The Self
Reflections on a Talk by Ken Wilber
“The net result is a freedom and a fullness that wasn’t previously realized.”
-from Ken Wilber’s talk
“The aim of the practice is to end suffering in the discovery of an unconditioned and complete freedom.”
-from the Spirit Rock Meditation Center website section, “Vipassana 101”
Truly I have attained nothing from total enlightenment.
-The Buddha
I’ve often been puzzled during discussions following the recorded dharma talks we listen to in our meditation group. It often seems like we are talking about two completely different truths and two completely different intentions. After listening to a talk by Ken Wilber, I realized that we are often discussing two different truths without knowing it. This confusion I have exists not only in our discussions, but also in the talks themselves and, indeed, in the ancient and more recent scriptures of the world’s religions, including Buddhism, that are often sources for the talks.
Ken Wilber’s discussion drew me in immediately when he expressed the possibility of having both Absolute Truth (freedom) and relative truth (fullness). To do so, however, requires having some clarity about how truth is related to our concept of the “self.” My reflections here are an attempt to see more clearly what the “self” is, what its relationship to relative and Absolute Truth might be, how such clarity might deepen our understanding of the spiritual journey of exile and return, and how we too might have “freedom and fullness.”
There are three selves:
- The “dream” self – relative truth: a playful, illusory dream which leads to fullness.
- No-Self – Absolute Truth: the Truth which leads to freedom.
- The adult self: a synthesis of the self and No-Self which leads to freedom and fullness.
A comparison of the self, No-Self, and the adult self.
| The Self | No-Self | The Adult Self |
| Relative truth: all beliefs are true in certain contexts and with particular perspectives | Absolute Truth: no belief is true | Synthetic truth: Absolute Truth is relative truth |
| Leads to fullness | Leads to freedom | Leads to fullness and freedom |
| Something
(“Whatever, Buddha. Anyway, getting back to something…”) |
Nothing
(“Truly, I have obtained nothing from total enlightenment” –Buddha) |
Nothing pretends it’s something, without identification |
| World | No world | The world is illusory. “No world” only is real. “No world” is the world. |
| Body, heart, and mind | No body, no heart, and no mind | No Body projects Mind, Mind projects heart, body, and everything else. |
| Characters | No characters | “No-characters” direct and act in a play or movie, not identifying with any of the characters |
| Ego | No ego | Completely detached from ego, and so enjoys it immensely and is amused by its antics |
| Role | No actor, no roles | Actors play roles. The actors have no qualities themselves |
| Identity. Identification with objects, especially the “self.” | No identity and nothing with which to identify. | Enjoys the dream self and dream world, without identification with any of their contents. Identity without identification. |
| Denies No-Self | Denies the self | Doesn’t deny either self or No-Self. Knows one is true and one isn’t. Enjoys both freedom and fullness, the Truth and the dream, without identification. |
| Self | No-Self | Self is an illusory projection of No-Self |
| Form | Formless | Enjoys form, knowing it is an unreal manifestation of Formlessness |
| Imaginary | True | Denying the self doesn’t meet a need for play or imagination. Denying the Truth doesn’t meet the need for satisfaction – the only true satisfaction there is. |
| Present | Absent | Present in absence, absent in presence. |
| Many purposes, the chief of which may be growth and development of the self | No purpose | Enjoys finding purpose in the dream world, but doesn’t identify with it or any outcomes |
| People and things matter | Nothing matters, nothing to matter, and no matter in the first place | Enjoys people, things, mattering, and matter, knowing they don’t matter |
| Using space to move, act, create, and change | There is no space. “Truth hath no confines.” | Enjoys space in the dreamscape, spacelessly |
| Improvement of self and the world is possible and desirable | There is no self and no world to improve | Enjoys self-improvement in the dream state, with utter and unvarying perfection |
| Conventional language | There is no language. | Able to hear and understand the language both of the dream self and No-Self. Knows which is which.
Any attempts to describe the No-Self tends to use unconventional language, since the thing to be described is ineffable. The language is often odd, confusing, paradoxical, and hard to understand in the dream world. |
| A traveler yells to the Mullah Nasrudin, on the opposite bank of a river: “How do I get across?” The Mullah yells back, “You already are across!” Relative truth: the traveler is across the river from the Mullah’s point of view. | Absolute Truth: you already are across in the sense that you can never not be across. There is no river and none to cross in the first place. | Enjoys crossing the river, knowing that one is always already across. |
| Time allows life, action, and growth | There is no time | Enjoys the dream of time timelessly |
| Drama | No drama | Enjoys drama undramatically |
| Suffering | No suffering and none to suffer | Enjoys suffering without identification and therefore without suffering. Weeps for the suffering and laughs knowing it is self-inflicted and untrue |
| The agony and the ecstasy | No agony, no ecstasy | Stands in gratitude and awe of the agony and ecstasy, knowing they are not true |
| Samsara on a hamster wheel | No samsara, no hamsters, no hamster wheel | Enjoys the hamster wheel of samsara laughing in hamsterlessness |
| Of the world | Not of the world | In the world, but not of it – i.e., not identified with it |
| Ascends through states and stages, well-delineated by psychology and religion: “transcend and include,” as Ken Wilber says, until there is no boundary | No states, no stages | Enjoys supporting its dream characters in self-realization |
| Progressive increase in the number of perspectives or views with time, practice, and intention | No perspective is true | Enjoys all perspectives in the dream state, not identifying with any of them. |
| Tends to more sublime expression: music? | Tends to silence and stillness, or perhaps absence of everything including silence and stillness | Enjoys the music, yet hears the Silence behind it |
| Cataphatic: “Tat Tvam Asi:” I am That too. | Apophatic, “neti, neti:” not that, not that. | Follows the cataphatic to Fullness, and the apophatic to Emptiness: Emptiness is Fullness. |
| The universe, “the 10,000 things” | Nothing | Enjoys dancing with a universe and “10,000 things that don’t exist |
| Affective (metta) and cognitive (vipassana) meditation | No meditation and none to meditate | Happy to meditate, but without identification with the meditator. Perhaps a preference for “null” directed meditation as a reminder of the Truth of No-Self |
| Asleep and dreaming | Enlightenment, with none to be enlightened | Lucid dreaming: awake in the dream-state |
| Highest state is that of the mystic, the All without separation or boundary | No state | Seeks the highest state of the self just for the fun of it, but always without identification with the self or the state, no matter how majestic or miserable. |
| The content of most scripture, sermons, dharma talks, and philosophy | Although buried in discussions about the self, is nevertheless included to some extent in all of the world’s religions and, argued by some, to be the underlying and unifying Truth common to all wisdom traditions. | Descriptions of this are relatively rare |
| Context is everything | No context | “Put yourself in the middle of things, and then forget you are there.” |
| Control or hope for control | No things to be controlled or uncontrolled | All things are controlled without things and without control. By releasing all control, is in perfect control. By controlling nothing, controls everything. Can only lose control by taking control. |
| Free will vs. fate | No free will and no fate | Enjoys pretending there is both free will and fate, knowing they are illusions of the dream state |
| Things are important | Nothing is important | Nothing is important, but enjoys preferences in the dream |
| Karma | No Karma | Karma is drama. Enjoys it Karmalessly |
| Caramels | No caramels | No caramels. Enjoys caramels caramelessly |
| Thought | No thought | Enjoys thoughts, but doesn’t believe any of them |
| Beliefs | No beliefs | Beliefs, but no belief is true |
| Self and problems | No self, no problem | No self, no problem: enjoys the problems! |
| Cheeseburgers | No cheeseburgers | No cheeseburgers. But look! There’s a cheeseburger! |
| Everything else you’ve learned. | The Perennial Philosophy
The Lectio Mystica Hui Neng |
Jed McKenna
Ken Wilber Byron Katie Eckhart Tolle |
| Philosophy and religion | No philosophy and no religion
Hui Neng Nisargadatta |
The Perennial Philosophy
The Lectio Mystica Jed McKenna Ken Wilber Byron Katie Eckhart Tolle |
| Facts | No facts | Enjoys the fact that facts are jokes |
| No ultimate satisfaction, and therefore suffering | None to be satisfied and none to suffer | Satisfaction due to detachment from the one who suffers |
| The universe holds consciousness | No universe, and no consciousness | Consciousness holds the universe as a tiny, illusory, and magnificent dot, unconsciously |
| Multiple possible concepts of God, including Humanity (atheism), Nature, Science, Presence, the Oneness of All Things, or God, among many others | No God and no concept of God | “No God” enjoying the search for Itself through one or another illusory concepts of God. |
| The world will end someday (maybe sooner than we think). | No world, no beginning, no ending | No world, but enjoys watching the end of the world in a movie called “Reality.” |
| All | None | None is all. |
| Dancing | No dancing and no dancers | Enjoys dancing with its own projections |
| Imperfection | Neither perfection nor imperfection. | All things are perfect in their imperfection |
| Compassion and hatred | Neither compassion nor hatred | Enjoys both compassion and hatred, knowing they are illusory |
| Physical | Neither physical nor metaphysical | Metaphysics is physics: that which is outside or beside the physical world is the physical world |
| Finite | Neither finite nor infinite | Finite forms are the means by which the Infinite recognizes itself. |
| Knowers, knowing, and known. | No knower, no knowing, and nothing to be known | Knows knowinglessly |
| In contradictions, only one is true | There are no contradictions and no paradox. Only Truth is. Untruth is not. | In contradictions, both are true as paradox. On the journey to adulthood, seemingly contradictory instructions may be helpful at different times. For instance: “struggle harder!” and “don’t struggle!” |
Some thoughts:
- A “rightward” jump from the self to the adult self can happen at any level of development in the dream world, but it’s not easy.
- Attempts to give some description of No-Self, no matter how luminous, are inherently inaccurate and will not generally be well-received other than by “those who have ears to hear.” Be careful out there! If you’re going to tell people the truth, be funny. Otherwise they’ll kill you.
- There doesn’t need to be tension between the self and No-Self, as long as one or the other isn’t denied. The self without No-Self is ultimately unsatisfying. No-Self without the dream self misses all the fun and drama of a make-believe soap opera. Don’t touch that dial!
- Everyone is always No-Self, but the “realization” doesn’t usually happen until death. It can happen in life through the process of continuous non-identification with any material or immaterial object. You must die to the self to be born of the spirit, you only possess that which cannot be lost in a shipwreck, and all that. No-Self is what’s left after the work is done. Then, back to regularly scheduled programming, as an adult. The show of the everyday world is now brighter and funnier.
- Philosophy, psychology, and the world’s religions can be sources of confusion as they sometimes mix up the self and No-Self without clarifying which is which and without providing a clear map to an easy synthesis in the adult self. Once there is clarity about the self and No-Self, with both (as an adult self), you can have your cake and eat it too: enjoy the fullness, radiance, multiplicity, and drama of the dream-state without suffering since there is no identification. All suffering is the result of identification with form.
- Suppose you think you are taking a walk with some friends, but then you wake up and realize it was all a dream. Then imagine that you fall asleep again, but the waking part of you finds a way to remain awake. You once again dream that you are walking with friends but this time you say, “Hey, this is a dream!” Your friends declare you to be crazy.