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Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (SES) Chris Desser

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Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (SES) Chris Desser This and several other reviews were contained in the celebrations of Ken's work that we recently posted to KenWilber.com. The editors of the site went through the archives and pulled out dozens of old reviews, containing mostly positive criticism, and put them together as a type of celebration of Ken's work over the past 25 years. For the full collections, please see: Meta-genius: A Celebration of Ken’s Writings—Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 * * * Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (SES) Chris Desser Ken Wilber’s Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (“SES”) is an important book arriving at a critical moment. More than a remarkable synthesis of the evolution of Indo European philosophical, psychological, sociological, and scientific ideas, SES cogently makes the case that the integration of various differentiated realms--science, art, and morality; male and female; ecology, technology and spirituality; I, we, and it--is the central task for this fractured, postmodern time, indeed that evolution and our survival depend on our success. Copyright © 2007 KenWilber.com. All Rights Reserved. My own endeavors and interests traverse similar territory (i.e., spirituality, psychology, philosophy, ecology) and encompass similar concerns (exploring and understanding the opportunities for, and conditions necessary to, evolving toward ever greater levels of consciousness). As an environmentalist I have encountered the “flatland” mentality of many environmental activists and thinkers. I also meditate (vipassana) and in the last couple of years have spent a lot of time on retreat. I find the exclusively “ascended” perspective of vipassana troubling, but the practice of great value. Recently I have been grappling with how to reconcile--or integrate--the “descended” nature of my work with the “ascended” nature of my practice. I have been frustrated by the inability of participants in those two realms to understand the importance of the other (this problem is succinctly summarized by Wilber at p. 521). Thus I read SES with particular interest, noting questions and observations along the way. (All the page numbers refer to SES.) Although my work has been in the realm of environmental activism, my concern is the evolution of consciousness. I have focused on the environment for two reasons: first, because I believe that without an ecologically intact planet, there won’t be a place from which human consciousness can evolve (this is where we live now; or as Wilber puts it “destruction of the biosphere guarantees destruction of the noosphere” (p. 94)); second, because environmental degradation is causing significant harm and suffering and I feel compelled to help alleviate that, however modestly. My background includes undergraduatehood at Berkeley in the early seventies. I studied philosophy (Searle, Feyerabend, Dreyfuss, etc.), linguistics, cognition and rhetoric (the department where structuralism and semiotics lived). My interest in these Copyright © 2007 KenWilber.com. All Rights Reserved. subjects remains unabated and integral to my thinking about the work I do. Rarely, however, do I meet anyone who understands the relevance of these matters to ecology or activism. Few people understand environmentalism in terms of the continuing evolution of consciousness or spirit. And I do not often encounter writers and thinkers who meaningfully connect these dots. From this perspective it was both exciting and a relief to read SES because it ameliorated a sort of intellectual isolation that I experience when I try to talk about my work in a comprehensive context or why I do it. It is also germane that, for the past five years I have been quite committed to psychoanalysis. The woman I work with is a Jungian, but not doctrinal about it. “Therapy” and “adaptation” were not my goals in embarking on this endeavor. Rather, I was and remain interested in the potential of my own cognitive and spiritual development and I am committed to living life as meaningfully and authentically as possible. The unfolding of the process has been fascinating and quite unexpected. From The Eco Perspective I believe the evolution of consciousness (and spirit, as Wilber discusses it in terms of Schelling at pp. 486-93) depends on ecological sustainability. Sustainability, however can only be achieved if people come to understand the interrelationship and interconnectedness of life on this planet and modify their behavior accordingly (this obviously entails individual development of the Basic Moral Intuition (p. 612) and, thus, each person’s own evolution). As an activist I have been interested in creating contexts or frames of reference within which this development can occur without running into the limitations of some deep ecology approaches. Copyright © 2007 KenWilber.com. All Rights Reserved. The reason that I believe sustainability, which entails maintaining ecosystemic integrity, is so important is not based on some “web of life theory,” but precisely because, nature is both evidence of Nature, and, for many, a way into it (which Wilber also recognizes at p. 471). My own earliest experience of spirit or Nature (and “kosmos”) were (and continue to be but are not exclusively) through unmediated experiences in nature. This body and this planet provide the means and opportunity for coming to consciousness. While there may be other ways and means of accessing spirit or Nature, right now they all require a place and a body so it seems unwise to destroy them. In addition, of course, we depend upon nature in the biospheric sense for our very survival and as a reminder that we do not live in entirely human constructed realms, which can seem to be the case in these mall-proliferating times. Humans may have more depth and complexity than trees, carrots and dirt, but the things that humans fabricate generally do not. And those things are reducing the complexity of the biosphere (rendering species extinct and diminishing biodiversity as we destroy temperate and tropical rain forests, eliminating top soil in favor of condos and development, poisoning air and water with pollution and effluent, etc.) thereby impairing prospects for our healthy survival (and evolution) as well as the survival (and evolution) of the other (more “fundamental”) things (“holons”) that comprise the biosphere and support our (more “significant”) existence. As one way of heightening public awareness about the importance of complexity and biodiversity to human survival and evolution, I have been developing a project which links communities based upon the migratory species that pass through them. It is a way, perhaps, to help achieve that “integrative mode of awareness that will integrate the Copyright © 2007 KenWilber.com. All Rights Reserved. biosphere and noosphere in a higher and deeper union” (p 169) because the seasonal migrations of many species simply and effectively illustrate the interconnectedness and interdependence of life on this planet and the whole/part nature of things. People live within a local ecosystem that is whole and has intrinsic value in and of itself, not merely as a “strand in the wonderful web.” The whales or butterflies or birds that pass through comprise an integral part of that ecosystem. At the same time, however, those creatures are similarly “parts” of and integral to the other ecosystems along the migratory route (or nectar corridor or web--however the path is called or defined) and thus, the “part” nature of a particular ecosystem is also obvious, as well as the fact that the corridor, or route is more “significant” (biospherically) in that it encompasses more as a system and at a higher level, while each place along the way is more “fundamental” in that the route requires it for its integrity (and viable functioning). In any event, it begins to be a way to develop an awareness of the need for an environmental ethics that is based on rights and relationships (not unlike what Wilber advocates at pp. 517-20) because if any place along the route is despoiled, the whole route is imperiled. In addition to understanding the ecological (biospheric) context of a particular species, the project also emphasizes the place of that creature (holon) in the noosphere. It encourages people to investigate and understand the cultural (LL, using Wilber’s quadrants), artistic (UL) and social (LR) manifestations of a species in the various communities along the route, i.e., how has that bird or that butterfly or that fish appeared in the art, music, and spirituality of a people and a place? How has that creature fit into the economy of a place? The project then encourages people to look beyond their own Copyright © 2007 KenWilber.com. All Rights Reserved. place and ask those questions of the other places along the route. This necessarily involves contact with other people in other places. At every level atomism (wholeness) leads to relationship (partness), and (one hopes), and understanding of whole/partness and “sliding contexts”. My hope is that an understanding of commonality along a shared migratory corridor will emerge and give rise to the “healing impulse…that comes from championing not [merely] functional fit (Lower Right) but mutual understanding (Lower Left) and interior qualitative distinctions (Upper Left).” (p. 148). The project began to take shape a couple of years ago as I stood by Lake Yam Drok Tso, one of the most sacred lakes in Tibet, and watched the ongoing construction of a Chinese hydroelectric power plant adjacent to it. The plant is expected to cause the lake to drop about seven inches a year over the next fifty years. Tibetan spiritual tradition holds that if and when Yam Drok Tso evaporates, the whole of Tibet will perish. In addition to the spiritual implications of this desecration for Tibetans, this drop will have significant environmental consequences and local weather patterns will be affected. Substantial water loss is likely to lower rainfall in the area damaging the barley crops, the staple food of Tibet.
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