurring in a dualism by
positing a subject that it characterizes as absolute and
which cannot and must not be eradicated, but which it
defines as separate and different from its objectand that,
as such, strictly speaking cannot be truly absolute, for it
must be relative to the object. In fact, in the context of
Idealism, Western philosophers raised the famous objection
according to which an absolute could not be an absolute of
knowledge insofar as the object and the subject that are the
poles of knowledge are relative to each other,63 and
Dzogchen and Vajrayana Masters, the founders of the
Madhyamaka school, and later on the Madhyamika
Prasangikas raised the same objection many centuries earlier.
Of course, we cannot discard the possibility that the
sakshin as conceived in the Brahmanic traditions that
declare themselves to be nondual, be the nondual awareness
inherent in Dzogchen qua Base, for both have in common
that they cannot be turned into an object of knowledge, that
they are the element of pure awareness in all knowledge, and
that they are self-luminous. However, if this were so, these
Brahmanic traditions would have erred in asserting it to be
different from the known object, for as Longchenpa noted
(Longchen Rabjam [Longchenpa], 1998, p. 8464):
Although phenomena appear as they do to the
mind, they are not mind nor anything other than
mind. Given their illusory nature as clearly apparent
yet unthinkable, void manifestations, moment by
moment they are beyond description, imagination
or expression. For this reason know that all phenom-
ena that appear to the mind are unthinkable, ineffa-
ble and empty even as they manifest.
The apparent phenomena that manifest as the
five kinds of sense objects [visual forms and so
14 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
forth], and the phenomena of the universe that seem
to appear in their own right, manifest to the mind
and [in fact] are nothing other than [manifestations
appearing to the mind]. Even though they appear to
be something other [than the mind], like dreams
and illusions they are by nature empty, and, [being
unthinkable and ineffable, they] have never been any-
thing other [than mind] and have never been mind
[either]. In accordance with the eight traditional
metaphors for illusoriness, an examination of phe-
nomena as forms of emptiness, clearly apparent yet
unthinkable, ineffable and void whether consid-
ered to be composed of reducible or irreducible par-
ticles determines their equalness in having no
identity. One knows the basic space of unchanging
emptiness through these natural manifestations of
the nature of mind...65
What about the traditions that, according to Wilber, view
Awakening as a condition of nirodha or cessation?
Genuinely nondual Buddhist traditions, despite the fact
that they all agree that Awakening is a condition free from
the subject-object duality, do not explain it as involving
nirodha or cessation, but as involving a total freedom of
Awareness and an all-embracing Gnitiveness which are far
removed from nirodha.66 In terms of the Dzogchen teach-
ings, those dualistic Brahmanic spiritual systems that under-
stand moksha or release from the grip of illusion or maya and
so on as nirodha or cessation (Wilber, 1996, p. 220), con-
ceiving this state as the coming to rest of all Gnitive activi-
ty in a deep absorption, are positing as the aim of the path
that which in truth is but an instance of the neutral condi-
tion of the base-of-all wherein neither samsara nor nirvana
are active, and which is characterized by ignorance of the
true condition of the Base and in some cases by the arrest of
the natural motility of primordial awareness. As we have
seen, the Dzogchen teachings compare dwelling in this con-
dition with cutting ones own head, for so long as we dwell
in it we have no possibility of advancing on the Path, and
we are wasting our precious human birth. Hence it would
be absurd to posit (as Wilber does) the same stages or fulcra
for the Paths that lead to nondual Awakening and those that
lead to the cessation of nirodha: these two types of path are
so radically different that their respective structures and
functions can have hardly anything in common.
Though I have no experience of paths aiming at the
stabilization of nirodha, I find it difficult to believe that in
order to gain the ability to dwell in the condition of nirod-
ha in an uninterrupted way it may suffice to enter the con-
dition in question some four times. This difficulty stems
from an extrapolation of the way development along the
Path occurs in the nondual Buddhist traditions we have
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 15
been considering, which consider nirodha to be a deviation,
but which assert the need to realize the true, nondual con-
dition of all entities, and which make it clear that this non-
dual condition can only be realized upon the dissolution of
the duality of subject and object that obscures it in samsara:
such traditions make it quite clear that it does not suffice to
realize this condition a small number of times for one to be
able to dwell in it uninterruptedly. In fact, in the gradual
Mahayana one may have to spend countless years (and life-
times!) alternating between the Contemplation state that is
beyond the subject-object and the inside-outside dualities,
and the post-Contemplation state that involves these duali-
ties, before finally attaining Buddhahoodwhich according
to some texts occurs after three countless aeons (Skt.,
kalpa; Tib. kal pa or bskal pa). In the Upadeshavarga series of
Dzogchen teachings, the most thorough Awakening possi-
ble may be attained in a single lifetime, but in general in
order to achieve this aim one has to practice Tekch for
years, and then one has to practice Thgel for a further peri-
od: the subject-object duality and delusion in general have
to liberate themselves spontaneously countless times for the
propensities for delusion to manifest to be neutralized or
burned out, so that the subject-object duality will arise no
more and hence the nonduality of the Base will no longer be
concealed. (Incidentally, in the excerpts cited above, Wilber
identified samsara with the world of form, which is an error,
for samsara corresponds to the threefold world of sensuality,
form and formlessness, and though it is true that the idea is
not to stop the manifestation of forms, the final result con-
sists in the fact that form is no longer taken as object, for no
subject arises to know it dualistically. As we have seen, this
is the Fruit of the practices of Thgel and the Yangthik, in
which the subject arises and liberates itself spontaneously
again and again before the manifestations of rlpa energy
without the latter disappearing, until the propensity for the
former to manifest is totally neutralized or burned out. To
conclude with the discussion of Wilbers quotation, if the
aim of the Theravada tradition were the same as that of the
Yoga of Patajali and the associated Samkhya darshana of
Kapila, Shakyamuni would not have taught the Hinayana in
the first promulgation of the doctrine, but would have
referred his shravaka followers to the Yogasutras of Patajali
and the works by Kapila; however, on the contrary, he
rejected all Brahmanic traditions, and in his Hinayana
teachings he did not even teach any form of physical Yoga.)
To sum up, Wilber intended his seventh, eighth and
ninth fulcra to be a progression of levels of realization fol-
lowing the sequence the inner Buddhist Tantras of the Path
of transformation posit for the realization of the kayas,
which begins with the nirmanakaya, continues with the
sambhogakaya, and concludes with the dharmakaya.
However, as shown above, his fulcra cannot correspond to
what these Tantras refer to by these names, for: (1) his sev-
enth fulcrum is a spontaneous experience of oneness with
nature, which may consist in a manifestation of the neutral
condition of the base-of-all that then is followed by an expe-
rience of the formless realms located at the top of samsara,
but in no case could it be a manifestation of the nir-
manakaya; (2) he reduced his eighth fulcrum to the mani-
festation of non-ordinary strata of perception and subtle
non-Jungian archetypes, without making it clear that for
manifestations of the rlpa (rol pa) form of manifestation of
energy to be instances of the sambhogakaya the awareness in
which they appear has to be reGnized, as a result of which
they manifest in the condition the Dzogchen teachings refer
to as the condition of the mirror; and (3) his ninth ful-
crum may be either a state of nirodha like the neutral condi-
tion of the base-of-all, or a samsaric state featuring the illu-
sory subject-object duality in which, nonetheless, there is an
intellectual understanding that the true condition of all
entities is the nondual condition that the Dzogchen teach-
ings call Dzogchen qua Base and that the Mahayana call
dharmata or true nature of phenomena. Furthermore, as we
have seen, in the Upadeshavarga or Menngagde series of Ati
Dzogpa Chenpowhich, as noted above, Wilber has stud-
ied with at least one of the most important Masters of our
timethe three kayas are realized in a sequence that is con-
trary to the one posited in the inner Tantras of the Path of
transformation, and do not correspond to what these
Tantras call by the same names.
It seems clear to me that the main problem with
Wilbers views and schemas is that he tries to unify tradi-
tions that cannot be unified, for they do not go through the
same stages and do not lead to the same fruits. For example,
his belief that both the structure of reality and the levels of
realization are to be understood in terms of hierarchical
(holoarchical) schemas seems to me to have been inspired
by the Upanishads. The Taittiriya Upanishad tells the story
of a father who, by refuting each of his sons successive
replies to the question of the identity of Brahman, guides
him toward the discovery of the true nature of all reality: (1)
matter is to be rejected because it does not account for veg-
etable growth; (2) prana or the vital principle is to be reject-
ed because it does not account for the conscious phenome-
na of animal life; (3) manas or mind in an ample sense is to
be rejected because it does not account for human intellec-
tual phenomena; (4) vijana qua self-consciousness is to be
rejected insofar as it is subject to discord and imperfection,
dualism and externality. Thus the son is led to the discovery
that Brahman is realized in and as (5) turiya-ananda. In
turn, in the Chandogya Upanishad there is a dialogue
between Prajapati and Indra in which the latter is led
through similar stages to the discovery of the self that can-
not be affected by experience, and which makes him draw
Beyond Mind II 15
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 16
similar consequences: (1) the corporeal is evidently affected
by experience and thus must be rejected; (2) the empirical,
which corresponds to the dream state, is also affected by its
experiences; (3) the so-called transcendental, correspon-
ding to dreamless deep sleep, is rejected insofar as it involves
no consciousness or awareness. Finally, (4) the absolute is
found, which is ekam sat. These four levels seem to have cor-
relates in the Mandukya Upanishad, which distinguishes
between: (1) awake experience; (2) dreams; (3) dreamless,
deep sleep, and (4) the state of turiya-ananda.
However, the way turiya-ananda and ekam sat are
referred to in the Upanishads does not seem to aptly describe
what here I am calling Dzogchen qua Path or Dzogchen qua
Fruit. In particular, the states posited in the Mandukya
Upanishad seem to correspond to four of the intermediate
states (Skt., antarabhava; Tib., bar do) that are posited in
Tibetan Buddhism, none of which is Dzogchen qua Path or
Dzogchen qua Fruit, for all of them are like reflections in
the mirror of spontaneous awareness, rather than the
reGnition of this awareness. In fact, from lower to higher
according to the hierarchy set in the Mandukya Upanishad,
the four states posited by this sacred text seem to correspond
to: (1) awake experience, which is called bardo of birth or
bardo between birth and death (Tib., skyes gnas bar do or
rang bzhin bar do); (2) the dream state, which is called the
bardo of dream (Tib., rmi lam bar do); (3) the state of
dreamless deep sleep, which might correspond either to the
bardo immediately following the moment of falling asleep,
which is the same as the bardo immediately following the
moment of death, or chikai bardo (chi kai bar do), or to the
subsequent state of unconsciousness; (4) non-conceptual
absorptions, which might correspond to the bardo of
samadhi (Tib., bsam gtan bar do), which includes specific
instances of what various Hindu traditions call nirvikalpa
samadhi. If this interpretation is correct, the state of turiya-
ananda would not (be) and could by no means (be)
Awakening or nirvana, for Awakening and nirvana do not
at all correspond to the samten bardo or to any other bardo;
contrariwise, Awakening and nirvana correspond to the
reGnition of the spontaneous awareness in which, as in a
mirror, the experiences of all bardos manifestwhich
results in the instant spontaneous liberation of the experi-
ence of whichever bardo be manifest at the moment.
As noted above, Wilbers descriptions and classifica-
tions seem to be the result of unifying the accounts different
traditions provide regarding the sequence of their respective
paths and/or the essence of their respective views. However,
some Paths lead to nirvana, others lead to higher realms of
samsara, and still others may allow us to establish ourselves
for some periods in the cessation (nirodha) represented by
neutral condition of the base-of-all. Among the Buddhist
Paths leading to nirvana, some lead to the realization of a
16 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
shravaka, others lead to the realization of a pratyekabuddha,
others lead to the realization of a bodhisattva, and still oth-
ers may lead to the realization of a yogi, to that of a siddha,
to that of a mahasiddha or to that of a Buddha. Besides,
there are gradual Paths and nongradual Paths. How could a
single map be drawn that will be valid for all paths? An accu-
rate description of a Path can only be achieved by someone
who has successfully treaded it, on the basis of his or her
own experience, and such description will only apply to the
Path from which the description was drawn, and at best to
other Paths based on the same principle. Therefore, it would
be absurd to try to derive a universal map of the Path from
ones experience of the Path one has followed,67 and it
would be even more absurd to fabricate such universal
map by piecing together accounts from different traditions,
for if we put together the trunk of a mammoth, the teeth of
a saber-toothed tiger, and the body of a dinosaur, what we
obtain is a monster existing solely in our own fantasy. Such
a concoction, rather than being a manifestation of aper-
spectival freedom (which as we have seen according to
Wilber manifests in the sixth fulcrum, but which in truth is
a consequence of the realization of the absolute truth of the
Mahayana, or of the condition of Dzogchen, etc.), which
necessarily involves understanding what each and every per-
spective responds to and may apply to, would in contrast
spring from confusion and lack of perspective.
At any rate, it is a fact that Wilbers descriptions and
classifications fail to provide a clear criterion for distinguish-
ing samsara from nirvana, and also fail to provide a clear cri-
terion for distinguishing both of these from the base-of-
allsuch as the criterion set in the Dzogchen teachings.
The Pre/Trans Fallacy and the Ascender/Descender
Debate
What Wilber calls the pre/trans fallacy (Wilber,
1993), which he attributes to Stanislav Grof and Michael
Washburn (and which is directly related to what the same
author referred to as the ascender/descender debate
[Wilber, 1995]), is the confusion of early, prepersonal life
experiences for transpersonal experiences of higher con-
sciousness. In their turn, Grof (1985, 2000) and Washburn
(1995) reject the assertion that there is such fallacy and con-
tend that early, prenatal life experiences are legitimate
sources of transpersonal experience and can be interpreted
as instances of deeper consciousness.
I have objected to Wilbers characterization of the
process of Awakening as a progressive ascension through lev-
els in a hierarchy or holoarchy (which may be related to the
basic view of Abraham Maslow [1970]), not only because
that process is one of seeing through the conditioned and
thus of deconditioning, or because it involves undoing the
serial simulations described by Laings diagram of a spiral of
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 17
pretences (Capriles, 1977, 1986, 2000a, 2000b, work in
progress 1), or because its structure and function are aptly
expressed by the Divine Comedy (though in Dantes master-
piece only the first stage of the Path involves a descent, even
the ascent that takes place in the two subsequent stages may
be rightly categorized as a descent insofar as it constitutes a
process of deconditioning), and so forth, but also because
nirvana is the condition of absolute equality, whereas the
illusory existence of levels and the discrimination between
these is characteristic of samsara. For all these reasons, ascen-
sion is primarily to be seen as a movement away from
authenticity consisting in climbing through the levels of
samsara and toward the peak of experience, and possibly
beyond, into the meditative absorption of the base-of-all in
which neither samsara nor nirvana are active.
However, Buddhism is the Middle Way, not only
between hedonism and asceticism, existence and nonexis-
tence, and so on, but also between descending and ascend-
ing. Though in the process of ontogeny we develop ever-
greater skills, we do so at the expense of the greater whole-
ness proper of infancy. The same is not the case with the
Path, in which at each stage we develop ever-greater skills
(even though in some intermediate stages one may be
obstructed by self-consciousness and conflict), but as we do
so we are proceeding toward Awakening, in which absolute
wholeness is indivisible from the most consummate skills.
Because of this, and because each stage of realization
depends on the achievement of the preceding one, the Path
may also be seen as ascending. This is reflected by some of
the Buddhist schemas of development along the Path, which
verticalize the division into samsara and nirvana, placing
nirvana in a superior plane and samsara in a lower oneby
the same token instilling respect for the Buddhas, higher
bodhisattvas and so on, and spurring seekers on the Path. In
particular, gradual vehicles such as the Shravakayana and the
Bodhisattvayana or gradual Mahayana depict the gradual
Path of Awakening as a progressive ascension through five
successive paths, each of which is indeed more advanced
in the sense of being less deluded and hence involving
greater truththan the preceding. Furthermore, as we have
seen, the Bodhisattvayana or gradual Mahayana explains the
last three of its five successive paths in terms of the ascension
through eleven levels (Skt., bhumi; Tib., sa) that has been
repeatedly referred to throughout this paper.
However, the above vehicles arose through the skillful
means of a Buddha, who never believed that the true Path
was ascending rather than descending, and who made it
crystal clear throughout his teachings that the condition of
adult human beings in samsara resulted from a process of
conditioning that established countless illusory divisions,
giving rise to an experience he characterized in terms of the
Pali term sankhata and the Sanskrit term samskrita (corre-
sponding to the Tibetan term dus byas)which have the
acceptations of conditioned, compounded, com-
posed, intentionally contrived, configured, born and
made up. He also made it clear that the Path consisted in
Seeing through all that falls under the category designated by
the Pali term sankhata, the Sanskrit term samskrita and the
Tibetan term dj (dus byas), into the original condition
that he characterized in terms of the Pali term asankhata and
the Sanskrit term asamskrita (corresponding to the Tibetan
term dus ma byas), which are rendered by terms such as
unconditioned, uncompounded, unborn, unmade,
unconfigured, and not intentionally contrivedthereby
implying that, from a phenomenological, ontological stand-
point,68 the Path was one of descent. This is clearly evi-
dent in the Atthasalini (a commentary to the canonic Pali
text Dhamma Sangani belonging to the Shravakayana of the
Theravada and attributed to Vth Century A. D. teacher
Buddhaghosha), in which we read (Guenther, 1964):
While healthy attitudes and meditative practices
ranging over the three worlds (of sensuality, form
and formlessness) build up and make grow birth and
death in a never-ending circle and hence are called
building-up practices, it is not so with this medita-
tion. Just as if a man were to erect a wall eighteen
cubits high, while another man were to take a ham-
mer and to break down and to demolish any part as
it gets erected, so also this meditation sets about to
break down and to demolish death and rebirth that
have been built up by healthy attitudes and medita-
tive practices ranging over the three worlds, by
bringing about a deficiency in those conditions
which tend to produce birth and death, and there-
fore this meditation is called the tearing down one
(apachayagami).
The simile of the man with a hammer should not lead us to
believe that the true Path involves an active strife, for rather
than actively striking delusion with the hammer of practice,
as the excerpt itself notes the point is to bring about a defi-
ciency in those conditions that tend to produce birth and death.
This pointthat Awakening cannot be attained by means
of actionis made by many Chan and Zen stories (suffice
to mention the dialogue between Ma-tsu and Huai-jang, or
the poetry contest whereby Hui-neng became the Sixth
Patriarch of Chan in China) that I have not space to quote
in this paper, but which I have reviewed elsewhere (Capriles,
1977, 1986, 2000a, 2003, in greater detail, work in progress
1).
In Sufism, the principle expressed by the Atthasalini
was illustrated with the story of a king who sponsored a
competition between two groups of paintersone Chinese,
the other Greek (in Sanai, the Chinese represented the gen-
Beyond Mind II 17
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 18
uine Path, which is descending in the sense I am using the
term at this point, whereas the Greek represented the spuri-
ous ascending one; in Rumi, it was the other way around
[Iqbal, 1964]). The king ordered the two groups of painters
to adorn the walls of two rooms with doorways facing each
other, and proceeded to lock each group of painters in their
respective room until they completed their work. One
group of painters set to paint the walls with unseen ability
and proficiency of detail, whereas the other simply set to
polish the walls in order to uncover their primordial mirror
quality. One day, those who had been painting the walls
sent the guard to call upon the king and, telling him they
had completed their work, invited him to appraise it. When
the king entered the room, he was speechless before the
splendor of the paintings, and thought no one could surpass
the work of these artists. However, as he was leaving the
room, the second group of painters opened the doors to
their room, upon which all that had been painted in the
other room was reflected in its walls, appearing far more
impressing and splendorous. The king, as was due, decided
the wall-polishers were the winners and handed them the
prize. It must be noted, once again, that the active charac-
ter of the simile should not lead us to believe that the true
Path involves an active strife.
The principle illustrated by the two above references
seems to be precisely the one that late 18th- early 19th cen-
tury poet William Blake dealt with in The Marriage of
Heaven and Hell, which describes the same principle as
Dantes Divine Comedy (for which, by the way, Blake pro-
duced visionary illustrations). He wrote (Blake, 1975, pp.
xxi-xxii):
The ancient tradition that the world will be con-
sumed in fire at the end of six thousand years is true,
as I have heard from Hell.
For the cherub with his flaming sword is hereby
commanded to leave his guard at the tree of life; and
when he does, the whole creation will be consumed
and appear infinite and holy, whereas it now appears
finite & corrupt.
This will come to pass by an improvement of
sensual enjoyment.
But first the notion that man has a body distinct
from his soul is to be expunged; this I shall do by
printing in the infernal method, by corrosives,
which in Hell are salutary and medicinal, melting
apparent surfaces away, and displaying the infinite
that was hid.
If the doors of perception were cleansed every-
thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite.
Beside the gradual Paths of the Sutrayana, Shakyamuni
bequeathed us nongradual Paths such as the
18 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
Pratyekabuddhayana and the Sudden Mahayana, and Garab
Dorje gave us the Dzogchen Atiyoga, which is neither grad-
ual nor suddenand which is the one I have recurrently
illustrated with the symbolism of the Divine Comedy
(Capriles, 1977, 1986, 1989, 1994, 2000a, 2000b, work in
progress 1, work in progress 2). The teachings of these sys-
tems make it clear that they do not involve an ascending
progression, for Awakening is the sudden, instant uncon-
cealment of the original condition that Dzogchen calls the
Base (or Dzogchen qua Base) and that all of these systems
characterize as unconditioned (Pali asankhata; Skt., asam-
skrita; Tib., dus ma byas) and depict as a condition of total
equality involving no high or low, no up or down.
Furthermore, though the Dzogchen teachings sometimes
follow the model of the gradual Mahayana and posit a
sequence of levels (Skt., bhumi; Tib., sa), which in this case
are sixteen, what is characteristic of Dzogchen Atiyoga is the
view of the Path as a single level (Skt., ekabhumi; Tib., sa
gcig), and thus as having neither bottom nor top. Finally,
although the Dzogchen Path depicts a succession of three
levels of realization that correspond to the three kayas of
Buddhahood, they make it clear that each of these consists
in a more thorough unconcealment of the original condition
of absolute equality of Dzogchen qua Baseconsisting in
the trikaya qua Baserather than being a higher level to be
attained by climbing from a Base.
Therefore, though the Buddhist Paths are ultimately
the Middle Way between ascent and descent, from a phe-
nomenological, ontological standpoint all Buddhist systems
would agree with Grof and Washburn (as well as with Jung
[Jung, 1928, 1964/1968, 1972, 1975]69 and in a sense also
with Assagioli [1965]) in viewing genuine integration and
transcendence as the result of a process of descent. In
Dzogchen terms, in particular, it is by Seeing through and
thus undoing all that has covered it and concealed it, that
Dzogchen qua Base may be uncovered in the manifestation
of Dzogchen qua Path and, in the long run, remain uncov-
ered in Dzogchen qua Fruit. Washburn wrote (1995, p.
470):
Similar to the views of Jung, Grof, and Levin,
the view presented here is one that postulates the
existence of an original dynamic, creative, sponta-
neous source out of which the ego emerges, from
which the ego then becomes estranged, to which,
during the stages of ego transcendence, the ego
returns, and with which, ultimately, the ego is inte-
grated. Jung, Grof, Levin, and I differ in the specif-
ic ways in which we describe the basic source of the
egos existence and the egos spiral journey of depar-
ture from and higher return to this source; neverthe-
less, the underlying paradigm is substantially the
same.
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 19
Basically, I think Wilber loses sight of the
transpersonal potentials of the deep unconscious and
consequently mistakenly conceives of the course of
[ontogenetic] development as a straight ascent to
higher levels rather than as a spiral loop that, after
departing from origins, bends back through origins
on the way to transpersonal integration.
It is true that the ego emerges from an original dynamic,
creative, spontaneous sourcewhich here I am calling
Dzogchen qua Basefrom which it then becomes
estranged. However, it is also important to emphasize the
following facts: (1) that the source in question is the trikaya
qua Base; (2) that in spite of the fact that, as underlined in
the Chuang Tzu, the condition of the child is in many ways
similar to Awakening, it is radically different from
Awakening in that it does not at all involve the reGnition
(of ) the trikaya qua Base and does not even involve the
capacity to deal with reality effectively; (3) that though the
ego emerges from this source, the latter is not and cannot be
reGnized in infancy before the arising of the ego, but on the
contrary, can only be reGnized after the ego has been fully
developed and, having become ripe, it is ready to fall from
the tree of the internalized family and dissolve (and, in fact,
among the few who obtain this reGnition, the great bulk do
so as adults); (4) that despite the fact that realization
involves going back to the source, this going back, rather
than consisting in a going back to the unreGnized manifes-
tation of Dzogchen qua Base, corresponds to the reGnition
of this condition, which in samsaric beings is an unprece-
dented, wholly new occurrence; (5) that this reGnition is
initially the dharmakaya qua Path, then the sambhogakaya
qua Path, and finally the nirmanakaya qua Path; and (6)
that when the nirmanakaya qua Path becomes stable the
trikaya qua Fruit is obtained. The point is that, just like
ascending properly speaking can only take place in samsara
and leads us farther away from the source, merely descend-
ing to deeper consciousness, despite its value for reinte-
grating projections, facing the Jungian shadow (which I
explain in terms of Susan Isaacs concept of unconscious
phantasies, and as something that results from ontogenesis
in civilized societies rather than as a traces of our animal
past [Capriles, work in progress 1]) and so on, unless there
is a reGnition of this source by the means traditional sys-
tems have always used to this end, will not give rise to a true
liberationor, what is the same, will not give rise to nir-
vana, which is the only liberation possible.
Hence in a special phenomenological sense the Path of
Awakening consists in undoing the process whereby our
original conditionthe Base, which is the trikaya of
Buddhahoodwas concealed and then perceived in an
inverted way: initially the trikaya qua Base was ignored in
the condition known as the base-of-all or kunzhi in which
neither nirvana nor samsara are active, and then, when sam-
sara manifested, the trikaya qua Base was experienced in an
inverted way, for the phenomena of the energy or thukje
aspect of the Base (the nirmanakaya qua Base) were experi-
enced as though they were self-existent and hence as though
they were inherently different from the essence or ngowo
aspect of the Base (i.e., from the dharmakaya qua Base),
which is voidness and which implies the absence of the self-
existence we wrongly perceive in the phenomena of the
energy or thukje aspect of the Base. However, this does not
at all mean that these Paths may be reduced to the undoing
of the illusory divisions and wayward habits resulting from
the process of socialization, so as to discover a pre-existing
condition that at some point was concealed by themas
though chronologically we went back to infancy, pre-natal
life, the bardo or previous lifetimes. In the best of cases,
such a chronological regression, involving the undoing of
illusory divisions and wayward habits, could allow us to
revive the more wholesome states experienced in infancy
previously to the development of these illusory divisions and
wayward habits, to revive intrauterine states, or to revive the
states that manifested in the bardo or intermediate state
between death and rebirth (or perhaps even states experi-
enced in previous lives). However, by no means could it
lead to the manifestation of Awake awareness qua Path
and/or Awake awareness qua Fruit, for in ordinary, unen-
lightened individuals Awake awareness qua Path and/or qua
Fruit does not manifest during infancy, or in intrauterine
life, or in the bardo, or in previous lives.
For example, if there is no reGnition of rigpa upon the
shining forth of the clear light in the chikai bardo (chi kai
bar do) or bardo of the moment of death, the experience of
the clear light will be a manifestation of the condition that
the Dzogchen teachings call the base-of-all or kunzhi (some
times called rigpa qua Base) in which neither samsara nor
nirvana are active, and which involves the basic unawareness
corresponding to avidya or marigpa (ma rig pa) in the first
of the senses established by the Dzogchen teachings:71 the
obscuration, by a contingent, beclouding element of stupe-
faction, of the nondual Awake self-awareness that the teach-
ings of Dzogchen Ati call rigpa, so that the self-awareness in
question cannot make patent its own face as rigpa qua Path
or rigpa qua Fruit. Only in case rigpa had been reGnized
when the clear light shone forth after the moment of death,
or in subsequent stages of the bardo (or in previous lives,
for that matter), could we in some sense say that rigpa qua
Path is to be found by retroceding and undoingand yet,
since the reGnition of rigpa is beyond memory, and remem-
brance is a manifestation of mind understood as that which
conceals the true condition of primordial awareness, even if
rigpa were reGnized in this undoing and retroceding, this
Beyond Mind II 19
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 20
reGnition would be a wholly new event requiring the appli-
cation of specific instruction in the present (which, by the
way, would be impossible in a state of regression).
Therefore, merely by retroceding and undoing, nirvana and
the Fruit of Awakening cannot be achievedand yet on the
more abrupt varieties of the Path all kinds of repressed (so
to say) experiences may as well be relived.
The above shows that Buddhist Paths could only be
properly viewed as a process of undoing and descending if
these terms were understood in a special phenomenological,
ontological sense rather than as referring to the recovery of
a condition experienced in the past. In fact, the Fruit of the
Paths in question is not a Pre condition, for it does not lie
in the recovery of the greater wholeness of prepersonal stages
in early infancy, in reviving the dualistic liberation of the
moment of birth in a Basic Perinatal Matrix 4 (BPM4), or
in cozily resting in a samadhi obtained through the stabiliza-
tion of a BPM1 (i.e., of an experience of oneness like those
that take place in intrauterine life) or of an instance of the
neutral condition of the base-of-all such as those that may
obtain when luminosity shines forth in the chikhai bardo
(chi kai bar do) or bardo of the moment of death. The
Dzogchen Path, in particular, consists in the recurrent
reGnition of rigpa, which each and every time is a wholly
new occurrence, and the Fruit is but the irreversible stabi-
lization of this reGnition. Therefore, it may be said to be the
Middle Way between descending and descendingand yet
it seems important to warn that presenting it as ascending is
more incorrect and more liable to give rise to ego-distortions
than presenting it as descending. Since the early Wilber
failed to discriminate between the different types of
transpersonal states, since the late Wilber misrepresents the
stages of the Path and asserts Awakening to involve the sub-
ject-object duality, and since both the early and the late
Wilber present the Path as a process of ascension, there can
be no doubt that Wilber has always misrepresented the
structure and function of the Path.
Thus the Dzogchen Path, in particular, may not be
characterized in terms of the spurious dichotomies Wilber
posited in terms of what he called the Pre / Trans Fallacy
(Wilber, 1993) and the Ascender/Descender Debate
(Wilber, 1995). In fact, from the standpoint of Dzogchen,
both factions of the current debate would be equally off the
mark. Wilber would be wrong in positing a higher self
and a process of gradual climbing to it that results in
Awakening, for the process of Awakening consists in the
progressive discovery of the Base that is both the foundation
and the prima materia of all conditioned constructions that
in samsara conceal that very Base, rather than consisting in
climbingwhich is something that can only take place in
samsara and that leads to higher samsaric realmstoward a
hypothetic higher self. Furthermore, in the previous sec-
20 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
tion it was shown that Wilbers description of the successive
levels or fulcra to be attained is definitely mistaken, at least
in what regards the higher forms of Buddhism. In their
turn, Grof and Washburn would be mistaken if they actual-
ly believed the aim of genuine spiritual Paths to be the mere
undoing of the constructions established in the process of
ontogenetic evolution in order to discover a deeper self.
Furthermore, when Wilber objects that Washburn
(Washburn, 1995) and Grof (1985, 2000) are confusing
early, prepersonal life experiences with what he vaguely calls
transpersonal experiences, he is ignoring that the preper-
sonal experiences of early and prenatal life that manifest in
regressive processes are perfectly analogous to many non-
nirvanic transpersonal experiences. In their turn, Grof and
Washburn fail to admit that there can be no liberation in
merely going back to a deeper consciousness or to a deeper
self, or in obtaining transpersonal experiences: they share
the error, common to a great deal of transpersonal psychol-
ogists and to the early Wilber, of mistaking transpersonal
experiences for higher sanity, failing to realize that
Awakening, which alone is truly liberating, does not lie in
dwelling in a particular condition or in the manifestation of
a particular kind of experience, but in the reGnition and
spontaneous liberation of whatever experience manifests. In
other words, Wilber, Grof, Washburn and other transper-
sonal and integral psychologists fail to make the above-
mentioned key distinction between: (1) nirvana, in which
liberation and true harmony lie; (2) the base-of-all or kun-
zhi in which neither nirvana nor samsara are active, which is
but an oasis on the Path that will become a jail if taken for
the final destination; and (3) higher samsaric experiences
such as those of the formless realms, the form realms and the
higher regions of the realm of sensuality, which are but more
pleasant instances of delusion that will sooner or later give
way to more unpleasant instances of delusion.
The dispute seems to stem from the fact that both
sides are based on seemingly contrary errors, which may
have ensued from the methods each employs. Grof has
based himself in his observation of psychedelic experiences
(whether or not drug-induced), which he interprets as
involving a regression from personal states to perinatal
states, which despite their condition as prepersonal states,
often may correspond to transpersonal states; then, he posits
the latter statessome of which are beyond birth on the
way back followed by the process of regressionas the san-
ity that is to be attained through the type of therapy he
advocates. This approach of descent into chaos suggests
the symbolism of a regression from the ego and from the
concomitant inhibition/repression/bad faith, which allows
entrance into the sphere of what Freud referred to as the id
as a precondition for reintegration and sanity. I tend to
believe that Wilber, on the other hand, has based himself
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 21
mainly on meditation as the core of a progressive process of
ascension to transpersonal states, which as such involves
developing ego-mechanisms far beyond the degree they
reach in normal adultsand therefore he views the Fruit as
being far beyond the normal condition of adulthood in a
process of progression. However, some avow that also
through this approach there may be some kind of going
beyond repression, the difference being that in it repressed
contents are supposed to gradually enter the spheres of ego
and consciousness, which are not supposed to suddenly dis-
solve into chaos (even though at the end they are supposed
to dissolve in the realization of egolessness) (Daniels, 2004).
Though the transpersonal states achieved through both
methods are genuinely transpersonal, Grof and Washburn,
as well as the early Wilber, are utterly wrong in positing
their vaguely defined transpersonal states as the supreme
sanity to be sought, which in truth can only be attained
through the practice of the methods of genuine Wisdom
traditions leading to the reGnition of the Base or true nature
of whatever states may manifest, no matter to what realm
they may belong (personal, prepersonal, postpersonal,
transpersonal, perinatal, or whatever). In his turn, the late
Wilber is wrong in positing Awakening as a dualistic expe-
rience that has been impregnated by the single taste of the
true condition of reality.
If Wilbers views truly derived from the practice of
meditation, the methods on which he based himself would
be of the same general kind as those of Buddhist Paths in
general; however, in genuine Buddhist Paths, the higher
states of the three samsaric realms attained by these means
are only deemed useful if used for the specific purposes for
which they are traditionally used in Buddhist Paths, and if
there is awareness that these states are within samsara. In
their turn, the approach of Grof and Washburn would cor-
respond to that of Dzogchen Ati and other Buddhist Paths
(and therefore to what is expressed in this paper as well) if,
rather than descending in order to have the experience of
basic perinatal matrixes wrongly taken to be aims in them-
selves, this descent were undertaken in order to turn con-
tradiction into conflict and in this way facilitate the
reGnition (of ) the true condition of all concepts and all
concept-tinged experiences (for, as we have seen, if delusion
becomes pleasant, nothing will detect its existence and
hence we will not be reminded to apply the instructions that
are the condition of possibility of its spontaneous libera-
tion). There can be no doubt, therefore, that the dispute
arises from the fact that neither of the parts is firmly rooted
in a genuine Wisdom traditionand since neither of the
parts has had the realizations that are the essence of the Path
in genuine Wisdom traditions, both are wide off the mark.
(Also authors not belonging to the transpersonal move-
mentsuch as for example Janov, whose views were briefly
reviewed in Capriles [2000b, work in progress 1]have
posited paths that must be classified as descending.)
In the Dzogchen teachings, the highest and supreme
realization possible is the one attained through the practices
of Thgel and/or the Yangthik, which are carried out in the
bardo (which, however, does not mean that one should die
in the physical/clinical sense of the term: one must enter the
bardo while the physical body is alive, and deal with bardo
experiences the Dzogchen way, so that all that manifests lib-
erates itself spontaneously and in this way the propensities
for delusion are progressively neutralized, until they no
longer have any hold on the practitioner). And the bardo
may equally be seen as lying in the past, which is the direc-
tion in which according to some interpretations Grof and
Washburn place realization, or as lying in the future (i.e., in
the direction in which according to Wilber realization lies).
Furthermore, Awakening is neither the summit of a pyra-
mid nor the bottom of an ocean, but the condition of
absolute equality in which there is neither high nor low, nei-
ther upwards nor downwards, and which consists in the
spontaneous liberation of the experiences of the summit, the
bottom and the middle.
Sean Kelly (1998, p. 128; also in Daniels, 2004, p. 76)
noted, an essential task for transpersonal theory will be to
set Wilbers paradigm in dialogue with those of Grof (Grof,
1975, 1985, 1987, 1996, 2000) and Washburn (1995), cur-
rently the two most substantial alternatives to Wilbers par-
adigm. Though in my view Grof s view of the genesis and
character of COEX systems might need to be completed
and set in perspective, I believe the concept of such systems
might be part of a future synthetic system of metatransper-
sonal psychology; likewise, the creation by the Grofs of a
Spiritual Emergency Network is one of the most useful
developments in psychological therapy, insofar as such
refuges can potentially help save people who unwillingly
and unknowingly have had psychotomimetic experiences or
set on psychotic journeyswhich, though in themselves
they are not Paths leading to Awakening, in the right setting
and with the right guidance can become spontaneous heal-
ing processes, as they seemingly used to be in Paleo-Siberian
Shamanism (so that what Washburn called regression in
the service of transcendence is actually regression in the
service of a more balanced ego open to transpersonal
realms). I think in his turn Wilber is correct when he sug-
gests that the states found in processes of descent like the
ones studied by Washburn and Grof may be mistaken for
the realms of highest aspiration, and so those who become
content with them may forsake the quest for true
Awakening; however, exactly the same may occur with the
states Wilber posits in his maps of spiritual ascension,
which, as we have seen, in Buddhist terms are not instances
of nirvanaand, even worse, there is no way one may attain
Beyond Mind II 21
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 22
Awakening if one insists on conserving the subject-object
duality and the illusion of substantiality. Furthermore, I
believe for the dialogue in question to be fruitful it should
include Jungian psychology, antipsychiatry (in the amplest
sense of the term in which it also includes Laing, Basaglia,
and many others), Freudian psychoanalysis, some trends of
British psychoanalysis,72 existential psychoanalysis (and in
particular a reinterpretation of Sartres theory of bad faith)
and other relevant systems. At any rate, for such a dialogue
not to be dry speculation begetting wrong views, it must be
undertaken in the context of a genuine understanding of
Awakening or nirvana and of the means wisdom traditions
have always used to achieve this condition, on the basis of
personal practice of at least one such tradition. This is what
I have attempted in Part II of Capriles (work in progress 1),
Beyond Mind, on a chapter of which, as we have seen, this
paper was based.
End Notes
1The term Dzogchen has been translated both as
great completion and as great perfection. Chgyl Capriles (2003) and, more extensively, in Capriles (work in
Namkhai Norbu advises us to translate chenpo (chen po)
as total rather than great, because in this case what the term
refers to is absolute rather than relative. In their turn, both
completion and perfection are valid acceptations of dzog-
pa (rdzogs pa), but the former, which is realized as pleni-
tude, is more directly related to the katak (ka dag) aspect of
the Base, whereas the latter is more directly related to the
lhundrub (lhun grub) aspect of the Baseboth of which will
be briefly discussed in the text (for a detailed explanation of
all of this, cf. Capriles, 2003).
2In terms of the Mahayana the essential impurity
is the delusive appearance of self-existence: this is why the
voidness of the Base, which implies the voidness of self-exis-
tence of all entities, is its primordial purity aspect.
3As we have seen, in the Dzogchen teachings void-
ness is the ngowo (ngo-bo) or essence aspect of the Base,
which is the emptiness that allows our awareness to fill
itself with any appearances. The phenomena that appear to
us depend on our awareness (as well as on our mental func-
tions and on the rest of phenomena) in order to appear the
way they appear to us and to be what they are to us; there-
fore, they are void of the self-existence or substantiality
(Tib., rang stong) that the deluded mind projects on them
(and since they are impermanent and subject to constant
change, they also lack the subsistence the deluded mind
projects on them). And if the phenomena that seem so con-
crete are in truth empty, no matter how many of them may
manifest, the Bases essence or ngowo (ngo bo) will not be
modified in any sense or degree and thus the Base will con-
tinue to be void. Furthermore, since the phenomena in
22 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
question are not substances extraneous to the awareness rep-
resented by the mirror, this awareness is also void in the
sense of the Tibetan term zhentong (gzhan stong): it is void
of extraneous substances.
4We could say of the three aspects of Dzogchen
qua Base that essence is the dharmakaya qua Base (which is
realized when the phenomena of dang [gdangs] energy are
correctly apprehended), nature is the sambhogakaya qua
Base (which is realized when the phenomena of rlpa [rol
pa] energy are correctly apprehended), and energy is the nir-
manakaya qua Base (which is realized when the phenomena
of tsel [rtsal] energy are correctly apprehended). In regard to
the two aspects, we could say that the katak aspect of the
Base is the dharmakaya qua Base and that the lhundrub
aspect of the Base is the rupakaya qua Base. In short, in the
Base, in the Path, and in the Fruit we can choose to distin-
guish two or three aspects, according to the circumstances.
5I discussed the three modes of manifestation of
energy in Capriles (2000a) and, more thoroughly, in
Capriles (2003); a more correct and thorough discussion of
them will appear in the upcoming definitive version of
progress 2).
6Dzogchen translations often speak of recognizing
thoughts as the dharmakaya, of recognizing the true condi-
tion, essence or nature of thoughts, and so on. In all such
cases, what the texts are referring to is not what normally we
understand for recognition, which is the understanding of
a pattern (Skt., lakshana; Tib., mtshan-dpe) in terms of a
delusorily valued concept, but the unveiling of the true
nature of though, utterly beyond conceptual recognition
and beyond the subject-object duality, manifesting as the
dharmakaya. It was in order to make clear the distinction
between that which the texts refer to, and what is usually
termed recognition, that I coined the neologisms
reGnition, reGnize, and so on.
However, the neologisms reGnition, reGnize
and so on are far from perfect, for the prefix re may con-
vey the wrong idea that a new event called Gnition takes
place each and every time that which I am calling
reGnition occurs (just as, each and every time there is
recognition, a new cognition takes place). This is not correct
because, though reGnition is beyond doubt a Gnitive event,
this event consists in the unveiling of the primordial Gnosis
that is the true nature of thought and in general of all men-
tal phenomena, and which neither arises not disappears.
However, since all alternatives I considered were far more
inadequate than the neologisms reGnition, reGnize and
so on, and since in practice there is new Gnitive event each
and every time reGnition occurs, I decided to use these
neologisms.
7This condition involving unawareness of the true
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 23
nature of the Base manifests again and again in normal
human experience: it manifests between one thought and
the next, between an experience and the next, and so on. It
is said to be neutral because, just like when the gearbox is in
neutral a car moves neither forward not backward, in the
base-of-all neither nirvana nor samsara manifest: nirvana is
not manifest because the base-of-all involves a contingent,
beclouding element of stupefaction (rmongs cha) that
obscures rigpas inherent nondual self-awareness, preventing
it from making patent rigpas own face in the manifestation
of rigpa qua Path and rigpa qua Fruit; however, samsara is
not manifest either, because the base-of-all is a nonconcep-
tual and nondual condition free from the delusory valuation
of thought and hence of the subject-object duality, which
does not involve delusion as such. In fact, in the condition
of the base-of-all avidya or ma rig pa has not yet manifested
in the second sense the term has in the Dzogchen teachings
discussed in note 10 to this paper (i.e., as active delusion
giving rise to dualistic appearances)but only in the first of
these senses: as the already mentioned beclouding of the
clear nondual self-awareness that makes patent rigpas own
face. This condition may be prolonged by meditational
techniques, psychedelic drugs and a host of other means, so
as to become a nirvikalpa absorption characterized by nirod-
ha or cessation. According to circumstances it may be called:
primordial, profound base-of-all or ye don kun gzhi;
dimension of the base-of-all or kun gzhi khams; and base-
of-all carrying propensities or bag chags kyi kun gzhi. I have
discussed the base-of-all extensively in Capriles (2000a,
2000b, 2003, 2004).
8In Danilou (1984), we are offered ample evi-
dence of the unity of the Shaiva tradition of ancient India,
the Dionysian tradition of ancient Greece, and the Egyptian
cult of Osiris. Mount Kailash is the home of Shiva, and as
Tucci (1970; English 1980) tells us, also the Zurvanists and
the Ismaelians had it as a place of pilgrimagethe identity
between the ancient Persian god Zurvan and Shiva being
substantiated by the fact that, like Shiva Mahakala, Zurvan
is total time (and total space), and like the Ardhanarishwara
form of Shiva, Zurvan is a hermaphrodite deity. In their
turn, many Taoists have asserted the unity of their own tra-
dition with that of ancient Bn (bon)which I have sub-
stantiated with the fact that Lao-tzu gave the Tao-Te-Ching
to an officer of the Sino-Tibetan border upon leaving China
for Tibet, and with a series of coincidences in the imagery
(for example, that of the snake that sheds its skin), views,
and practices of both traditions (cf. Capriles, 2003 and
other works). All this may be explained by the fact that, as
we read in Norbu (Italian 1997) and in many credible
Bnpo (bon po) sources, Primordial Master Shenrab
Miwoche, who taught Dzogchen in the area of Mount
Kailash around 1,800 BC, had among his disciples the great
sages Mutsa Trahe of Tazig (Persia or Tadzhikstan), Hulu
Baleg of Sumba (in what is today Pakistani Kashmir),
Lhadag Nagdro of India, Legtang Mangpo from China, and
Serthog Chejam of Khrom (also in what is today Pakistani
Kashmir)all of whom translated into their respective lan-
guages and spread in their native lands the teachings of
Shenrab.
9Paul Claudel remarked that la connaissance est la
co-naissance du sujet et de lobjet: knowledge is the co-emer-
gent birth of subject and object. Just as the word knowl-
edge in French involves the prefix co, so does the term
cognitivity in English, which thus implies the co-emer-
gence and the interdependence of a subject and an object.
This is why I had to coin the neologism Gnitiveness (cap-
italized and lacking the prefix co) for referring to the
capacity that in samsara manifests as the cognitivity that
involves the subject-object duality, and in nirvana manifests
as the nondual gnoses of the Path and the Fruit.
10The three senses the terms avidya and its
Tibetan equivalent, marigpa (ma rig pa) have in the
Dzogchen teachings are:
(i) Avidya or marigpa qua the concealment/inhibi-
tion, by an element of stupefaction, of the self-reGnition
of nondual Awake awareness own face and hence of
Dzogchen qua Base, so that there is unawareness of the
true nature of all reality and nirvana is not manifest.
This is the first type of avidya, for it manifests in the
neutral condition of the base-of-all (kun gzhi lung ma
bstan), before active delusion gives rise to dualistic
appearances involving the illusion of self-existence and
hence to samsara; however, it continues to be manifest
when samsara arises and so long as samsara continues to
function (for a more exhaustive explanation of this type
of avidya or marigpa the reader is directed to note 7 to
this paper).
(ii) Avidya or marigpa qua delusion properly
speaking, which results from the delusory valuation of
thought and hence involves (a) the illusory subject-
object duality that results from the delusory valuation of
the threefold thought-structure (Tib., khor gsum) and
that manifests as the grasper and the grasped (Tib.,
gzung dzin), and (b) the confusion lying in taking the
relative to be absolute, the insubstantial to be substan-
tial, the dependent to be inherently existing, what lacks
value and importance as having inherent value and
importance, the unsatisfactory as providing satisfaction,
and so on, and which is the core of samsara. It involves
an inverted cognition insofar as the three aspects of the
Base, which are ngowo (ngo bo), rangzhin (rang bzhin)
and thukje (thugs rje), seem to be inherently separate
from each other: the phenomena of the thukje aspect
seem to be substantial rather than void, and therefore
Beyond Mind II 23
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 24
seem to have an essence different from the ngowo
aspect, which is voidness and which is completely
ignored.
(iii) Avidya or marigpa qua the inability, so long as
(ii) is active, to realize that we are under delusion: this
type of avidya lies in ignoring (mi-shes-pa) that the dual-
istic appearances that arise by virtue of the second type
are false and baseless, and is the condition for the latter
type of avidya to go on, for without it the contradiction
constituted by the second type would turn into conflict
and thus there would be a possibility of surpassing it.
This is why it has been said that in order to escape from
jail first we have to realize that we are in jail, and why
Shantideva said that in regard to the hair representing
the suffering of samsara, the superior bodhisattva (who
does not fully have this third type of avidya or ma rig pa)
has ceased to be like the palm of the hand and become
like the globe of the eye, from which the hair will have
to be extracted. And, in fact, this type of avidya is lack-
ing in the post-Contemplation state of higher bod-
hisattvas, who are aware that the dualism and substan-
tiality they experience is an illusion, and have some
awareness of apparitionality. (The undoing of avidya or
ma rig pa in the third of the senses the term has in the
Dzogchen teachings is concomitant with a rise in the
bioenergetic volume/modification of brain biochem-
istry: this rise tends to inhibit this type of avidya, and
the turning of contradiction into conflict resulting from
the inhibition of this type of avidya or ma rig pa tends
to cause the bioenergetic volume to further increase.)
The delusion that, in terms of a Mahayana inter-
pretation, is the Second Noble Truth, and that the
Prajaparamitasutras (Second Promulgation) explained
in terms of taking the insubstantial as being substantial,
the dependent as existing inherently, the relative as
absolute, and so on, is the result of the combination of
the above three types of avidya. Therefore it is only
when samsara is active (and therefore when avidya or ma
rig pa also manifests as the second and third types) that
the terms avidya and ma rig pa are to be translated as
delusion.
11Heraclitus, who in my view (which I amply sub-
stantiate in Capriles [work in progress 4]) was a representa-
tive of the Dionysian tradition, expressed the myth of lila in
Fragment 123 DK, in which he tells us that the physisthe
unconditioned Totality of nature and the true condition of
all of the entities that manifest in our conditioned experi-
encelikes to hide (krptesthai). If what hides in the con- nature.)
cealment that Heraclitus called lete is the physis, then
aletheiathe unveiling of the truemust necessarily con- continuity to the views of Heraclitus (though actually they
sist in the patency of the physis that is the true condition of
all entities. In fact, Fr. 50 DK tells us that those who listen,
24 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
not to the I, but to the lgos (another name for the physis,
which Heraclitus used when he intended to emphasize its
cognitive or spiritual aspect), wisely acknowledge that all is
one (which does not mean that Heraclitus fell into the error
of positing the concept of oneness as the absolute: in a bid
to help its readers go beyond the delusory valuation of con-
cepts, his book repeatedly affirms contradictory concepts
as evident, e.g., in Fr. DK 206). The idea is that the illusion
of separation in space and time inherent to the human exis-
tent (and therefore also the multiplicity of such existents), as
well as the seeming multiplicity of entities that appear sole-
ly as object, are conditioned, fragmentary, illusory appear-
ances that veil the unconditioned, unfragmented physis, and
which pertain to the veil that must fall in aletheia. In fact, as
expressed in Fr. 2 DK, though the lgos is common, each
individual believes he or she has a separate, particular and
private intellect: the cognitive principle that functions as the
awareness and intelligence of each and every individual is
the (universal) lgos that constitutes the cognitive or spiritu-
al aspect of the physis and that, being common to all, could
not be limited in space and timethe illusory, apparently
separate intellect that is the nucleus of the human existent
thus being but a false appearance that deluded humans mis-
takenly take for their true, innermost self. In turn, Fr. 89
DK tells us that, though for the Awake Ones there is one
single and common world, each and every one of the asleep
ones goes astray toward his or her particular [dream-] world:
these particular [dream-]worlds are conditioned, frag-
mented products of the delusory valuation of thought, and
as such they imply the concealment (lete) of the uncondi-
tioned and unfragmented physis/lgos that we all (are) in
truth. Thus lete is the basic concealment that is the essence
of the myth of lila, and aletheia consists in Awakening from
the dream of apparently absolute separateness and multi-
plicity that has as its core the human individuals illusion of
being a human existent limited in space and time.
Furthermore, Heraclitus makes clear the intimate relation
between the myth of lila and the traditional cyclic, degener-
ative view of time, evolution and history, when in Fr. B 52
DK he tells us that Ain (the cosmic time cycle: Skt. kalpa)
is the checkers-playing child to whom [real] kingship
belongs. (Heraclitus seems to compare the ain with a child
to whom kingship belongs for the same reasons why the
Tantra of the Semde series of Dzogchen teachings called
Kunche Gylpo [Kun byed rgyal po] or the All-creating King
refers to the nature of mind as All-creating King: because all
that appears may be said to be part of the play of this
In their turn, the Stoics, who claimed to be giving
developed a rationalism that would have caused the illustri-
ous Ephesian to frown), laid a very strong emphasis on the
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 25
degenerative view of human evolution and history, which
they expressed in terms of the Persian and Greek symbolism
of the four successive metals, each less precious than the for-
mer (in Greece this tradition was Dionysian and in Persia it
was Zurvanist; after having being lost in Greece, Hesiod re-
imported it from Persia). In the view of the Stoics, just as in
that of the Bnpos of the Himalayas (cf., for example,
Reynolds, 1989), in the original Golden Age there was nei-
ther state nor government, neither property nor social divi-
sions, and no individual family; in the terminology of the
Stoics, human beings were ruled by the spontaneity of the
lgos.
12In Capriles (1994), the accentuation of the
delusory valuation of thought and of the ensuing phenom-
enon of being, dualisms and so on in the process of the
degenerative evolution of humankind was explained as the
development of contradiction, both (1) insofar as we expe-
rience contradiction only if the terms of what we are to
experience as a contradiction are sustained by the delusory
valuation of thought and therefore by the phenomenon of
being, and (2) insofar as the situations we perceive as con-
tradictions within human beings, between human beings,
between human groups, and between humankind and the
rest of the ecosphere, result from degenerative evolution.
Regarding (1), it must be noted that when being
disappears in Dzogchen qua Path or Dzogchen qua Fruit,
we do not experience contradiction even if we are faced with
situations that otherwise would be seen as sheer contradic-
tions. It is well known that the Zen Buddhist method that
the Japanese call koan (Chinese: kung an) study, consists in
confronting students with what they perceive as an unsolv-
able contradiction and requiring that they resolve it. So long
as they are under delusion, the students will strive day and
night to solve the koan. However, at some point their effort
to understand in terms of delusorily valued thoughts will
collapse and the students will no longer perceive a contra-
diction in what they were trying to solve. Then, for a longer
or shorter period, they will be in a state of unlimited free-
dom, beyond the yoke of the delusory valuation of concepts
and, therefore, beyond all limits. Similarly, that which
Gregory Bateson (1972, Part III) called pathogenic double-
bind will produce a pathological effect on the child with
corresponding predispositions, but will not produce the
same effect in a normal adult and will not produce any
effect whatsoever in the individual who has become free
from delusory valuation. (For the two types of double-bind
Bateson posited and the extra one I posited, see Capriles
[2000b, work in progress 1].)
Higher bodhisattvas perceive contradictions as
such in their post-Contemplation state (though they do so
with lesser force than ordinary individuals), and insofar as
they perceive a contradiction they work toward its resolu-
tion. In their turn, the Buddhas do not perceive any contra-
dictions at any moment whatsoever, yet they spontaneously
do whatever is needed in order to solve what ordinary beings
may validly perceive as contradictions.
13I titled Integral Psychology the lecture on psy-
chology I gave repeatedly in three series of lectures in 1984
and 1985, which then were turned into Capriles (1986).
However, I was unaware that the same year Wilber would
publish a homonymous book (1986; Spanish 1993) and
cease using the term transpersonal. Since I had no inten-
tion of assimilating myself to those grouped under the term
integral (such as Aurobindo Ghose, Jean Gebser, Haridas
Chaudhuri, Ervin Laszlo, co-founder of Esalen Institute
Michael Murphy, Clare W. Graves, Graves disciple Don
Beck, Becks associate Chris Cowan and Ken Wilber), as
soon as I saw Wilbers book I stopped using the term.
14In Part III of the book of which this paper was
originally a chapter (Capriles, work in progress 1), I discuss
the degenerative view of human evolution and history, and
contrast it with the progressive views of Hegel, Wilber,
Habermas and so on, providing substantial evidence of the
spiritual and social superiority of primitive beings, and
showing the reasons why I deem the various progressive
views to be mistaken. Also in Capriles (1994) and to some
extent in Capriles (1992) I discuss both views and argue in
favor of the former. Steve Taylor (2003, 2005) has provided
even ampler evidence of the spiritual and social superiority
of primal human beings; however, following James DeMeo,
he claims the Fall occurred because of fortuitous coinci-
dences.
15It is well-known that Freud developed the con-
cept of Thanatos in the context of the explanation of the
neurosis of repetition; Bateson (1971) widened its scope and
made the concept clearer by identifying it with the positive
feedback loop at the root of many psychoses. I myself have
used it, in Batesons wider sense, to explain the mechanisms
of the degenerative evolution of humankind through the
time cycle (Capriles, 1994, work in progress 1), as well as
the dynamics of some of the higher Dzogchen practices
(Capriles, 1977, 1986, 2000a, 2003, work in progress 1,
work in progress 2).
16This is Heideggers term (Heidegger, 1996 and
throughout his works; cf. Capriles, work in progress 1),
which refers to the human mode of being, which somehow
implies being outside oneself.
17Passing through the hole at the bottom of Hell
leads to Purgatory because henceforth those going through
this process will know from their own experience that the
process is not a dead-end eternal Hell, but a temporary pas-
sage on the Path to Awakening. In Purgatory conflict arises,
rapidly exacerbates itself, and liberates itself spontaneously
again and again. And finally in Heaven the recurrent spon-
Beyond Mind II 25
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 26
taneous liberation of subtler delusions completes the process
of neutralization of all delusive propensities, until the indi-
vidual can establish him or herself in the Empyrean, corre-
sponding to the Akanishta Pure Land (Tib.,Og min stug po
bkod pai zhing)the pure dimension of Awakening, the
natural expression of the Awake condition, the dharmadhatu
garden of the Primordial Buddha, which insofar as it was
not created or produced, will not dissolve or be destroyed.
In fact, Dzogchen qua Fruit represents liberation
in regard to all experiences characterized and conditioned by
delusion, including, (1) the spurious paradises of the three
spheres of the god realm (of sensuality, of form and or form-
lessness), (2) the limbo of normality, and (3) the conflictive,
pain-ridden hells and other lower realms. It constitutes
the surpassing of the dualism between hells and paradises
and, in general, of all dualisms.
18The peak of experience (Skt., bhavagra) is the
fourth and highest of the formless realms or arupa lokas that
will be considered in a note below, and which is called the
dominion in which there is neither perception nor absence
of perception (Skt., naivasamjanasamja-samapatti), for
in it gross discrimination is left behind and there is only the
subtlest of discriminations.
19The feather at the top represents the realm of
sensuality, which is worn as an adornment (and which in
terms of my explanation involves the highest degree of
being); the crown in the middle represents the realm of form
(which in terms of my explanation has a middle degree of
being); the brim at the bottom represents the realm of form-
lessness (which in terms of my explanation has the lowest
degree of being).
20These three senses were explained in note 10 to
this paper. The third type of avidya is necessary for the sec-
ond to maintain itself.
21Maslow (1979) showed wisdom in warning that
for such peak experiences to be truly valuable they would
have to arise in the context of the application of a self-con-
sistent method; I would add that only ancient Wisdom tra-
ditions have truly self-consistent methods making it possible
to use experiences in order to move from samsara to
Awakening: the experience must be used as an impressive
reflection in a mirror, which allows discovery of the reflect-
ing nature of the mirror.
Furthermore, upon learning that many of his read-
ers were resorting to all kinds of means for obtaining peak
experiences outside the context of a self-consistent method,
Maslow switched the emphasis from the concept in ques-
tion to that of plateau experiences, which was also used by
the Indian author U. A. Asrani, and which Maslow illustrat-
ed with the image of a mother seeing a child play (quite
similar to the Dzogchen image of old man seeing children
play). In Cleary & Shapiro (1996), we read (p. 218):
26 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
Indeed, his journals (Maslow, 1979) reveal that by
1969, Maslow became convinced that the emotion-
ality and excitability inherent in peak experiences
may have been overvalued. He went on to say that
having a glimpse of transcendent states through a
peak experience was not the only way or even the
best way to acquire and sustain higher transcendent
experiences (Maslow, 1970; Krippner, 1972).
Although he believed these glimpses might occasion-
ally be useful, Maslow also arrived at the conclusion
that an inordinate emphasis on such glimpses was a
hindrance (Maslow, 1971, 1979).... [Furthermore,
he] expressed considerable ire in several of his jour-
nal entries (Maslow, 1979) that his concept of peak
experience had been misused to justify indulging in
experientialism for its own sake... Maslow came to
feel that appreciation of ordinary experience was not
only an essential component of, but that it served as
a trigger to, higher states of consciousness such as
the plateau experience (Maslow, 1970; Krippner,
1972).
Though the concept of plateau experience may to some
extent serve as an antidote to overvaluation of peak experi-
ences and attachment to the emotionality and excitability
that typify the samsaric varieties of these experiences, it does
not solve the root problem I see in the concept of peak expe-
rience, which is that it comprehends experiences of samsara,
absorptions of the neutral base-of-all, and instances of nir-
vana of the kind that I have been referring to as the
Dzogchen qua Path, preventing discrimination among these
extremely different conditions. The main advantage of
switching the emphasis from the concept of peak experi-
ences to that of plateau experienceseven though this
term still conveys the idea of a highseems to be that it
would discourage the avid search for explosive instants that
characterized the hippies in the 1960s and which produced
many unwanted effects, and might in some cases be con-
ducive to a discovery of the Tao/Buddha-nature (or howev-
er we call the ultimate) in ordinary experience. However,
this would be possible only in those who have had access to
the meta-experience of nirvana that I am calling the
Dzogchen qua Path, which is the very kernel of the Path,
and which the practice of Dzogchen must stabilize.
22The four formless absorptions (arupyasamapatti
or arupa-samadhi) are: (1) the dominion of the infinitude of
space (Skt., akashanantya-samapatti); (2) the dominion of
the infinitude of consciousness (Skt., vijananantya-samap-
atti); (3) the dominion where there are no whats (Skt,
akimchanya-samapatti); (4) the dominion in which there is
neither perception nor absence of perception (Skt.,
naivasamjanasamja-samapatti), for gross discrimination is
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 27
left behind and there is only the subtlest of discriminations.
By firmly establishing oneself in one of the above
absorptions, one takes birth in the corresponding dominion
among the four formless realms (Skt., chatur arupa-loka),
which correspond to the four sections of the formless sphere
(Skt., chaturarupyadhatu; Tib., gzugs med khams pai gnas
bzhi), and which are: (1) the activity field of the infinitude
of space (Skt., akashanantyayatana; Tib., nam mkha mtha
yas skye mched); (2) the activity field of the infinitude of con-
sciousness (Skt., vijananantyayatana; Tib., rnam shes mtha
yas skye mched); (3) the activity field where there are no
whats (Skt, akimchanyatana; Tib., ci yang med pai skye
mched); and (4) the activity field in which there is neither
perception nor its absence (Skt., naivasamjanasamjay-
atana; Tib., du shes med du shes med min skye mched). This
highest of all samsaric realms is also called bhagavra or Peak
of Experience.
23As we have seen, all Buddhist systems warn that
the transpersonal experiences of the summit of the sensual
realm (Skt., kamadhatu or kama loka; Tib., dod pai khams),
of the form realm (Skt., rupadhatu or rupa loka; Tib., gzugs
khams), or of any of the four formless realms (Skt., arupyad-
hatu or arupa loka; Tib., gzugs med kyi khams) are within
samsara and constitute spurious achievements that, if mis-
taken for Awakening, will result in an exacerbation of delu-
sion in an expanded ego experience (in fact, Shakyamuni
left his two successive teachers and set to seek for Awakening
without external guides because he realized they did not go
beyond samsaric realms, and yet posited their relative, con-
ditioned obtainments as the highest realization). In their
turn, Dzogchen and Chan or Zen go even beyond, for they
further warn against mistaking for nirvana or Awakening
the transpersonal state the Dzogchen teachings call kunzhi,
which may involve deep nirodha absorptions or samadhis in
which neither samsara nor nirvana are active. Furthermore,
the Dzogchen teachings warn that dwelling in this condi-
tion is like cutting ones own neck.
24This tingsel may manifest in some specific med-
itative absorptions; it may also manifest in the chikai bardo
(chi kai bar do), which is the first bardo to arise after death;
and it may manifest when luminosity shines after falling
asleep. (The bardos are not states of realization; an explana-
tion of the term bardo is provided in a subsequent note.)
25There are different manifestations of luminosi-
ty; for a brief explanation of these, see Capriles (2000a,
2003, and in particular work in progress 1). However, only
when their true condition is reGnized, are they manifesta-
tions of realization.
26The bardos (bar do) are the six (or four) inter-
mediate states samsaric beings transit through (even thought
some of them are either states in which neither samsara nor
nirvana are manifest, or comprise such states). No bardo
whatsoever may correspond to nirvana; for nirvana to man-
ifest the experiences that manifest in any of the six (or four)
bardos have to be reGnized.
27As we have seen, what the Dzogchen teachings
call the Base is the true condition of the whole of samsara,
nirvana and the neutral condition of the base-of-all or kun-
zhi (kun gzhi); therefore, the summit of samsara, just as all
other possible states that may manifest as a result of the
aforementioned three possible functionings, is in truth the
Basewhich therefore cannot be contrasted to that sum-
mit. However, the point is that the Base is not called the
Summit, but the Base, and that there are most precise
reasons for thiswhich are betrayed when the Base is rep-
resented as the Summit of a hierarchy, holoarchy or howev-
er we may like to call our hierarchical classifications.
28He did so at least until very recently; though I
believe he has continued to do so, I must acknowledge I
have not read all that Wilber has written.
29In Wilber (1996, pp. 72-73), we are told:
At first I thought [the holoarchical] maps [from dif-
ferent traditions, times and places] were all referring
to the same territory, so to speak. I thought they
were all different versions of an essentially similar
holoarchy. There were just too many similarities and
overlaps in all of them. So by comparing and con-
trasting them all, I though I might be able to find
the single and basic holoarchy that they were all try-
ing to represent in their own ways.
The more I tried this, the more it became obvi-
ous that it wouldnt work. These various holoarchies
had some undeniable similarities, but they differed
in certain profound ways, and the exact nature of
these differences was not obvious at all. And most
confusing of all, in some of these holoarchical maps,
the holons got bigger as development progressed,
and in others, they became smaller (I didnt yet
understand that evolution produces greater depth,
less span). It was a real mess, and at several points I
decided to just chuck it, forget it, because nothing
was coming out of this research.
But the more I looked at these various
holoarchies, the more it dawned on me that there
were actually four very different types of holoarchies,
four very different types of holistic sequences. As
you say, I dont think this had been spotted before
perhaps because it was so stupidly simple; at any
event it was news to me. But once I put all of these
holoarchies into these four groupsand they
instantly fell into place at that pointthen it was
very obvious that each holoarchy in each group was
indeed dealing with the same territory, but overall
we had four different territories, so to speak.
Beyond Mind II 27
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 28
Of all hierarchical schemas, the only one I admit is the one
discussed in the immediately following note.
30I have shown why the intellectual constructs of
the sciences cannot correspond exactly to what they inter-
pret, and why all scientific interpretations of reality, insofar
as they are posited as the exact, objective description of a
self-existent, objective reality, are ideological constructs.
Likewise, I have sided with Desiderius Erasmus (1984) and
Herbert Marcuse (1964, ch. 6), among others of those
modern or ancientwho view the prevailing scientific
approach as being in itself pernicious, and have insisted that
at the root of science lie an objectifying and fragmentary
type of perception and a utilitarian type of intentionality
that automatically lead to the development of technology
and of mechanistic views. While I have insisted that this
does not imply that we should do away with the sciences, I
have also insisted that our problems will not be solved (as
some of the advocates of the famed New Paradigm
preached in the eighties and nineties) merely by replacing
the mechanistic outlook of the sciences for a holistic one
while keeping the current mentality (Capriles, 1994, 2004,
work in progress 1). In fact, my view is that for survival to
be perhaps possible a revolution in the human psyche must
radically change the perception and the intentionality
behind both science and technology, so as to radically trans-
form their nature, making them collaborate with the ecosys-
tem rather than devastate it and destroy it (which is rough-
ly in agreement with Marcuses [1972] view).
In the original note to the chapter of Capriles
(work in progress 1) that served as the basis for this paper, I
pointed out that I fully agree with Wilber that if we are to
apply scientific models to different systems in the uni-
versesuch as physical, biological, human, social and so
onit is most important to switch models according to the
level of complexity and the structure and function of the
level we are dealing with. I also noted that Wilber (1982,
1996) criticized the so-called new paradigm precisely for
failing to do so.
In fact, as shown in Capriles (1994), it would be
erroneous, dehumanizing and pernicious to understand
those phenomena involving human consciousness in terms
of models and concepts that apply to, say, the physical level,
or the biological level, or other levels, and try to produce a
scientific universal theory for explaining indistinctly the
phenomena of all different levels. (In the original note I
argued for this view using quotations from Feyerabend
[1984/1987, p. 11], Ervin Laszlo [1974, pp. 29-31], and
Walter Buckley [1970/1993, pp. 13-14]. I used De Sousa
Santos [1987/1988, p. 37] to illustrate the error in question,
commenting that the reductionism involved could go as far
as in John Lilly [1987]; then I made reference to the
polemic between T. H. Huxley [1887] and Piotr
28 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
Alekseyevich Kropotkin [1976] concerning the motor of
evolutionand, finally, I pointed out that Niklas
Luhmanns systemic, autopoietic theory of society, which
was criticized in Capriles & Hocevar [1991, 1992] and
whose aims I compared to those of B. F. Skinners [1975],
show that the application of systems theories based on the
concept of self-organization will not be helpful unless the
revolution of the psyche referred to above is achieved.)
31All that was expressed in note 27 applies here
again.
32I am not referring to phenomenology in the
narrow twentieth century European sense of the term, but
to what I have referred to as a metaphenomenology, which
is not limited to analyzing samsaric ontological structures
while keeping the phenomenological epoch, but which also
involves the analysis of nirvana, which is beyond appear-
ances (phenomena) and ontological structures, and of the
relationship between samsara and nirvana.
When I say ontological, I am referring to what I
have referred to as a metaontology, which is the correct
ontology developed by those who have undergone the disso-
lution in nirvana of the phenomenon of being, and who
therefore have a correct understanding that being is a most
basic delusive phenomenon of samsara.
33However, we should not think that all condi-
tioned experience should be placed on the same footing. For
example, according to the Dzogchen teachings, the percep-
tion of ones body (and ideally of the whole universe) as a
magical illusion, an apparition, a phantom or a hologram, as
achieved in the Tantric practice of the illusory body, despite
being conditioned, is more correct than the one featuring
the perception of ones body and the universe as concrete,
self-existing realities. Similarly, the experience of the post-
Contemplation stage of the arya bodhisattva of the
Mahayana in the path of Seeing and the path of
Contemplation (the third and fourth paths in the career of
the bodhisattva), wherein the relative is perceived (to a
greater or lesser degree) as being on the same status as an
illusion or a mirage, despite being conditioned is more cor-
rect than the perception characteristic of deluded beings
who have not entered the Path.
Nonetheless, since the above states are still condi-
tioned by delusion, they are not in the same footing as what
the Dzogchen teachings call Dzogchen qua Path and
Dzogchen qua Fruit.
34What Jean Gebser called aperspectival free-
dom (Gebser, 1986), deriving from the fact that one no
longer privileges any point of view over the plethora of other
viewpoints at ones disposal, can only result from what
Madhyamika Prasangika master Chandrakirti called not
having own-mind, and which has also been called not
affirming anything from ones own heart and not making
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 29
self-directed or interior-directed assertions (Tib., rang
rgyud du khes len pa)which implies only making other-
directed or exterior-directed assertions (Tib., gzhan ngo
khas len). To have own mind, to affirm from ones heart,
or to make self-directed / interior-directed assertions was
the same as to have theses of ones own: to take as true
whatever one thinks or asserts without intending to deceive
others, and to take the contrary of this as false. Therefore,
not to have own mind or its synonyms expressed an essen-
tial trait of fully realized individuals, for, insofar as they are
utterly free from the delusory valuation of concepts and
other thoughts, they do not take anything they say as being
absolutely true or false: whatever they say arises beyond
delusory valuation as the spontaneous function of
Awakening that naturally leads beings beyond samsara. The
following is from Capriles (2005):
There are abundant source quotes from Nagarjuna,
Aryadeva and Chandrakirti asserting that
Madhyamikas have no theses or system of their own
(for a list of such source quotes, cf. Wayman, Alex,
1978, Indian ed. 1979, pp. 288-289). One of the
best known such quotes is the one often taken from
Nagarjunas Vigrahavyavartanikarika: If I had any
thesis then I would have that fault. Since I have no
thesis, I am utterly faultless.
Does this mean that Nagarjuna never asserted
anything? In his texts he explicitly said that there was
Awakening, that bodhisattvas proceeded along a
Path, etc. Furthermore, his statement in the above
stanza that he had no thesis was itself an assertion.
Tsongkhapas interpretation was that in the above
stanza and similar ones the scope of the negation was
limited. However, Nagarjuna asserted he had no the-
sis because, as we have seen, fully Awake individuals,
no matter what they assert, have no own mind:
being free from grasping at thoughts, whenever they
affirm that there is Awakening, that bodhisattvas
proceed along a Pathor that they make no asser-
tions, for that matterthey do not adhere to the
idea they are asserting, which arises solely for leading
beings along the Path. And the same is the case with
the assertions they are forced to make upon facing
different life situations; for example, upon being
asked what were his familys caste and his place of
birth, most likely Nagarjuna would have replied he
was born a Brahmin in Berarand if asked about
his religion, surely he would have said he was a
Buddhist. However, being free from grasping at
thoughts, he would not have experienced this as
being absolutely or truly soand if someone spoke
evil of Brahmins from Berar, or of Buddhists, he
would not have felt touched in the heart by the
words spoken by that person and thus would not
have felt to the least offended. On the basis of the
views Tsongkhapa expressed in this regard, Elizabeth
Napper tells us (Napper, 2003, p. 118):
Even if one, trying to be free from assertions,
says that all presentations are only from others
point of view, this too is illogical, for even saying
that much is an assertion, and thus one is not
free from assertions. (In this regard, cf.
Wayman, Alex, 1978, Indian ed. 1979, pp. 288
and 296.)
Since Nagarjuna was not a mindless person who
went around contradicting himself, but a realized
individual, he could not have understood the phrase
being free from assertions in the sense that one
should refrain from making statements such as lf I
had any thesis then I would have that fault; since I
have no thesis, I am utterly faultlessfor, had he
harbored the belief that one should not utter words
that may be understood as assertions, he would not
have written this stanza. The only plausible interpre-
tation of the stanza is the one Chandrakirti summed
up when he asserted followers of Madhyamaka
should not have own mind, hold theses from the
heart, or make interior-directed / self-directed
assertions: Madhyamaka arose as a means for leading
beings to Awakening, and only fully Awake Ones are
true Madhyamikas, for only fully Awake Ones, upon
making assertions, at no point whatsoever have own
mind, hold theses from the heart, or make interi-
or-directed or self-directed assertionswhich
means that they never take them to be absolutely
true or false, as deluded beings always do.
Since, as we have seen, other-directed or exte-
rior-directed assertions are those which are made
without believing them to be true, the lies told by
ordinary beings belong to this category. However,
when ordinary beings speak, independently of
whether they lie or say the truth, their assertions
are totally incorrect, in the sense that they are a func-
tion of delusionand whatever is thought or said
under delusion is incorrect, for delusion is itself
incorrectness. The point is that, since they cannot
avoid grasping at their own thoughts and assertions,
ordinary beings wrongly take their interior-directed
assertions to be absolutely true, and wrongly take
their lies to be totally untrue: being deluded, in con-
tradiction with Prajaparamita Sutras like the
Vajracchedika and with Madhyamika thought, they
take forms to be either existent or nonexistent, and
if they take something to be existent they will per-
ceive themselves as lying if they say it is nonexistent
Beyond Mind II 29
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 30
(and vice-versa): this is the reason why all they say is
incorrect, and it is also the reason why, if they assert
what they believe to be untrue while being connect-
ed to a polygraph, the machine will detect a lie.
Contrariwise, whatever the Buddhas say, being
always other-directed or exterior-directed, is total-
ly correct, for insofar as they are totally free from
grasping at thoughts (and thus utterly undeceived
and free from the power of conventional truth
which, as Gendn Chphel shows [2005], is delud-
ed truth), they do not experience their assertions as
being either true or false: they do not take forms as
being either existent of nonexistent. Therefore, if
they assert something and immediately negate it, in
neither case will the polygraph register a lie: this is
the reason why the Maharatnakutasutra, quoted in
Chphel (2005), says, Existence and nonexistence
contradict each other; pure and impure also contra-
dict each other; because of contradiction, suffering
cannot be calmed; when contradiction is no more,
suffering comes to an end. In fact, surpassing con-
tradiction does not mean never asserting the oppo-
site of whatever one affirmed in the past; it means
going beyond the grasping that causes one to per-
ceive a contradiction in making contradictory asser-
tions, and that hence causes the polygraph to detect
a lie when one of the two contradictory assertions is
made.
In fact, insofar as the assertions made by
Awake Ones are part of the spontaneous activities
whereby they lead beings to Awakening, upon mak-
ing them they (are) totally beyond action, beyond
intention, beyond self-consciousness and beyond
judging in terms of right or wrong. In the
Bodhicharyavatara we read (Shantideva, 1996, p.
126): [Objection] How can there exist a liberated
being?
[Madhyamika] He is false imagination in the
mind of another, but he does not exist because of
conventional truth on his own part. After something
has been established it exists; if not, it does not exist
even as conventional truth.
The above means that Buddhists who lived at
the time of Shakyamuni through their false imagina-
tion perceived Shakyamuni as a Buddha, but
Shakyamuni, who was not subject to false imagina-
tion, did neither perceive himself as a Buddha, nor
perceive others as deluded sentient beings; therefore,
in all that he asserted there was no own-mind, and
therefore his assertions were of the type that has been
called other-directed (though, as will be shown
below, this term is not really precise)...
30 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
The stanzas by Shantideva coincide with Jigme
Lingpas assertion that, though Buddhist sentient
beings may perceive Buddhas as carrying out count-
less activities in their behalf, Buddhas perceive no
beings that must be helped, and harbor no inten-
tions to help beings. The point is that, since
Buddhas are free from grasping at the threefold
thought-structure (Tib., khor gsum), whatever they
do is an instance of what is called action and fruit
[of action] devoid of the concept of the three
spheres (khor gsum rnam par mi rtog pai las dang
bras bu]): from their own standpoint they are
beyond activityand yet sentient beings, if they are
devout Buddhists and are able to recognize the
Buddhas as such, see the latter as carrying out count-
less activities in their behalf. This is why the terms
other-directed and exterior-directed do not cate-
gorize the actionless activities of the Buddhas pre-
cisely: Buddhas perceive no others and no exterior,
and therefore, although for lack of a better term we
call their assertions other-directed or exterior-
directed, in truth these belong to a category differ-
ent from that of the exterior-directed or other-
directed assertions made by sentient beingswhich
are the lies they sayand properly speaking should
not be referred to by the same words. And this is also
why purpose is a term that does not apply to the
Buddhas.
In turn, superior bodhisattvas (which are those
in the third and fourth bodhisattva paths, or, what is
the same, those ranging between the first and tenth
levels [Skt., bhumi; Tib., sa]) have no own mind
and hold no theses from the heart while they are in
the state of Contemplation (Skt., samahita; Tib.,
mnyam bzhag), but they do so again while in the
state of post-Contemplation (Skt., prishthalabdha;
Tib., rjes thob), in which grasping at thought has
been reactivated. However, as they advance on the
Path, delusion is progressively neutralized, and so
the strength of grasping at thoughts in the state of
post-Contemplation is progressively mitigated
which implies that the strength of the delusive
appearances that manifest in that state diminishes.
Furthermore, having experientially realized, while in
the Contemplation state, that the illusions resulting
from grasping at thought are mere illusions, while in
the post-Contemplation state they maintain some
awareness of this factwhich is why the relative
truth that manifests in this state is called correct rel-
ative truth (Skt., tathyasamvritisatya; Tib., yang dag
pai kun rdzob bden pa). Therefore, in this state they
posit theses that are mainly other-directed or exte-
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 31
rior-directed, but that to a great extent are also inte-
rior-directed (and, in fact, in order to continue on
the Path they still need to believe that there is a final
Buddhahood and a means to proceed toward it, as
well as a series of dharma truths to be admitted);
therefore, the conceptual positions they adopt are to
a great extent correct.
Finally, bodhisattvas who have not yet reached
the third bodhisattva path (or, what is the same, the
first level) and who therefore have never gone
beyond the state of inverted / incorrect relative
truth (Skt., mithyasamvritisatya; Tib., log pai kun
rdzob bden pa) in which there is no awareness of the
illusion-like character of phenomena, in order to
lead both themselves and others to Awakening, must
posit from the heart theses that as such are wholly
self-directed or interior-directed: they must posit
from the heart all that is written in canonical sources
having definitive meaning (but do not have to do
likewise with what is written in sources of provision-
al meaning, for in the case of the latter they have to
ascertain the true import of the text and then posit
from the heart what they have ascertained).
As we have seen, the Prasangikas and the orig-
inal Madhyamikas (such as Nagarjuna and
Aryadeva), rather than positing autonomous theses
and syllogisms, used the procedure of reductio ad
absurdum in order to refute the views of others.
Therefore, they made fewer assertions than adher-
ents of other philosophical schools. However, when
Nagarjuna said he made no assertions, and
Chandrakirti said one should not have own mind
and therefore should not posit theses from the heart
(i.e., theses that are self-directed or interior-direct-
ed), they did not mean one should not speak, but
that whatever a true Madhyamika (i.e., a realized
individual) may assert is of the kind that, for lack of
a better term, I am calling other-directed / exterior-
directed. Therefore, though a sub-school such as
Mahamadhyamaka, for example, laid out a complex
interpretation of reality and its functionality, realized
masters of this school may rightly say they do not
posit theses of their own, insofar as they do not do
so with own-mindor, what is the same, they do
not do so in an interior-directed or self-directed way.
Hence it is not correct to think that only the
Prasangikas or Consequentialists and the original
Madhyamikas made no statements from the heart
(or, what is the same, made no interior-directed
assertions), and that this was so because they
abstained from positing autonomous theses and
from resorting to autonomous syllogisms. As we
have seen, whether assertions are other-
directed/exterior-directed, self-directed/interior-
directed, or partly self-directed/interior-directed and
partly other-directed/exterior-directed, depends on
the spiritual status of the individual who is making
the assertions, and thus when Awake Ones posit
autonomous theses and use autonomous syllogisms
they are not making statements from the heart (or,
what is the same, they are not making interior-
directed or self-directed assertions), for they do so
utterly beyond grasping at thoughts and words. The
Sutra of Hui-neng reads (Wong-Mou-Lam, 1969, p. 99):
Whenever an individual puts a question to you,
answer him or her in antonyms, so that a pair of
opposites will be formed, such as coming and
going. When the interdependence of the two is
entirely done away with there would be, in the
absolute sense, neither coming nor going.
Does the above mean that replying to someone in
antonyms will cause that person to become unable
to move at all, and therefore he or she will not be
able to either come or go? Except in the case of
beings under hypnosis, words cannot result in paral-
ysis, and at any rate the activities of Buddhas do not
have the function of inducing paralysis. So when the
text says that there will be neither coming nor going,
what it is saying is the same Nagarjuna meant when
he said he made no assertions: though there will still
be what deluded beings perceive as going and com-
ing and what they perceive as making assertions, and
the Awake individual will be able to speak of going
and coming or of making assertions, he or she will
not perceive going or coming, or the making of
assertionsand if he or she speaks about such things
it will be solely in an other-directed way, without
giving rise to own-mind.
Likewise, when Ashvagosha stated that we
must use words [and concepts] in order to go
beyond words [and concepts] (Asvagosha, 2003), he
certainly did not mean that the purpose of teaching
the dharma was to become mute and unable to
think, but that listening and studying, and then
reflecting on what we had listened and studied, were
the first two of the three steps in the development of
the Prajaparamita that is the essence of the Path
leading to the eradication of grasping at thoughts,
and therefore leading to the eradication of own
mind and of interior-directed assertions.
The essence of the excerpt of the Buddhist text
quoted above lies in the fact that, whenever neces-
sary, Awake Ones may assert the very opposite of
what their interlocutors believe from the heart, and
Beyond Mind II 31
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 32
even prove it logically to them, not in order to lead
them to adhere to the opposite idea, but to shatter
their own-mind, thereby leading them beyond
adherence to all positions, into the grasping-free
condition in which the Awake Ones find themselves.
This may involve asserting any of the four
extremesnonexistent, not-nonexistent, both-exis-
tent-and-nonexistent, and neither-existent-nor non-
existentbut, at any rate, without the slightest trace
of own-mind. Therefore, true Prasangikas agree that
all four extremes are valid insofar as they can be
validly asserted if this is demanded by syllogistic
logic and/or direct perception; for example, all enti-
ties may be said to exist insofar as they produce
effects, but may be said not to exist insofar as they
have no self-nature or substance; all physical entities
may be said to be units insofar as the concept in
terms of which we understand them refers to the
unity of a configuration (Skt., lakshana; Tib., mtshan
dpe), but all physical entities may be said to not to
be units insofar as they may be found to be made of
parts; etc. (Gregory Vlastos has rejected arguments
of this kind on the grounds that the oneness and the
multiplicity of an entity are not mutually exclusive
features, and therefore that the multiplicity of what
we consider as being a unit, does not contradict its
oneness and therefore does not imply it is not a unit
[Vlastos, 1961/1968]. However, when a deluded
being recognizes and apprehends an entity, he or she
perceives that entity as being exclusively and
absolutely one [i.e., as being a unit], and there is no
comprehension whatsoever in the deluded mind of
the fact that the entity also is a multiplicity. If then
the same individual mentally decomposes the entity,
he or she will perceive it as a multiplicity, and there
will be no understanding whatsoever in the deluded
mind of the fact that this multiplicity also is a unit.
This does not mean that the right thing to do is to
say that the entity is both one and multiple, which if
left unexplained would violate the law of the exclud-
ed middle [or law of the excluded third, or principle
of non-contradiction], would not clarify anything,
and would be but another conceptual position, con-
trary to saying that the entity is neither one nor mul-
tiple, and equally true and equally false as the latter
[it would seemingly clarify things if we said that rel-
atively the entity is one when viewed from one
standpoint and multiple when seen from another,
but that it cannot be said to be either absolutely one
or absolutely multiple; however, this would be but
another conceptual position which, if grasped at,
would give rise to just another instance of delu-
32 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
sionand in this regard would be like Tsongkhapas
qualification of the existence to be negated as inher-
ent and of the nonexistence to be rejected as utter].
I have dealt with this problem in further detail in
Capriles [2004], where logic is criticized in terms of
Gdels theorem, of Batesons criticism of Russell
and Whiteheads Principia Mathematica, etc.).
However, grasping at any of the extremes (as delud-
ed beings always do) is incorrect insofar as it implies
believing one concept to be true and its opposite to
be untrue; for example, if we believe in existence we
take nonexistence to be untrue and vice-versa, and if
we believe in the oneness of physical entities we take
their plurality to be untrue and vice-versawhich is
wrong because, as we have just seen, one concept
will apply just as much as the opposite if we merely
switch perspective. (Furthermore, it would not do to
say that the existence that applies to entities is mere
existence and that the nonexistence that applies to
them is the absence of inherent existence, or that
the oneness that applies to physical entities is the one
we perceive in direct perception and the multiplicity
that applies to physical entities is the one that we
infer upon analysis, for by so saying we would sus-
tain own-mind, or, what is the same, we would con-
tinue to grasp at conceptsand, as we have seen, the
essence of the Consequentialist or Prasangika
method lies in pulling the conceptual carpet under
the minds feet so that it may fall into a state beyond
concepts and, especially, beyond own-mind.) To
conclude, it may be reiterated that Awake Ones are
correct when they assert any of the extremes, for, as
we have seen so many times, they do so without
own-mind. The meaning of the terms valid, incor-
rect and correct in the Consequentialist or
Prasangika system is as established in this para-
graphthe last two terms being defined solely by
the presence or absence of own-mind.
35In fact, Wilber has studied the Atiyoga-
Dzogchen under Penor (Pad nor: Pad ma Nor bu) Rinpoche,
the current head of the Nyingmapa School of Tibetan
Buddhism.
36In Capriles (1977), I presented the diagram of a
spiral of spirals, which was an elaboration on Ronald D.
Laings diagram of the spiral of pretences (Laing, 1961). In
it, it seemed that from the level wherein the anguish that is
the being of the human individual is fully experienced
(which in this sense would seem to correspond to Wilbers
six fulcrum), one proceeded to the realization of the nir-
manakaya, and then from it to the successive realizations of
the sambhogakaya and the dharmakaya. Therefore, an error
could be appreciated that was partly similar to the one I am
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 33
criticizing in Wilber; however, in my diagram this level was
represented as the very bottom of samsara, and was not said
to involve the integration of body and mind Wilber posits
in relation to it.
37If, as Nubchen Sangye Yeshe (gNubs chen Sangs
rgyas Ye shes) affirmed in the Samten Migdrn (bSam gtan
Mig sgron), the Dzogchen Atiyoga is the universal ancestor
of all vehicles, and if I am right in inferring from this and
from the stories of the origins of the Tantras of the Path of
transformation that the latter and other vehicles derive from
it, then there will be no doubt that the original understand-
ing of the kayas and their progression is the one we find in
Dzogchen texts, and that the inner Vajrayana Tantras of the
Path of transformation had to modify that explanation and
invert that progression in order to satisfy people of the
capacities these texts were intended to cater to.
38Nubchen Sangye Yeshe (gNubs chen Sangs rGyas
Ye shes), Samten Migdrn (bSam gtan Mig sgron).
39However, from all this we must not infer that in
order to undertake the practice of Dzogchen Atiyoga it is
first necessary to practice the Inner Vajrayana Tantras of the
Path of transformation until we attain its highest level of
realization of this vehicle: Dzogchen Ati is a self-contained
Path featuring most powerful methods of Awakening, all of
which are based on the principle of spontaneous liberation
rather than on that of transformation, and many of which
allow the individual to obtain Direct Introduction [roughly
equivalent to a first satori] without having to spend years
practicing the stages of creation and completion or perfec-
tion.
40Concerning Wilbers wording at this point, it
seems relevant to note that the dissolution of the separate-
self sense is not something that a person can do but some-
thing that happens, for all actions affirm and sustain the illu-
sory mental subject.
41For a list and an explanation of the four form-
less absorptions (arupa-samadhi), see note 16 to this paper.
42It is the Madhyamaka Prasangika school and the
schools of the Inner Madhyamaka that emphasize the fact
that the absolute truth is disclosed in a gnosis beyond the
subject-object duality that makes patent the true nature of
phenomena (Skt., dharmata; Tib., chos nyid), showing phe-
nomena to be utterly void of self-nature (and, according to
the Inner Madhyamaka, showing this gnosis to be void of
anything extraneous to itself ). The Inner Madhyamaka
explains the absolute truth as the indivisibility of appear-
ances and voidness (this is the Mahamadhyamika defini-
tion), and identifies it with the Buddha-nature. See the
upcoming revised version of Capriles (2004).
43Kierkegaard (1968, 1970) seems to have placed
in the same footing the fear that may be inspired by aware-
ness of ones own nothingness (which seems to be an
instance of what I call panic), and all modes of despair,
Angst, etc.
44The realizations involving a special mode of
death are: (1) the rainbow body (dja lus) in the Dzogchen
Longde (klong sde) series of teachings; (2) the body of atoms
(lus rdul phran du dengs) in the Tekch (khregs chod) level of
the Menngagde (man ngag sde) or Upadeshavarga series, and
(3) the body of light (od kyi sku or od phung) in the Thgel
(thod rgal) level of the Menngagde or Upadeshavarga series.
The realization involving deathlessness is the total transfer-
ence (pho ba chen po), which is the highest possible realiza-
tion of the practice of Thgel.
45The latter includes those experiences of voidness
that some lower Mahayana systems wrongly posit as
absolute truth, such as the presence of the absence of the
mode of existence we had wrongly projected on an entity, as
it is supposed to manifest in the realization of the practice
of insight meditation (Pali, vipassana; Skt., vipashyana; Tib.,
lhag mthong; Chin., kuan) taught in the Sandhinirmochana
Sutra, the Shravakabhumi chapter of Asangas
Yogacharabhumi and the Bhavanakrama by Shantarakshita
and Kamalashilafor, as I have noted elsewhere (Capriles,
2004, 2005), insofar as it manifests as object to a mental
subject and therefore involves the subject-object duality and
the dualistic negation of the mode of existence that samsar-
ic beings wrongly project on entities, such a voidness is dual,
relative and samsaric.
The original realization of absolute truth of the
Madhyamika Prasangikas was the ultimate meaning with-
out distinctions, the ultimate meaning which is not con-
ventional, the inexpressible ultimate, or the true
absolute that is nonconceptual (Tib., rnam grangs min pai
don dam): the direct realization without elaborations (Tib.,
spros bral) of the dharmata or true condition of all phenom-
ena that can only take place beyond the subject-object dual-
ity and in general beyond all concepts when the conceptu-
al carpet is pulled under the minds feet, and in which,
therefore, there is no one who may abide anywhere or on
anythingwhich is the reason why in ancient times the
Madhyamika-Prasangikas were referred to by the label
Thoroughly Nonabiding Madhyamikas (Skt., sarvad-
harmapratisthanavadin; Tib., rab tu mi gnas par smra ba). Je
Tsongkhapa disparaged this label together with the original
Prasangika view and posited as the absolute truth of
Madhyamaka Prasangika the voidness that manifests as
object in the practice described in the texts listed in the
above paragraph, by simply redefining this voidness in terms
he deemed to correspond to the Madhyamaka-Prasangika
(Capriles, 2005); therefore, Je Tsongkhapas voidness is also
included among the experiences that some lower
Mahayana systems wrongly posit as absolute truth referred
to above.
Beyond Mind II 33
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 34
46Illusory experiences or nyam (nyams) of lack of
thought and so on are like reflections in a mirror rather than
being the naked patency of the true condition of the aware-
ness that is compared with the mirror. The same applies to
the perception that entities do not exist in the way in which
they appear to existwhich, besides, is a delusive, samsaric
result of the delusory valuation of concepts (those interpret-
ing the entities, those of existence and nonexistence, and so
on). However, all such experiences may have value on the
Path, in particular if used as an occasion for applying the
instructions that may permit the reGnition of the true con-
dition of the awareness represented by the mirror.
In fact, realization in Dzogchen consists in the
naked patency of the true condition of the primordial
awareness that is compared with the mirror, rather than
consisting in any of the reflections (i.e., experiences) that
may manifest in the mirrorwhether these be ordinary
experiences of samsara such as that of phenomena as exist-
ing, or experiences of the practice such as the illusory expe-
riences or nyam [nyams] of voidness, clarity or pleasure. In
fact, the essential difference between transpersonal systems and
what I call metatranspersonal ones is that whereas the former
take the production of transpersonal experiences to be an end in
itself, the latter use these experiences in order to apply the
instructions that may result in the reGnition of the true condi-
tion of what is represented by the mirror.
In the primordial, nondual awareness in question,
appearances and voidness are indivisible, for neither side is
or may be privileged. In the Dzogchen teachings, when this
nondual awareness is manifest as Dzogchen qua Path or
Dzogchen qua Fruit, it is called all-liberating single gnosis
or chikshe kundrl (gcig shes kun grol), for whatever con-
cepts manifest in itwhether of existent phenomena or of
nonexistencespontaneously liberate themselves.
47In the practice of Tekch (khregs chod) of the
Upadeshavarga series of Dzogchen teachings, the voidness
that, as seen at the beginning of this paper, is the ngowo
aspect of the Base, is realized upon the reGnition of the true
condition of the dang form of manifestation of energy,
which is the basic constituent of thoughts. That very
moment whatever delusorily valued thought may be mani-
fest liberates itself spontaneously; since this applies also to
the super-subtle thought known as the threefold thought-
structure, the delusory valuation of which gives rise to the
illusory subject-object duality, the duality of subject and
object instantly dissolves. This is why in the practice of
Atiyoga-Dzogchen (and in particular in the practice of the
Tekch of the Dzogchen Menngagde) the realization of
voidness in the manifestation of rigpa necessarily implies the
dissolution of the illusory subject-object duality.
Moreover, as I showed in Capriles (2005) and as
will be seen in the regular text of this paper, the original
34 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
Madhyamaka agreed with the Dzogchen teachings in assert-
ing that the realization of voidness in the manifestation of
absolute truth is beyond the illusory subject-object duali-
tywhich some have related to the already allegation by
Pawo Tsuglag Threngwa (dPa bo gTsug lag Phreng ba [1504-
1566]) in Feast for the Erudite: A History of the Dharma or
Chjung Khepai Gatn (Chos byung mkhas pas dga ston)
according to which both Nagarjuna and Aryadeva were
accomplished Dzogchen Masters, but which need not be
related to this fact, for true realization is always beyond the
subject-object duality. At any rate, it is most important to
distinguish the realization of voidness upon the reGnition of
the Base that privileges its ngowo (ngo bo) or essence
aspect and the dang (gdangs) form of manifestation of ener-
gy, from the mere experiences of voidness that manifest on
the Path, and which are instances of true realization only
when they coincide with the reGnition of the Base.
48The dissolution of the observer shows that the
observer was void: that it was but an appearance that can
dissolve without this affecting our Gnitiveness or the
appearance of the myriad forms that manifest through the
senses.
49I inverted the order of the paragraphs in the
quotation, for the last two paragraphs in my citation corre-
spond to the first paragraph and the beginning of the sec-
ond paragraph of Wilbers reply in the section
Enlightenment in p. 236 of his book, whereas the first
four paragraphs in my quotation are posterior in Wilbers
book and appear in sequence in pp. 236-237.
50It is the delusory valuation of the threefold
thought-structure (Tib., khor gsum) that gives rise to the
subject-object duality and with it to the grasper and the
grasped (Tib., gzung dzin), condition of possibility of
grasping at appearances (phyin ci log par dzin pa). This
delusory valuation is at the root of both what is known as
overvaluation (Skt., samaropa / adhyaropa; Tib., sgro dogs),
and what is known as undervaluation (Tib., skur debs).
51Though the Gelugpa School associates this
Sutra with the Yogachara School, which is based solely on
the Third Promulgation, the Nyingma School sees it as one
of the most direct canonical sources of the
Mahamadhyamaka School, which they view as the supreme
philosophical school of the Mahayana and which is based
both on the Second and Third Promulgations. The italics
are my own and the terminology was adapted to the one
used in this paper.
52Despite the fact that all Madhyamaka
Swatantrika subschools are supposed to be based on the
original, generic Madhyamika texts by Nagarjuna and
Aryadeva, we have seen that some of the lower subschools
comprised in this category have meditations treatises that
posit a realization of absolute truth involving the subject-
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 35
object duality. However, as shown by the verses by
Prasangika Master Shantideva quoted below in the regular
text, the original Madhyamaka Prasangika subschool makes
it clear that the realization of absolute truth cannot involve
such duality. (We have seen that Je Tsongkhapa, on the basis
of the insight practice taught in the Bhavanakramas of the
lower Madhyamaka-Swatantrika-Yogachara subschool,
posited as the absolute truth of the Prasangika one involv-
ing the subject-object duality; however, all Red-Hat Schools
disagree that this is the absolute truth of the original
Prasangikas, who are the Thoroughly Nonabiding
Madhyamikas [cf. note 34 to this paper]; furthermore, as
noted elsewhere in this paper, the Gelugpas in general admit
that the Fruit is characterized by a nondual gnosis utterly
free from the subject-object schism, and that equivalent
gnoses manifest on the Path as well. In this regard, cf.
Capriles [2005].)
53All objects, including the manifestation of void-
ness as object, are the sphere of activity of the seed of sam-
sara, and thus could by no means be what, from an episte-
mological standpoint, may be rightly said to be the absolute
truth that manifests in nirvana (and which, as we have seen,
being what is not at all relative, cannot be an object of
knowledge). By dwelling on an experience that belongs to
the sphere of activity of the seed of cyclic existence, we sus-
tain this very seed, and therefore our method, rather than
leading beyond samsara, will sustain samsara.
54The terminology was adapted to the one used in
this paper.
55The terminology was adapted to the one used in
this paper.
56There are many sources attesting this; for an
example, cf. Williams (1998).
57The terminology was adapted to the one used in
this paper. The italics are my own.
58Quoted in Dudjom Rinpoche, J. Y. D. (English
1991), vol. I, p. 276. The terminology was adapted to the
one used in this paper, and the italics are my own.
59The terminology was adapted to the one used in
this paper, and the italics are my own.
60The terminology was adapted to the one used in
this paper, and the italics are my own.
61This is the reason why in the Vimalakirti
Nirdesha Sutra (Luk, 1972) different bodhisattvas strive to
awaken a young female bodhisattva from her absorption,
until finally a young and handsome though as yet inexpert
male bodhisattva succeeds in so doing. It is also the reason
why the Samadhiraja Sutra insists that Awakening does not
lie in dwelling in absorptions. And it is also the reason why
the Sutra of Hui Neng tells us (Wong-Mou-Lam, 1969, pp.
43-45; I modified the terminology in order to adapt it to the
one used in this paper):
People under delusion believe obstinately in dhar-
malakshana (entities with collections of characteris-
tics) and so they are stubborn in having their own
way of interpreting the samadhi of specific mode,
which they define as sitting quietly and continuous-
ly without letting any idea arise in the mind. Such
an interpretation would rank us with inanimate
objects, and is a stumbling block to the right Path
which must be kept open. Should we free our mind
from attachment to all things, the Path becomes
clear; otherwise, we put ourselves under restraint. If
that interpretation, sitting quietly and continuously,
etc. be correct, why on one occasion was Sariputra
reprimanded by Vimalakirti for sitting quietly in the
wood?
Learned audience, some teachers of meditation
instruct their disciples to keep a watch on their mind
for tranquility, so that it will cease from activity.
Henceforth the disciples give up all exertion of
mind. Ignorant persons become insane from having
too much confidence in such instruction. Such cases
are not rare, and it is a great mistake to teach others
to do this...
To keep our mind free from defilement under
all circumstances is called wu-nien (non-conceptual-
ity). Our mind should stand aloof from circum-
stances, and on no account should we allow them to
influence the function of our mind. But it is a great
mistake to suppress our mind from all thinking; for
even if we succeed in getting rid of all thoughts, and
die immediately thereafter, still we shall be reincar-
nated elsewhere. Mark this, treaders of the Path. It is
bad enough for a man to commit blunders from not
knowing the meaning of the dharma, but how much
worse would it be to encourage others to follow suit?
Being deluded, he Sees not, and in addition he blas-
phemes the Buddhist Canon. Therefore we take wu-
nien (non-conceptuality) as our object.
The above is the reason why the Dzogchen teachings com-
pare dwelling in an absorption of cessation (nirodha) with
cutting ones own head.
62This duality, however, is not to be taken too far.
In the Samkhya darshana of Kapila, which as we have seen is
coupled with the Yoga darshana of Patajali, on the one
hand what gives rise to the plurality of individual subjects
(ahamkara) and individual objects (tanmatrani) is the cos-
mic spirit (mahat), which contains the potentiality for both
Purusha and Prakriti to manifest. On the other hand, every-
thing contains Purusha (in some level of development: it is
less developed in minerals, more so in plants, even more so
in animals, and far more so in human beings) and Prakriti,
which remain different, yet are never totally apart from each
Beyond Mind II 35
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 36
other. Furthermore, though all objects are reduced to a sin-
gle Prakriti, whereas each subject is regarded as a different
Purusha, ultimately all Purushas may also be reduced to a
single universal spirit, which in the empirical individuals of
the world has to contend with the manifold impediments of
matter. Furthermore, the salvation of the Purushas, which
lies in the aloofness of the sakshin before the movements of
Prakriti, can only manifest thanks to the intervention of
some specific mechanisms of Prakritiand in general the
wonderful ways in which the Purushas and Prakriti help
each other show that the opposites fall within a whole. As
the fact that the ahamkaras and the tanmatrani are somehow
creations of the single mahat show, duality may seem to
hang from some higher unity placed above itself.
In the book from which this paper was taken this
note was much longer, but the above may suffice here.
63German romantic poets such as Hlderlin and
Novalis were among those who claimed that the absolute
transcends subjectivity and that it is impossible to concep-
tualize it in a philosophical system. In Capriles (2005), I
wrote:
In relation to and in the context of Idealism,
Western philosophers raised the famous objection
according to which an absolute could not be an
absolute of knowledge, for the object of knowledge
and the subject of knowledge are relative to each
other (arguments of this kind are found, among
other authors, in Bradley [1846-1924], who insisted
[Bradley, 1978] that the absolute necessarily had to
be nonrelational and free from the subject-object
duality). Furthermore, knowledge is an understand-
ing in terms of concepts, and concepts are defined
by genus proximum or proximate gender (the imme-
diately wider gender in which the class is included)
and differentiam specificam or specific difference
(that which sets the class apart from other members
of the same gender); for example, if we admitted the
well-known definition of human being as a ration-
al animal, animal would be the genus proximum
and rational the differentiam specificam. Therefore,
all concepts are relative to those that make up their
proximate genus and those that make up their spe-
cific difference, and insofar as these in their turn are
relative to other concepts that are relative to other
concepts, all concepts are relative to the whole galaxy
of concepts. The concept of absolute, in particular,
is defined by differentiam specificam (i.e., by con-
trast) with that of relative, so that, in tautological
terms, absolute may be defined precisely as that
which is not relative (this is the sense in which the
term absolute is used in Madhyamaka philosophy
and in F. H. Bradley [1978]; in common language,
36 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
the term has also other acceptations; e.g., absolute
alcohol is 100% alcohol). This implies that the true
absolute cannot be the concept of absolute that is
relative to the concept of relativeor any other con-
cept, for that matterbut must be the utterly non-
conceptual true nature of all reality, which can only
be realized in a nonconceptual gnosis beyond the
subject-object duality. This is the reason why void-
ness, understood as the presence of the absence of
the mode of existence that deluded beings wrongly
project on an entity and in terms of which they
wrongly perceive it, could not be the absolute truth
of Consequentialist or Prasangika Madhyamikas:
voidness thus understood is relative, not only to the
perceiving mind, but also to the entity of which it is
supposed to be the voidness, to the mode of exis-
tence we had wrongly projected on that entity... and
to all other entities and the mode of existence we
had wrongly projected on them. How could the rel-
ative be the absolute truth?
64The language was adapted to the terminology
used in this paper, and the italics are my own.
65Although the Dzogchen teachings posit a nond-
ual awareness inherent in Dzogchen qua Base, and although
some terms used in the Semde series of Dzogchen teachings
are similar to those in the Sutras of the Third Dharmachakra,
on the basis of which the Yogachara School developed,
Dzogchen does not posit a mind only view like the one
expressed by the Sanskrit term Chittamatra and its Tibetan
equivalent, Semtsam (sems tsam). However, this should not
be understood as implying that the Dzogchen teachings
agree with Brahmanic views that posit a sakshin that is dif-
ferent and separate from all objects: the Dzogchen teachings
compare the relationship between awareness and its con-
tents to that between water and the reflections in it, and
note that although the latter cannot be said to be the water,
the water is not at a distance from them and they are not at
a distance from the water. In short, appearances are neither
the dualistic mind nor the nondual Gnitiveness that allows
the mind to know, but on the other hand neither the mind
nor the nondual awareness that allows the mind to know are
separate or different from appearances. And, nonetheless, all
phenomena are of one taste with the nature-of-mind or
Base-awareness in which they manifest as in a mirror: bod-
hichitta is like the mirror, and the energy or thukje of bod-
hichitta, consisting of the plethora of phenomena, is like the
reflections that arise in the mirror, which are not the mirror,
but are not at a distance from the mirrors reflective capaci-
ty and therefore are not external to the mirror or different
from it. This is the reason why, when we realize this nature-
of-mind or Base-awareness in the manifestation of rigpa, the
whole of phenomena have a single taste for usand, con-
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 37
trariwise, if the whole of phenomena do not have a single
taste for us, we are not in the state of rigpa. This is also why,
unlike the Yogachara School, the Semde series of Dzogchen
teachings assert that vision, sensory presentation or apparent
phenomena (Tib., snang ba), whether in samsara or in nir-
vana, are always the play (Skt., lila; Tib., rol pa) or ornament
(Tib., rgyan) of primordial bodhichitta (i.e., of the Base of
both samsara and nirvana). And it is also directly related to
the fact that the Semde series of Dzogchen teachings
explains the samsaric perception of a seemingly external
world as resulting from dividing the given into an apparent-
ly internal dimension (dbyings) and an apparently external
dimension (dbyings), and then projecting (Tib., rtsal) a great
deal of the appearances manifesting as the energy (Tib.,
thugs rje) of bodhichitta into the dimension that appears to
be external, so that the phenomena of tsel energy appear to
manifest outside the mirror.
After the end of the excerpt from Longchenpa to
which the call for this note was appended, we read the fol-
lowing (Longchen Rabjam [Longchenpa], 1998, p. 85; the
language was adapted to the terminology used in this
paper):
Well, you might ask, arent you asserting every-
thing to be mind? Let me clearly outline the distinc-
tion [between Mind-only and Dzogchen]. In gener-
al, when the world of appearances and possibilities,
whether [as] samsara or nirvana, is explained to be
Awake awareness, what is meant is that phenomena
are alike [in that they do not waver from the single
awareness] and manifest naturally as the display,
dynamic energy and adornment of that awareness.
[On the basis of this, phenomena have been said] to
be mind, just as one uses the name sun to refer to
the rays of the sun when one says, Sit in the midday
sun.
There are two ways to refute the assertion [that
phenomena are mind]. According to logical rea-
soning, this would require that mind exhibit color
and other distinctive features, because apparent phe-
nomena have color and such features...
However, if mind had color and other distinctive features, it
could manifest only its own color and its other distinctive
features, and hence it could not manifest successively the
countless colors and distinctive features of the variegated
phenomena. This is obviously not the case, for awareness
manifests innumerable phenomena one after the other as its
display, dynamic energy and adornmentall of which man-
ifest successively to the human mind. Longchenpa goes on
to say (ibidem, p. 85):
It would also require that mind be external or that
apparent phenomena be internal, and so their actu-
al relationship would be thrown into chaos. And it
would require that when one died the universe
would collapse at the same time. In these and other
ways, the assertion is disproved by its logical absurd-
ity [as corresponds to the method of prasanga or
reductio ad absurdum]...
And then (ibidem, pp. 86-87):
Ordinary mind refers to the eight modes of con-
sciousness and their associated mental events, which
together constitute the adventitious distortions
affecting beings in the three realms [of samsara].
Primordial awareness refers to the naturally occur-
ring timeless awareness having no substance or char-
acteristics [that is] the basic space of samsara and nir-
vana... While that which manifests as samsara and
nirvana is understood to be the dynamic energy of
awareness, one should further understand that
awareness itself is an unceasing ground for the aris-
ing of things, although it has never existed as any-
thing, whether of samsara or nirvana.
Apparent objects are understood to be clearly
apparent yet unthinkable and ineffable, and never to
have been mind or anything other than mind, [for
they are] empty and yet clearly apparent, groundless,
and timelessly pure. When freedom occurs, the
dynamic energy and display [of awareness], in being
[realized to be] groundless, are [realized to be] natu-
rally purewhich is like awakening from a dream.
Thus one should understand that the [Awake]
awareness that is [nondualistically] aware of itself [as
well as of sense-data and so on], without ever having
wavered from the unchanging dharmakaya [that is]
its original state of natural rest, is uncontaminated
by any substance or characteristics, [as these have
never existed in truth and thus have been timelessly
void, or, what is the same, pure]...
All of the above is most relevant in regard to Wilbers usage
of the Brahmanic concept of the sakshin, which he seems to
have attempted to unify with incompatible Buddhist con-
cepts. In particular, in the electronic bulletin of the
Association of Transpersonal Psychology, he once gave what
he referred to as an instance of what Buddhists call point-
ing out instructions, but in which he pretended to intro-
duce the sakshin (rather than the primordial awareness fea-
turing the three kayas, which is what Buddhist pointing
out instructions traditionally introduce), and which
expressed views of Vedanta that are incompatible with
Buddhism and with the manner in which the latter system
presents its pit instructionswhich means that the instruc-
tions Wilber was providing, rather than coming from an
existing lineage, were but his own concoction. (Wilber says
he does not assume the guru role because he is a pandita,
and this would be wise, for in order to be a guru one has to
Beyond Mind II 37
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 38
be officially appointed by ones guru as his or her successor,
and the same must have happened with ones guru, and with
ones gurus guru, and so on until the very source of the lin-
eage, which must lie in a tnpa [ston pa] or Primordial
Revealer. However, then he pretends to give pointing out
instructions, which are traditionally given by gurus and not
so by panditasand the instructions he gives are his own
creation rather than the teachings of a tnpa.) His instruc-
tions read:
So Who Are You?
The witnessing of awareness can persist
through waking, dreaming and deep sleep. The
Witness is fully available in any state, including your
own present state of awareness right now.
So Im going to talk you into this state, or try
to, using what are known in Buddhism as pointing
out instructions.
I am not going to try to get you into a differ-
ent state of consciousness, or an altered state of con-
sciousness, or a non-ordinary state. I am going to
simply point out something that is already occurring
in your own present, ordinary, natural state.
So lets start by just being aware of the world
around us. Look out there at the sky, and just relax
your mind; let your mind and the sky mingle.
Notice the clouds floating by. Notice that this takes
no effort on your part. Your present awareness, in
which these clouds are floating, is very simple, very
easy, effortless, spontaneous. You simply notice that
there is an effortless awareness of the clouds.
The same is true of those trees, and those birds,
and those rocks. You simply and effortlessly witness
them. Look now at the sensations in your own body.
You can be aware of whatever bodily feelings are
presentperhaps pressure where you are sitting,
perhaps warmth in your tummy, maybe tightness in
your neck. But even if these feelings are tight and
tense, you can easily be aware of them. These feel-
ings arise in your present awareness, and that aware-
ness is very simple, easy, effortless, spontaneous.
You simply and effortlessly witness them. Look
at the thoughts arising in your mind. You might
notice various images, symbols, concepts, desires,
hopes and fears, all spontaneously arising in your
awareness. They arise, stay a bit, and pass. These
thoughts and feelings arise in your present aware-
ness, and that awareness is very simple, effortless,
spontaneous. You simply and effortlessly witness
them. So notice: you can see the clouds float by
because you are not those cloudsyou are the wit-
ness of those clouds.
You can feel bodily feelings because you are not
38 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
those feelingsyou are the witness of those feelings.
You can see thoughts float by because you are not
those thoughtsyou are the witness of those
thoughts. Spontaneously and naturally, these things
all arise, on their own, in your present, effortless
awareness.
So who are you? You are not objects out there,
you are not feelings, you are not thoughtsyou are
effortlessly aware of all those, so you are not those.
Who or what are you? Say it this way to yourself: I
have feelings, but I am not those feelings. Who am
I? I have thoughts, but I am not those thoughts.
Who am I? I have desires, but I am not those desires.
Who am I?
So you push back into the source of your own
awareness. You push back into the Witness, and you
rest in the Witness. I am not objects, not feelings,
not desires, not thoughts. But then people usually
make a big mistake. They think that ifthey rest in
the Witness, they are going to see something or feel
somethingsomething really neat and special. But
you wont see anything.
If you see something, that is just another
objectanother feeling, another thought, another
sensation, another image. But those are all objects;
those are what you are not. Now, as you rest in the
Witnessrealizing, I am not objects, I am not feel-
ings, I am not thoughtsall you will notice is a
sense of freedom, a sense of liberation, a sense of
releaserelease from the terrible constriction of
identifying with these puny little finite objects, your
little body and little mind and little ego, all of which
are objects that can be seen, and thus are not the true
Seer, the real Self, the pure Witness, which is what
you really are.
So you wont see anything in particular.
Whatever is arising is fine. Clouds float by in the sky,
feelings float by in the body, thoughts float by in the
mindand you can effortlessly witness all of them.
They all spontaneously arise in your own present,
easy, effortless awareness.
And this witnessing awareness is not itself any-
thing specific you can see. It is just a vast, back-
ground sense of freedomor pure emptinessand
in that pure emptiness, which you are, the entire
manifest world arises. You are that freedom, open-
ness, emptinessand not any itty-bitty thing that
arises in it. Resting in that empty, free, easy, effort-
less witnessing, notice that the clouds are arising in
the vast space of your awareness. The clouds are aris-
ing within youso much so, you can taste the
clouds, you are one with the clouds. It is as if they
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 39
are on this side of your skin, they are so close. The
sky and your awareness have become one, and all
things in the sky are floating effortlessly through
your own awareness. You can kiss the sun, swallow
the mountain, they are that close. Zen says Swallow
the Pacific Ocean in a single gulp, and thats the eas-
iest thing in the world, when inside and outside are
no longer two, when subject and object are nondual,
when the looker and looked at are One Taste. You
see?
We have seen that voidness can be:
(1) illusory experiences (nyams) such (i) as the
experiences of absence of thought, of lack of concreteness,
etc., that manifest in the meditation practice of calming the
mind (Skt., shamatha; Tib., zhi gnas), or (ii) the nonexis-
tence of entities in the way in which they appear to exist,
which appears as an object to the mental subject (and hence
is within samsara) as the outcome of the practice of insight
meditation (Skt., vipashyana; Tib., lhag mthong) of the
Sandhinirmochana Sutra, the Shravakabhumi chapter of
Asangas Yogacharabhumi, the three Bhavanakramas by
Shantarakshita and the three by Kamalashila, and in
Tsongkhapas Lamrim works. (In 1.ii, the definition of the
concept of voidness varies according to the school.)
(2) An aspect of the realization of the absolute
truth of Mahayana (which the Mahamadhyamaka School
defines as indivisibility of voidness and appearances and
which the Uma Zhentongpa [dbU ma gZhan stong pa]
School defines as indivisibility of voidness and awareness)
that takes place in a gnosis beyond the subject-object duali-
ty; and
(3) The dharmakaya, which qua Base is the essence
(ngo bo) aspect of the Base and the dang (gdangs) form of
manifestation of energywhich is the most prominent
aspect of the Buddha-nature as realized in the Dzogchen
practice of Tekch (khregs chod).
Voidness qua illusory experience and voidness qua
the perception of the fact that entities do not exist in the
way in which they appear to exist could by no means be the
same as the sakshin or witness of Vedanta, which would have
to correspond to the awareness that is aware of the illusory
experience, or that is aware of the fact that entities do not
exist in the way in which they appear to exist: this type of
voidness is an object, and from the standpoint of Vedanta,
to claim that voidness thus understood is the witness, would
be an error of the same kind as asserting any other object of
our perception to be the witness. (The reasons why in itself
and by itself voidness is neither the absolute truth of the
Mahayana nor the condition of Dzogchen were considered
in Capriles [2004], and Capriles [2005].)
In their turn, voidness qua aspect of the direct real-
ization of the absolute truth of the Mahayana that takes
place beyond the subject-object duality, and voidness qua
the most prominent aspect of the gnosis in which, in the
practice of Tekch, the dharmakaya is realized, could not be
the sakshin or disinterested witness, because in these realiza-
tions there is no witness that may appear to be different
from, or at a distance from, that which is realized utterly
beyond the subject-object duality.
Furthermore, Wilber says that the result of apply-
ing his pit instructions does not imply any extraordinary
occurrence, but the reGnition (of ) primordial awareness
that instantly puts an end to the subject-object duality and
that instantly results in the spontaneous liberation of what-
ever thought may be manifest is a most extraordinary occur-
rence indeed: it is the revolution whereby dualistic, samsar-
ic experience is replaced by nondual realization.
At any rate, the sakshin or Witness could not be the same as
the primordial awareness introduced in the Dzogchen
teachings and discussed in the Mahamadhyamaka and Uma
Zhentongpa philosophical schools of the Mahayana, for the
sakshin or disinterested witness is defined as being different
from feelings, thoughts, sensations and images, which as
shown in the quotations included above in this note is not
the case with primordial awareness: the schools in question
make it perfectly clear that apparent phenomena are neither
mind nor awareness, and yet may not be said to be other
than, or different or separate from, mind or awareness.
Feelings, thoughts, sensations and images arise in primordial
awareness just as reflections in a mirror, and thus their rela-
tion to that awareness is like that of reflections to the mir-
ror in which they are reflected: they cannot be said to be
awareness (since awareness has no end in time, if they were
awareness they would not have an end in time; since aware-
ness has no shape or color, if they were awareness they
would have no shape or color); however, they cannot be said
to be other than awareness, for they are not made of a sub-
stance other than awareness, and they cannot be said to be
separate from awareness, for they cannot exist separately
from it. As Longchenpa tells us (Longchen Rabjam
[Longchenpa], 1998, p. 84), all apparent phenomena that
seem to exist in their own right, are appearances manifest-
ing to the mind and in fact are nothing other than manifes-
tations appearing to the mind; though they appear to be
other than the mind, like dreams, illusions and so forth,
they are by nature empty, and, being unthinkable and inef-
fable, they have never been anything other than mind, nor
have they ever been mind either: they are empty and yet
clearly apparent, groundless, and timelessly pure.
The sakshin is supposed not to be any of the appar-
ent phenomena it witnesses, but to be different from these,
and thus it could not be the primordial awareness featuring
the three kayas that is introduced by Buddhist pit instruc-
tions, which may not be said to be different from the phe-
Beyond Mind II 39
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 40
nomena it manifests: it will have to be the illusion of a sep-
arate knower that, according to the teachings of Dzogchen
Atiyoga and to those of the Inner Tantras of the Path of
Transformation, arises as a result of the delusory valuation
of the threefold thought-structure. Moreover, from the
standpoint of the Dzogchen teachings, to tell oneself, I am
not objects, I am not feelings, I am not thoughts (as Wilber
asks us to do) and to believe from the heart that these
thoughts express a truth, would be a manifestation of the
delusory valuation of thoughtand if we are actually expe-
riencing that we are at a distance from objects, feelings and
thoughts, this proves that we are taking ourselves to be the
illusory mental subject that appears to be separate from its
objects and which is one of the poles of the dualistic, inten-
tional structure of knowledge that arises as a result of the
delusory valuation of the supersubtle thought structure
called the threefold thought-structure.
In its turn, the realization of rigpa may not be
described as a sense of freedom, a sense of liberation, a
sense of release from the terrible constriction of identifying
with these puny little finite objects, your little body and lit-
tle mind and little ego, all of which are objects that can be
seen, for the experience these words describe can only arise
as a result of the delusory valuation of concepts. Rigpa is the
all-liberating single gnosis or chikshe kundrl (gcik shes kun
grol) beyond the subject-object duality, and since in rigpa
there is no subject or looker and therefore there is no object
or looked at, it is incorrect to say that subject and object are
nondual or that the looker and the looked at are one taste:
if there is noticing, this is not rigpa. In the words of the
Trungpa Rinpoche translation of Jigme Lingpas The Lions
Roar (Trungpa, 1972):
Some individuals will be able to use both thoughts
and the absence of thought as meditation, but it
should be born in mind that that which notes (i.e.,
notices) what is happening is the tight grip of Ego.
If we are noticing that there is as a sense of freedom, a sense
of liberation, a sense of release from the terrible constriction
of identifying with these puny little finite objects, your lit-
tle body and little mind and little ego, all of which are
objects that can be seen, then this is a manifestation of the
tight grip of delusion rather than rigpa, which (is) a gno-
sis utterly free from the subject-object duality, characterized
by the spontaneous liberation of whatever arises. Becoming
aware that we are not objects, feelings or thoughts, and as a
result of this becoming aware of a sense of freedom and so
on, are manifestations of delusion, all of which would liber-
ate themselves spontaneously upon the manifestation of
rigpa, for in the state of rigpa, whatever manifests is like a
drawing on water. Rigpa (is) the absolutely free condition of
nirvana that cannot be described; what can be described is
the spontaneous liberation of all that arises when rigpa is
40 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
manifest, as well as the whole of the experiences that are not
rigpa.
Vedanta tells us that what we really are is the true
Seer, the real Self, the pure Witness. A seer is one who sees,
and a witness is one who witness; however, in the state of
rigpa, though the whole of the sensory continuum is mani-
fest, there is no seeing, witnessing or noticing, for in rigpa
neither that continuum or anything that may be singled out
within it is taken as object and perceived (and if such delu-
sory perceptions arise, they liberate themselves spontaneous-
ly upon arising). If there were seeing or witnessing, this
would be the tight grip of ego, rather than the condition
of rigpa beyond the subject-object duality in which whatev-
er manifests liberates itself spontaneously upon arising, like
a drawing on water.
To conclude, in the Upanishads, in the Vedanta
Sutra, in Gaudapadas Mayavada philosophy and in the
Adwaita Vedanta philosophy of Shankaracharya, the con-
cept of sakshin may seem to partly correspond to that which
Kant called pure apperception, which according to the
philosopher from Knigsberg is the condition of possibility
of empirical apperception or awareness that one is perceiv-
ing, and which as such may partly correspond to a literal
understanding of Sartres (1943/1980) definition of the Soi
or Self as non-thetic, non-positional awareness (of ) con-
sciousness (which literally understood would refer to a non-
thetic, non-positional awareness [of ] there being a con-
sciousness that is aware of an object different and separate
from itself ). In Part II of Capriles (work in progress 1), I
explained in great detail that if Sartres Soi or Self were thus
understood, it would consist in the dualistic delusion inher-
ent in samsara and as such would radically contrast with the
nirvanic conditions of Dzogchen qua Path and Dzogchen
qua Fruit. If Shankaracharyas sakshin were the same as
Sartres Soi or Self as I have understood it here, the distinc-
tions just made between the latter and what the Dzogchen
teachings call Dzogchen would be the differences between
Shankaracharyas sakshin and what the Dzogchen teachings
call Dzogchen... whether qua Base, qua Path or qua Fruit.
(In the last section of Appendix II to Chapter I of Capriles
[1994] I discuss some of the doctrines of Shankaracharya
and show that they involve a subtle dualism which is some-
how similar to the one that may be appreciated in Plotinus.
However, there is no space in this paper to include the argu-
ments in question.)
(Though the sakshin of adwaita vedanta and so on
could not be the same as the primordial awareness of the
Dzogchen teachings, I would not discard the possibility that
the samvid of Kashmiri Shaivaism be the same as the pri-
mordial awareness of the Dzogchen teachings; for a discus-
sion of the concept of samvid in Kashmiri Shaivaism cf.
Pandey [1963].)
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 41
66According to the Yogachara School of the
Mahayana, release from samsara involves nirodha (cf.
Capriles, 2004); however, this is the only school of the
Mahayana that has ever made such claim, and this school is
not one of the genuinely nondual Buddhist traditions.
Though nirodha has different meanings in differ-
ent schools of Hinduism and Buddhism, in none of its sens-
es can the term be correctly applied to the state of rigpa that
constitutes both the Path and the Fruit of the primordial
yoga (Atiyoga) of total plenitude and perfection (rdzogs chen):
this state does in no sense whatsoever constitute a cessation
because, far from excluding all kinds of Gnitive activity, it
implies a total freedom of Gnitiveness: it involves an
absolute Gnitive spontaneity that is in no way limited, for it
is totally free from the straitjacket of the delusory valuation
of thought. Furthermore, the state in question is not a mere
voidness; though purity or ka dag, which is voidness, is one
of its two main aspects, the other aspect is what is known as
spontaneous perfection or self-accomplishment (lhun grub):
a myriad of perfect, self-accomplished manifestations with a
consummate functionality. (A more detailed definition of
the terms katak and lhundrub, as well as a more complete
explanation of the reasons why rigpa is not a cessation, are
provided in Capriles [2000a, 2003, 2004, work in progress
2 and work in progress 3].)
67If the Path one has followed is based on a single
principle, and on the basis of ones experience of that Path
one tries to understand other Paths which combine different
principles including the principle on which the Path one
followed is based, one will correctly understand those
aspects of the Paths in question that are based on the prin-
ciple of the Path one has followed, but not necessarily other
aspects of those Paths. However, if one has obtained realiza-
tion through the vehicle that the Samten Migdrn (bSam
gtan Mig sgron) calls the primordial ancestor of all vehicles
(i.e., the Dzogchen Atiyoga), one will understand the prin-
ciples of all Paths and vehicles.
68See note 32 to this paper.
69In 1960, Jung wrote (Jung, this Ed., 1972):
I had to abandon the idea of the superordinate posi-
tion of the ego... I saw that everything, all paths I
had been following, all steps I had taken, were lead-
ing back to a single point namely, to the mid-
point. It became increasingly plain to me that the
mandala is the centre. It is the exponent of all paths.
It is the path to the centre, to individuation.
... I knew that in finding the mandala as an
expression of the self I had attained what was for me
the ultimate.
This point is also clearly made in Jung, this Ed., 1968, Jung,
1964, and Jung, 1928. It is related to the difference between
Self and ego, which Jung dealt with in Jung, 1919/1975 and
Jung, 1964. Of course, Jung is not speaking of the ultimate
in the Buddhist sense of the term.
70Also cited in Daniels (2004, p. 76). The fact
that I refer to Daniels work does not imply I admit that
people may bestow on their own selves the titles traditions
confer on their most special representatives; all such titles
have been traditionally bestowed by the official representa-
tives of the tradition to which the honored individual
belongs.
71These three senses were discussed in note 10 to
this paper.
72I have in mind, in particular, the theories of
Melanie Klein, Susan Isaacs and Donald W. Winnincott.
Also some specifications by the American Otto Fenichel are
worth incorporating to the system in question.
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44 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25

journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 45

Phenomenological Analysis of Experimentally Induced

Visual Mental Imagery Associated with
Shamanic Journeying to the Lower World
Adam J. Rock, Ph.D.
Deakin University
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

This study explored ostensibly shamanic journeying imagery by (a) assessing visual images across induction
techniques (i.e., sonic driving, Ganzfeld, relaxation, and sitting with eyes open); (b) determining combi-
nation(s) of induction technique and instructions most associated with religious imagery; and (c) investi-
gating the origins of visual imagery. Six participants were randomly assigned to factorial combinations of
a 3 x 4 mixed design (levels of instruction x levels of induction) and were administered the Modified Affect
Bridge to explore the origins of mental imagery reported during the experimental conditions.
Phenomenological analysis yielded comprehensive constituent themes. Harners (1990) shamanic journey-
ing, coupled with religious, instructions were associated with the highest religious imagery, while visual
images associated with shamanic journeying were derived primarily from autobiographical memories.

ainstream science has tended to dismiss shamanism which the phenomenological effects (notably the visual

M and its corresponding patterns of phenomenal

properties as, for example, psychopathological,
charlatanism or trickery (Hubbard, 2003). Indeed, visual
mental imagery encountered during shamanic journeying
remains a phenomenon that is rather neglected by scientific
inquiry despite the fact that contemporary western variants
of shamanism have recently become surprisingly popular
(Walsh, 1989).
It is perhaps noteworthy, however, that recent experi-
mental research (e.g., Rock, Baynes & Casey, 2005; Rock,
Casey & Baynes, 2006) has provided a methodological
framework for investigating ostensibly1 shamanic journey-
ing imagery. Rock and Baynes (2005) contend that attempts
to determine the extent to which the content of the journey-
ing imagery is a construction of the shamans (or nave
experimental participant) cultural cosmology, belief sys-
tems, autobiographical memories,2 and so on, are hampered
by a fundamental methodological obstacle, namely, how to
detect contextual influences on imagery that the shaman
cannot report on because they are outside his/her present
consciousness and memory. With a view to overcoming this
problem, the authors adapted an uncovering technique
used in hypnotherapy to explore the origins of ostensibly
shamanic journeying imagery. Specifically, the authors pro-
pose a modification of Watkins (1971) Affect Bridge that
allows one to investigate whether ostensibly shamanic jour-
neying images are derived from, for example, autobiograph-
ical memories.
Furthermore, Rock, Casey and Baynes (2006) suggest
that future shamanistic research needs to assess the extent to
mental imagery) associated with monotonous percussion
drumming and Harners (1990) shamanic journeying to the
Lower World instructions may be reproduced by different
stimulus conditions. It is salient that, historically, the
shaman has employed a variety of techniques for the pur-
pose of precipitating a shamanic journeying experience (e.g.,
the ingestion of plant hallucinogens, sensory deprivation,
sweat lodges, pain, and ritualistic dancing) (Achterberg,
1987; Doore, 1989; Schultes & Hoffman, 1992). The
authors propose that a secondary aim might be to determine
whether the perception of religious mental imagery is signif-
icantly more likely to occur during shamanic journeying to
the Lower World provided that ones religious belief system
had been linguistically activated temporally prior to the
treatment.
The Present Study
The major aims of the present study were to: (a) assess
which visual mental images constitute comprehensive con-
stituent themes; that is, occur across levels of within-subject
factor for each participant; (b) determine which factorial
combination(s) of state of consciousness (SoC) induction
technique and instructions are most associated with reli-
gious mental imagery; and (c) investigate the origins of visu-
al mental images associated with shamanic journeying
through Modified Affect Bridge analysis.
The present study consisted of a 3 x 4 mixed design
(levels of instruction x levels of SoC induction technique).
The between-subjects factor of instruction consisted of
three levels: (a) Harners (1990) shamanic journeying to the

Visual Mental Imagery and Shamanic Journeying 45

journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 46
Lower World instructions (SJI); (b) Harners (1990)
shamanic journeying to the Lower World instructions cou-
pled with religious instructions (SJI + RI); and (c) no
instructions (NI). The within-subjects factor of SoC induc-
tion technique consisted of four levels: (a) sonic driving,
operationally defined as monotonous percussion drumming
at 8 beats-per-second for a period of fifteen minutes (M);
(b) Ganzfeld, operationally defined as a pattern-less red field
combined with stereophonic white noise for a period of fif-
teen minutes (G); (c) relaxation, operationally defined as a
rotation of awareness around the body for a period of fifteen
minutes (R)3; and (d) control condition, operationally
defined as sitting quietly with ones eyes open for a period of
fifteen minutes (SQEO).
This studys design allowed investigation of three relat-
ed questions4:
1. What visual mental images occur across different lev-
els of SoC induction technique for each participant?
2. Which factorial combination(s) of SoC induction
technique and instructions are most associated with reli-
gious mental imagery?
3. What are the origins of visual mental images associat-
ed with shamanic journeying to the Lower World?
Method
Participants
Six5 undergraduate students (3 females and 3 males),
enrolled at Charles Sturt University Riverina, were purpo-
sively sampled on the basis of previous participation in an
experimental study conducted by Rock, Casey and Baynes
(2006). Participants ranged in age between 18 and 30 years
(M = 22.00, SD = 5.83). Of the sample, two participants
claimed to be Christian: one was Catholic and one was Jesus
Christ Church of Latter-Day Saints. Of the remaining four
participants, one claimed to be a Humanist, while three
claimed to be devoid of religious membership.
Participation in the present study was voluntary.
Participants were treated in accordance with the Ethical
Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (American
Psychological Association, 1992).
Materials
Demographic items pertaining to age, sex, religious
affiliation, religious devotion and religious exposure were
administered to all participants prior to treatment and con-
trol procedures.
At the conclusion of the treatment and control proce-
dures all participants were administered a mental imagery
checklist6 extrapolated partly from Eliade (1989), Harner
(1990), and Kalweit (1988). The checklist included mental
imagery associated with the following: (a) light experiences
(e.g., a ball of fire, lightning); (b) water (e.g., rivers, lakes);
46 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
(c) predatory creatures (e.g., snakes, jaguars); and (d) obsta-
cles (e.g., rocky ravines, bridges). Items relating to religious
mental imagery (e.g., the Blessed Virgin Mary) and UFO
phenomena (e.g., spinning silver discs) were also included.
While UFO phenomena have been tangentially linked to
shamanism (see Ring, 1988), such phenomena are not held
to be motifs associated with the geography of the shamans
Lower World. Consequently, this item was included for the
purpose of functioning as a distracter. Two open-ended
items addressing the visual mental imagery and sounds asso-
ciated with ones descension to the Lower World and ones
observations beyond the doors were also included.
A mylar-covered single-headed round frame drum 16
in diameter and two Sonar 8 tympani mallets were used
for the purpose of facilitating shamanic journeying to the
Lower World. A Qwik Time quartz metronome was used
for the purpose of standardising the number of beats-per-
second. An Audiosonic portable radio cassette recorder
was used for the purpose of playing the pre-recorded verbal
instructions. A stopwatch was used for the purpose of tim-
ing the treatment and control procedures.
Additionally, 7 lamps fitted with 25-watt red light
bulbs and plastic covers for the purpose of making the light
diffuse were placed above, in front of, and to the sides of
each participant (e.g., Glicksohn, 1992; Hochberg, Triebel,
& Seaman, 1951). A pair of goggles was constructed from
halved table tennis balls. Finally, stereophonic white noise
derived from an mp3 recording of Flightwaves Audio
Hallucination by Bob Doyle and headphones were also
used.
Initial Procedure
After participants were randomly assigned to factorial
combinations of SoC induction technique and instruc-
tions7, the general nature of the study was explained and
consent forms were completed. Subsequently, all partici-
pants were administered a series of demographic items.
The experimental setting for all conditions was the
Examination Centre, Boorooma Campus, Charles Sturt
University Riverina. It was a 15 by 40 metre room with
muted lighting, sparsely furnished (a few desks and chairs),
and devoid of external influences (e.g., noise).
The conditions in detail were:
1. SJI-M condition. Following Harner (1990), partici-
pants in this condition were instructed to remove their shoes
and lie on the floor, placing their right forearm over their
eyes. Participants were then instructed to:
Visualize an opening into the earth that you remember
from some time in your life. It can be an opening that
you remember from your childhood, or one you saw last
week, or even today. Any kind of entry into the ground
will do - it may be a hole made by a burrowing animal,
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 47
a cave, a hollow tree stump, a spring, or even a swamp.
It can even be a man-made opening. The right opening
is one that really feels comfortable to you, and one that
you can visualize. Spend a couple of minutes seeing the
hole without going in it. Note its details clearly (Harner,
1990, p. 32).
Participants were subsequently allocated 2 minutes to visu-
alize their chosen opening into the earth (Harner, 1990, p.
32). At the conclusion of the 2 minute period participants
were instructed as follows:
Visualize your opening into the earth, enter it, and
begin the journey. Go down through the opening and
enter the Tunnel. At first the tunnel may be dark and
dim. It usually goes underground at a slight angle, but
occasionally it descends steeply. The Tunnel sometimes
appears ribbed, and often it bends. Occasionally one
passes through the Tunnel so fast it is not even seen. In
following the Tunnel you may run up against a natural
wall of stone or some other obstacle. When this hap-
pens, just go around it or through a crack in it. If this
fails, simply come back and try again. At the end of the
Tunnel you will emerge out of doors. Examine the land-
scape in detail, travel through it and remember its fea-
tures. Explore until you are signalled to come back, and
then return up through the Tunnel. Do not bring any-
thing back with you. This is only an exploratory journey
(Harner, 1990, p. 32).
The experimenters assistant then proceeded to beat the
drum at a tempo of 8 beats-per-second for a period of 15
minutes.
At the conclusion of the 15-minute period, the exper-
imenters assistant struck the drum sharply four times to
signal to all participants that it was time to return. The
experimenters assistant then immediately beat the drum
very rapidly for about half a minute to accompany... partic-
ipants ...on their return journey (Harner, 1990, p. 32).
2. SJI-G condition. Participants were instructed the
same as the SJI-M condition. However, participants were
equipped with a pair of goggles and exposed to a Ganzfeld
for a period of 15 minutes.
3. SJI-R condition. Participants were instructed the
same as the SJI-M condition. Subsequently, participants
were instructed to engage in a rotation of awareness around
the body for a period of 15 minutes.
4. SJI-SQEO condition. Participants were instructed
the same as the SJI-M condition. Subsequently, participants
were instructed to sit quietly with ones eyes open for a peri-
od of 15 minutes.
5. SJI+RI-M condition. Participants were administered
the same treatment as the SJI-M condition, with one
notable exception: prior to administering Harners (1990)
shamanic journeying instructions, participants were
informed that this technique is traditionally considered to
induce a religious or spiritual experience.
6. SJI+RI-G condition. Participants were instructed the
same as the SJI+RI-M condition. However, participants
were equipped with a pair of goggles and exposed to a
Ganzfeld for a period of 15 minutes.
7. SJI+RI-R condition. Participants were instructed the
same as the SJI+RI-M condition. Subsequently, participants
were instructed to engage in a rotation of awareness around
the body for a period of 15 minutes.
8. SJI+RI-SQEO condition. Participants were instruct-
ed the same as the SJI+RI-M condition. Subsequently, par-
ticipants were instructed to sit quietly with ones eyes open
for a period of 15 minutes.
9. NI-M condition. Participants were not administered
Harners (1990) shamanic journeying instructions or reli-
gious instructions. Participants were administered monoto-
nous percussion drumming at 8 beats-per-second for a peri-
od of 15 minutes.
10. NI-G condition. Participants were instructed the
same as the NI-M condition. Subsequently, participants
were equipped with a pair of goggles and exposed to a
homogeneous red ganzfeld coupled with stereophonic white
noise for a period of 15 minutes.
11. NI-R condition. Participants were instructed the
same as the NI-M condition. Subsequently, participants
were instructed to engage in a rotation of awareness around
the body for a period of 15 minutes.
12. NI-SQEO condition. Participants were instructed
the same as the NI-M condition. Subsequently, participants
were instructed to sit quietly with ones eyes open for a peri-
od of 15 minutes.
After the completion of the treatment and control
procedures, all participants were administered the mental
imagery checklist.
Phenomenological Analysis of Original Protocols
The original protocols (derived from the initial and
follow-up procedures) of the six participants coupled with
additional information derived from walk-through inter-
views constituted the data that were analysed using an exis-
tential-phenomenological research methodology originally
developed by Giorgi (1975) and subsequently expanded on
by Colaizzi (1978) and Elite (1998) (cited in West, 1998, p.
364). A multitude of researchers hold that this research
method is appropriate for a phenomenological investigation
of transpersonal experience (e.g., Hanson & Klimo, 1998;
Matsu-Pissot, 1998; Qualls, 1998; Valle, 1998; West, 1998).
All participants were instructed to write a description
of their experiences in the following way: (1) to describe the
Visual Mental Imagery and Shamanic Journeying 47
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 48

Table 1: Participants, Levels of Between-Subject Factor, Number of Conditions Associated with Theme, Comprehensive
Constituent Themes and Verbatim Comments

Participant Level of Between- Number of Comprehensive Verbatim Comments

Subjects Conditions Constituent
Factor Associated with Theme
Theme
K SJI 3 of 4 Battles with its true face was skeletal. Its teeth were rotting and jagged,
(SJI-M, SJI-G, predatory and it actually swallowed me.
SJI-SQEO) creatures This figure [horned entity] and the bone man came with me
to the skeletal entity. It then cut open the skeletal entity from
the crouch [sic] upwards until he reached the head, which fell
backwards, and was handed to me.
My self floating on my back in water, underneath an ice sheet
3 of 4 Obstacles ice river or stream kind of like Ophelia painting.
(SJI-M, SJI-R, The images I can remember are the ones which flashed up
SJI-SQEO) without any conscious provocation they were the words
sounding in my head repetadly [sic] There is no KEYLESS
ENTRY...
C SJI 2 of 3 Obstacles Then I had to go up four stairs (big stairs) to two really big
(SJI-G, heavy wooden doors with handles and a knocker that looked
SJI-SQEO) like a lions face.
There was a maze made from stone or rock and it was very
windy and low.
4 of 4
H SJI + RI (SJI+RI-M, SJI+RI- Light experience Great sunlight and an amazing sense of peace.
G, SJ+RI-R, I tried to follow this bright light, which appeared and then
SJI+RI-SQEO) disappeared, leaving me in darkness

3 of 4 Encounters with Actually walked on the water holding Jesuss hand incredibly
(SJI+RI-M, Christ peaceful and strong sexual feelings.
SJI+RI-G, A vision of light and then Christ appeared. He healed my
SJI+RI-SQEO) wounds and then he swam back out of the tunnel. I followed
him in the tunnel but he seemed to ignore my desire to be
with him.

3 of 4 Whirlpool Then there was a whirlpool effect in the water, descending

(SJI+RI-R, SJI+RI- down and spiralling movement back through the tunnel was
G, pleasant and baptismal or something felt journey of peace.
SJI+RI-SQEO) A whirlpool developed and I was sucked down into the mael-
strom into a ragged tunnel and the rocks tore at my flesh and
bruised, stripped me etc until I returned to the surface man-
gled and bloodied but not in pain or terribly upset.

E SJI + RI
4 of 4 Encounters with I was left in awe of this city and must have mentioned some-
human entities thing about it, because a young peasant lady who stood beside
me said not to be afraid that it was okay.
I then produced a mirror from somewhere and looked into it
I saw myself as someone else she had long straight dark
brown hair and some sort of very old tunic on, a beige colour,
and dark brown sandals.

J NO INSTRUCT 3 of 4 Environmental I heard birds; I was walking through a rainforest on a gravel

(NI-M, NI-G, NI- features road.
R) The trees and the dense canopy gave way to a large paddock of
golden wheat, with the wind blowing through the crop.

R NO INSTRUCT 3 of 4 Imagery associated I thought of rain. The drums reminded me of the sound of
(NI-M, NI-G, NI- with contextual rain on a tin roof.
R) variables Spontaneous bursts similar to pictures of the sun. Like solar
flares on the sun from a close proximity.

Note. SJI = Shamanic Journeying Instructions; RI = Religious Instructions; NI = No Instructions; M = Sonic Driving;
G = Ganzfeld; R = Relaxation; SQ-EO = Sitting Quietly with Ones Eyes Open
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 49

visual mental imagery and sounds that they experienced as Table 2: Religious Tradition and Percentage of Exposure
they travelled down the tunnel towards the doors; and (2) to During Childhood, Adolescence, and Adulthood
describe the visual mental imagery and sounds that they
Childhood Adolescence Adulthood
experienced beyond the doors.
Religious Tradition Religious Religious
The following procedural steps were used: % Exposure Tradition Tradition
(1) Each original protocol was read and reread in order % Exposure % Exposure
to develop an understanding of the visual mental imagery K Presbyterian Wicca/ Pagan Mormon
dimension of the shamanic journeying to the Lower World 10% 60% 90%
experience.
(2) A face-to-face walk through interview was con- C Roman Catholic Buddhism Buddhism
ducted in order to examine, in greater depth, the descrip- 40% 20% 20%
tions written by the participants. The principal investigator Anglican Anglican Anglican
H
paused after each statement in order to provide the partici- 30% 40% 30%
pants with an opportunity to contemplate their experience
and provide further elaboration if they desired. E Presbyterian Christianity Christianity
Consequently, one might argue that the descriptions were 10% 20% 20%
not contaminated by the kinds of contextual variables (e.g.,
J Catholic Catholic None
demand characteristics, embedded cues) that might be asso-
10% 20% 0%
ciated with open-ended questions. The interviews were
taped and then transcribed (Elite, 1998). R Christianity Christianity Life
(3) In each original protocol, the statements, phrases, 70% 70% 70%
or sentences that referred to visual mental imagery were
extracted to develop an inventory of meaning units from Note. SJI=Shamanic Journeying Instructions;
RI=Religious Instructions; NI=No Instructions;
that original protocol (West, 1998). M=Sonic Driving; G=Ganzfeld; R=Relaxation;
(4) The meaning units were organised into theme clus- SQ-EO = Sitting Quietly with Ones Eyes Open
ters within each original protocol (West, 1998).
(5) Theme clusters were combined in order to con- issues (e.g., protection against abreaction) were addressed
struct constituent themes within each protocol (Elite, 1998). through the use of an imaginary TV screen and other affect
(6) Those constituent themes judged to have the same attenuation techniques to help participants control and dis-
meaning were pooled into comprehensive constituent themes tance themselves from any unpleasant memories or emo-
within each protocol (Elite, 1998).8 tions encountered in the course of their time regression.
Following this exercise, all participants provided a
Modified Affect Bridge Inductions written response to the following question: Where do you
Subsequent to the original experiment, participants think the image you were asked to try and visualize on your
took part in individual image-tracking exercises with a view imaginary TV screen originally came from?
to identifying the origins of visual mental images9 reported
during the various treatment and control conditions. At the Results
beginning of the exercise, each participant received a card A list of participants, between-subject factors, compre-
naming the image chosen from his or her own previous hensive constituent themes and verbatim comments are dis-
experimental report. Their task was to visualize this image played in Table 1. It may be observed from Table 1 that spe-
again as vividly as possible, and then to track it to its earli- cific visual mental images occurred across stimulus condi-
est remembered sources in their experience. To enhance tions for each participant. Comprehensive constituent
their recall, the experimenter led them through a time themes associated with the SJI level of the between-subject
regression imagery exercise, supported by related deepening factor were consistent with shamanic cosmology. In con-
and protective procedures. trast, the SJI + RI level of the between-subject factor was
The time regression exercise chosen for this task was a associated with comprehensive constituent themes pertain-
modified version of Watkins (1971) Affect Bridge tech- ing to Christian motifs and human entities; whilst the NI
nique, a powerful uncovering technique used in clinical level of the between-subject factor was coupled with com-
hypnosis and hypnoanalysis (see Rock & Baynes, 2005). prehensive constituent themes relating to environmental
The modified version utilised here was appropriate for the features and imagery associated with contextual variables
present experimental requirements, which called for safe (e.g., embedded cues).
and effective administration without hypnosis.10 Safety

Visual Mental Imagery and Shamanic Journeying 49

journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 50
Religious Mental Imagery
The participants degree of exposure to various reli-
gious traditions during childhood, adolescence, and adult-
hood are presented in Table 2.
The percentage of conditions associated with religious
mental imagery is presented in Table 3. The coupling of
Harners (1990) shamanic journeying to the Lower World
instructions with religious instructions was associated with
the highest percentage of observations involving religious
mental imagery.
Modified Affect Bridge Analysis
Participants, condition, visual mental image, tentative
origin and verbatim comments are displayed in Table 4.
Imagery origin has been tentatively divided into four cate-
gories: autobiographical, symbolic, transpersonal, and inde-
terminate. Six visual mental images were tentatively concep-
tualised as autobiographical, 3 as indeterminate, 2 as sym-
bolic, and 1 as transpersonal.
Discussion
Phenomenological Analysis of Visual Mental Imagery associat-
ed with Shamanic Journeying
Predatory Creatures. During her journeys to the Lower
World, K routinely encountered what might be conceptu-
alised as a skeletal entity. Throughout her initial shaman-
ic journey (SJI-G), K purportedly witnessed mental imagery
commensurate with a long, hairless, lanky figure with a
shiny, light-brown skin that subsequently transmogrified
into a skeletal entity. This variant of the shamanic journey-
ing experience is interpretable as skeletonization (Peters,
1989). It is noteworthy that K was not the subject of the
skeletonization sequence, but rather the passive observer.
This is inconsistent with the Siberian shamanic experience
whereby the shaman-ancestors or other mythical beings
may reduce the neophyte to the state of a skeleton (Eliade,
1989, p. 63). Nonetheless, the skeletal entity would
appear to resonate with the skeleton spirits postulated by
the Northwest Australian Ungarinin (Drury, 1987). It is
salient, however, that Ks skeletal entity did not engage in
the negative performative function associated with
Ungarinyin skeleton spirits (i.e., the removal and subse-
quent replacement of the aspirants brain).
K reported mental imagery analogous to being swal-
lowed by a predatory skeletal entity during the SJI-G treat-
ment procedure. The swallowing sequence is interpretable
as a variant of symbolic death and rebirth, which is held to
be a prevalent shamanic theme (Dobkin de Rios &
Winkelman, 1989; Peters, 1989; Winkelman, 1986). This
interpretation is consistent with Campbells (1993, p. 91)
assertion that, This popular motif gives emphasis to the les-
son that the passage of the threshold is a form of self-anni-
hilation. Ks experience may be contrasted with the South
50 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
Table 3: Percentage of Conditions Associated with
Religious Imagery
Level of Between-Subject % Conditions associated
Factor with Religious Imagery
K SJI 0%
C SJI 25%
H SJI+RI 75%
E SJI+RI 50%
J NI 0%
R NI 0%
Note. SJI = Shamanic Journeying Instructions;
RI = Religious Instructions; NI = No Instructions.
Australian Aboriginal and the Labrador Eskimo shamanic
traditions whereby a mythical snake or an enormous white
bear swallows the aspirant (Drury, 1987; Eliade, 1989).
Whirlpools. During the SJI + RI G and SJI + RI
SQEO conditions, H reported being sucked down into
a maelstrom and barnacled on sharp rocks, rendering Hs
flesh stripped, bloodied, mangled, and bruised.
Eliade (1959, p.135) emphasised the destructive force of
water, asserting that water is pre-eminently the slayer; it
dissolves, abolishes all form. Eliade (1959, p. 135) stated
that the Waters of Death are held to be a classic motif
amongst Asiatic, Oceanic, and palaeo-oriental mythologies.
Subsequently, H described the whirlpool as baptismal.
This is consistent with Kalweits (1988, p. 195) assertion
that water functions as an agent of purification, healing,
and rebirth. Hs description also resonates with Eliades
(1959, p. 137) contention that, For the Christian, bap-
tismrepeats the initiatory ritual ofsymbolic death and
resurrection.
Encounters with Christ. H reported that a vision of
light heralded the appearance of Christ, who subsequently
healed Hs wounds (SJI + RI G). Notably, the mental
image of Christ was coupled with intense positive affect
(i.e., peace, tranquillity, and sexual arousal). Jung (1964, p.
72) contends that the notion of Christ the Redeemer is
derived from the universal pre-Christ theme of the hero
and the rescuer who, although he was been devoured by a
monster, appears again in a miraculous way, having over-
come whatever monster it was that swallowed him. Jung
(1983) further suggested that Christ corresponds to one half
of the archetype of the self, the other half appearing as the
Antichrist (i.e., the self s dark aspect). During a Modified
Affect Bridge induction, H linked the mental image of
Christ with a childhood memory of an Easter holiday spent
at a beach, recollections of painting whilst at Sunday school,
Cecil B. De Mille, and viewing a graven image of the
Blessed Virgin Mary at a Catholic Church with peers.
Obstacles. Walsh (1990, p. 147) conceptualised the
shamans Lower World as a place of tests and challenges.
During the SJI-G treatment procedure, K reported that a
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 51

Table 4: Participants, Condition, Visual Mental Image, Tentative Origin and Verbatim Comments

Participant Condition Visual mental Tentative origin Verbatim Comments

image

K SJI-G Skeletal entity Transpersonal I then asked it to take me to where it came from the image
I saw was actually a person who was buried alive

SJI-M Lava river Indeterminate The image of the lava was quite hard to maintain, but it
led to a volcano, which I think I have mentioned in other
experiments. The lava stream led me past the skeletal man,
which I tried not to focus on to [sic] long. It also led me to
the underground place of pillars Hell-like place.

Ice river Autobiographical Beechworth waterfalls (memories from a trip). Ofelia [sic]
painting that I like.

C SJI-G Maze Autobiographical When I was younger (infants school age). My parents took my
sister and I to Cockington Green in Canberra. There was a
miniature stone maze there (that I also saw in Yr 5 at a
school excursion) and that is what I saw in the tunnel.

SJI-SQEO Pond Autobiographical I remember a camp that I went on when I was younger. We
went to the Wellington or Sanola caves (or some tourist caves
place), We had to walk over a long and high bridge whilst in
the cave and underneath it was a huge pond it is the exact
same pond.

H SJI+RI-G Christ Autobiographical The original image of Christ was classic Cecil B. De Mille. I
think I first saw this King of Kings on a holiday (Easter) at
Killmore Beach.

SJI+RI-R Light Autobiographical Stained glass windows in a church that Ive been in sometime
in childhood.

E SJI+RI-R Bald men Symbolic they are not actual objects from my past but symbols of a
person or an object/ situation in my past, something I perhaps
am not ready to deal with.

Peasant women Indeterminate Could not visualise the peasant woman, nor the shadows in
and shadows in the pond it was as if they had never existed in the first
pond place. However, each time I attempted to visualise an object,
it was stopped by something and walls were put up in front
of me. There was laughter and a pair of green/ blue eyes
watching my attempts and constantly trying to distract me.

SJI+RI-SQEO Dark-haired girl Symbolic The girl is a picture or example of the female line of my
mothers family.

J NI-R Rainforest Autobiographical I think it came from a holiday that I took with my parents
when I was 12, to the top end of Queensland.

R NI-M Rocky ravine Indeterminate My memory. In recalling what I had previously imaged in
past sessions. I dont really know.

Note. SJI = Shamanic Journeying Instructions; RI = Religious Instructions; NI = No Instructions; M = Sonic Driving;
G = Ganzfeld; R = Relaxation; SQ-EO = Sitting Quietly with Ones Eyes Open

Visual Mental Imagery and Shamanic Journeying 51

journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 52
sea of lava at the end of the tunnel blockaded the entrance
to the Lower World. This description is consistent with the
assertion that while descending to the Lower World the neo-
phyte routinely encounters obstacles (Desjarlais, 1989;
Harner, 1990; Kalweit, 1988; Peters, 1989, 1990).
Moreover, it provides support for Eliades (1989, p. 312)
contention that the infernal river is a classic motif of the
descent to the underworld, which is present in nearly all
the variants. Subsequently, K reported being encapsulated
within the confines of an ice river (SJI SQEO), while E
reported underwater confinement in a pond coupled with
intense negative affect (i.e., panic). Such phenomenological
reports support Eliades (1989) assertion that aquatic sym-
bolism often fulfils the negative performative function of an
obstacle.
Interestingly, rather than obstacles manifesting as
bridges, rivers, mountains or predatory creatures (Eliade,
1989), C reported mental imagery commensurate with a
maze. C reported that the maze was constructed from stone
or rock and it was very windy and low. Subsequent to a
Modified Affect Bridge induction, C determined that the
maze imagery was the derivative of childhood memories
pertaining to a school excursion and a family trip to the city
of Canberra, where a miniature stone maze was observed.
During the SJI-R treatment, K reported the auditory
mental image There is no keyless entry. This suggests that
K is perhaps devoid of a specific attribute necessary for
accessing the state of consciousness associated with the
shamans Lower World. Alternatively, the auditory mental
image is interpretable as an unconsciousness unwillingness
to re-encounter visual mental imagery (e.g., the skeletal
entity) previously conjoined with intense negative affect, or
it may suggest that the mental imagery is symbolic of an ear-
lier sensory impression associated with psychological trau-
ma. It is noteworthy that auditory mental imagery (i.e.,
metallic sounds) constitutes the second obstacle accompa-
nying the Altaic shamans descent to the Lower World
(Eliade, 1989).
Human Entities Functioning as Helping Spirits. E
reported visual mental imagery commensurate with a help-
ing spirit. The helping spirit assumed the outward appear-
ance of a young peasant lady, purportedly fulfilling the
positive performative function of dispelling negative affect
(i.e., fear). From a psychodynamic perspective, the peasant
woman may be interpreted as an externalisation of Es psy-
chological need for comfort and reassurance (Kalweit,
1988). Comparatively, from a transpersonal anthropological
perspective these helping spirits are indicative of the
mobilisation of psychic forces, and thus phenomena com-
mensurate with an altered state of consciousness charac-
terised by the dissipation of ones ego (Kalweit, 1988).
52 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
Religious Mental Imagery
It was found that religious mental imagery was report-
ed in 62.5% of observations involving the coupling of
Harners (1990) shamanic journeying to the Lower World
instructions with religious instructions. In contrast, reli-
gious mental imagery was reported in only 12.5% of obser-
vations involving only Harners (1990) shamanic journeying
to the Lower World instructions, and 0.0% of observations
involving no instructions. This result is consistent with pre-
viously published reports implicitly suggesting that the cog-
nitive schema associated with a percipients religious tradi-
tion performs a shaping function with regards to the phe-
nomenological content of states of consciousness associated
with Hindu yoga, Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist med-
itation (Brown, 1986), psilocybin (Pahnke, 1966), Marian
apparitions (Carroll, 1983), yage (Naranjo, 1973), angelic
encounters (Lange & Houran, 1996), poltergeist-related
experiences (Lange & Houran, 1997), and shamanic jour-
neying experiences (Houran, Lange & Crist-Houran,
1997).
It is noteworthy that K reported religious mental
imagery in 0% of observations despite reporting 90% devo-
tion and exposure to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-
day Saints during adulthood. This finding fails to support
Hubbards (2003, p. 69) suggestion that the outward
appearance of entities encountered during a shamanic jour-
neying experience may be principally determined by ones
religio-cultural milieu such that a Christian may encounter
saints and martyrs of the Church.
In contrast, H was administered Harners (1990)
shamanic journeying to the Lower World instructions cou-
pled with religious instructions, subsequently reporting reli-
gious mental images in 75% of observations. It is salient
that H received mild to moderate exposure to denomina-
tional Christianity (i.e., Anglican) throughout childhood,
adolescence, and adulthood. This result provides prelimi-
nary support for the contention that religious imagery con-
sonant with ones religious tradition will be reported during
shamanic journeying, provided ones religious belief system
has been activated temporally prior.
Modified Affect Bridge
The majority of visual mental images subjected to
Modified Affect Bridge analysis may be tentatively concep-
tualised as autobiographical; that is, the derivative of a
memory from the participants personal history that has
been recalled and superimposed. This finding is consistent
with that of Rock, Casey and Baynes (2006).
Other visual mental images (e.g., Es dark-haired
girl) appeared to perform a symbolic function (e.g., repre-
sent ones family tree) yet did not appear to be the mental
representation of a previous sensory experience derived from
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 53
the participants personal history. However, if one were to
conceptualise the dark-haired girl as a composite image
exemplifying various constituents (e.g., a particular nose, x,
a particular jaw-line, y, a particular article of clothing, z); it
might then be argued that although E may have had indi-
vidual sensory experiences pertaining to each single con-
stituent (i.e., sensory experience x corresponding to x, sen-
sory experience y corresponding to y), E may have never had
a sensory experience involving the combination of con-
stituents x, y, z (i.e., the dark-haired girl).
It is noteworthy that during Ks initial Modified Affect
Bridge induction a visual mental image pertaining to the
skeletal entity purportedly revealed that it was previously a
human being who had been buried alive. In a subsequent
Modified Affect Bridge session, the skeletal entity
informed K that it was a demon. The skeletal entity may
be tentatively categorised as transpersonal; that is, the skele-
tal entity may be conceptualised as existing independently
of the percipients perceptual apparatus, and thus attributed
an exosomatic (i.e., realist) ontological status.
Finally, in numerous instances, participants were
unable to trace the origins of visual mental images. This
finding is consistent with Rock, Casey and Baynes (2006)
who suggest that such indeterminism may be precipitated
by, for example, an inability to place ones attentional focus
on the Modified Affect Bridge instructions or traumatic
associations for the participant that render the ultimate
source of the visual mental image inaccessible to normal
waking consciousness.
Some Possible Methodological Limitations
The Ganzfeld may have functioned as a contextual
variable, (i.e., embedded cue), conditioning participants to
report visual mental imagery commensurate with the colour
red. For example, during the Ganzfeld treatment K report-
ed visual mental imagery associated with a river of lava, C
reported a never-ending desert coupled with a very
bright sun, while R reported spontaneous bursts akin
to solar flares on the sun from a close proximity. Evidently,
some participants are more susceptible to contextual vari-
ables than others.
Given that the conditions involved some form of
restricted environmental stimulation, it is arguable that pre-
viously neutral variables may have adopted the function of
contextual variables (e.g., embedded cues), thus providing
direction to the participants visualisations. For example, R
stated that during the NI-M condition, the Mylar-covered
drum tone appeared reminiscent of war drums and subse-
quently the sound of rain on a tin roof, thereby precipitat-
ing imaginings consistent with these linkages.
Suggestions for Future Research
Future research needs to assess the extent to which the
Ganzfeld may have functioned as a contextual variable, (i.e.,
embedded cue), conditioning participants to report visual
mental imagery commensurate with the colour red (e.g.,
lava, demons, barren deserts). Additionally, future research
may benefit from comparatively analysing the visual mental
imagery associated with a shamanic journey to the Lower
World with visual mental imagery encountered during a
shamanic journey to the Upper World. Finally, future
research might also evaluate the diversity of shamanic
ASCs (Krippner, 2002, p. 967). This would allow one to
determine whether a single shamanic state of conscious-
ness exists or whether it is more appropriate to speak of
shamanic modification of attentional states (Krippner,
2002, p. 967).
Conclusions
Phenomenological analysis identified a variety of visu-
al mental images occurring across induction techniques for
each participant that were interpretable as comprehensive
constituent themes. This finding is consistent with the fact
that, historically, the shaman has employed a variety of tech-
niques for the purpose of precipitating a shamanic journey-
ing experience (Achterberg, 1987; Doore, 1989; Schultes &
Hoffman, 1992).
The coupling of Harners (1990) shamanic journeying
to the Lower World instructions with religious instructions
was associated with the highest percentage of observations
(62.5%) involving religious mental imagery. Consequently,
the perception of religious mental imagery seems more like-
ly to occur during shamanic journeying to the Lower World
provided that ones religious belief system had been linguis-
tically activated temporally prior to the treatment.
Finally, the Modified Affect Bridge results suggested
that visual mental images associated with shamanic journey-
ing to the Lower World were derived primarily from autobi-
ographical memories. It is noteworthy, however, that other
visual mental images were amenable to tentative categorisa-
tion as symbolic, transpersonal and indeterminate.
End Notes
1 Following Rock, Baynes and Casey (2005), the qual-
ifier ostensibly was used because it was unclear what the
sufficient conditions were for a mental image to be deemed
genuinely shamanic. Nevertheless, one might argue that
there exist at least two necessary conditions: N1: The men-
tal image, x, must occur during a shamanic journeying expe-
rience, and N2: The outward appearance of x must be con-
sistent with shamanic cosmology. Clearly, the presence of
both N1 and N2 do not constitute a sufficient condition
(i.e., ensure that x is genuinely shamanic). For example, dur-
ing a shamanic journeying experience (N1) one may
encounter an x consistent with the geography of the
Visual Mental Imagery and Shamanic Journeying 53
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 54
shamans Lower World (N2) (e.g., a predatory creature such
as a tiger). However, it is logically possible that the tiger
may merely be a distracting thought associated with, for
instance, a circus performance that the participant viewed
the evening prior to the shamanic journeying induction.
2For the purpose of this paper, autobiographical mem-
ory will be defined as memory for events that have occurred
in ones life (Reber & Reber, 2001, p. 423).
3The Brief Relaxation Induction and Return to
Alert State sections are derived, in part, from a transcrip-
tion of an unpublished and untitled audio cassette recording
of a relaxation procedure developed and used by former col-
league, Sue Bauchman.
4Hypotheses were not formulated due to the
exploratory nature of the present study.
5It is not uncommon for experimental studies in
humanistic-transpersonal psychology to utilise a sample size
of N < 10 (e.g., Lang, 1971; Tart, 1968; Tart and Smith,
1968). In the present study, two participants were random-
ly assigned to each level of the between-subject factor.
6It is important to acknowledge that the mental
imagery checklist was not designed to be exhaustive, but
rather to be used in conjunction with the two open-ended
questions constructed to elicit narrative comments.
7Participant C was not administered the relaxation
level of the within-subject factor due to the deferment of her
university enrolment and subsequent relocation interstate.
8Standard phenomenological inquiry in psychology
dictates that the final constituent themes are derived from
the original protocols of all participants (Valle, 1998).
However, in the context of the present study, comprehensive
constituent themes were derived from original protocols
across the four levels of the within-subject factor (i.e., SoC
induction technqiue) for each participant.
The scope of the current phenomenological inquiry
was limited to visual mental imagery. A visual mental image
may be operationally defined as a mental representation of
an earlier sensory experience (Reber & Reber, 2001, p.
341). Consequently, the present study disregarded retinal
images. For the purpose of the present study, a retinal image
was operationally defined as the (approximate) point-by-
point picture of an object cast on the retina when light is
refracted by the eyes optic system (Reber & Reber, 2001,
p. 341). Additionally, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and tac-
tile mental images were considered, provided a coupling
with visual mental imagery was evident.
9Visual mental images were selected for Modified
Affect Bridge analysis on the basis of three criteria: (1) the
participant deemed the origin of a particular visual mental
image, x, to be ambiguous. (2) The participant judged x to
be an integral constituent of the state of consciousness from
which it was derived. (3) The participant expressed a will-
54 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
ingness to subject x to analysis via the Modified Affect
Bridge.
10The procedures and rationales involved in this
Modified Affect Bridge have been detailed elsewhere (Rock
& Baynes, 2005) and are available on request directly from
the authors.
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Address correspondences to the author at:
School of Psychology, Deakin University
221 Burwood Hwy, Burwood VIC 3125
AUSTRALIA
Phone +613 9244 6357
Fax +613 9244 6858
Email rock@deakin.edu.au
Visual Mental Imagery and Shamanic Journeying 55
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 56

An Exploratory Investigation into the Association of

Neuroticization, Cognitive Style, and Spirituality to
Reported Altered States of Consciousness in
Women Experiencing Childbirth

Nikolai Gruzdev and Dimitri Spivak

Institute of Human Brain, Russian Academy of Sciences
St. Petersburg, Russia

This study examined the relation of altered states of consciousness to neuroticization, spiritual experience,
and divergent thinking in a sample of women (N= 102) at late pregnancy and post-delivery. The results
suggest that stress associated with imminent childbirth is linked to higher levels of ASCs and that neuroti-
cization and spirituality seem to be implicated in the induction of ASCs.

ltered states of consciousness (ASC) are regarded by natural, less traumatic, and culturally acceptable (for more

A the authors of the present paper as possible,

although non-optimal, coping strategies which tend
to occur under stressful conditions and may be produced by
detailed discussion see Spivak et al., 1998; Abramchenko &
Kovalenko, 2001).

a variety of endogenous and exogenous factors. Based upon Method

an analysis of the existing literature, as well as on ideas and
information obtained from conferences and congresses on
ASC, we have identified three plausible factors as contribut-
ing to the occurrence of ASC. First, ASC may be consid-
ered a manifestation of borderline pathology and neuroti-
cization (Ludwig, 1969; Kurchenko, Petrenko, &
Rassokhin, 1998). Second, ASCs are induced by a cognitive
process such as those involved in spontaneous creativity
(Martindale & Greenough, 1973; Dittrich, 1998). Third,
ASCs are part of a vaster realm of religious and/or spiritual
phenomena and form an independent dimension of inner
life (Tart, 1972; Nalimov, 1989). Empirical research has
not yet been done which looks at how all three factors
neuroticization, spontaneous creativity, and religious/spiri-
tual experiencescontribute to possible ASCs in normal
people.
The purpose of this study was to complete an
exploratory examination of the how the three factors relate
to the occurrence of ASCs in a sample of normal women in
late pregnancy who went through the birth process. Despite
its being obviously gender specific, the use of such a sample
seems to be very constructive for studying ASC. On the one
hand, birth stress is usually quite strong and thus likely to
lead to higher rates of ASCs (Brudal, 1989; Vaughan &
Maliszewski, 1982); on the other, it is physiological, more
Participants
The main sample consisted of 102 respondents of
practically normal pregnant women in late pregnancy rang-
ing in age from 18 to 39 years (Mean = 24.6), 59 of whom
were tested twice. Eleven percent of tested respondents were
not married; almost ninety percent of women were giving
birth for the first time. Almost half of these women (46 per
cent) were hospitalized at least once during this pregnancy
(i.e., due to early or late toxicosis). Education level of the
sample was above average: 44 per cent had higher education,
while 13 per cent were still attending college or university.
It is known that even minor health problems are like-
ly to produce neurotic symptoms in participants. In order to
avoid the impact of somatic pathology upon our data, when
forming a sample for this study, we accepted women only
with minor and/or insignificant somatic disorders related to
pregnancy. All women volunteered to participate in this
research, which was performed under constant supervision
of medical personnel.
A reference group of students and teachers of Herzen
State Pedagogical University in St. Petersburg, Russia, expe-
riencing everyday-life stress was also obtained. This group
was made of 82 women ranging in age from 19 to 56 years
old (Mean = 25.8).

56 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25

journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 57
Measures
UN Scale (Wasserman, 1999). To formally assess the
effect of clinical and sub-clinical forms of borderline psychic
pathology, we have used questionnaire for express diagnos-
tics of neurotization level (labeled in Russia as the UN
scale), constructed at the Laboratory of Clinical Psychology
of Bechterev Institute of Psychoneurology in St. Petersburg,
Russia. The questionnaire is comprised of a diagnostic scale
measuring the probability of occurrence of neurotic
episodes and a control scale of social desirability. Seven
degrees of neurotization level are distinguished (ranging
from extremely high to extremely low); negative scores indi-
cate acute neurotization, while high positive scores (over 30
points) point at low neurotization level.
SAN Test. This is a test commonly used in Russia. The
name of the test is a Russian abridgement of General
Comfort, Activity, Mood. The instrument is based upon
the main ideas underlying the Test of Differential Self-
Evaluation by Charles Osgood (see Burlachuk, Morozov,
2000). The Osgood method is a development of the Likert
scale in that three major factors or dimensions of judgment
were added: evaluative factor (e.g., good-bad); potency fac-
tor (e.g., strong-weak); and activity factor (e.g., active-pas-
sive) (Summers, 1970). The SAN test helps to differentiate
ones attitudes towards his/her own feelings, sensations and
behavior. Five subscales of SAN test are: psychic activation;
interest (motivation to do anything); emotions (the scale
discriminates depressive tendencies); tension (anxiety), and
comfort. High scores for this test tend to reveal maladap-
tive tendencies in respondents, manifested by lowered psy-
chic activation, increased anxiety, combined with depressive
episodes, subjective sense of discomfort, and low motivation
to perform any action.
Divergent Thinking Test (DTT). Used to assess sponta-
neous creativity in this study, this test originally belonged to
the Creativity Assessment Packet by F. Williams, and was
adapted in Russian by Tunik (2003). This test measures cre-
ativity in relation to five cognitive factors: fluency; flexibili-
ty; originality; elaboration; and the verbal component of
creativity.
Index of Core Spiritual Experience (INSPIRIT; Kass, et
al., 1991). This test measures the occurrence of experiences
that convince one that the God exists, that evoke feelings of
closeness with God, and produce various other religious
actions and attitudes. The INSPIRIT used in this research
was originally constructed to measure health-promoting
effect of core religious experiences in outpatients of hospi-
tal-based behavioral medicine programs (Kass, et al., 1991).
It was found by Kass and colleagues (1991) that intrinsic (or
mature) religiosity tends to protect individuals from stress-
related components of illness. This index was translated by
us into Russian specifically for this study (permission was
granted by the author), and approbated on a sample of uni-
versity students, before it was used for observation in the
clinic.
In preliminary research, we found the factor structure
of the Russian version of INSPIRIT was almost identical to
the original English one, with one interesting difference. In
the original (American) testing, all seven items were unified
in a single factor, showing moderately high correlation with
intrinsic religiousness scale of the Religious orientation
inventory (ROI, by Allport & Ross, 1967). In the Russian
INSPIRIT, six items of the inventory formed a unified scale;
the seventh one, consisting in the perception of God
dwelling within oneself, did not correlate with other test
items, and formed in this way a separate factor. Despite this
discrepancy, our findings suggest that spiritual/religious
experiences tend to be described in universal terms (at least,
common for the average American and Russian urban
dwellers). The reliability of the Russian INSPIRIT was
found to be adequate for research purposes (alpha = .69).
Assessment of Personal Religiosity Structure (APRS;
Scherbatych, Myagkov, & Kravtsov, 1996). This instrument
is used to study attitudes toward various aspects of religious
thought and behavior. Test scales are (a) Religion as philos-
ophy doctrine, (b) Attitudes toward magic, (c) Tendency to
look for support and relief in religion, (d) Features of extrin-
sic religiousness, (e) Interest in pseudoscience, (f) Acceptance
of God as Creator (Creationism), (g) Religious self-aware-
ness (intrinsic motivation in worship), and (h) Attitudes
towards religious morale. The APRS was used to study face
and concurrent validity of two measures examining reli-
gious/spiritual dimension and, initially expected, it has
shown moderately high positive correlations with the
INSPIRIT score (r = 0.64, p < 0.01). Factor structure of the
test perfectly corresponded to data obtained by Myagkov,
Scherbatych, and Kravtsov (1996). High scores were related
to intrinsic religious orientation, while low scores corre-
sponded to immature or extrinsic religious orientation.
Short Inventory for Altered States of Consciousness
(ASC). To assess the level of ASC, we constructed a short
inventory, mostly based on well-known and reliable clinical
questionnaires, elaborated by Dittrich (1998) and
vanQuekelberghe et al. (1991). Our questionnaire is com-
prised of 15 items that were found to be the most frequent-
ly reported by participants in our earlier studies of ASC in
contemporary urban dwellers (see Appendix).
Test scores from the ASC questionnaire were inter-
preted as follows: positive replies to less then four (out of
15) items (i.e., scores under 40 points) of ASC inventory
were considered as indicating low level of ASC, or their
absence. Seven or more positive responses indicated pres-
ence of moderately and highly pronounced ASC experiences
(i.e., scores over 90 points).
Altered States and Birth 57
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 58

Table 1
Descriptive Statistics for All Measures Used
Pre-Delivery Post-Delivery Reference Group
(n= 102) (n=59) (n=82)
__________ __________ __________
Scale Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Altered States of
Consciousness Level (ASC) 67.70 32.70 55.20 30.30 81.20 40.20
UN- Neuroticization
Level Inventory 35.40 42.20
UN- Social Desirability 2.20 1.40
Divergent Thinking
Test (DTT) 71.90 8.70 71.20 11.80
INSPIRIT 2.48 0.61 2.64 0.46
Assessment of Personal
Religiosity Structure
(APRS) 45.70 10.50

SAN Test 54.80 12.40 51.20 15.80

Procedure
We used a within-subject design for our study and
tested the same subjects twice: first, 1-2 weeks prior to deliv-
ery, and second, 2-4 days post partum. The complete set of
six psychological tests was filled out during the first testing;
and only three inventories (i.e., ASC scale, DTT, and the
SAN test) were used for the second testing. All testing was
conducted in Russian, as all members of both the main and
the referent group spoke Russian as the first language.
The reference group completed the ASC questionnaire
and the INSPIRIT test, providing in this way reference scores
for both measures Thus in testing the reference group, our
primary goal was to collect data on frequency of occurrence
of ASC in everyday life conditions, devoid of impact of con-
siderable stress.
Results
Table 1 presents means and standard deviations for all
test scores. Sixteen percent of participants in the pregnant
women group reported a strong presence of ASC experi-
ences at pre-delivery state, compared to only 6.7 per cent of
tested respondents at post-partum period. Mean INSPIR-
IT items scores in the Russian sample were considerably
lower than the ones reported by Kass et al. (1991) in his ini-
tial study (M = 2.8; SD = 0.83). High scores were obtained
in 8.5 percent of subjects, compared to 26 per cent in the
American sample.
Analysis of the intercorrelations among all measures
acquired at pre-delivery (see Table 2) revealed moderate pos-
Table 2
Correlations Between Measures at Pre-Delivery
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
____________________________________________
1. ASC
2. UN Social Desirability -.27*
3. UN Neuroticization -.33* .17
4. DTT .04 .18 .07
5. INSPIRIT .42* -.10 -.23* -.07
6. APRS .31* -.10 -.27* -.09 .64*
7. SAN Test .15 -.16 -.47* -.07 .01 -.01
_________________________________________________
Note. N= 102, *p<.05.
itive correlations (p < .05) between ASC level and both the
INSPIRIT (r = .42) and the APRS (r = .31), along with
moderate negative correlations between ASC score, UN
Social Desirability (r = -.27), and UN Neurotization level (r
= -.33). A moderate correlation (p < .05) between ASC level
and religious attitudes scale (r = .28) was found at the post
partum period (see Table 3). In the non-pregnant referent
group we also found moderate positive correlation between
ASC level and INSPIRIT scale (r = .39, p < .05). The DTT
was not found to significantly associate with ASC or any
other test.
In order to assess significant differences between sub-
scale scores of the SAN test from pre- to post-delivery
(pregnant women, n = 59), that is, before passing the sup-
posed peak of stress (i.e., delivery) and after it, Wilcoxons T-
test for dependent samples was completed. Differences in

58 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25

journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 59
Table 3
Correlations Between Measures at Post-Delivery
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
____________________________________________
1. UN Social Desirabilitya
2. UN Neuroticizationa .21
3. INSPIRIT a -.20 -.15
4. APRSa -.10 .18 .07
5. ASC -.25 -.23 -.12 .28*
6. DTT .03 -.04 -.17* -.10 .04
7. SAN Test -.23 -.12 .17 -.00 -.21 -.18
_________________________________________________
Note. n= 58, *p<.05. For variables marked with superscript
"a", data were obtained at pre-delivery. Given that the measures
used at pre-delivery marked with the superscript are personality
inventories and can be assumed to be assessing stable traits,
these tests were not given to participants a second time.
three subscale scores (interest, emotions, and tension/anxi-
ety subscales) were found and suggested improvement in
motivation and emotional condition in new mothers, but
also increased level of personal tension/anxiety (see Figure 1).
One-way ANOVAs comparing ASC and INSPIRIT
scores between pregnant women and reference group were
performed. Despite the fact that ASC mean score for the
reference group was somewhat higher than the one in preg-
nant women sample at pre-delivery, differences between
score variances were not significant. INSPIRIT scores in the
reference group were also higher than in the sample of preg-
nant women, but the difference was found to be nonsignif-
icant.
Repeated measures ANOVA for pre- and post-delivery
examinations of ASC level showed a significant difference
between two measurements (Wilks test: F (2, 57) = 143.86,
p < .001).
Discussion
The results of this investigation provide partial sup-
port for the association of religious/spiritual experience,
neuroticization, and cognitive style to the occurrence of
altered states of consciousness in a sample of women experi-
encing late pregnancy and childbirth, though in a manner
not wholly consistent with the available literature. In terms
of the former, both the INSPIRIT and the Assessment of
Personal Religiosity Structure demonstrated moderately
strong positive correlations with ASC inventory scores at
pre-delivery, while only the APRS showed a significant cor-
relation with ASC at post-delivery. This suggests that spiri-
tuality/religiosity, both beliefs and experiences, may be
important factors contributing to the occurrence of ASCs in
normal people.
With regards to neuroticization, negative correlations
between the ASC inventory and the UN Neuroticization
Figure 1
Differences in scores of SAN test subscales at pre- and post-
delivery
Women before delivery Women after delivery
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
Psychic activation Emotions* Comfort
Interest* Tension/Anxiety*
Note: Abciss axis indicates SAN tet subscales.
Ordinat axis indicates subscale scores.
Significant differences between subscales at pre- and
post-delivery are marked with asteric* ( level less than .05)
and Social Desirability scales were found at pre-delivery but
not at post-delivery. This finding, which indicates that high-
er levels of neuroticization are associated with higher levels
of ASC while experiencing the stress of imminent childbirth
but not subsequent to such stress, is somewhat consistent
with expectation given existing research on the topic. This
finding could be interpreted as suggesting that neuroticiza-
tion as a personality trait may be more relevant to the acti-
vation of ASCs when a person is under stress than when
he/she is not. If so, such a result would fall in-line with
stress-diathesis or vulnerability-stress models of psycho-
pathology and allow for neuroticization to be treated as a
vulnerability factor for ASCs. Clearly, further research is
needed to explore the robustness and meaning of this result.
Finally, cognitive style as reflected in creativity and
more specifically, divergent thinking, was found to be unre-
lated to ASC. While the complete lack of association may
reflect a true absence of relationship with cognitive style, it
appears plausible to argue that the findings show that diver-
gent thinking as just one type of cognitive style is not the
type related to the occurrence of ASCs. Other cognitive
styles, such as those suggested in Jungian psychological
typology, may prove to be more fruitful to pursue in future
studies.
In addition to these findings, the present study also
found that women while experiencing childbirth-related
stress reported higher numbers of altered states of con-
sciousness. This was observed in the repeated measures
ANOVA where post-delivery scores were found to be signif-
icantly lower than pre-delivery scores and corroborated with
the analyses of the SAN test subscale scores which revealed
a significant drop in three scores (i.e., interest, emotions,
Altered States and Birth 59
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 60
and tension/anxiety) at post-delivery. This result is very
much in line with past research as well as with our own
model of the birthing process, which asserts that stress serves
as a causal mechanism for ASCs.
Future research aimed at assessing the extent to which
these results are gender-specific is needed. Studies attempt-
ing to establish how stress, spirituality, and neuroticization
contribute to the induction of altered states of consciousness
through causal path modeling could also be very fruitful.
Lastly, efforts should be made to link the three factors to
brain mechanisms (e.g., for preliminary results of this
research see Spivak, Bechtereva, Danko, Spivak, &
Bolotskikh, 1997).
Author Note
This study was supported by the Russian Foundation
for Basic Research, grant 06-06-80048.
The authors are grateful to Dr. Douglas A.
MacDonald and Professor N. P. Bechtereva for valuable
advice and corrections.
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Transpersonal
Studies, 17(2), 181185.
Spivak, L. I., Bechtereva, N. P., Danko, S. G., Spivak, D. L.,
& Bolotskikh V. M. (1997). Electrical brain activity as
a mental state correlate of parturients. Human
Physiology, 23(5), 550555.
Summers, G. F. (Ed.). (1970). Attitude measurement.
Chicago: Rand McNally, P. 235253.
Tart, C. (1972). States of consciousness and state-specific
sciences. Science, 176, 12031210
Tunik, E. (2003). Modified creativity assessment packet by F.
Williams. St. Petersburg, Russia: Rech.
Van Quekelberghe, R., Altsttter-Gleich, G., & Hertweck,
E. (1991). Assessment Schedule for Altered States of
Consciousness: A brief report. Journal of Parapsychology,
55(12), 377390
Vaughan, B. J., & Maliszewski, M. (1982). Ecstatic compo-
nents of childbirth: A psychological and phenomeno-
logical investigation. Birth Psychology Bulletin, 3(1), 5
13.
Wasserman, L. I. (Ed.). (1999). Questionnaire for Express
Diagnostics of Neurotization Level (UN scale). Research
note and manual. St. Petersburg, Russia: Laboratory of
Clinical Psychology, Bechterev Institute of
Psychoneurology. (In Russian)
Appendix
Items of ASC questionnaire (translated from Russian)
1. I have heard unusual noises (sounds, voices, whispering,
singing)
2. I was feeling happy and miserable at the same time
3. I had some unusual fantasies
4. I felt myself rather susceptible to suggestion
5. I nave had nightmares
6. I have seen some strange light flashes (shimmering light,
rays, silhouettes of objects and creatures)
7. I have had mystical (religious) experiences
8. I had vivid and recurring memories
9. I could comprehend reticent meaning of words in conversa-
tions with people
10. I was flying in a dream
11. I was leaving my body and seeing myself from the outside
12. I have had unusual desires
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 61

13. I have had existential insights and understood the mean-

ing of life
14. I have experienced almost telepathic contact with my
absent family members and friends
15. I had dreams in my sleep that came true

Subjects reported frequency and subjective intensity of

experienced listed above using following scale:

About how often have you had such experiencein the

course of the latest 12 months (control group)/ since youve
learned about your current pregnancy (main group)?
Never Once or twice Sometimes Quite frequently
Very often

If you had an experience of this kind, indicate please how

strong it was (usually)
Almost indiscernible Weak Medium Fairly strong
Very intensive

Responses for each question received a score from 1 to 5

(scores increase along with intensity/strength of experiences)
resulting in two indices for every item. Two indices were
then multiplied, giving the final score for each item of ASC
scale. This was done to assess relative frequency and intensi-
ty of unusual experiences, instead of merely stating the fact
of their presence/absence in subjects.

Correspondence regarding this article should be

directed to D. Spivak at d.spivak@mail.ru

Altered States and Birth 61

journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 62

Transpersonal Education:
Problems, Prospects and Challenges
Paul F. Cunningham
Rivier College

Despite its substantial scientific, academic, and professional achievements, transpersonal psychology has
not been fully incorporated within traditional undergraduate psychology curricula. One reason is conven-
tional psychologys prejudiced perception of humanitys spiritual nature. Other reasons lie within the field
of transpersonal psychology itself, including the lack of agreed-upon general curricular models, absence of
normative educational (student) outcomes, unstructured courses with restricted content coverage, and con-
ceptual and methodological disagreements among experts. One of the most pressing challenges facing con-
temporary transpersonal education is the publication of an authoritative, standard textbook that would
effectively introduce undergraduate students to transpersonal psychology and facilitate the progress of the
disciplines further integration into mainstream psychology.

fter more than 35 years of organized investigation Transpersonal Education: Problems

A into the spiritual or cosmic dimensions of the

human psyche and the potential for consciousness
evolution (Grof, 1985, p. 197), transpersonal psychology
or what Abraham Maslow (1968) referred to as the Fourth
Psychology (p. iii) has developed into a full-fledged aca-
demic, scientific, and professional discipline that calls atten-
tion to possibilities of selfhood and psychological develop-
ment beyond the humanistic model of self-actualization
(Scotton, Chinen, & Battista, 1996; Taylor, 1992). It seeks
knowledge through the study of causes (scientia in the broad
Aristotelian sense), bases its conclusions on data obtained by
observation and direct experience (empiricus in the radical
Jamesian sense), and applies the steps of the scientific
method in its exploration of a broad range of normal and
nonordinary states of consciousness (Braud & Anderson,
1998; Wilber, 1990). It has established graduate and under-
graduate courses at over 60 degree-granting institutions of
higher education across the United States and offers scholas-
tic programs in countries such as Belgium, Brazil, Canada,
England, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway,
Russia, Scotland, Spain, and Switzerland (www.atpweb.org).
It has launched numerous peer-reviewed journals to provide
a forum for the communication of theoretical and empirical
research concerning the study of exceptional human experi-
ences and transformative capacities (www.saybrook.edu). It
has founded many professional societies and associations
that sponsor specialized conferences, which promote the
field and facilitate productive interaction among its mem-
bers (www.itaconferences.org).
Despite these substantial scientific, academic, and pro-
fessional achievements, however, transpersonal psychology
has not been fully incorporated into the curricular frame-
work of the psychological sciences. The indexes of most gen-
eral psychology texts contain no reference to terms such as
religion or spirituality and for the most part ignore what
personality psychologist Gordon Allport (1969) called the
religious sentiment in its function of relating the individ-
ual meaningfully to being (p. 98). Humanitys spiritual
nature is one of our strongest attributes as a species and yet
it is the part of our psychology most often overlooked with-
in traditional psychology curricula.
One reason for this lack of attention to humanitys
spiritual nature in mainstream psychological education is
that conventional psychology has traditionally had little
positive regard for the concepts of soul and spirit
because of a prejudiced perception of religion and spiritual-
ity as reflecting irrationality and primitive animistic think-
ing, cognitive delusion and superstition, emotional instabil-
ity or even pathology that would, if not opposed and repu-
diated, destroy the objective structure of psychology itself
(Clay, 1996; Coon, 1992). Although transpersonal psychol-
ogy may be theoretically fascinating and creatively valid,
many mainstream orthodox Western psychologists still
believe that it deals essentially with non-information and
does not contain any statements about any kind of scientif-
ically valid, hard-bed reality (e.g., Ellis & Yeager, 1989).
This belief and attitude puts conventional psychology
seriously out of step with the rest of mainstream contempo-
rary life. Transpersonal concepts are quite ancient, expressed

62 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25

journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 63
by many religions and cultures from the past and continu-
ing into the present. Although many transpersonal concepts
run directly counter to much official knowledge and con-
temporary scientific thought as far as mainstream orthodox
Western psychology is concerned, spiritual experiences and
phenomena are psychological facts, regardless of the inter-
pretations that are made about them, and represent their
own kind of evidence about the nature of the psyche and the
nature of reality evidence that modern psychological sci-
ence can no longer ignore, overlook, or deny (Cardena,
Lynn, & Krippner, 2000). Whether the scientific method
can ultimately know the final truths concerning the spiritu-
al dimensions of human nature and existence, a psycholo-
gy that impedes understanding of the religious potentialities
of man scarcely deserves to be called a logos of the human
psyche at all (Allport, 1969, p. 98).
A second reason why transpersonal psychology has not
been fully incorporated within traditional psychology cur-
ricula lies within the field of transpersonal psychology itself.
Transpersonal psychology has no agreed upon statements of
educational (student) outcomes related to or supportive of
accepted general curricula models for transpersonal educa-
tion at the undergraduate level which prepares future social
and behavioral scientists for later graduate training and pro-
fessional careers in the psychological sciences.
Undergraduate courses in transpersonal psychology vary
considerably in academic content as a review of undergrad-
uate course descriptions identified in the Association of
Transpersonal Psychologys 2004 Listing of Schools and
Programs documents (www.atpweb.org/public). Many
teachers of transpersonal psychology are self-taught or
trained only in particular areas of the discipline and there-
fore may be somewhat reluctant to cover certain topics and
issues with which they are unfamiliar or do not interest
them (e.g., the clinician who overlooks experimental
research or the experimentalist who ignores clinical data).
Beyond a few basic assumptions that define the
transpersonal orientation articulated in the Articles of
Association for Transpersonal Psychology (Sutich, 1972, pp.
93-97), veteran transpersonal psychologists have not
resolved basic issues of subject matter, philosophic assump-
tions, conceptual models, theoretical language, or research
methodology. For instance, transpersonal psychologists may
hold opposing viewpoints about (a) the validity and signifi-
cance of certain areas of investigation (e.g., parapsychology),
(b) what constitutes transpersonal experiences and phenom-
ena (e.g., are all transpersonal experiences altered states of
consciousness and are all religious experiences transpersonal
experiences?), (c) what defines a transpersonal orientation
(e.g., what differentiates transpersonal psychology from
other areas of specialization in psychology?), (d) what con-
stitutes fundamental tenets of the field (e.g., how founda-
tional is the perennial philosophy?), (e) the epistemological
status of its knowledge claims (e.g., do transpersonal phe-
nomena actually reveal direct knowledge about the objective
existence of extra-mental transcendental realities?), and (f )
transpersonal psychologys relation to empirical science
(e.g., is transpersonal psychology an empirical science?).
The educational problems that face transpersonal psy-
chology today in many ways are no different from those
faced by other specialties within psychology (e.g., health
psychology) and parallel those confronted by parapsycholo-
gy 30 years ago unstructured and disorganized courses
with uneven or restricted content coverage, absence of an
agreed-upon set general curriculum for undergraduate
teaching, conceptual and methodological disagreements
among experts, and lack of an authoritative standard text-
book in the discipline (Rogo, 1973). Given the diversity of
topics between courses, specialized approaches within cours-
es, absence of systematic training in the field, and lack of
agreement over foundational issues, it is not surprising that
there is no generally accepted standard textbook appropriate
for undergraduate students that would efficiently and effec-
tively introduce them to the field of transpersonal psychol-
ogy and facilitate the progress of the fields integration into
mainstream psychology.
Transpersonal Education: Prospects
Donald Rothberg (1999), faculty member at Saybrook
Graduate School and Research in San Francisco, outlined
various critiques of current transpersonal education and
identified seven directions that contemporary approaches to
transpersonal education of the future might take. As he stated:
The area of education, considered broadly and at all
levels, is one of the most significant areas of future
inquiry and exploration in the transpersonal field. It
is also an area fraught with controversies and chal-
lenges If there is to be an expansion beyond small
numbers of dedicated educators and students at the
margins of mainstream education and Western soci-
eties, transpersonal approaches to education will
have to gain greater articulation and maturity. (pp.
49-51)
Dialogue on the topic of education in transpersonal psy-
chology is indeed one of the most crucial needs now facing
transpersonal psychology today. One way for transpersonal
education to gain greater articulation and maturity is to
address the immediate curricular issues that currently con-
front it in a more systematic and organized fashion.
Fortunately, extensive bibliographies exist that lay an
excellent foundation to establish statements of intended
educational outcomes related to or supportive of accepted
models of teaching and curricula (e.g., American
Transpersonal Education in Psychology 63
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 64
Psychological Association, 2000; Hendricks & Fadiman,
1976; Miller, 1997). As far back as 1974, Roberts identified
how transpersonal education could transform and invigor-
ate the traditional psychology curriculum (Roberts, 1974).
The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, in print continuous-
ly since 1969, has published numerous reports describing
specific examples of how educators have attempted to incor-
porate transpersonal theory and practice into undergraduate
and graduate psychology education (Boucouvalas, 1980;
Clark, 1974; Davis & Wright, 1987; Dubin, 1994; Frager,
1974; Ingersol, 2002; Katz, 1973; Mansfield, 1991;
Murphy, 1969; Redmond, 1974; Roberts, 1989; Scotton,
1985; Wilber, 1995).
There are numerous texts that one could adopt as sup-
plementary texts for an undergraduate course in transper-
sonal psychology, including Assagioli (1965, 1988),
Boorstein (1996), Braud and Anderson (1988), Campbell
(1999), Ferruci (1982), Hardy (1987), Maslow (1971),
Mann (1984), May (1991), Neher (1990), Tart (1975),
Vaughn (1985), Wallace and Fisher (1991), Walsh and
Shapiro (1983), Washburn (1995), and Zusne and Jones
(1982). These books are not used as a primary standard text
of the field, however, because they are dated, limited in con-
tent coverage, and not designed for a broad-based survey
course in either transpersonal psychology or general psy-
chology.
Other works considered as standard, authoritative
transpersonal psychology course textbooks, include books
by Cortright (1997); Rowan (1998); Scotton et al. (1996);
and Walsh and Vaughn (1993). Even these works, however,
are not without their limitations. Wide but uneven coverage
of topics, treated in a brief and condensed manner, with
many different authors writing in styles that are discontinu-
ous with one another, at difficulty levels ranging from medi-
um to high that presuppose more background knowledge
than the average college undergraduate typically possesses,
with a focus more on transpersonal psychotherapy than on
research findings or how transpersonal research is actually
done, and virtual absence of in-text pedagogical aids (chap-
ter outlines, glossaries of key terms, discussion questions,
illustrations) makes clear and logical communication of key
transpersonal concepts uneven and comprehension difficult
for the uninitiated student.
Transpersonal Education: Challenges
The field of transpersonal psychology requires a text-
book that would accomplish for the discipline what the
publication of Ulric Neissers (1967) book Cognitive
Psychology did for the emergence of contemporary cognitive
psychology and what William Jamess (1890) Principles of
Psychology did for the emergence of American functional
psychology. Ideally, the scope of the textbook would be
64 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
comprehensive and balanced to provide a straightforward
introduction to the basic topics, issues, and research areas of
psychology typically covered in a conventional mainstream
introductory psychology survey course but from a transper-
sonal perspective, including biological foundations, sensa-
tion and perception, learning and memory, language and
thought, motivation and emotion, lifespan development,
personality theory and measurement, abnormal behavior,
methods of therapy, and social psychology. The text would
be applied as well as theoretical and explore the evolving
applications of transpersonal psychology in each of the basic
research areas typically presented in an introductory general
psychology course.
The use of such an organizational framework would
address the curricular problems that confront transpersonal
education today. It would encourage a more complete cov-
erage of transpersonal topics within traditional content
domains. It would promote greater integration of transper-
sonal concepts and theories with the research methods and
findings of mainstream psychology. It would help integrate
transpersonal psychology within the framework of contem-
porary educational process. Traditional psychologys content
areas would also become enriched and gain greater breadth
and depth when viewed from the multidisciplinary, broadly
integrative approach that has come to characterize contem-
porary transpersonal studies.
Writing style and pedagogical aids. Ideally, a single
author writes the text in order to avoid the difficulties inher-
ent whenever multiple authors contribute to the writing of
an edited work (abrupt changes in topic, inconsistent gram-
mar and word usage, dissimilar syntax, disparate writing
styles). Written at a difficulty level appropriate for two-year
and four-year college students, the text would maintain an
interest-arousing quality and present abstract, difficult con-
cepts in clear, accessible prose and in a visually appealing
format. Each chapter would begin with a list of educational
(student) outcomes and an outline that helps organize the
subject matter for the student. End-of-section summaries
review key ideas to help provide students psychological clo-
sure and consolidate their learning. Activities and exercises
are provided to give psychological roots to transpersonal
theories and concepts so that students could put them to the
test of further action and personal development in their own
lives. For the student, a Reading and Study Guide would
promote student learning and used by instructors to struc-
ture course lectures. For the instructor, a Test Bank contain-
ing multiple-choice items and short-essay questions keyed
to each chapter would provide a quantitative and qualitative
measure of students knowledge of important concepts,
principles, and theories. An Instructors Manual that
includes educational (student) objectives, teaching strate-
gies, expanded chapter outlines, additional activities and
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 65
exercises, suggested readings, films, and web sites closely
integrated with the text would promote effective course
design and teaching.
Content coverage. Coverage would focus not only on
contemporary interest in the relationship between spiritual-
ity and psychology, but also the relationship between bio-
logical and transpersonal phenomena and between philo-
sophical and psychological theory. For instance, the excep-
tional human physical transformative capacities document-
ed by Murphy (1992), the scientific evidence for psi func-
tioning summarized by Radin (1997), and the provocative
demonstrations of personality action described by Hastings
(1991) would form the core of chapters on biological foun-
dations, sensation and perception, and personality theory,
respectively. Being as up-to-date as possible, the text would
present transpersonal psychologys classic studies and con-
cepts, as well as present the disciplines most important
recent postmodern developments (e.g., Ferrer, 2002).
Ideally speaking, its content coverage would come to define
the typical transpersonal psychology course and used as a
standard of reference for students in the field.
The transpersonal perspective is not new to psychology.
James Fadiman, co-author of the popular personality theory
textbook, Personality and Personal Growth (Frager &
Fadiman, 2005), once said: Conventional psychology is at
least 150 years old, whereas transpersonal is 45,000 years
old (cited in Fadiman, Grob, Bravo, Agar, & Walsh, 2003,
p. 119). An argument can indeed be made that the roots of
modern psychology itself lie in an intellectual tradition that
is thoroughly transpersonal in character.
Gustav T. Fechner (1801-1887), acknowledged
founder of the branch of experimental psychology known as
psychophysics, for instance, developed his psychophysical
science for the purpose of providing a scientific foundation
for his belief in the survival of the human spirit or soul
(Rosenzweig, 1987, p. 788) and even authored a book, The
Little Book of Life After Death, that gave an explicit defense
of the idea of life after death (Fechner, 1836/1992).
Philosopher-psychologist William James (1842-1910),
founder of the school of Functionalism and the philosophy
of Pragmatism, pioneered the study of consciousness, culti-
vated scientific interest in parapsychology, and wrote exten-
sively about the psychology of mystical experience (Taylor,
1996a, 1996b). Swiss psychiatrist and founder of Analytical
Psychology, Carl G. Jung (1875-1961) was one of the first
psychodynamic psychologists to open the subject of the life
of the spirit to scientific inquiry (Jung, 1934/1960).
Presently, the American Psychological Association (APA) is
beginning to acknowledge the clinical value of using clients
religious beliefs as a valuable and important adjunct to tra-
ditional forms of therapy in bringing about desired thera-
peutic outcomes, as reflected in its publication of such
books as Religion and the Clinical Practice of Psychology
(Shafranske, 1996), A Spiritual Strategy for Counseling and
Psychotherapy (Richards & Bergin, 1997), and Spiritually-
Oriented Psychotherapy (Sperry & Shafranske, 2005). The
ideal textbook would draw students attention to these his-
torical facts and current developments.
Active areas of research. The ideal textbook would high-
light psychologys potential contributions to the task of
understanding humanitys religious sentiment (Allports
phrase) and clarify the relationship between science and reli-
gion in the modern world. The text would describe how
transpersonal psychology is exploring basic research areas
that are relevant to this topic, including states of conscious-
ness (Hunt, 1995), meditation (Murphy & Donovan, 1997;
Shapiro & Walsh, 1984), lucid dreaming (Gackenbach &
Bosveld, 1989), entheogens (Grof, 1975; T. Roberts, 2001),
near-death experiences (Ring, 1982; Sabom, 1998), mind-
body healing (Achterberg, 1985; Benor, 1993; ORegan &
Hirshberg, 1993), trance channeling (Hastings, 1991), phe-
nomena suggestive of post-mortem survival (Braude, 2003;
Stevenson, 1997), transformative biological capacities
(Murphy, 1992), cross-cultural contemplative development
(Walsh & Shapiro, 1983), psi functioning (Braud, 2003;
Radin, 1997; Rao, 2001), the relation of psychosis to mys-
ticism (Lukoff, 1985; Nelson, 1994), and the relation of
brain states to mind states (Austin, 1998; Newberg,
DAquili, & Rause, 2001). These basic research areas have
thrown light on how spiritual practices work, confirmed the
benefits of altered states of consciousness, broadened con-
ventional concepts about the nature of the psychological
self, developed a greater understanding of human potential
and abilities, and have promoted the growth and develop-
ment of the field known as transpersonal psychology (Wulff,
1991, Chapter 12). Coverage would present not only the
conclusions reached by transpersonal research, but also
describe how quantitative and qualitative transpersonal
research designs are actually implemented (Braud &
Anderson, 1998).
Integrative perspective unique among the sciences.
Finally, the ideal textbook would highlight how transper-
sonal psychology, like transpersonal education itself, is not
merely another academic discipline but a viewpoint and ori-
entation toward body, time, self, world, and others, some-
thing akin to humane education and affective education
that, to a great extent, is unique among the psychological
arts and sciences. Transpersonal psychologys integral
approach integrates the five perspectives commonly used in
contemporary mainstream psychology (biological, environ-
mental, cognitive, psychodynamic, phenomenological) into
an inclusive, comprehensive, multilayered overview of expe-
rience and behavior that arguably represents one of the
fields most important contributions to the psychological
Transpersonal Education in Psychology 65
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 66
sciences (Wilber, 2000a, 2000b). It incorporates the psycho-
logical study of the transpersonal and spiritual dimensions of
human nature and existence[and] the spiritual and
transpersonal study of human psychology with the benefits
of inclusiveness provided by the integration of multiple per-
spectives (J. Ferrer, cited in Caplan, Hartelius, & Rardin,
2003, p. 147).
After taking their first course in transpersonal psychol-
ogy or general psychology course that incorporated a
transpersonal perspective, students would come to under-
stand how transpersonal theory and research is not merely
another area of specialization, but a perspective that applies
to a wide variety of human experiences and behaviors
sensing and perceiving, learning and remembering, thinking
and creating, speaking and behaving. Students would recog-
nize how the transpersonal perspective applies in research
courses such as experimental psychology; clinical courses
such as personality theory, abnormal psychology, and coun-
seling theories; and developmental-social courses such as
lifespan development and social psychology. They would
realize how the transpersonal vision (Walsh and Vaughns
[1993] phrase) applies not only in psychology but also allied
disciplines, such as art and music, physics and biology, edu-
cation and anthropology, law and government, philosophy
and religious studies, business and medicine, sociology and
environmental sciences. They also would appreciate how
information obtained through the seemingly disparate per-
spectives of contemporary psychology (biological, environ-
mental, cognitive, psychodynamic, phenomenological) is
integrated into an interrelated, logically coherent, and
broadly inclusive overview of human behavior and experi-
ence in a way that avoids reducing the complete truths of all
into the partial truth of one, or committing what philoso-
pher Gilbert Ryle (1949) referred to as a category mistake.
Conclusion
The modern cultural and societal trend away from tra-
ditional collectivist forms of religion and the movement
toward innovative individualistic forms of spirituality, cou-
pled with the rediscovery of ancient and cross-cultural forms
of spiritual practice and growing dissatisfaction with purely
materialistic and mechanistic explanations of life, mind, and
consciousness, have given popular interest in transpersonal
psychology a strong grounding in contemporary life. People
are desperately seeking spirituality (Taylor, 1994, p. 54).
Their need gives impetus to work in transpersonal psychol-
ogy, which answers questions that arise from the hearts and
minds of many people - questions that help individuals
bring out answers by searching into their own experience.
The books that transpersonal psychologists write are used by
people as ladders to transcend plateaus of growth and devel-
66 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
opment and bring them to another higher point. The
publication of an authoritative up-to-date textbook for an
introductory course in transpersonal psychology would not
only provide a generalized model of curricula for undergrad-
uate courses in transpersonal psychology but also would
encourage teachers to introduce this exciting area of theory
and research into their introductory general psychology
courses as well.
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SPECIAL TOPIC:
SYNCRETISM IN TRANSPERSONAL STUDIES

Syncretism in Transpersonal Studies:

Introduction to this Issues Special Topics Section

Harris Friedman
Saybrook Graduate School and University of Florida

yncretism is a term referring to the reconcilation of a framework for Western audiences to better grasp elusive

S divergent beliefs and practices, resulting in a newly

constructed product based on, and sometimes per-
haps going beyond, older traditions. Of course, orthodox
deeper meaning within Aikido. Taken together, these
three papers suggest how syncretic efforts can further
transpersonal studies through providing a larger context
traditions often disvalue syncretic efforts as devolution- in which to understand and apply disparate systems,
ary rather than evolutionary. Syncretism can be contrast- showing how these efforts could augment each other in
ed with eclecticism, which takes from different approach- surprisingly productive ways. Syncretic efforts may be
es, often based on pragmatic considerations, without particularly useful over applying traditional transperson-
attempting to reconcile them. One of the exiting aspects al systems when the contexts of the traditional systems
of contemporary transpersonal studies is that many dif- have changed considerably or when each system ignores
ferent tradtions related to the transpersonal, which were important elements addressed by the others, such that
once hidden from each other through distance and time, the syncretic product might be more inclusive.
can now be compared, contrasted, and even integrated
for the first time. In this regard, syncretism can be used Harris Friedman and Douglas A. MacDonald
to describe the bridging (i.e., an alternative meaning for Co-editors
the prefix trans, as in the word transpersonal [which
is usually seen as referring to beyond], is to bridge) of
traditions through amalgamating them, as opposed to
merely eclectically juxtaposing them. This Special Topics
section focuses on three syncretic efforts. In Gebsers
Integral Consciousness and Living in the Real World:
Facilitating its Emergence Using A Course In Miracles,
Cornelius J. Holland and Douglas A. MacDonald exam-
ine parallels between Jean Gebsers work in consciousness
and a contemporary spiritual system, A Course in
Miracles, forging common themes linking the conception
of ego in both systems and illustrated with the applica-
tion of a forgiveness exercise. In Corporate Perspectives
On The Vedic Meditative Practice, Upasana, P. S. Rao
and P. N. Murthy describe how a business corporation
can be viewed as having a conscious quality, drawing a
parallel between adaptive corporate learning and the
processes of a Vedic meditation technique, Upasana.
Finally, in Manifest, Hidden, and Divine Self:
Introduction to Sefirot Aikido, Jack Susman explores
creating a relationship between Aikido, a Japanese mar-
tial-spiritual tradition, and Kabbalah, a Jewish spiritual
tradition, in which he argues that Kabbalah can provide

Special Topic: Syncretism in Transpersonal Studies 69

journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 70

Gebser's Integral Consciousness and Living in the Real World:

Facilitating its Emergence Using A Course In Miracles
Cornelius J. Holland
University of Windsor

Douglas A. MacDonald
University of Detroit Mercy

This paper discusses certain parallels between the work of Jean Gebser, the European philosopher and stu-
dent of consciousness, and A Course in Miracles (ACIM), a contemporary spiritual system. More specifical-
ly, it 1) establishes parallels between Gebsers conception of the ego, especially its basis in anger, and the
ego according to ACIM, and 2) shows how a forgiveness exercise may lead to a time-free present, called in
ACIM, The Holy Instant.

n an impressive body of work, Jean Gebser (1985) temporary humanity, especially Western humanity. This sys-

I claims to have identified and explicated nothing less

than the foundational structures of consciousness as
they have unfolded and become manifest in every artifact
and idea of every human culture to which we have access.
Upon reading the Ever-present Origin, one must immediate-
ly acknowledge that it is truly a remarkable achievement
that is supported by an immense erudition. This statement
finds support from the fact that the value of Gebsers con-
ceptions appear to be receiving increasing recognition in
recent times. To cite but a few for illustration, Colin Wilson
stated; [Gebser] seems to me possibly the most important
thinker of the twentieth century (Feuerstein, 1992, p. 9).
This is no small compliment coming from one who has sur-
veyed such a vast amount of the literature of the West. Also,
Ken Wilber, considered by many to be the leading theoreti-
cian and synthesizer in the transpersonal psychology move-
ment, has used Gebsers structures to provide a major frame-
work for his spectrum model of consciousness as applied to
cultural anthropology (see Wilber, 1981). Finally, Georg
Feuerstein, in his book Wholeness or Transcendence?: Ancient
Lessons for the Emerging Global Civilization (1992), has
found Gebsers conceptions so fertile as to be able to use
them to provide defining insights and a new perspective on
the great spiritual legacy of the Orient.
Another contemporary work, impressive in its profun-
dity and mysterious grandeur is A Course in Miracles
(ACIM), a recent set of books designed for self-study that
were channelled through an academic psychologist by a
silent voice. These works detail a contemporary system,
Christian in statement but expressing the wisdom of the
perennial philosophy. Since its arrival in 1975, ACIM has
touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, many
of whom seriously consider it as a new revelation for con-
tem interweaves in a way unique to the spiritual literature of
the world an intricate nondualistic metaphysics with an
exquisitely insightful practical psychology. The interplay
between ontology and the seemingly most pedestrian of
everyday experiences appears to be the basis for its potential-
ly far-reaching effects on its participants (e.g., see A Course
in Miracles, Text, Workbook for Students, Manual for Teachers,
1976/1992; Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process and Practice,
1977; The Song of Prayer, 1977; Perry, 1987; Wapnick,
1983a, 1983b, 1989, 1990, 1991).
The purpose of the present paper is twofold. First, the
authors were struck by certain parallels between Gebsers
notions of the mental-rational and integral structures of
consciousness with the treatment given in ACIM to the
foundations and activities of the ego and the means for ego
supercession. The second purpose of the paper is to suggest
that the Courses procedure for transegoic experience, name-
ly the process of forgiveness, provides the necessary ingredi-
ent or supplement to Gebsers endeavors, namely a practical
procedure whereby integral consciousness may be made
manifest. As will be discussed later, the lack of any concrete
procedure to effect a concretion and intensification of con-
sciousness seems to be an obvious weakness in Gebsers
wonderful enterprise.
Both systems are Western in expression yet both are
concerned with effecting or recognizing a universal experi-
ence. The Course is explicit, stating that a universal theolo-
gy is impossible, yet a universal experience is not only pos-
sible but necessary. With Gebser, if we are reading him cor-
rectly, then it can be inferred, that we of the West, imbued
with its values, myths, language structures and culture must
address these as they now exist as part of the entire founda-
tional organization of the mental-rational mode of contem-

70 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25

journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 71
porary Western consciousness. Georg Feurstein (1992) fully
recognizes the magnificent spiritual legacy of the Orient but
uses Gebsers insights to provide a caution for a too ready
wholesale acceptance of Eastern approaches while neglect-
ing to take account of the unconsciously absorbed domi-
nant structures of the West. He quotes an early influence in
his own life, Paul Brunton, the Englishmen who did so
much to bring the riches of the East to the popular atten-
tion of the West. The following is from Bruntons
Notebooks (The Orient, 1987, Vol 10. par 152, pp. 27-28):
Because I was once responsible for turning a number
of eyes toward India in search of light, I now feel
morally responsible for turning them back home-
ward again. This is not to be misunderstood, for it is
not the same as asking people to ignore India. No! I
say that we all should study and digest the Oriental
Wisdom. But I also say first, that we should not
make it our sole and exclusive diet and second, we
should cook, spice and serve it in a form suitable to
our Occidental tastes
Before launching into the main content of the paper, how-
ever, we would like to add that, in drawing parallels between
Gebser and ACIM, we will not in any way be exhaustive,
nor do we claim by any means to do full and adequate jus-
tice to either system, both of which are extremely rich, intri-
cate, and complex. Instead as we have already stated, we will
merely focus on certain narrow yet core aspects of both,
namely the ego and its supercession.
The Mental Structure: The Ego
In the Ever-Present Origin (1985), as the deficient
form of the mythological structure of consciousness with its
imaginal constructions of the world collapsed and mutated
under the pressing emergence of origin, a new intensity of
self-awareness began to become manifest. Among the
importantly cited evidence for this emergence was, in the
West, the Iliad of Homer and in the East, the Bhagavad
Gita. This structure of consciousness is termed by Gebser
the mental; a term which is a derivative of menis, whose
accusative form is menin. To quote Gebsers dramatic pro-
nouncement, [menin] is the first word of the first verse of
the first canto of the first major Western utterance... the
opening word of the Iliad (p. 74). This word meaning
wrath and courage comes from the same stem as the
word menos which means resolve, anger, courage, gin being always/alreadyan openness which can intimate
and power. To again quote Gebser, what is fundamental
here is already evident in the substance of these words: it is
the first intimation of the emergence of directed or discur-
sive thought (p. 75).
Gebser thus claims to have discovered the link
between thinking and wrath (p. 76). He explains that it
(i.e., mental consciousness) is anger- not blind wrath, but
thinking wrath [which] gives thought and action its direc-
tion. It is ruthless and inconsiderate,... that is, it does not
look backwards; it turns man away from his previous world
of mythical enclosure and aims forward... It individualizes
man from his previously valid world, emphasizing his singu-
larity and making his ego possible (p. 76). Assuming a cor-
rect understanding of Gebser here, we are left to conclude
that anger plays a central role in the birth and maintenance
of ego consciousness. As will be discussed shortly, Gebsers
assertion that the ego is founded upon anger is in close
alignment with the view of ego as advanced by ACIM.
When we look more closely at the mental-rational we
realize its chief operation is a dominating process of concep-
tualization, as central to this mode as imaging is to the
mythical. Without unduly extending the discussion beyond
the scope of this paper, in brief, conceptualization can be
seen as a fixation of time rendered so by the definition.
Stated differently, it is the delimitation of the object of cog-
nition by virtue of its embeddedness in all that it is not. For
example, when we attempt to render tree as an object of
conceptualization, we implicitly separate it from a bird, a cat
or a hat. The very nature of this process, while powerful in
its ability to clarify and make precise, simultaneously differ-
entiates, separates, and isolates, entrapping experience in a
duality that must of necessity, intrinsic to the act itself, sever
the experience of wholeness which intimates origin. We are
not saying that concepts are static; clearly they are not.
However, while the notes of a concept may change with
experience, the results are the same. The newly changed
concept again separates, differentiates, isolates. It is the act
itself that renders these results by necessity. And we must
add that the fundamental concepts which emerge from this
mode of operation are the I and the other, forever in iso-
lation and separation. We need hardly add that the most
clarifying expression of this is found in the works of
Descartes, the dominant delimiting structural dualism of
contemporary consciousness. The sense of I is not only a
conceptual construction given spurious ontological status
but for many in contemporary society is given a spatial loca-
tion within the skull a few inches behind the eyes; it is tem-
porally established in linear time by the past saturating and
preempting the present and projecting a probable albeit
problematic future.
How then are we to allowfor it is an allowing, ori-
wholeness and an integral consciousness? And further, what
will the nature of this integrality be like? These are questions
which we must now pose, for if a new mutation does not
take effectand only a completely new attitude will guar-
antee the continuation of the Earth and [human]kind,...
then the consequences of the deficients, will soon assume
Special Topic: Syncretism in Transpersonal Studies 71
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 72
forms, will necessarily assume forms that will make the pre-
vious events of our time look like mere childs play (Gebser,
1985, p. 96), for humanity will be compelled to emphasize
[their] ego[s] ever more strongly because of the isolating fix-
ity, [humanity] faces the world in hostile confrontation and
[is] faced with growing isolation. Isolation is visible every-
where, isolation of individuals, of entire nations and conti-
nents... and in everyday life (Gebser, 1985, p. 94).
The Integral Structure of Consciousness
The integral is beyond but incorporates the mental as
the mental is beyond but incorporates the mythical as this is
beyond but incorporates the magical. As can be gleamed
from not only Gebser but from most discussions of
transpersonal or transegoic consciousness, this presents us
with a major problem. As already stated, the integral is
beyond the mental. However, most of us are operating out
of mental-rational structures of consciousness (this paper
itself, of course, is an example). Given this context, how can
we discuss, using a symbolic communication system borne
out of perspectivity, a mode of consciousness which is clear-
ly beyond any perspectival structure? The answer to this
question is that we cannot, at least not without reducing the
integral to the level of the mental. It is extremely difficult to
communicate a structure using a prior structure as the chief
basis and instrument of expression. In fact, any attempt at
describing the integral must, out of necessity, be a reduction
of this higher structure to the level of consciousness out of
which the describer is operating. Gebser was clearly cog-
nizant of this fact as is evidenced in his discussion of aper-
spectivity; he is forced to suggest, intimate, hint at or
approach the emerging structure from many, many points of
view, while simultaneously preventing the entrapment of
the integral within the realm of the mental-rational. This is
an important point to note since what we are advancing in
this paper is a means by which we can go beyond the sim-
ple description of transpersonal consciousness to a direct
experience of it. In response to this, we will forego any dis-
cussion of the nature of integrality and its experiential tex-
ture, since we are bound to fail miserably in our representa-
tion of it. For the purposes of this paper, let it suffice to
assert that, at least as far as Gebser and ACIM are con-
cerned, the transcendence of the ego and its accompanying
mental structures is a desirable goal since it has the positive
effect of uprooting many of the deeply entrenched mental-
rational bases of human suffering.
Gebser provides a powerful argument in support of his
notion of integrality or integral consciousness and for the
necessity of its emergence for the welfare of humanity.
Gebser has emphasized that we must all somehow take
responsibility and make a self-commitment to allow this
structure to manifest itself in ourselves. But what does this
72 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
personal commitment or responsibility mean in the con-
crete living of daily life for the willing individual partici-
pant? Moreover, what concrete form or forms would such a
responsibility take?
As we already mentioned, Gebser does not provide any
explicit answers to these questions and, in fact, does not
seem to have dedicated any meaningful thought to the
problem of how to facilitate the transformation of human
consciousness from the mental-rational to integrality. This
seems to be a serious omission, for although integrality
seems to be a movement of origin becoming more and more
transparent, there remains on the individual level a respon-
sibility to participate in this movement. Nevertheless, he
does provide a few hints, though none of which present us
with a concrete means of promoting the possible mutation.
For example, he implies that integral consciousness is some-
thing like the satori experience of Zen. However, he makes
no recommendations to practice a technique, such as open-
ness meditation, which can engage the mental-rational to
effect at its roots a sudden shift in consciousness. He also
states that Meister Eckhart, the major Rhineland mystic of
the 15th century, is an example of one who enjoyed integral
consciousness long before the deficient mode of the mental
appeared and became dominant. Yet he makes no sugges-
tions as to opening forms of prayer or any other procedure
which would facilitate the concretions of time, one of the
necessary preconditions for integral manifestation. In addi-
tion, he does not propose any way of occasioning the con-
ditions necessary for the various structures that constitute
the person to become transparent and conscious in any sin-
gular, concrete act of awareness.
A further example of Gebsers hints includes a fertile
passage in the Ever-Present Origin, which implies several key
characteristics, in addition to openness, intensification and
self-transparency, as demonstrable in any individual mani-
festing integral consciousness. In this passage lies a clear
description of a mind-set which not only reverses cause and
effect as it is normally viewed by mental-rational conscious-
ness, but fully recognizes the role of the victim and the vic-
timizer in the composition of the ego, themes prominent in
ACIMs view of the ego. To quote Gebser;
We have, then, an indicator as to whether a given
person has attained this awareness or not: someone
who has learned to avoid placing blame or fault on
others, on the world itself, on circumstances, or
chance in times of adversity, discension, conflict
and misfortune and seeks first in himself the reason
in its fullest extent- this person should be able to see
through the world in its entirety and all its struc-
tures. Otherwise he will be coerced or violated by
either his emotions or his will, and in turn will
attempt to coerce or violate the world as an act of
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 73
compensation or revenge. The adage that how we
shout into the woods is how the echo will sound is
undoubtedly accurate- and the woods are the world.
Everything that happens to us, then, is only the
answer and echo of what and how we ourselves are
(Gebsers emphasis). And the answer will be an inte-
gral answer only if we have approached the integral
in ourselves. One path toward this goal is for us to
try for once to take the blame (responsibility) our-
selves in a given instance in its entirety; after a dis-
passionate examination we will see to what extent we
are to blame, and the equalization and equilibrium
appropriate to wholeness (to the extent that any-
thing can be appropriate) will restore themselves. We
will be surprised at the conclusion of this frequently
difficult process to discover that our perceptions
and this includes self-perception of the world as well
as ourselveshave become a few degrees more trans-
parent. (Gebser, 1985, p. 141)
Gebser can also be found in many other instances to supply
illumination, though minimal, on the concrete nature of
integrality. For example;
The integrator, then is compelled to have not only
concretized the appearances, be they material or
mental, but also to have been able to concretize his
own structure. This means that the various struc-
tures that constitute him must have become trans-
parent and conscious to him... There are two impor-
tant consequences that indirectly result from
these observations. One is that consciousness is not
identical with intelligence or rational acuity. The
other is, that the completion of integration is never
an expansion of consciousness as spoken of today
particularly by psychoanalysis and certain spiritual
societies of a quasi-occult kind. The expansion of
consciousness is merely a spatially conceived quan-
tification of consciousness and consequently an illu-
sion. Rather, we are dealing here throughout with an
intensification of consciousness; not because of any
qualitative character which might be ascribed to it,
but because it is by nature outside of any purely
qualitative valuation or quantitative devaluation (pp.
99-100)
In an earlier part of this century, another sensitive observer
of contemporary times, the Irish poet Yeats, wrote, the best
lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate
intensity...Surely some revelation is at hand. Surely the
Second Coming is at hand (Yeats, 1921). It appears that
Gebser is not alone in his profound concerns over the fate
of humankind. However, as our discussion has suggested,
Gebser clearly indicates the necessity for the emergence but
does not provide the means that could serve as the pragmat-
ic catalyst to promote the manifestation of integral con-
sciousness. Could there be a new revelation designed for the
end-times which Gebser indicates and which we now wit-
ness with increasing clarity? Many believe so.
A Course in Miracles
Perhaps the best way to introduce ACIM is to let the
Course speak for itself. The following is an extended quote
from the preface of the main ACIM text:
A Course in Miracles began with the sudden deci-
sion of two people to join in a common goal. Their
names were Helen Schucman and William Thetford,
Professors of Medical Psychology at Columbia
Universitys College of Physicians and Surgeons in
New York City. They were anything but spiritual.
Their relationship with each other was difficult
and often strained, and they were concerned with
personal and professional acceptance and status. In
general, they had considerable investment in values
of the world. Their lives were hardly in accord with
anything that the Course advocates. Helen, the one
who received the material, describes herself:
Psychologist, educator, conservative in theory and
atheistic in belief, I was working in a prestigious and
highly academic setting. And then something hap-
pened that triggered a chain of events I could never
have predicted... The head of my department
(Thetford)... unexpectedly announced that he was
tired of the angry and aggressive feelings our atti-
tudes reflected, and concluded that, there must be
another way. As if on cue I agreed to help him find
it. Apparently this Course is the other way.
To continue Helens first-person account:
Three startling months preceded the actual writing,
during which time Bill suggested that I write down
the highly symbolic dreams and descriptions of the
strange images that were coming to me. Although I
had grown more accustomed to the unexpected by
that time, I was still very surprised when I wrote,
This is A Course in Miracles... That was my intro-
duction to the Voice. It made no sound, but seemed
to be giving me a kind of rapid, inner dictation
which I took down in a shorthand notebook. The
writing was never automatic. It could be interrupted
at any time and later picked up again. It made me
very uncomfortable, but it never seriously
occurred to me to stop. It seemed to be a special
assignment I had somehow, somewhere agreed to
complete. It represented a truly collaborative venture
Special Topic: Syncretism in Transpersonal Studies 73
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 74
between Bill and myself, and much of its signifi-
cance, I am sure, lies in that. I would take down
what the Voice said and read it to him the next
day, and he typed it from my dictation. I expect he
had his special assignment, too. Without his encour-
agement and support I would never have been able
to fulfil mine. The whole process took about seven
years [from 1965 to 1972]. The [622 page] text
came first, then the [478 page] workbook for stu-
dents and finally the [88 page] manual for teachers.
Only a few minor changes have been made. Chapter
titles and subheadings have been inserted in the
Text, and some of the more personal references that
occurred at the beginning have been omitted.
Otherwise the material is substantially unchanged.
(1976/1992; pp. I-II)
As you may have gathered from this quote and earlier refer-
ences to ACIM, the Course is a contemporary spiritual sys-
tem which utilizes a hands-on instructional model. It makes
no claim to finality stating it is a beginning, and not an end.
Nor does it make any claim to exclusiveness, asserting that
it is only one of many thousands of systems that are part of
the universal curriculum. Although unambiguously
Christian in statement, it is not a theology. A universal the-
ology is impossible but a universal experience is not only
possible but necessary (Manual, 1992, pp. 77). Its state-
ment is Christian because Christianity is the dominant
myth of the West. The voice never identified itself but, upon
reading the ACIM, the Voice clearly belongs to Jesus. Many
now believe this may be the revelation at hand which Yeats
predicted.
The basic premise of ACIM is that reality is spirit. The
system is founded upon a nondualistic metaphysics which
views the physical universe, including the body, as an illuso-
ry fabrication of consciousness, or, more exactly, a construc-
tion of an aspect of consciousness based on scarcity, depri-
vation and separateness called ego. The primary aim of
ACIM is in rendering transparent our true origin, a seeing
through the condition the ego has established so that an
awakening from a nightmare to a happy dream, or the parent to all available structures and denying none so as to
real world, is occasioned. From this happy dream, a full
awakening to unity in God or Spirit may be realized but this
is relatively rare, and efforts should be consolidated on relat-
ing, especially to other people, to a possible condition of
consciousness which goes beyond the egos attempts at iso-
lation, threat and attack, to one which, through a decision
to see the other person or situation in another way and
thus to choose once again.
To elaborate on the nature of the mental-ego, ACIM
asserts that the ego is a conceptual/imaginal construction of
consciousness, a fictitious belief formation, which arose
74 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
from and maintains the illusion that the person is separate
from the world and that he/she is the author of oneself.
From the original condition of spiritual oneness to one of
fragmentation as manifested in the birth of the ego, there
arises simultaneously with the separation, fear and guilt, or
more precisely, a prototypical fear of punishment based on
the egos guilt in effecting the illusory separation. In reality,
however, the separation never occurred, so the guilt of the
ego is unfounded. Yet, in its hold on to its own false auton-
omy, the ego uses guilt to maintain its own self-constitution.
Distress through guilt and its many forms is the chief means
the ego has in confirming its illusory existence.
Furthermore, the ego is characterized as isolating and
isolated, threatened by a hostile world in which it is both
victim and victimizer, and chooses to maintain itself
through guilt (i.e., a blanket term for any experience indi-
viduals have of themselves of self-hate, feelings of inferiori-
ty, unworthiness, shame, inadequacy, etc.). Although we
find these negative conditions aversive, at a deeper level of
the ego, it is strongly attracted to them to maintain its ficti-
tious identity. The reason for this is that the very guilt that
seems so aversive is the mortar that holds the structure of
the ego intact. Without the guilt there would be peace, and
the ego would dissolve into the nothingness from which it
arose. This does not mean that what is popularly called ego
functions would no longer operate, but they would no
longer be in the service of the structure of isolation; instead
in the service of joining. However, the negative conditions
mentioned above, although secretly attractive to the ego, are
aversively experienced. Therefore, the chief psychological
operations the ego employs are the common defense mech-
anisms of denial and projection. In utilizing these protec-
tive techniques, the ego places its own guilt onto the envi-
ronment, sees itself as a victim of the environment and now
feels justified in victimizing the environment in turn. Thus,
the ego attacks (murderous rage or mild annoyance are
equivalent here, since they are both ego operations of sepa-
ration).
What is necessary to go beyond the ego structure is to
become transparent to it in an act radically open and trans-
intensify the present moment and effect what the Course
calls the Holy Instant. This is accomplished by becoming
conscious of the fact that, as Gebser also called attention to,
we are the author of what happens to us in our daily lives,
that the world is the echo of our own voice. This reversal
of cause and effect is virtually identical, it seems to us, to what
Gebser described as a person with integral consciousness.
To change the metaphor, what we experience in daily
life is a mirror of the condition of our own minds. We have
choice, and can choose in every instant to find ourselves as
guilty or innocent and to project either choice onto our
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 75
bodies, personalities, and/or the world. It is this awareness
of our own active role in establishing agency in our life expe-
riences that makes possible a state of consciousness very sim-
ilar to the integral state of Gebser.
What is needed is a little willingness to allow a shift
in consciousness from the ego state to one that transcends it.
This is the process of forgiveness, the Courses central activ-
ity in daily life, as projecting guilt is the central activity of
the ego. Forgiveness is the primary means provided by
ACIM to undo the fictitious structure of the mind and con-
front the illusion of time.
The usual way of viewing forgiveness is to see it as an
act that overlooks some fault or misdeed of another person,
so that a prior condition of relationship is resumed. This
usually implies that the other person committed some sin
that the forgiver acknowledges but virtuously dismisses,
instead of punishing in some manner. It is a gracious lordi-
ness which disguises arrogance. Also, forgiveness as com-
monly exercised can become a bargain in which the
aggrieved will overlook the sins of the offenders if the
offenders accommodate to the needs of the offended; in
effect, establishing a form of slavery. Finally, forgiveness can
take the form of the forgiver recognizing the guilt they both
share equally, thus making both sinful and deserving pun-
ishment (Song of Prayer, 1977).
ACIM views forgiveness in a very different manner.
What someone sees in another that would normally gener-
ate some experience of separation (e.g., anger, condemning
judgement), which could occasion forgiveness in the con-
ventional senses as discussed above to maintain the separa-
tion, is, according to ACIM, my own self-hate or guilt, dis-
owned through denial and projection, and then placed out-
side. The disowned can now be viewed as an available choice
for either attack or forgiveness in the present, as now is the
only time that is real. In either event, it is my own condition
that I am viewing, as if in a mirror, and my anger or my
judgement is really an indictment of myself. Therefore, for-
giveness when it is effected through ACIM is really self-for-
giveness; an undoing of the guilt upon which forms the
basis of my entire ego. In seeing past the faults of others,
I render them guiltless because I have undone them in
myself. Stating this in a slightly different way, when I lift my
denial and reown my projection and then choose to forgive
myself as an available choice in the moment, what I witness
in the other is simply behavior which I observe, which
informs me but which arouses no separating anger or judge-
ment since through self-forgiveness I am sinless of what I
see. It is only through my own guilt that I can see another
as guilty. Others can be seen as behaving in error that may
require correction but never in sinning that demands an
isolating punishment. I can always choose to see past the
error to an original condition of oneness. I can always
choose to join in an act that dissolves separateness. It is
through the practice of this undoing and my decision to
release the knot of the ego that my consciousness can inti-
mate its true condition of both myself and the other, name-
ly the always/already unity. Thus, ACIM in general, and the
notion of forgiveness in particular, can be understood as
espousing a yoga of interpersonal relations).
The Course presents a three step procedure which has
been also been developed into an exercise by Holland,
MacDonald, and McCabe (2005) that can be used to facil-
itate forgiveness and to promote the emergence of integral-
ity. To summarize the procedure, it begins with the neces-
sary condition that the ego recognizes that its major
approach to maintaining itself is through anger.
The first step is an attempt to recognize that the occa-
sion for anger I see (and this may be occasioned by other
people, myself, the world, fate, God, and the like) is really
an obscure self-indictment that I have made based on my
own lack of self-acceptance or guilt. Recall that guilt, the
mortar of the ego, underlies anger. I must now try to
become transparent to what I am indeed doing by lifting the
denial and reowning this projection. (In a brilliantly percep-
tive passage in Gebser is the story of St. John and the par-
tridgewhich anticipates the Course in shocking precision,
In this scene, where he rebukes a priest for being annoyed
by a partridge running ahead of him, St. John demonstrates
his sovereign knowledge of the soul; he says to the priest;
The partridge, you know, is your own soul p. 91).
The next step is recognition of an availability of choice
to forgive what I see in another is my own soul and thus
jointly forgive the other and myself. All that is required here
is a little willingness to release the ego structuration of the
situation.
The third step requires no activity at all. It simply con-
sists of letting oneself enter a still point of experience. It is
here in the Holy Instant, the pure present, the quintes-
sence of time (Gebser, 1985, pp. 25), when the intensifica-
tion of consciousness and that which is both origin and
present (Gebser, p. 281) is allowed to manifest. It is here
that the ego, the fictitious belief in our own separation and
autonomy, dissolves into the nothingness from which it
arose and what supervenes, in the terms of the Course, the
activity of the Holy Spirit. Very simple, very powerful, often
very difficult.
Carl Jung, father of Analytical psychology and consid-
ered by many to be one of the founders of transpersonal psy-
chology has stated;
[A] mood of universal destruction and renewal... has
set its mark on our age. This mood makes itself felt
everywhere, politically, socially, and philosophically.
We are living in what the Greeks called the
kairosthe right momentfor a metamorphosis
Special Topic: Syncretism in Transpersonal Studies 75
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 76
of the gods, of the fundamental principles and sym-
bols. This peculiarity of our time, which is certainly
not of our conscious choosing, is the expression of
the unconscious man within us who is changing.
Coming generations will have to take account of this
momentous transformation if humanity is not to
destroy itself through the might of its own technol-
ogy and science... So much is at stake and so much
depends on the psychological constitution of mod-
ern man... Does the individual know that he is the
makeweight that tips the scales? (1970, pars. 585-
586)
Awareness of the increasing global human crisis has forced
us, as individuals as well as a society, to reevaluate our val-
ues, assumptions and priorities, and begin to take responsi-
bility, in whatever way possible, to initiate the necessary
changes to maintain the simple survival of the species. The
Course says we must question every value we hold [authors
emphasis]. Gebser reveals his genius not only in the devel-
opment of his structures of consciousness, but also through
his insightful perception of the nature of the mental, and
especially, its deficient form, and his recognition of the need
for human consciousness from the level of the individual to
develop beyond wrathful thought to a form which is com-
patible with the continued evolution and growth of human-
ity. Nonetheless, Gebser, while important and definitive in
terms of theory, only points to the possible. He only sug-
gests the real and simply intimates the concrete form it may
take. The transformation that Jung is referring to concerns
a radical shift in how we actually live in the real world. It
concerns how we experience ourselves and our reality in our
daily lives. Gebser, as we have already stated, does not
address this practical level of concern. As Gebser acknowl-
edged and Jung stated, each individual is responsible for this
transformation. As this paper suggests, ACIM provides each
of us a concrete means of transforming our consciousness
and our lives in a way that can occasion a direct influence
on our day-to-day functioning, or hopefully minute-by-
minute functioning.
We would like to end this paper with a quote from the
brilliant work of Richard Tarnas, in his critically acclaimed
book entitled The Passion of the Western Mind (1991, p. 413):
Our moment in history is indeed a pregnant one. As
a civilization and as a species we have come to a
moment of truth, with the future of the human spir-
it, and the future of the planet, hanging in the bal-
ance. If ever boldness, depth, and clarity of vision
were called for, from many, it is now. Yet perhaps it
is this very necessity that could summon forth from
us the courage and imagination we now require.
76 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
Author Note
This article is based upon a paper presented by the
authors at the 1993 Annual meeting of the Jean Gebser
Society, Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
References
A course in miracles: Text, workbook for students and manual
for teachers. (1976/1992). Glen Ellen, CA: Foundation
for Inner Peace.
A song of prayer. (1978). Glen Ellen, CA: Foundation for
Inner Peace.
Brunton, P. (1987). Notebooks of Paul Brunton: Volume 10:
The orient. Burdett, N.Y.: Larson.
Feuerstein, G. (1992). Wholeness or Transcendence?: Ancient
Lessons for the Emerging Global Civilization. Burdett,
N.Y.: Larson.
Gebser, J. (1985). The ever-present origin. Translated by N. Bar-
stad & A. Mickunas. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.
Holland, C. J., MacDonald, D. A. & McCabe, A. (2005).
An exercise in forgiveness. Australian Gestalt Journal, 8,
57-66.
Jung, C. G. (1970). The undiscovered self. In R. F. C. Hull
(Trans.), Collected Works of Carl Gustav Jung, Vol 10.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Perry, R. (1987). An introduction to A Course in Miracles.
Fullerton, C.A.: Miracle Distribution Center.
Psychotherapy: Purpose, process and practice. (1976). Glen
Ellen, CA: Foundation for Inner Peace.
Tarnas, R. (1991). The passion of the western mind:
Understanding the ideas that have shaped our world view.
New York: Harmony Books.
Wapnick, K. (1983a). Forgiveness and Jesus: The meeting
place of A Course in Miracles and Christianity. Roscoe,
N.Y.: Foundation for A Course in Miracles.
Wapnick, K. (1983b). A talk given in A Course in Miracles:
An introduction. Roscoe, NY: Foundation for A Course
in Miracles.
Wapnick, K. (1989). Love does not condemn: The world, the
flesh and the devil according to Platonic, Christianity,
Gnosticism and A Course in Miracles. Roscoe, NY:
Foundation for A Course in Miracles.
Wapnick, K. (1991). Absence from felecity: The story of Helen
Schucman and her scribing of A Course in Miracles.
Roscoe, NY: Foundation for A Course in Miracles.
Wilber, K. (1981). Up from Eden. Boston: Shambhala.
Yeats, W. B. (1921). Michael Robartes and the dancer in the
poems of W. B. Yeats.
Correspondence regarding this paper should be direct-
ed to the first author at 112-2922 Rivard Avenue, Windsor,
Ontario, Canada N8T 3N9, Email neal2922@yahoo.ca
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 77

Corporate Perspectives
On The Vedic Meditative Practice Upasana
P. S. Rao
Department of Physiology
Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology

and

P.N. Murthy
Systems Engineering and Cybernetics Centre,
Tata Consultancy Services

A business corporation capable of evolving, termed a learning corporation, has a conscious quality. It is the
systemic version of a rigid structure-preserving corporation that would be expected eventually to run into
problems and end up as a failure. The conscious corporation analogy can be used to simulate the sequence
of processes that occur during Upasana, a Vedic technique of meditation. In this essay, it will be argued
that (1) the Vedic view of consciousness is parallel to the postulate that successful business corporations
have a conscious quality, and (2) if the Upasana process sequence is considered as a competence model, in
the Chomsky-ian sense for corporate consciousness, the executive functionary in a successful corporation
is effectively a practitioner of Upasana.

he individual biological organism is more than a munication and dispersal of ideasthat govern the organi-

T mere aggregate of disparate body functions. Angyal

(1941) remarked that there are no irrelevant prop-
erties to the component subunits of a biological organism.
The feature is a definitive characteristic of systemic organi-
zations. The idea of transformation of an aggregate of func-
tions to a system was used by Sri Aurobindo in order to
explicate his integral yogic method for a transition of the
mind to a higher status beyond common experience (Sri
Aurobindo, 1977). Upasana, a Vedic meditative technique
devised by the Indian Mystics, is a method of effecting a
similar transformation by individuals in themselves. A
descriptive account of this technique is facilitated by using a
convenient parallel available from the dynamics of business
corporations.
The Conscious Corporation
Organization as a System
A business organization is a system, a unified whole,
and therefore, by definition, cannot be separated into parts
without losing some part of this character. As an autopoiet-
ic (self-organizing) system, it is characterized by a measure
of autonomy vis-a-vis the environment (Jantsch, 1980;
Progogine & Stengers, 1984; Jackson, 1991; Lewin, 1992;
Capra, 1996) and consists of elements or units linked
through certain processesgeneration, promotion, com-
zation. These activities act as the binder between the various
human elements of the organization, thus leading to the
idea of a conscious corporation. The physical or spatial
boundary of the corporate unit is secondary to the unity
thus established by the binder ideas. An example would
make these notions clear and elucidate the result of transfor-
mation of an aggregate of functions into a functional sys-
tem.
Systemic Nature of Conscious CorporationsAn Illustration:
It is an important property of a systemic organization
that the component units are closely linked and they have
no preoccupations or properties that are irrelevant to the
system, just as in biological systems (Angyal, 1941).
Secondly, the inherent properties of the component units
have a determinant role on the success of the organization.
These are the features that lend a consciousness-like proper-
ty to the corporation, in close similarity to biological organ-
isms. An illustration of these points is provided by the
Honda story (Taylor, 1996). Honda, the fairy-tale-come-
from-nowhere auto success of the eighties suddenly started
falling apart in the nineties when the Japanese economy
sank back to reality. Business dried up and export sales
sagged. A great business collapsed in a discontinuous, sud-
den and shocking way. What happened was that the leg-

Special Topic: Syncretism in Transpersonal Studies 77

journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 78
endary Honda engineers were behaving as if the rest of the
company did not exist and were pushing the engineering to
the cutting edge, ignoring the signals from the market. The
loss of focus on `customer delight brought the company to
the edge of chaos. In short, the consciousness fabric of the
organization was torn by the engineers preoccupation with
technology. The loss of organizational consciousness was
quickly recognized and remedied by the intuitive CEO,
Nobukiko Kawamoto, by side-lining the engineers.
What did Kawamotos call exactly accomplish in terms
of a process change in the individual corporate mind?
Putatively, the process in principle is as follows (Murthy,
1994a): The executive builds a reasonable working principle
that integrates holistically into the corporation goals and
implements it to find out if it yields a successful strategy for
the corporation. This may be seen as probing the system.
The probing throws up some more parameters of the corpo-
rate system to the surface. The system is then considered
together with the fresh parameters and a new holistic indi-
vidual strategy is conceived and implemented for corporate
success. The iterations end when the system is sufficiently
holistic and a successful corporation ensues.
In this effort the role of leadership at all levels is evi-
dent. In Hondas case, all the organizational units chose to
respond to Kawamotos call; thus it helped the individuals to
discover and attain corporate consciousness. In this cycle, the
leader acted as a cybernitician. An alignment of individual
goals to corporate goals ultimately emerged, eliminating the
dual controller-controllee distinction between component
units. Thus the cycle represents the cybernetics of corporate
consciousness in the individual corporate functionary. This
willful surrender of individual choice to the corporate goals
is what is labeled here as development of corporate con-
sciousness in the individual corporate functionary. It might
even be a marker for the establishment of a truly biological
type of consciousness in the argument; the distinction is not
crucial here, but it does add force to the thrust of the essay
and so is discussed in the next section. It will be seen later
on that this putative process sequence in the alignment of
the individual to the corporate function is identical to the
Vedic `Not This, Not This method of Upasana.
The Case for Consciousness in Corporations
Complexity and consciousness (Earley, 1997)
Bateson (1972) applied the concept of mind to sys-
tems in general. He proposed that any system, not just
organisms or human beings, that satisfies certain criteria will
be able to develop the phenomena normally associated with
mindlearning, memory, decision making, and the like. In
his view, mind is a necessary and inevitable consequence of
a certain complexity, which begins long before organisms
develop a brain and a higher nervous system. He also
78 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
emphasized that mental characteristics are manifest not only
in individual organisms but also in social systems and
ecosystems.
Consciousness is the most evolved mechanism for
increasing autonomy in a system. It gives a system the
opportunity to respond to situations in the way that is most
appropriate to the needs of the moment. Instinct, learning,
or more primitive forms of autonomy do not have the same
flexibility and creativity that consciousness has. It might be
fair to say that consciousness is the form that autonomy
takes in the most complex systems.
Characteristics of consciousness
Batesons (1972) points are captured in Ornsteins
(1972) four main functions of consciousness :
1. Simplification and selection of information: The edit-
ing of information that goes on in the mind.
2. Guiding and overseeing actions.
3. Setting priorities for action: When there is a discrepancy
between our stored knowledge about the world and an
event or when discrepancies arise internally, as when you
rearrange furniture because it is not in line with anoth-
er piece.
4. Detecting and resolving discrepancies: Since the infor-
mation selected to enter consciousness is usually about
changes in the external and internal worlds, discrepan-
cies arise and need to be resolved.
Epigenetic behavior
In evolutionary biology, the Baldwin effect states that
development of adaptive behaviors through learning
increases the probability that genetic adaptations to a simi-
lar effect will eventually be installed. Dennett (1995)
claimed that the Baldwin effect is not an alternative to nat-
ural selection, but only an important extrapolation from the
well-known phenomenon of genetic assimilation. He insist-
ed that the Baldwin effect is a crane, not a skyhook. A
crane stands on the ground and lifts things off the ground
while things hang apparently without support from a sky
hook. When consciousness is a sky hook, it is a mind-first
force or power or process, an exception to the principle that
all design, and apparent design, is ultimately the result of
mindless, motiveless mechanicity.
The epigenetic behavior can provide the substrate for
consciousness in biological organisms because of its look
ahead quality.
Behavioral epigenesist as the substrate for consciousness
A little reflection would make it clear that the func-
tions of consciousness as detailed by Ornstein (1972) exter-
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 79
nally manifest as epigenetic behavior; corporate epigenetic
behavior may betoken corporate consciousness just as
human consciousness is betokened by human epigenetic
behavior. Consciousness is an ability to self-organize from
experience and may as well occur in a corporation as in an
individual.
The analogue of the gene in the social sphere is habits.
Habits are not themselves behavior but dispositions to
engage in particular responses or forms of action. Habit is
an adaptation and is a bridging concept between the biolog-
ical and the psychological and social. Habits can be passed
on by the imitation of the behavior of others. According to
Hodgson (2001), there is a strong case for considering
habits as units of cultural inheritance. Within the Dawkins
(1982) framework, replication of habits does not occur
through replication of the software of the habits them-
selves, but behavior is the vehicle for replication of habits.
From the foregoing, the alignment of individual goals
to corporate needs may be rephrased as epigenetic self-man-
agement (also see Murthy [1996] for further clarification of
this idea). Reorganization of individual habits can form the
mechanistic basis for effecting this change, which must
occur during learning by corporations. Within this new the-
oretical framework, the task of the present essay may be
redefined: it is to examine whether the Upasana processes
can be the conscious algorithm for implementing the epi-
genetic self-management by the individual corporate func-
tionary.
Vedic Cybernetics of Human Consciousness
Vedic terminology:
In the narrative of this section, note is to be taken of
the following points:
1. The term Veda is used in the wider sense to designate
all related literature, such as the Upanishads.
2. In general, Vedic terminology is employed according to
its use by Sri Aurobindo (1970, 1971a, 1971b, 1977)
and Swami Gambhirananda (1958), and it is safe to
state that it is generally the extant terminology in the
recent literature (Swami Bhajananda, 1981).
3. In addition, some common words are used here with a
Vedic connotation. Thus the words inquiry, discov-
ery, truth, realization, and practice must be
understood in the introspectional and directly experien-
tial sense. Truth is used in the sense of the correct Law
of Truth that generates other truths at a lower level, as
when we say, Relativistic mechanics holds true at all
speeds of a body, while Newtonian mechanics holds
only at low speeds relative to light. Inquiry refers to an
empirical search for a progressively wider truth and not
necessarily by a logically sequential process. Realization
is an experiential term; it does not always lend itself to a
precise verbal statement. Practice refers to the particular
mystical practice used by the practitioner for the
inquiry. Discovery is again an introspectional term, not
objectively demonstrable to another person except by
initiation into the practice itself. When the word begins
in the upper case, it denotes that the word is used in its
wider and subjective sense. Thus Knowledge denotes
not knowledge of a particular thing but the introspec-
tional experience connected with knowledge.
4.The focus here is on the parallel between the putative
introspectional processes in a practitioner of Upasana
and the human interactional processes involved in the
transition of a self-seeking manager into an organiza-
tionally conscious management executive of a successful
corporation. Therefore, the process notions during
Upasana are drawn freely from various schools of mysti-
cal thought, such as dualism (dvaita), qualified monism
(visishtadvaita) and non-dualism (advaita), without
commitment to any one of them regarding the nature of
Reality and the like. In this context, it is appropriate to
remember Swami Sivanandas (1997) enunciation:
The Sutras or aphorisms of Vyasa are the basis of the
Vedanta philosophy. These Sutras have been variously
explained by different commentators. From these inter-
pretations have arisen several schools of philosophy....
Dualism (Dvaita), Qualified Monism (Visishtadvaita)
and Monism (Advaita) are the three main schools of
metaphysical thought.... Madhva [exponent of the dual-
ism or dvaita philosophy] said: - Man is the servant of
God - and established his Dvaita philosophy. Ramanuja
[exponent of the qualified monism or visishtadvaita phi-
losophy] said: - Man is a ray or spark of God - and estab-
lished his Visishtadvaita philosophy. Sankara [exponent
of non-dualism or advaita philosophy] said: - Man is
identical with Brahman or the Eternal Soul - and estab-
lished his. Advaita philosophy.
Thus, the pinnacle of experience within each of these mys-
tical states is different from the other.
A systems transformation in the subjective experience
of the Universe must correspond to the respective psychic
bent, although the present descriptive account is in the non-
dualistic language. Where necessary, a comment will be
added to underline this important point.
Vedic inquiry into human consciousness:
In Vedic culture, the concept of Rishi is very impor-
tant. A Rishi is an accomplished inquirer who has realized
the Truth (i.e. realized the systemic, holistic, connected
nature of the Universe). Rishis are seers and singers of the
Truth. Any one can attain this status through various
Special Topic: Syncretism in Transpersonal Studies 79
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 80
kinds of practices, one of which is Upasana, as detailed in
the Upanishads. An important feature of these empirical
practice-oriented pursuits and discoveries is the repro-
ducibility of the experiences. In this sense, Rishis are spiritu-
al scientists who grew constantly in their pursuits by living
the discovered truths (i.e., their discoveries changed the
way they perceived the Universe and they shaped their lives
as an expression of their discoveries).
The corporate model will now be mapped on to the
Vedic view of cybernetics of human consciousness. The
description will hinge on the role of a cybernetician, much
in the manner of corporate leadership in a successful organ-
ization.
Upasana
Upasana is roughly translated as Upanishad-ic medita-
tion, aimed in part at engendering higher mental attitudes
with regard to daily avocations... (Gambhirananda, 1958;
italics ours). It entails the use of a knowledge-by-identity
technique. This technique is what is known as the Neti, Neti
or Not This, Not This one. It consists of three steps
(Murthy, 1994b):
1) Superimposition on a constituent subsystem as if it is the
whole and pursue the consequences; realize that the sys-
tem is incomplete.
2) Repeat the process with hierarchically higher agglomer-
ations and systems.
Every stage is associated with a level of consciousness.
Unless one crosses that level, the next one will not be
cognized.
3) Stop when the system is complete and whole.
The similarity with the process, described earlier on in con-
nection with evolution of corporate consciousness, is obvi-
ous. In this arduous journey in the Vedic style of inquiry,
which is termed Realisation of Truth, there are many
helpers. These are basically interactive powers of the psyche,
symbolized as gods. Although a detailed description of
these gods and their separate functions in aiding the
Realization process are beyond the scope of this account,
some examples are in order. Indra is the power of
Intelligence, while Maruts are the powers of Thought.
Brahmanaspati is the power that promotes Aspiration on the
path to higher levels of Realization. Each power is extolled
in many Vedic hymns; it means a tactical submission of
ones psychic functioning to that power with the aim of
generating some new beneficent state of consciousness
Foster by this [submission to] the gods and let the gods
foster you (Gita, III, p. 11).
The Role of the Leader and Cybernetician
Agni in the Inquiry
80 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
Prominent among these powers, and relevant in the
context of this essay, is Agni, the Fire. Around him are built
the rites and the ritual of the Sacrifice. Thus, while the rites
have been noted as an example of fire worship, the meaning
held out actually is of a different kind. Agni is the symbol of
the Illumined Will (Sri Aurobindo, 1971). He is the medi-
ator, facilitator and messenger (Devadutah, according to the
Vedic mythology) between man and the gods, the various
psychic powers. He leads the sincere seeker towards the
Brahman or Universal Truth. The theme recurs throughout
the Veda and so through the Indian heritage of rites and rit-
uals, philosophy and tradition. Agni participates almost in
every action in the acquisition and internalization of
Knowledge.
The closure or end-point to this inquiry into the Truth
is the elimination of duality of subject and object (or render
the duality subordinate to Bliss, within the conceptual
framework of dualism). Yajnavalkya, the great Rishi, in con-
versation with his wife Maitreyi, stated that Brahman (the
systemic, connected Universe) is known only when duality
is eliminated (or when duality is subordinated to Bliss). He
stated:
Because when there is duality, then one smells some-
thing, one thinks something, one knows something;
[but] when to the knower of the Brahman every-
thing has become the self [or, in the dualistic frame-
work, has become the source of Bliss], then
through what should one know That owing to
which all this is known [or, what use is it to be able
to tell one sense-object from another]? (Brihad,
111.8.1)
This is further supported in the great debate of Yajnavalkya
with another great Rishi, Gargi, in the tradition of the great
debates on philosophical issues in the courts of scholarly
kings. Yajnavalkya said "this Brahman, O Gargi, is never
seen but is witness It is never known but is the
knower"(Brihad, 111.8.1).
Thus Agni has achieved over the millennia such an
identity and reality in the minds of aspirants and the culture
that he is everything for man, the Individual Self--the prob-
lem, the diagnosis, the solution, the process, the imple-
menter--a totally holistic symbol of Individual conscious-
ness, on its way to the Universal Consciousness.
The Corporate and the Individual Parallel
The parallel can be seen within this essay in the fol-
lowing sequence:
1) Successful business corporations have a conscious quali-
ty--they respond to the environment in a nonrepetitive
manner and so have a great adaptive ability.
2) This adaptive ability is a result of close links between
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 81
component subunits-- engineering, marketing, finance,
and the like--and it also has the consequence of elimi-
nating the duality of the controlling and controlled
units.
3) Whatever differences the consciousness or learning models and competence models (Chomsky, 1976). The for-
make to the corporation would be reflected in the con-
sciousness of the corporate functionary, in terms of
increasing alignment of its goals to those of the corpora-
tion. Thus it is not crucial here to firmly establish the
existence of consciousness in systems other than biolog-
ical ones although it would provide stronger relevance
for the discussion of a mundane activity such as the cor-
porate function in a spiritual domain.
4) The close links are substantively aided by leadership that
acts as a cybernetician in the management of change
from one pattern of action to another.
5) The difference that consciousness makes to the corpora-
tion is of the same sort that makes a difference to indi-
viduals when they abandon habitual action, which is
automatic, in favor of creative action, which has the
quality of conscious choice.
6) Therefore, the conscious human organism may be mod-
eled as a successful learning corporation in contrast to a
static, structure-preserving corporation which is like a
habitually acting organism with automatic behavior.
7) Thus consciousness may be seen as functioning to estab-
lish close linkages between constituent subunits of the
organism, using the analogy of the successful corpora-
tion.
8) Next it may be noted that this is how the Vedas have
visualized the cybernetics of consciousness, in that they
see the organization of the universe as systemic and con-
nected. Consciousness of the individual is a progressive
process of realization of this universal connectedness,
thereby eliminating the subject-object duality.
9) Upasana is the Vedic method of inquiry into this sys-
temic Universe, involving a process of mapping of the
Individual introspectional experiences onto a systemic
Universal whole, thus expanding consciousness. The
Vedas propounded the cybernetics of consciousness that
brings about this transformation.
10) So, having defined Upasana as a method of bringing
about a transformation in the Individual such that
he/she identifies with the Universal, we propose a paral-
lel scheme for the cybernetics of inquiry into the cor-
porate consciousness and Universal Consciousness.
11) In this superimposed scheme, Agni (along with other
powers) is the equivalent of corporate leadership. The
corporate functionary is the counterpart of the mystical
practitioner of Upasana. The functionary learns to attain
a more complete corporate consciousness, even as the
mystic endeavors to attain Universal Consciousness as
by means of the Neti, Neti technique.
Conclusion
Models of behavior can be two-fold: performance
mer are case-specific and implementational, while the latter
are wider in their explanatory power; the spiritual model for
corporate behavior presented here is a competence model.
The scheme detailed in this essay has two practical
implications:
1) The model explains the development of corporate con-
sciousness by a corporate functionary within the frame-
work of the Upasana processes; it models a mundane
behavior with its conceptual framework in a spiritual
domain. Thus it fullfils an important goal of the Integral
Yoga of Sri Aurobindo to bring about a synthesis of yoga
and life. Further, the model may help fashion new intra-
cultural goals for corporate training.
2) It represents the human mind as a system of functions,
evolving with a single leap from an aggregate of habitu-
al predispositions in the animal into a system of
thoughtful actions in man. The sudden emergence
together of various behavior functions, generally accept-
ed as definitive of human nature may be paraphrased by
the systems transformation. Therefore the scheme
imparts useful meaning to techniques, such as medita-
tion, that claim to expand consciousness.
Author Notes
1. All the English translations of Vedic mantras quot-
ed in the text are from Sri Aurobindo's (1971 a) Secret of the
Veda and Hymns to the Mystic Fire (1971b) and the quote
from the Gita is from Sri Aurobindo's (1970) Essays on the
Gita.
2. The quotes from the Upanishads are from the
English translations of Upanishads by Ramakrishna Math,
Calcutta, India.
3. Abbreviations : Brihad = Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
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Aurobindo Ashram Trust.
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Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust.
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Correspondence regarding this article should be

directed to:
Prof. P. S. Rao
Department of Physiology
Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology,
2, Persiaran Cempaka, 08000 Amanjaya,
Sungai Petani, Kedah Darul Aman, Malaysia
Email: psrao2k@yahoo.com

82 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25

journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 83

Manifest, Hidden, and Divine:

Introduction to Sefirot Aikido
Jack Susman
George Washington University

The potential for forging a valuable relationship between two transpersonal systems, Aikido, a Japanese
martial art and spiritual tradition, and Kabbalah, a Jewish spiritual tradition, is explored. Aikido is not sim-
ply a martial art, rather it is also a way to achieve a sense of the spiritual. However, especially for Westerners,
many of its spiritual tenets are elusive, based on abstruse Japanese cultural roots, whereas Kabbalah, as a
spiritual tradition more fully explicated for Western audiences, can provide an accessible framework for
grasping some of Aikidos deeper meanings. A blend of these traditions, called Sefirot Aikido, uses
Kabbalah to understand, as well as to augment the practice of, Aikido.

here is an expanding need for developing spiritual to a new way of understanding and experiencing ourselves,

T understandings in regards to the growing threats,

stresses, and dangers of modern life. The practice of
Aikido, a Japanese martial art, offers an avenue for bringing
the spiritual into greater harmony in these trying times and,
perhaps, even offers the possibilities for some to achieve
transcendence. However, for Westerners, many of the mys-
tical tenets and practices of Aikido, based on its Japanese
cultural roots, can be abstruse. In accord with the writings
of others advocating making Aikido more culturally relevant
in a Western context (e.g., Friedman, 2005), Kabbalah, as a
Jewish spiritual tradition, can offer a prism through which
Aikido may be better understood. Forging a relationship
between these two transpersonal systems may provide a
more accessible framework for approaching the deeper
teachings within Aikido. Specifically, using Kabbalah to
explicate Aikido, as well as to augment its practice, may
assist its Western students to more deeply understand and
manifest its esoteric meaning. Sefirot Aikido is introduced as
one such approach.
Aikido and Kabbalah
Aikido practice retains a strong sense of its martial arts
roots, but it is something more (Stein, 2002). The dojo or
Aikido practice hall exists between the sacred and the pro-
fane; the dojo in Aikido is a threshold, a gate. Thresholds are
often found by accident; they are places where strange
events take place and where we learn things that cannot be
discovered in any other way. In the narrow confines of a
threshold we may find fantasy, memory, dream, anxiety,
miracle, intuition, and magic. These are the means by which
the deep soul prospers. It is a place where we move from
what is to what will be, a place where we can continue our
search for wholeness and meaning. To what does the gate
lead, if we find the door and enter through it? It may lead
our new self-image, our purposes in life and the means of
attaining these purposes, as well as a new image of the
nature of the worlds we live in, how they influence us, and
how we may influence them (Segal, 2000, p. 81; Scholem,
1965, p. 76). This is, of course, a heros quest, the hero with-
in ourselves; heroes do come with the most unexpected of faces.
To more fully explore the nature of Aikido and its
thresholds, gates, and meanings, it is important to look
more closely at kotodama, a mystical school of Shintoism
with elements of Buddhism. Morihei Ueschiba, Aikidos
founder, linked kotodama to Aikido inexorably into a sys-
tem that we now refer to as traditional Aikido. It would be
hard to imagine Aikido as we know it today without the
foundations that Morihei gave to it. However, we cannot get
inside of Moriheis head. The episodic and fragmentary
knowledge that various people have of Moriheis inside
view of kotodama Aikido, his imaginative, emotional, as
well as rational notions, cannot provide the guidance we
need for our quest. Moriheis mysticism was unique. But at
the same time it has much in common with other mystical
traditions. Our knowledge of kotodama is, as a result, quite
limited; it is obscure even in contemporary Japan. We hard-
ly know how ignorant we are and what are the missing
pieces of the puzzle that is kotodama, although Gleason
(1995) has shed some light on this matter. It seems quite
unlikely that we can develop the requisite understanding,
yet kotodama was a context for Aikido, but one whose intri-
cacies, especially Moriheis interpretations, are lost. Context
makes it possible for people of varying backgrounds to work
together and together transform a fundamentally anti-social
activity into a harmonious wholesome and positive experi-
ence. In what follows, to explicate what we know of koto-
dama Aikido, it is compared to Kabbalah and, in the
process, our ignorance of the former can possible be dimin-

Special Topic: Syncretism in Transpersonal Studies 83

journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 84
ished with what we understand of the latter: Kabbalah pro-
vides insights for understanding Aikido.
The intention is to show that Kabbalah is a fruitful
and practical system that can be used to replace kotodama
as a useful context for grasping Aikidos deeper meaning.
What Kabbalah and Moriheis Aikido have in common,
ultimately, is not a program for correcting weakness so
much as a process for growth, transformation, and compe-
tency. Also, Kabbalah has always happened in a small circle
of initiates gathered around a master. Aikido too has devel-
oped in small groups who are initiated by a sensei.
Furthermore, the spirit of the times favors internationalism,
the further merging of east and west. Aikido is culturally
insensitive to many aspects of American society and the
Western worldand looking at it from the perspective of
Kabbalah that grew and was shaped in the Western heart-
land may begin to redress this matter. At the same time,
Kabbalah can learn much from Aikido. It is the nature of
human beings to learn, as Japanese learned from India and
China, Romans learned from Greeks, and Christians
learned from Romans, Greeks, and Jews.
Kabbalah refers to systems of occult theosophy or
mystical interpretation of the Hebrew Bible developed oral-
ly by some rabbis in perhaps the second to fifth centuries
and edited and put into manuscript form beginning in
about the tenth century; it was also transmitted to and taken
up by medieval Christians. The translation of Judaic into
Christian Kabbalah was not a difficult process. Jesus, St.
Paul, and some other early Christians were believed to have
studied the esoteric knowledge and much of what they said
has been attributed to very early Kabbalistic sources (Dan,
1977). Conversely, some Kabbalalists have borrowed from
non-Jewish sources.
The Bible may be approached in at least four ways. It
may be seen as a literal history, as an allegory, as a system of
abstract ideas, or as a compendium of mystical knowledge.
The latter is the Kabbalahs approach.
Morihei Ueshiba, it seems, approached some of the
ancient Japanese literature in these terms as well. However,
as far as we know he did not set out in detail a methodolo-
gy regarding union with what he sometimes called the
Ultimate One, or show how to apply what he learned there,
outside of what he said about Aikido. This knowledge does
not appear to be available today, either directly or indirect-
ly, through Moriheis writings. Kabbalah provides us with
the symbols, knowledge, and methods of a spiritual quest
and how to apply them. Perhaps a synthesis between Aikido
and Kabbalah could augment our understanding of Aikido
and also provide new ways of seeing Kabbalah?
With a handshake between Aikido and Kabbalah, we
can explore two significant matters: add to our understand-
ing of Aikido through Kabbalah and approach Kabbalah
84 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
through Aikido (Kohn, 2002. pp. 53-56). Some important
connections and correspondences between kotodama and
Kabbalah theory and practices, from various sources, can be
established. Both systems can benefit from the comparison
and the student of Aikido may find the mystical door and
how it can be opened perhaps better explained through
Kabbalah than through Aikidos original mystical grounding.
Via Mystica: The Meaning of Rituals and Practices
Preparation for the journey to thresholds and for mys-
tical contact or union with God is realized for the most part
through ritual activity. Rituals involve prescribed activities
and a context that provides a framework for understanding
and interpreting the actions. Gill (1987), in his work on
Navajo religion, analyzed the structure of Navajo prayer. He
noted that, in the Navajo view, prayers are not texts; they are
always acts that are performed for someone for some felt
need. Such rituals often involve a large component of mag-
ical practices and such tendencies also exist in both Aikido
and Kabbalah. Tambiah (1985) defined ritual as perform-
ance and his definition of ritual delineated several levels of
performance that could apply to the practice of Aikido. Idel
(2002, pp. 34-37, 289-293) suggests similar elements in
some Kabbalah.
Morihei apparently viewed Aikido itself as ritual lead-
ing toward the mystical path to enlightenment. It is not
possible, he wrote, for anyone to speak of such things in
their entiretyjust head for the light and heat, learn from
the gods, and through the virtue of devoted practice become
one with the divine. Seek enlightenment along this edge
(1991, p. 32). The techniques of Aikido are martial tech-
niques, but they are also seemingly ritual performances and
were originally developed to express kotodama principles by
realizing in physical movement the ordered natural law of
the so-called fifty rhythms of the universe. Every principle
and technique has a kotodama, a sacred vibration that con-
tains its essence. If one understands the significance of the
kotodama, one can grasp its function (e.g., water) and
merge with its spirit (e.g., fire). Among other practices,
proper recitation of the verses of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki
would have enabled one to grasp these texts magical prop-
erties. In addition, a special state of mind must be devel-
oped. If Aikido is ritual activity, then the dojo may be seen
as a threshold to the unity and transcendence with the
Godhead.
One of Moriheis doka (sayings of the Way) expresses
this (Stevens, 1987), as follows:
If you do not blend
with the emptiness of
the Pure Void,
you will never know
the Path of Aiki. (p. 106)
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 85
Ritual, then, takes God into human action, for ritual action
is related to the realm of divine action; unity achieves its
symbolic expression in ritual. Aikido practice is a way of
finding the sacred in the mundane. But there is more. There
is a magical aspect to ritual as well. This ritual nature of
Aikido was apparent to Morihei. In another doka, he put it
this way (Stevens, 1987):
Rely on Aiki
to activate your
manifold powers;
pacify all things and
create a beautiful world. (p. 108)
In an influential Kabbalistic theory based on the teachings
of Isaac Luria, mystical union is described as the reconstruc-
tion of a broken unity; the reintegration of the human into
the primordial unity, whose other half is the Divine. A per-
son finds his or her self by losing the self in God. The
Kabbalistic Tree of Life (discussed later) is a basis for many
rituals whose aim is this unity. Human beings are but half of
a greater unity and, by their actions, they can reconstruct it.
In the Symposium dialogues, Plato described the division
of the primeval androgynous spherical being into two
halves, male and female. The earthly intercourse between
male and female, who derive their souls from an original
unity, is also conducive to the attainment of harmony on
high. This feeling, or something close to it, occurs on occa-
sion after Aikido practice; a feeling that everything went
well, everything flowed. This is also a feeling of great joy,
some people experience ecstasy. It is a marker of a unity.
Morihei expressed the matter in another doka
(Stevens, 1987):
You cannot see or touch the Divine with your gross
senses. The Divine is within you, not somewhere
else. Unite yourselfto the Divine, and you will be
able to perceive kami wherever you are, but do not
try to grasp or cling to them. (p. 108)
Morihei believed himself to be a protagonist at the center of
a great cosmic drama. Kabbalah clarifies and focuses on this
drama as well, in which human beings have a central role
and urgent responsibility to purify themselves and also
mend a ruptured divinity. Morihei referred to Aikido prac-
tice in this way: Aikido is misogi, purification of mind and
body, a Way to reform and transform the world (Stevens,
1987, p. 106). Aikido is embedded in a highly complex rit-
ual culture; Kabbalists have often alluded to rituals and dis-
ciplines but they are seldom spelled out or analyzed in their
writings. Idel (1988b) has provided some details of the
ecstatic or prophetic Kabbalah of Abraham Abulafia, a 13th
century Spanish Kabbalist. Fine (2003) has provided a
somewhat more detailed view of rituals and practices among
the circle of Lurianic Kabbalists in 16th century Israel. For
many Kabbalists, their bodies served as instruments for per-
forming the work of purification and restoration that had to
be done. The body was also seen as an obstacle on the path
to spiritual restitution. Many newcomers seeking to make
progress in Aikido find their body gets in the way of their
desire and effort to perform the techniques or rituals
demonstrated in practice sessions.
Aikido techniques are practiced, at one level, because
they are symbolic of basic forces of the universe. But they
are also practiced in order to have an impact on the student,
the world, and the universe. The separate spheres of the
abstract and the concrete come together in the dojo and
provide a key to the doors. The threshold leads to an aug-
mented understanding of Aikido and Kabbalah, and for
some, much more.
These complexities may have a basis in human nature.
Writing about brain science and the biology of belief,
Newberg and dAquili note that the root of the ceremonial
rites of all human societies, from the most primitive to the
most exalted, are an elaboration of the neurobiological need
of all living things to escape the limiting boundaries of the
self (2001, p. 85; see also Torrence, 1994).
Mysticism East and West
Robert Bellah (1985), in his study of Japanese reli-
gions, notes that traditionalistic religious action of a gener-
ally magical type has remained important throughout
Japanese history, despite the dominance of rationalistic reli-
gious thought. There seems to be two basic conceptions of
the divine in Japanese religion. The first is that of a super-
natural entity who dispenses nurturance, care, and love.
Examples include the Confucian Heaven and Earth, Amida
and other Buddhas, the Shinto deities, as well as local tute-
lary deities and ancestors. This category shades off imper-
ceptible into political superiors and parents; both of who are
treated as in part, at least, sacred.
The second basic conception of the divine is more dif-
ficult to explain. Bellah describes it as the ground of being
or the inner existence of reality. Examples are the Chinese
Tao, the neo-Confucian li, often translated as reason, and
hsin, heart or mind, (when identified with li); the Buddhist
concept of the Buddha-nature; and the Shinto term kami
(in its most philosophical interpretation). Religious action
toward these entities is the attempt on the part of the com-
municant to attain some form of union or identity with this
ground of being or essence of reality.
Apparently seeking a place where he could understand
and develop his ideas and his feelings, Morihei was drawn to
a sect and its leader who was a mystic. The sect was devot-
ed to reforming the world and creating heaven on earth;
over time Morihei adopted and adapted this role and out-
Special Topic: Syncretism in Transpersonal Studies 85
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 86
look as his own. The mystic Onisaburo Deguchi and the
sect he led, Omoto Kyo (Great Foundation or Great
Source religion), had a great impact on Morihei.
Onisaburo also had an enormous impact on the sect whose
leadership he took over when the prophetess Nao Deguchi
died. Omoto was one of the newly arisen religions (shinko
shukyo) that periodically appear in Japan, popular religions
based on revelations of shamanistic leaders. Under
Onisaburo, Omoto aligned itself with the mystical tradi-
tions of the Ancient Learning School which were incorpo-
rated into Omoto mythology; a blend of Shintoist ideas
with some elements of Buddhism. Using kotodama-gaku
(sound-science theory), Onisaburo reinterpreted Naos
ideas. He provided Omoto with an interpretation of the
ancient learning that indicated that evil, chaos, and disorder
exist in the world as a reflection of that which exists in the
kami world of hidden and concealed matters. This could be
found in such works as the Kojiki (Records of Ancient
Matters) and Nihon shoki (The Chronicles of Japan); thus
Onaisaburo used the language and concepts of Shinto (The
Way of the Gods), but gave them a decidedly unique inter-
pretation. The mission of Omotos followers was to help
unite the earthly matters with concealed things, thereby
making heaven visible. Various Omoto rituals that Morihei
incorporated into Aikido were performed to accomplish
these goals. In some Kabbalah, these matters are related to
tikkun, which will be discussed below.
Although the social philosophy and activities of
Omoto changed over time (it was at one time extremely
nationalistic and what could be called a fundamentalist
movement), in the pre-World War II period its social doc-
trine called for renovation and restoration of a just order and
destruction of all evil. This led the kyo to condemn war and
stress the necessity for developing an international coopera-
tive spirit among the nations of the world. Through
Onisaburos interpretation of the ancient texts, Omoto doc-
trine challenged the existing socio-religious order that was
based on state Shinto and emperor worship. Eventually the
government prosecuted Omoto by charging Onisaburo and
others in the leadership with offenses against the Newspaper
Laws (Nadolski, 1975). The government alleged that
Omoto doctrine as presented in the press was critical of the
emperors views, blasphemed the emperors authority,
ignored the emperors sovereign rights, among other
charges.
The mystics who created Kabbalah (tradition, that
which is received, i.e., to receive cosmic truths) did not
directly challenge institutional Jewish religion, as Onisaburo
and perhaps Morihei had done with regard to state
Shintorather, they used the language of the tradition to
explain their ideas. At the same time they presented a fairly
coherent set of esoteric ideas that in some respects under-
86 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
mined the framework of traditional Judaism (Scholem,
1969). Institutionally the Jewish religion in the 12th and
13th centuries was working out a rational and Aristotelian
rationalistic explanation of the ideas, philosophy, and prac-
tices that make up the tradition. The books of the
Kabbalists, the Sefer ha-Zohar (Book of Splendor), the Sefer
Yetzirah (Book of Formation), the Sefer ha-Bahir (Book of
Brightness) and other less known works, may be seen as the
equivalent of the Kojiki and the Nihon shoki. The mystical
doctrine of Kabbalah points the way to overcoming the feel-
ing of having lost our way, of flailing around with a faulty
blueprint for life, as well as the feeling of personal isolation.
At the same time it shows us how we can help to heal, repair,
and rebalance the universe as a whole (known as tikkun).
The ultimate goal for the student of Kabbalah is personal
spiritual growth, seen as a loss of ego that allows one to
experience closeness to God and the ecstatic experiences this
entails. Through various rituals and methodologies leading
to transcendence, the student is able to perceive and to
understand the mysterious working of the Divinity and to
use this experience and knowledge to help set things right,
in a personal sense and in a larger sense. The student must
also learn to deal with and help to eliminate those factors
that disturb the right order of thingsthe other side, the
demonic or Satanic, terms used by Kabbalists to refer to evil
(Scholem, 1969); this responsibility has both a personal,
social, and cosmic foci; the latter is known as the Great
Tikkun. The mythical imagination of Kabbalah pulls us out
into the world and summons us to tikkun, and in this way
serves as a counterweight to the self-absorption created by
the martial focus of Aikido practice. One of the finest
expressions of this duty is Aiki Extensions, created by prac-
titioners at the University of Chicago and now a world-wide
organization.
Aikido practice techniques, so-called breathing exer-
cises, such as funatori furutama, amano torifune, and
shinkon, were taken from his Omoto studies by Morihei
(Kaku, 2000; Saotome, 1993). Similarly, these breathing
and warm-up exercises can be connected to and build
upon Kabbalah. This can be done as follows: substituting
the Sefirot names for the commonly used numerical count-
ing in English or Japanese when performing the warm-ups.
Surely Morihei did not simply count as he repetitively
moved his body, inhaling and exhaling. Similarly some
Kabbalists use a ritual that involves pronouncing and com-
bining the names and letters of the Sefirot, as well as other
esoteric names and formulae, to draw down the supernal
power so as to unite with it (Idel, 1988, pp. 168-170,).
Photographs of Morihei show him seated in a posture used
by holy men, performing kishon no bo and chinkon no bo,
bringing a spirit into oneself and calming ones soul
respectively (Kaku, 2000, p. 79).
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 87
Language and Mysticism
With regard to kotodama gaku (the Science of Sound
Spirit), Stevens (1987) indicates that Moriheis own expla-
nations were maddeningly abstruse. He rambled from one
subject to another, rattling off the names of obscure Shinto
deities, stringing together combinations of baffling terms,
and offering idiosyncratic interpretations of Japanese histo-
ry, interspersed with apparently totally irrelevant reminis-
cences of past events. His talks were such a confused jumble
that it had been suggested that Morihei was, on those occa-
sions, speaking in tongues, possessed by one kami or anoth-
er. Most of his ideas were derived from the impossibly com-
plex Omoto Kyo doctrine and his reading of Japans oldest
chronicles. Similarly, people often find that the fundamen-
tal views of Kabbalistic theory are set forth in a form that is
often paradoxical, usually unintelligible, and always surprising.
Both the Kabbalah, as well as Moriheis explanations
of kotodama, use traditional language in ways that is some-
times obscure and occasionally idiosyncratic to convey
teachings and meanings. To explain themselves and their
experiences to others, the mystic must use the symbols and
language of their tradition in order to be understood at all.
But because their experience is essentially ineffable, the sym-
bols and language cannot fully capture the experiences. This
language often needs to be stretched and transformed in the
process of communicating the experience. Mystics find that
they cannot explain or communicate their experiences, the
thresholds and gates they have crossed, to others because the
experience is too personal. The hidden world is a labyrinth
and ordinary language is often as much of a hindrance as a
help in understanding the science of the invisible.
Mysticism, generally speaking, has striven to detect
successively newer and deeper layers in the mystery of the
Godhead. In Kabbalah a starting point for this effort is the
notion of the Sefirot, which for some has come to signify the
emergence of divine powers and essence of God. The hid-
den Being is active throughout the universe and in this sense
has certain attributes that in turn represent certain systemic
aspects of the divine nature, perhaps even stages of the
divine Being and its hidden life. These attributes are not
meant to be merely metaphoric: they represent a higher real-
ity. There are ten fundamental attributes of God, which are
at the same time ten powers that interact with each other
and through which the divine life pulsates and influences
all. The emanation of the Sefirot is conceived as a process
that takes place in God and at the same time enables men
and women to perceive God in so far as God emerges from
the hidden abode.
Philosophy of Origins
According to some Kabbalists, Ein-Sof (the hidden
God) retreated from the arena of the universe, contracted
into Itself, and left behind It, in that space which had been
defined as It, an emptiness. It was by the contraction of Ein-
Sof from infinite space into an infinitesimal monad of pure
energy that the worlds come into being. If the Ein-Sof had
not retreated into Itself there would have been no space for
the activity of Genesis to take place. The world comes into
being only after this contraction. It was then that the Ein-
Sof sent forth beams of energy and information, an emana-
tion of Itself, into the space created by the contraction. On
the surface of that space the first sparks were struck, the pin-
points of light that were to become the Sefirot and other pri-
mordial effects. In order for a creation to be possible there
must first be a contraction, a concentration of all energies at
a center. Then, an expansion occurs; the gathered energies
are sent forth in concentrated form. This emanation from
the divine world into the hidden world became the ten
numbers and twenty-two letters: the Sefirot and language of
creation.
As far as Aikido is concerned, kotodama theory,
according to Stevens (1987 p. 105), sees the universe as hav-
ing originated from an incomprehensibly dense point, rep-
resented by the ultraconcentrated vibration, su. Eons ago,
steam, smoke, and mist emanated from that point, envelop-
ing it in a nebulous sphere. From su, the primordial koto-
dama point, the sound of cosmic inhalation, energy-sound-
breath, simultaneously spiraled forth. Su extended circular-
ly into the sounds u-u-u-yu-mu and also expanded vertical-
ly into the sounds a-o-u-e-i. The tension between these
sounds gave birth to spirit-matter, fire-water, yin-yang, and
further evolved into the seventy-five kotodama that main-
tain existence (Stevens, 1987, p. 102).
The Symbolic Nature and Structure of Reality
Kotadama and Kabbalah are strange symbolic lan-
guages. At their heart lies algorithms. Today algorithms, sys-
tems of symbols that can be used logically to answer any
question, are found in medicine, in computers, and in toast-
ers and refrigerators and other systems. In kotodama and
Kabbalah, algorithms may be used to guide the curious, the
dreamer, the adventurous, to help those who have lost their
way in a restless world. The two algorithms are distinct but
overlap to some degree. In kotodama theory there are four
spirit realms involving the building blocks of a perfect world
(Stevens, 1987 pp. 102-105). In addition, Morihei referred
to three elements (harmonization, and a triangle; inhala-
tion, and a circle; exhalation, and a square), and eight pow-
ers (movement, calm, solidification, release, extension,
retraction, unification, division). But the connections,
between and among these concepts and both ki and kokyu,
powers used in downing an opponent, with Aikido as the
path of spiritual integration and love (Stevens, 1987, p.
109) is not available to us, although they appear to relate to
Special Topic: Syncretism in Transpersonal Studies 87
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 88
matters that are tied to the practice of Aikido techniques.
How these matters relate to the kami that preoccupied
Morihei are also not clear. We are left with a number of
interesting but disparate elements of a mystical and esoteric
nature that seem important to Aikido.
Kabbalah can help us here. There appears to be some
correspondence to the four universes or realms of reality of
Kabbalah, which are in turn connected to triads, sets of
three Sefirot, and the Foundation, that together are the basis
of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life; described and elaborated
upon, the Tree reflects both the inner life of the deity and
the sacred psychology of human beings. Incorporating the
Sefirot Tree into Aikido practice makes it possible to trans-
form emotions, shift motivations, clear awareness, calm the
mind, and develop spiritually. This can be accomplished
against a very large backdrop of knowledge of Kabbalah that
has been written and in many cases translated into the
English language and is readily available to all, whereas the
esoteric bases of Aikido are much less accessible. In a subse-
quent section a more specific relationship of the Sefirot to
Aikido practice will be presented.
The Tree of Life is a symbolical icon, a representation
of the ten Sefirot. Sefirot have been compared to complex
databases, or DNA (i.e., Gods DNA), or even Gods soul
(Feldman, 1999, Wolf, 1999). In Kabbalah, the Sefirot rep-
resent, and provide data about, aspects of transcendence or
God consciousness that can be used in the quest for the self.
At the same time, the Sefirot should be understood as com-
plexes of symbolic focal points and manifestations of heart
and brain, of energy or in Aikido terms, ki, but each with a
different identity (the ki of anger, the ki of love) as part
of a larger spirit or ki. The paths that connect the energies
are important in their own right; each of the 22 paths are
different forms of consciousness or will. God leaves no foot-
prints in the material world, but It has some kind of pres-
ence here. Much more important is the idea that, if God has
a presence, this means that God can be experienced, and can
be known; Morihei is said to have experienced the Ultimate
One. The Tree of Life is a threshold of thresholds between
our material existence and that part of God that is know-
able; this is where God touches the material world at least
through the mind of human beings. The Tree of Life is
where God and men and women meet on common ground,
uniting the sacred with the profane. The Tree at the same
time may become the basis of Aikido rituals and provide
meaning and context for the practices, replacing the knowl-
edge that Morihei took with him when he died.
But there is more to this than we might suspect.
Behind this iconic and cryptic algorithm is a structure of
mystical psychology. The secrets of the divine realms are
presented to us not as mumbo-jumbo but as a way into our
own inner self and the higher reality. According to Stevens,
88 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
prior to training, Morhei sat quietly to bring his ki and
kokyu in tune with energy patterns of the universe (Stevens,
1987 p. 113). Kabbalists may practice ascent of the soul
using a number of techniques including reciting divine
names, combining and pronouncing the letters, meditating,
and assuming special bodily postures, including putting the
head between the knees (Idel, 1988, pp. 88-96), somewhat
similar, perhaps, to a technique known in Aikido as ukemi.
Sefirot are distinct stages in the journey from utter hidden
oneness toward self-revelation; we may also see them as the
accessible reality within Aikido. As we use the Sefirot to
move within and above ourselves, reaching for the transper-
sonal, the vague, confounding, and seemingly formlessness
of our inner-most self becomes manifest, takes form, shape,
and features that we scarcely knew were within us become
apparent. This is our quest and our goal. And we become
able to penetrate the divine that had been beyond compre-
hension or belief. This is very real and very possible! The
Tree also represents, or is also a simile for man and woman.
To Kabbalists, seeing the Tree in at least two ways makes
sense because human beings are created in Gods image. The
power of the Sefirot, the paradigm of divine life, also exists,
and is active in human beings. Furthermore, the world of
the Sefirot, the world of God the Creator, is capable of being
visualized in terms of the image of a human being. In addi-
tion, the Sefirot show a relationship to some important
Kotadama principles. These notions are presented in a dia-
gram that combines Kotodama notions with Kabbalistic
ones.
The Sefirot represent aspects of the divine, but also
more than that. They are not independent; rather, they each
contribute to the functioning of the Sefirot system and to
systems that make up the larger system. Bear in mind that
the structure and nature of each Sefirah is important. But
equally important is the place of each Sefirah in the system;
the 22 paths or letters connecting the Sefirot are also of crit-
ical importance in understanding and making the journey.
According to Kabbalah theory, the four separate but inter-
connected universes or realms that exist are each based on a
cosmic quality. These qualities are produced by and found
within the sacred name of the Ein-Sof. Ein-Sof is the name
given to the innermost God, the hidden Being of Divinity
who has no qualities or attributes and is referred to as the
Infinite or Without End. Each of the four realms or
subsystems of existence corresponds to one of the specific
attributes of the divine name. In kotodama theory, the one
point, su, gives rise through the vibratory influence of
sound, to four spirit levels, which are the source of funda-
mental qualities of the universe and at the same time give
rise to other qualities. The spirit levels and the four univers-
es have much in common both phenomenally and intrinsi-
cally, though they also differ in some respects.
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 89
Figure 1. The Sefirot-Spirit Levels-Universes.
Universe of Emanation and Spirit Level of Kusu-mitama
The highest domain of existence is called Emanation
in Kabbalah. It encompasses the pure dimension of the
names, essences, or forces of the divine. Each of the ten
names of God, which give rise to the Sefirot, is viewed as
referring to a different emanation or quality of the transcen-
dent. Emanation refers to the idea of primal force. Since
force is defined as the ability to do something, this highest
universe, which is itself the Godhead (Steinsaltz, 1980),
holds the forces implicit in all the rest. It also relates to our
deepest inner Source, which is revealed to us only if we
strive to learn its nature by way of the via mystica. The uni-
verse of Emanation corresponds to Kusu-mitama, the high-
est spirit level of kotodama. Kusu-mitama encompasses the
qualities of heaven, wisdom, light, and principle. Here the
coordination of mind, body, and spirit, an ultimate goal of
Aikido practice, is found.
The three highest Sefirot form a triad in this domain
of the Tree of Life that is itself a collaboration of
Transcendence, Inspiration, and Understanding.
Transcendence is the supreme crown of God, a circle of end-
less energies and hidden light received as the influx from the
Ein-Sof. Inspiration is the primordial idea of God and
emerges from Transcendence. Inspiration refers to the pri-
mal point of existence, the creative spark that began the flow
of Aiki and of all flashes of inspiration. Understanding gives
birth to the intelligence of God and human beings, emerges
from the radiance of Inspiration, absorbs the spark, taking it
into its womb, incubating, and giving birth to the lower
Sefirot, and shaping Aikido. This triad is associated with the
element of fire.
Thus Aiki emerges from the Sefirah of Inspiration and
the manifest or concretization of Aikido begins to emerge
from the Sefirah of Understanding. The hidden and divine
attributes move toward embodiment in the spectrum of
energies of the lower seven Sefirot that are the seeds of the
range of affective connections to the instincts of the human
soul and the divinity. These are among the hidden talents
that the practice of Aikido will cause to flower. Morihei put
it this way (Ueshiba, 1992):
Your heart is full of fertile seeds, waiting to sprout.
Just as a lotus flower springs from the mire to
bloom splendidly, the interaction of the cosmic
breath causes the flower of the spirit to bloom and
bear fruit in this world. (p. 30)
The Sefirot make more accessible the fundamental emotion-
al components and principles of Aikido practice. The inter-
play and interaction of the inner directions or principles also
compose and are manifest in each human being. Thus
Kabbalah explains the origins and gives shape and larger
meaning to the emerging structure and building blocks of
Aikido. Aikido practice, on the other hand, transforms as it
embodies the fundamental and universal truths of
Kabbalah. Furthermore, Aikido practice is a way of negoti-
ating between the mysticism of Kabbalah and the highly
refined and concrete principles of Aikido, such as centered-
ness, equanimity, and connection. As we develop in practice
our passions become more multifaceted; as self-knowledge
increases our emotions become more complex.
Universe of Creation and Spirit Level of Ara-mitama
Creation is the second dimension or universe of
Kabbalah and points to the attribute of pattern. In this
realm of creation the evanescent archetypes of the first realm
are organized into a coherent order. Corresponding to the
human, this universe incorporates our personality and its
structure of ideas, concepts, and viewpoints (Steinsaltz,
1980). The universe of Creation corresponds to the koto-
dama spirit level of Ara-mitama, in which the qualities of
fire, valor, progress, and completion are found. Morihei may
have been referring to this as the divine realm.
The Tree of Life triad in this universe is made up of the
Sefirot of Love, Rigor, and Equanimity. Love, the mercy of
God, is free-flowing energy from the soul and extends to all
of Gods creatures. But too much love smothers and stunts
growth. Rigor, a symbolic cluster that includes power, pun-
ishment, and destruction, serves to constrain, measure, and
limit love. But unrestrained power can be cruel and destruc-
Special Topic: Syncretism in Transpersonal Studies 89
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 90
tive, and in this form it is also known as stern judgment and
punishment. The dialectic between love and rigor finds res-
olution in Equanimity or compassion, the third Sefirah in
this triad. It is the heart and sun of the Tree of Life and
mediates between Love and Rigor, in other words, it is the
center of the Tree and represents each persons center, as
well. This Sefirah incorporates self-restraint and strength of
character. It controls anger and, as well, controls the flow of
love according to the needs, abilities, and deserts of those
who are to receive it. Balance, equanimity, and symmetry
are Aikido principles that are critical elements of this center-
ing. By restoring to Aikido practice the category of the
sacred, we can reinforce an ethic of care commensurate, and
able to cope, with the great power and abilities Aikido helps
to develop. This triad is associated with the element of air.
The nature of ki is located in this triad (Ueshiba, 1991, pp.
33-34). Ki has no clear analogue or definition in the
Western world. Morihei often talked about personal ki and
universal ki, but there are hundreds of Japanese expressions
that incorporate the character for ki (Kaku, 2000, pp. 2-3).
The Kabbalistic notion of soul is roughly equivalent to
what Morihei was discussing with regard to personal ki in
Aikido. Kabbalists generally recognize at least three levels of
the soul in human beings: animal soul, divine soul, and
higher soul (Steinsaltz, 1980). Universal ki is somewhat dif-
ferent, equivalent perhaps to the breath of God. In Aikido
we practice connecting and controlling our ki; it can be con-
centrated and focused in a tight narrow way, like the energy
of rigor or power, as when it fills the tachi (sword), or taijut-
su (empty hand), in a strike shomen (overhead strike).
Direction is given to the Sefirah of Rigor by the mind rep-
resented by the Sefirah of Understanding or wisdom. Ki
may also take an expansive form, spreading out, reaching
gently and outwardly, like Love; in this form our awareness
is 360 degrees. Balance between these aspects of ki is
achieved through the interaction of the Sefirah of
Equanimity and the Sefirah of Awareness as we deal with
our enemies, strangers, other people, nature, and ourselves.
Universe of Formation and Spirit Level of Nigi-mitama
The third universe is Formation. This world, the
world of feeling and emotion, encompasses the qualities of
activity or energy. Here the potentialities that were grown in
the other two universes are activated. This realm also reach-
es to the biological aspect of the human body and its many
life functions such as metabolism, digestion, and so forth.
This is also the spirit level of Nigi-mitama. This realm
expresses the qualities of water, fidelity, harmony, and pro-
priety.
The Sefirot of Endurance, Courage, and Awareness
make up the third triad of the Tree of Life. Endurance refers
to the eternal existence of God and as well to our persist-
90 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
ence. Courage refers to the splendor and majesty of God
and also to facing our fears as we live and grow. Awareness
(also known as Righteousness) is the foundation of all active
forces in God and stimulates and is stimulated by righteous
acts and brings about the cosmic coupling of Awareness and
Actualizing Potentials, the bottom most Sefirah. This is a
form of blending, a deep principle of Aikido practice. The
coupling increases the flow of positive energy into our phys-
ical world. This universe is associated with the element of
water. It may have been what Morihei referred to as the hid-
den realm; the stage at which blending and breath power are
brought under control and their meanings grounded in
action.
Universe of Action and Spirit Level of Sachi-mitama
Finally there is the Kabbalist universe of Action,
both physical and spiritual, the domain of substance and
matter in all of its myriad expressions, from molecules to
stars. This universe is considered the lowest and most dense
of the four; it includes both the corporal pains and sensual
delights that we experience in everyday life. It is the domain
of concrete behavior, where actual deeds are of chief impor-
tance as a way to the sacred. The kotodama level of Sachi-
mitama is equivalent here, adding its qualities of earth, love,
compassion, and cherishing. This may be Moriheis realm of
the manifest. At this level we can understand that the dojo
receives the intelligence of Aikido rituals, gestated in the
womb of Understanding, and that we perform in practice.
Submitting to the norms of Aikido, facing up to danger,
taking care of the attacker (Saotome, 1993), obeying the
teacher, controlling ones impulses, become obvious as we
realize our potentials and begin to actualize them as we pur-
sue our Aikido practice.
The Sefirah of Actualizing Potentials (also known as
Presence), at the base of the Tree of Life, is found in the
Universe of Action and the level of Sachi-mitama.
Actualizing Potentials refers to the seeds from which roots
contact the earth, and the shoot that, branching, reaches
upward to the transpersonal. The branches contact the
Sefirot of Imagination, Understanding, and Transcendence,
as self-knowledge increases, and the cycle of growth leads to
more complexities of mind and body. It is also symbolic of
the community of people who practice Aikido. It reflects the
cosmic yoni, the Hindu universal female principle that rules
the physical world.
It is not possible to fully explicate all the manifest, hid-
den, and divine characteristics of this complex, detailed, yet
entirely cryptic and vague picture. We must practice Sefirot
Aikido with conscious, focused, deeply attentive awareness,
to learn more. Subsequently, we shall discuss the Sefirot Tree
and relate it to some specific and detailed issues and rituals
in the practice of Aikido.
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 91
Thresholds, Sefirot, Ki, and the Ever-evolving Person
In Kabbalah theory, every form in our universe has
previously passed through the other three. A human being
must first have existed as a transcendent image, then a spe-
cific pattern, and lastly been infused with focused energy
before assuming his or her physical shape. This brings some
clarity to the cryptic remark found in some Kabbalistic writ-
ings, we are the cosmos. Morihei also has told his students
that Ones body is a miniature universe (Stevens, 1987, p.
105).
The formal, prescribed behaviors or techniques of
Aikido are one side of the dual nature of ritual. Ritual has
another side; the symbolic, contextual meanings that are
linked to the formalities. The collaboration of Aikido and
Kabbalah is a marriage of form and content. Each universe
or spirit level is its own realm so there is a threshold between
each of the levels. These thresholds are at the same time bar-
riers and gates, branches of the tree, points of change, ener-
gy, and transformation. We raise the holy sparks (think ki)
of our soul to each successive level to eventually achieve the
transpersonal and a mystical experience of adherence to, or
knowledge of, God. The ascent towards God by means of
the Sefirot follows the Tree of Life. Morihei taught that
practice of Aikido was a way to attain transcendence. Ascent
can be done in a variety of ways and means that unify the
ancient rituals and symbols of Aikido with the ancient sym-
bols, meanings, ideas, and information, of Kabbalah.
Alternatively, we can climb down the tree, using the Sefirot
as a map of mystical psychology. Each individual person is a
miniature Tree of Life and each of us represents a physical,
emotional, intellectual, and spiritual shape based upon the
manner in which we harmonize our inner Sefirot. This
shape we bring to the dojo when we start Aikido practice
has grown for the most part without conscious awareness.
But the patterns that make it up can be brought under con-
scious control. Emotions are an integral part of the creation
of our primal self and a key to transformations. Combining
spiritual depth with technical prowess in Aikido is the key;
we leave one threshold and approach another. The collabo-
ration serves to augment our understanding.
The dynamic world of the Sefirot system and subsys-
tems is the world of the Godhead. In Kabbalah, the former
contains the infinite unity of divine being, not only in its
hidden essence but also in its creative unfolding. The
Kabbalists are interested in showing how the world of the
Sefirot is related to the world outside of God. All beings in
the lower realm of nature, as well as in the upper worlds of
the angels and pure forms, of the Throne of God, have in
them something which connects them with one of the cre-
ative aspects of divinity, or, in other words, with the Sefirot
system; What is below is above and what is inside is out-
side. Morihei spoke of the Creator of the Universe as being
a sacred flame within ones body (Stevens, 1987, p. 113).
In the Kabbalistic view everything not only is in everything
else but also acts upon everything else, whether we are aware
of these things or not. A persons ascent to higher worlds and
to the borders of nothingness involves no motion on his or
her part, for where you stand, there stand all the worlds.
Morihei in a doka said; Cast off limiting thoughts and
return to true emptiness. Stand in the midst of the Great
Void. This is the secret of the Way of a Warrior (Ueshiba,
1992, p. 110). Aikido is created and recreated by students
and teachers in the dojo, but is also independent of us. It
reflects our will but also affects our will; practitioners are
free but our actions fall into familiar patterns. Aikido with
Kabbalah is a brainwide and somatic process that is simul-
taneously individual and communal. The quest is found in
the meaning of ideas, symbols, and rituals.
Aikido Ritual Performances and the Tree of Life
One way of seeing the reciprocal connections between
Kabbalah and Aikido builds on our psychological percep-
tions. There is a self-image, a body-image, and a dojo-
image. What is learned in the dojo can be taken back into
the community; the community-image can be elaborated to
include Aikido if and when there is an over-lap in the minds
of students between these images. A connection based on
technical, martial prowess is inadequate to build a complex,
multifaceted mental image. Sefirot Aikido broadens the
connection between the dojo-image, the self-image, and the
community by linking moral and physical with community
processes. Using the language of the Sefirot, with the behav-
ioral skills of Aikido rituals, generates a cohesive whole and
sustains it as well; the richness of ritual techniques that are
imitated, balanced by a rich moral-linguistic context.
Our attitude toward rituals should be governed by cer-
tain basic assumptions concerning the functions they serve.
In the flow of performative rituals, they are presumed to
accomplish the following:
a. harmony and unification of mind, body, and spirit;
b. conjunction of personal ki and universal ki;
c. setting things right, repair of the self, community,
world, universe; and
d. defending against, and mastery over, impulses and
desires to harm others.
These assumptions emphasize elements of the Sefirot, some-
times singly and often in combination. The Sefirot of Rigor
and Love, locked in dialectical interaction and each, con-
nected to the other, carries within it the potential to become
the other. This tension is resolved by the moderating influ-
ence of the Sefirah of Equanimity. The dialectic of domi-
nance and submission in Aikido is resolved by interrupting
the interaction, neutralizing it, and transforming it. The
Special Topic: Syncretism in Transpersonal Studies 91
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 92
interaction is not transformed into a reversal of dominance
and submission, though that potential exists. The desired
outcome in Aikido is to help the attacker overcome his or
her evil intentions and inclinations and by example thereby
transform the interactions and, as well, both the attacker
and the defender. By restoring to Aikido practice the catego-
ry of the sacred, we can reinforce an ethic of care. Kabbalah
may focus on Aikidos sacred center but also call for more
explicit instruction along with martial practice.
Elements of all rituals involve rhythm and repetition.
There are differences, however, between and among the rit-
uals at each level or realm of existence that relate to the
quest. That is, there are differences in frame of mind and
language and terminology used to explain or describe the
nature and meaning of the rituals. Rituals are transformed
from merely a physical activity by a specialized, trained,
mystical intention or mindfulness, kavvanah, which accom-
panies the activities. In this fashion, an outward action is
transformed into a mystical movement of the human will
(Scholem, 1969, p. 126; 1961, p. 34). Similarly,
Kisshomaru Ueshiba, son of the founder, discussed the cul-
tivation of nen as taught by Morihei. It is the essence of
Aikido, a mental concentration of the spirit and the body as
we seek union with the universal reality. These intentions
gave focus to his meditations and his practice. Mindfulness,
nen-kavvanah, transforms ritualistic combat techniques of
Aikido into the means to become one with the universe
(Ueshiba, 1984, pp. 34-39). In this fashion, we move into
new realms and are choosing our path and evolution. It is
through these ritual practices and the emotions they arouse
that the Aikido student may be transformed. It has been
pointed out, for example, that the Aikido technique or
form, known as ikkyo, manifests the characteristic of con-
nectedness, and ones sincere practice of ikkyo in its many
variations both reflects and is reflected in ones sense of con-
nectedness in daily life (Leonard, 1987, p. 13). As a practi-
cal matter, the teacher, as well as advanced students, foster
an understanding of dojo mores. We should go further and
foster an understanding of the context of Aikido.
There is a tendency for students of Aikido to take for
granted the complex and peculiar historical conditions that
permitted them to practice Aikido. It is a form of collective
amnesia forgetting who we are, how we came to be, and
therefore of what we must do to continue to grow. This tak-
ing-for-granted threatens to undermine and eventually
destroy Aikido. The practice of Aikido can itself be trans-
formed as the sacred returns to our field of activity; Aikido
is a gift from the East that continually gives and does not
merely take. What Kabbalah and Moriheis Aikido have in
common, as mentioned earlier, is not a program for correct-
ing weakness so much as one for growth, resiliency, transfor-
mation, and competency, if nothing else. Sefirot Aikido
92 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25
relies upon, fosters, and strengthens human characteristics
such as courage, future mindedness, optimism, interperson-
al skills, faith, work ethic, perseverance, and the capacity for
transcendence, to name a few virtues (e.g., see Seligman &
Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Aikido practice needs to be more
aware of and deliberately help us train and develop the emo-
tional states of mind that often unconsciously influence
rationality and behavior on and off the mat. Kabbalah, once
more, can provide a more accessible framework for this
work.
I have argued that spirituality is essential to the prac-
tice as well as the understanding of Aikido and that, through
dialogue and in other ways, it can and should be incorporat-
ed into both our practice and our awareness when we come
to the dojo. The practice hall should be a place for spiritual
development as well as development and display of techni-
cal virtuosity. But while skills and proficiency are advancing,
Aikido today seems to have lost some of its most positive
attribute, its ability to touch peoples lives, to teach and
incorporate such matters as compassion and empathy
(Nussbaum, 2003). Students often come to the dojo in a
very vulnerable period in their lives. They want, need, and
should get practice partners and teachers who teach more
than techniques without context. We need to do more and
this paper suggests a way of approaching the deeper teach-
ings within Aikido using Kabbalah. This is congruent with
what the founder seems to have envisioned for Aikido and
how he seemed to try to teach it.
To come to practice in the dojo, we must find and pass
through a threshold. As we step onto the mat, we are like a
performer, ready to step out of the wings into the light of
knowingness, self, and transpersonal. We are welcomed
into the kingdom of Aikido, governed by the spirit of Sefirot
Aikido that differs from most other martial arts. We have
approached the bottom-most Sefirah, Realizing
Potentials, also known as Seeds and Into the World,
that already contains the potential for transcendence. It is at
this time that we will begin to learn and practice the rituals
and symbolisms of Aikido and should also begin or contin-
ue to develop ourselves emotionally, intellectually, and spir-
itually in the context of Sefirot Aikido.
Changing old patterns of behavior is not easy and
requires work, as does building a lasting relationship
between Kabbalah and Aikido. But we can learn new pat-
terns and unlearn old patterns of behaving, communicating,
and understanding. As we learn more about ourselves, we
can become more aware of ourselves and control ourselves
better. This process enables us to understand others, antici-
pate their actions, and control them in better ways. We also
learn better ways to relate to people at various levels. This
process takes place in the dojo but also requires some effort
and practice even when we leave the dojo. While practicing,
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 93
it is critically important to learn to intensely concentrate
with seriousness, nen-kavvanah, on what we are doing, such
as on our connection to uke and to the entire company who
are on the mat and in the dojo.
To aid this process of practice can be the function of
the Sefirot Tree and universes of Kotadama. The Sefirot
identify some of the important mental and emotional prin-
ciples that are the focus of our progress in Aikido that par-
allels our spiritual progress. Just as a list of test requirements
is incomplete, so is the Sefirot Tree: both need discussion
and demonstration.
For example, we are told that we should practice
Aikido in a joyful manner and smile when we are thrown
down and are taking ukemi. This advice has a physiological,
emotional, and spiritual component. Physiologically, smil-
ing while falling down will turn a situation that in our ear-
lier experiences may have been painful and something to be
avoided into a normative experience that is neither painful
nor undesirable. From the perspective of Kabbalah, a joyful
mood while praying is necessary because we are serving God
in a joyous manner; this is a spiritual ideal. A person ought
to derive greater pleasure from the joy of serving God ...
than from all the money in the world (Fine, 2003, p. 75).
Here again we find Aikido embodies not just an important
Kabbalistic principle, but also its emotional and physical
aspects, helping in another way to build a lasting connection
among them.
The functions of many of the ritual techniques in
Aikido, as in Kabbalah, exist in many realms. They share
meanings with rituals in general, that is, they convey inten-
tions, show respect, communicate, reduce aggressiveness,
maintain a stable social order. But they also have more spe-
cific meanings within the context of Aikido. According to
Stevens (1987, p. 87), four techniques remained at the core
of Aikido despite the ever-changing nature of the art. The
basic four are irimi, tenkan, shiho-nage, and ikkyo. Our
interpretation of the techniques will change as we look at
them from the perspective of various Sefirah, such as
Endurance or Love, as well as with experience and time, and
our growth and understanding as an individual will also
manifest itself through the techniques (Saotome, 1993).
This also can be said of the heros journey as we approach
the uppermost Sefirah. Here again Kabbalah and Aikido
shine light on each other and strengthen their connections.
We are now able to better appreciate Sefirot Aikido,
the existence foretold in the depiction of the Tree of Life and
Universes of both Kabbalah and Aikido. The Sefirot repre-
sent characteristics of the deity but at the same time are eth-
ical values and emotional expressions of human beings.
They are some of the expectations for behavior that are
practiced within the context of the dojo and have meaning
in our lives as we move about the world and in the commu-
nity. Emotions are performed in the sense that they are a
function of the ways in which we are taught and expected to
behave in relationship to others as we practice and interact
with them and others, outside the dojo, as well as inside. As
such, they should be a matter of discussion, always evolving
and being acted out in dynamic, interactive ways on the
mat. In this light, the Sefirot, much like Aikido techniques,
are presented as nodes or constellations of values and not
fixed in stone. They are symbolic clusters linked by associa-
tion. As we move up from the Universe of Action, Sachi-
mitama, the shades of meaning of the Sefirot change, as do
the techniques. Sefirot are like prisms that contain all light
and colors and reveal them as we turn, roll, grow, on our
journey from the hidden self toward self-revelation (Green,
2004).
Aikido is physically demanding, it is capable of bring-
ing up hidden emotions of all kinds ... but also forces ... [us]
constantly to look for the meaning of ... [our] experience
(Heiny, 1993, p. 15). When we are physically threatened or
attacked on the mat or off, it may bring up competitiveness,
anger, fear, jealousy, hatred, and other negative feelings.
Rituals for awareness and equanimity, learned and practiced
in the dojo, plant the seeds for successful passage in martial
and spiritual terms. They connect us with ourselves, teach us
emotional control, and teach us how to connect and bene-
ficially control others. Martial techniques require that we
learn these methods, develop our awareness, then learn to
respond to the opponent intent on attacking, even before
uke strikes. The ability to anticipate attacks requires train-
ing. Equanimity while threatened or under attack, begins
here (e.g., controlling mental and physical states involving
breath and reflex control, among other behaviors and feel-
ings).
Embedding Sefirot into Aikido Practice
What tools do we need to have in order to bring about
changes available to us in Sefirot Aikido? Mitsugi Saotome
(1993, p. 204) mentions that, when he teaches an Aikido
class, he will emphasize a particular movement or feeling,
or a different way of seeing a technique. The ritualized
movements are richly symbolic and reveal their inner nature
as light passing through a prism. The Sefirot and Aikido
techniques have this in common; each is composed of layer
upon layer of meaning. The outermost layers are most acces-
sible to the student and perhaps comprise the self-defense
expression of Sefirot Aikido. Even when practicing a well-
known irimi, this does not mean that we should have noth-
ing in mind. On the contrary, the practice is to be accom-
panied by nen-kavvanah. The basis of the nen-kavvanah is
the various symbolic meanings of a particular Sefirah and its
relationship to the technique we are constructing on the mat
at that time. The class may be instructed that during this
Special Topic: Syncretism in Transpersonal Studies 93
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 94

practice the Irimi is paired with the Sefirah of Rigor, which

represents a cluster of symbols that we imagine also includes
punishment, sternness, or destruction. A rigorous irimi is
different from a courageous irimi in terms of mind-set and
physicality; and we become aware of how we feel and enter
differently.
Sefirot Aikido can help enrich Aikido practice and
personal life, since competencies in Aikido are more than
technical skill. Some specific areas in which the two can be
incorporated into regular practice involve ikkyo, tenkan,
breathing, and ukemi exercises. One tool for this that can be
used in the dojo is to place near the mats 5x8 flashcards
(sometimes a single card, sometimes more than one) on
which a Sefirah name or various names are written, where
they can be seen during practice sessions. Still another
method of embedding Kabbalah in Aikido practice involves
what are referred to as warm-up exercises done without a
partner, for example irimi-tenkan and ikkyo movements.
The former is a practice in entering and turning that can be
done while vocalizing the Sefirot names in the right branch
and left branch of the Tree: Endurance, Courage, Love,
Rigor, Imagination, Understanding. The ikkyo practice is a
somewhat vertical movement, hands close together and
moving straight up in front of the face, coming off of the
back foot. Instead of counting as the movement is often
Figure 2. Ritual Practice in Aikido.
done, the names of the Sefirot in the tree trunk can be
repeated: Potentials, Awareness, Equanimity, Transcendence. Universe of Creation- continuing ritual practices from
In this way the richness of ritual movements that are being lower universes; learning latent meanings of language and
practiced are embodied and balanced by a rich moral con- actions; developing fundamental harmony of understand-
text. Over time, the Sefirot may interact with techniques, ings; focus on Love, Rigor, Equanimity
rituals, and worlds and universes in diverse and creative Universe of Formation-continuing ritual practices
ways. This is how we can move eventually from the outer- from lower universe, irimi, and so forth; meditation; rituals
most to the innermost meanings. Overall, Sefirot Aikido for control of kokyu, harmony, and blending among, the
contains and employs physical, mental, and emotional ele- limbic, cognitive, and neuromuscular systems; focus on
ments that reveal new aspects and stages in the journey from Courage, Endurance
utter hidden oneness to self-revelation. Universe of Action- learn performative rituals: irimi,
The same technique does not need to be practiced tenkan, shiho-nage, ikkyo, suwari-waza; body control;
over and over, since each application is only one narrow stress inoculation; language; reflexes; breathing; focus on
reflection of an infinite process and the Sefirot Tree is best Awareness, Realizing Potentials, Transcendence.
seen as a useful guide. It is an elaboration of the earlier Tree
with Aikido techniques and Sefirot added at appropriate Conclusion
levels. The ritual practice techniques are the ones Morihei The spiritual dimensions of life are among the most
apparently felt were basic to Aikido, whereas using the important cultural factors structuring human experience,
Sefirot at each level may lead progressively up the Tree to the beliefs, values, and behavior. Yet this dimension of life has
transpersonal. Some techniques may take many years to been largely ignored in much of contemporary Aikido. Just
reach Understanding and perhaps more to ultimately mas- as the psychiatric profession has moved to reintroduce spir-
ter. ituality into its practice (Lukoff, Lu, Turner, 1995), so
Figure 2 may be described as well in this fashion: should Aikidoand its insularity from matters of such great
Universe of Emanation-continuing ritual practices importance to the individual and the group should end.
from lower universes; rituals of unity and coordination of Sefirot Aikido, combining Aikido with Kabbalah, offers an
mind, body, and spirit; focus on Imagination, avenue for mutually, agreeably, and profitably supporting
Understanding, Transcendence, Realizing Potentials each tradition to the benefit of both. As Morihei said: To

94 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25

journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 95
fully implement[Aikido] you must be able to sport freely
in the manifest, hidden, and divine realms (Ueshiba, 1992,
p. 111). In sum, there are a number of ways in which Aikido
can contribute to Kabbalah, as follows:
1. Aikido may be seen as the return to the Western world
of a gift (e.g., Genesis [25:6] relates that Abraham gave
gifts to his sons by his concubines and sent them away
eastward, to the east country); from this Biblical per-
spective, Aikido may have been one of these gifts;
2. Aikido practice expresses many of the fundamental and
universal truths of Kabbalah and can be a way of nego-
tiating between the mysticism of Kabbalah and the
highly refined and concrete principles of Aikido, such as
centeredness, connection, leading, and extension;
3. While Kabbalah has an orientation toward the transcen-
dent, it may be useful to also focus this on self-defense
needs, especially in the urban environment that exists in
most Western and Western-style countries;
4. Aikido provides a way to both embody and ground
Kabbalah in the physical world, as a threshold through
which meaning that transcends us may enter our lives;
Aikido can challenges us and reveals ancient skills that
we may not have known existed such that, through
Aikido dojo practice, Kabbalah can fulfill its aim to be
active in the world at both the individual and commu-
nity levels and not just speculative and theoretical;
5. Aikido can be culturally neutral, which is positive in the
sense that it allows many people to interact with others
with whom they may have nothing in common, but is
negative in the sense that many aspects of society which
could be shared are ignored, whereas Kabbalah can help
Aikido overcome this deficiency;
6. Aikido can give Kabbalah a place to practice (e.g., in the
dojo);
7. Aikido skills support positive feeling that enable the
development of positive traits symbolized in Kabbalah;
8. Aikido practice is a way of negotiating between the mys-
ticism of Kabbalah and the highly refined and concrete
principles of Aikido, such as centeredness, equanimity,
and connection; and
9. Aikido practice expresses, as it also embodies, the funda-
mental and universal truths of Kabbalah.
Similarly, Kabbalah can contribute to Aikido, as follows:
1. Kabbalah can remind Aikido that the heart of mysticism
contains a certain category of experiences that are
beyond rational thought or ordinary sense perception,
such as how Aikido principles can be located within the
Kabbalistic Tree of Life;
2. Kabbalah can enrich Aikido practice as a way of finding
the sacred in the mundane;
3. Kabbalah can help Aikido enact such virtues as pru-
dence, temperance, and courage and help define what
kind of moral life we should lead (Atherton, 2001);
4. Kabbalah can help Aikido relocate our intimate connec-
tion with the divine, our unbounded awareness, to
regain cosmic consciousness, without renouncing our-
selves or the world (Matt, 2002);
5. Kabbalah can facilitate Aikidos understanding of how
the intelligence of God emerges from the radiance of
Imagination and gives birth to the lower Sefirot as well
as training rituals, and, from this, can show, in the dojo,
how the wisdom that created Aikido can be transformed
and made practical yet, though constantly changing,
remain true to Ueschibas vision;
6. Kabbalah can provide a framework for Aikido to under-
stand how the creative spark of Aiki emerged from the
Inspiration Sefirah and the manifest or concretization of
Aiki begins to emerge from the incubator of the Sefirah
of Understanding as the hidden and divine attributes
move toward emergence in the spectrum of energies of
the lower seven Sefirot and rituals;
7. Kabbalah can restore to Aikido practice the category of
the sacred and reinforce an ethic of care able to cope
with the great power and abilities Aikido helps us devel-
op;
8. Kabbalah can move the Aikido dojo from a martial arts
practice hall to a moral community of martial artists;
9. Kabbalahs symbolism can command the respect of
Aikido students by incorporating aspirations for tran-
scendence;
10. Kabbalah with Aikido can feed peoples hunger for rit-
ual and cultural tradition;
11. Kabbalah can help Aikido practitioners overcome their
collective amnesia and bring back into consciousness the
history and context of practice, as well as the direction
of future growth and development of Aikido, for those
who practice Aikido; and
12. Kabbalah can explain the origins and gives shape and
larger meaning to the emerging structure and building
blocks of Aikido that, in turn, can make more accessible
the fundamental emotional components or principles of
ki and Aikido practice.
In conclusion, Sefirot Aikido, can be highly beneficial for
both traditions. Moreover, this type of syncretism illustrates
the value of modern transpersonal approaches to build upon
different traditions in synergistic ways, leading to new forms
that may be crucial for human adaptation.
Author Note
Many people contributed to the initiation, develop-
ment, and conclusions of this article. Special thanks to
Harris Friedman who made many important contributions
in form and content. In addition thanks are due to Clyde
Special Topic: Syncretism in Transpersonal Studies 95
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 96

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ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS
Elas Capriles (Venezuela) was born in Caracas,
Venezuela. In the early 1970s he settled in the Indian
subcontinent, running spiritual emergency refuges in
Goa and Katmandu. Since the mid 1970s he studied
Dzogchen with Precious Masters Dudjom Yeshe Dorje,
Thinle Norbu, Dilgo Khyentze, and Namkhai Norbu.
From 1977 through 1982, he spent most of the time
practicing the Dzogchen Upadeshavarga in caves and cab-
ins in the higher Himalayas. In 1983 he returned to
Venezuela and invited Chgyl Namkhai Norbu to estab-
lish the Dzogchen Community there. His works on var-
ious branches of philosophy, psychology, sociology, the
history of civilizations, Buddhism, Dzogchen, and other
subjects have been published in the Indian subcontinent,
South America, Europe, and North America. He sits on
the Board of Editors of the International Journal of
Transpersonal Studies. He is one of the three living
Venezuelans featured in La philosophie en Amrique
Latine (Que sais-je, Presses Universitaires de France); his
work is discussed at greater length in the 2d Ed. of
Panorama de la philosophie ibro-americaine by French
researcher Alain Guy (Spanish version: Universidad
Catlica Cecilio Acosta, Maracaibo, Venezuela); and he
was featured in the section Meet the Researcher of the
Journal of Transpersonal Psychology (Vol. 34, No. 2,
2002). Currently he teaches and does research at the
University of The Andes (Mrida, Venezuela), and teach-
es worldwide Namkhai Norbus gradual Buddhism-and-
Dzogchen Santi Maha Sangha training. His webpage,
http://eliascapriles.dzogchen.ru, sponsored by the Shang
Shung Institute of Italy, contains some of his recent
books in English and a slightly expanded version of the
review in Meet the Researcher.
Paul F. Cunningham (United States) received his B.A.
degree in philosophy from Our Lady of Providence
Seminary (Warwick, RI) in 1971, M.S. degree in educa-
tional psychology from Purdue University in 1975, and
Ph.D. in general/experimental psychology from the
University of Tennessee in 1986. A full-time faculty
member of Rivier College since 1986, he has delivered
numerous presentations throughout the New England
area on assessing education (student) outcomes in higher
education. Serving as treasurer of Psychologists for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals from 1994-1996, and
member of the American Psychological Association and
the Eastern Psychological Association since 1986,
Professor Cunningham was elected 44th President of the
New England Psychological Association in 2003.
Having published mainly on animal use in psychology
experiments and on student choice policies in biology
and psychology education, he has also taught an under-
graduate course on transpersonal psychology at Rivier
College since 1989.
Nikolai Gruzdev (Russia) is a post-graduate student at
the Institute of Human Brain, Russian Academy of
Sciences, in St. Petersburg.
Cornelius J. Holland (Canada) is a Professor Emeritus at
the University of Windsor. He has been interested in
transpersonal psychology and, more specifically, A Course
in Miracles, for a number of years.
Douglas A. MacDonald (Canada/United States) is an
Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the
Clinical Psychology MA Program at the University of
Detroit Mercy. For the past several years, he has been
actively engaged in research in the area of spirituality and
has published a number of articles on its measurement
and relation to psychological functioning. He is co-editor
of the IJTS and research/associate editor of both the
Journal of Humanistic Psychology and the Journal of
Transpersonal Psychology.
P. N. Murthy (India) is a former Professor and Head of
Aeronautics at the Indian Institute of Technology,
Kanpur and a former Head, Systems Engineering and
Cybernetics Centre at the Tata Consultancy Services,
Hyderabad, India. He is an aeronautical engineer inter-
ested in application of systems theory to societal behavior.
P. S. Rao (Malaysia) is Professor of Physiology at the
Asian Institute of Medicine, Science and Technology,
Sungai Petani, Malaysia. His research interest is in brain
- behavior relationships.
Adam Rock (Australia) received his Ph.D. in psychology
from Charles Sturt University in 2005. His research
interests include altered states of consciousness, the
ontology and epistemology of shamanic journeying
imagery, and philosophical problems associated with psy-
chology.
Dimitri Spivak, Ph.D., Dr.Sc. (Russia) is senior research
fellow at the Institute of Human Brain, Russian Academy
of Sciences, in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has published
three books and about 30 papers dedicated to study of
altered states of consciousness since the beginning of the
1980s.
Jack Susman (United States) received his Ph.D. degree
from the University of Maryland and teaches in the
School of Public Health and Health Services, George
Washington University where he lectures on spirituality
in health and health care. He has taught Aikido for more
than twenty years in the U.S. military and in the univer-
sity.
About the Contributors 97
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 98

BOARD OF EDITORS

Harris Friedman, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus
Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center

Douglas A. MacDonald, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
University of Detroit Mercy

BOARD OF EDITORS

Manuel Almendro, Spain

Liora Birnbaum, Israel
Jacek Brewczynski, USA
Sren Brier, Denmark
Elias Capriles, Venezuela
Michael Daniels, Great Britain
John Davis, USA
Don Diespecker, Australia
Wlodzislaw Duch, Poland
James Fadiman, USA
David Fontana, Great Britain
Joachim Galuska, Germany
Laura Boggio Gilot, Italy
Loyd Henriksen, Norway
Daniel Holland, USA
Bruno Just, Australia
Sean Kelly, Canada/USA
Jeffrey Kuentzel, USA
S. K. Kiran Kumar, India
Charles Laughlin, Canada
Olga Louchakova, USA
Axel Randrup, Denmark
Mario Simes, Portugal
Charles Tart, USA
Rosanna Vitale, Canada
John Welwood, USA

98 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2006, Volume 25

journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 99
journal 25 v25 11/16/06 10:18 AM Page 100

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