The Religion of Tomorrow Quotes

“Put this all a different way, and perhaps the importance of this fact will become clear: the very key to your growth, development, and evolution is to make your present subject an object—that is, it is to look at your present subject instead of using it as something through which to view the world (and thus remain identified with).”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“As Wittgenstein said, “If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present.”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“ALL you are actually ever aware of is this timeless Now.”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions-More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“It is possible to remake this world because you - the very deepest you - are its one and only Author, its sole Creator. But it - you - are not alone, because the deepest Self of this deepest you is looking out through the eyes of every sentient being alive, including all 9 billion humans on the planet. You can remake the world because you possess 18 billion hands, more than enough to reshape and refigure all that needs to be done. Feel the unimaginable creative power of this one and only I AMness, and know that anything is possible.”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions-More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“One is the “Big Mind Process” developed by Genpo Dennis Merzel Roshi, a senior dharma successor of Maezumi Roshi. Based in part on the Stones’ Voice Dialogue Technique, Big Mind engages the practitioner in a series of dialogue investigations of various types of self—from the controller to the seeker to the wounded child to the protector. The dialogue simply proceeds with things like, “Let me speak to the controller,” the teacher requests. “Who are you?” “I’m the controller,” the student responds, as the controlling self comes to the fore. “What is your goal? What do you do? How do you operate?”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“And scholars of the mystical, or esoteric, or inner teachings of the world’s Great Traditions are fairly unanimous in saying that although the outer teachings of each tradition are considerably different, often even contradictory, the inner esoteric teachings, the teachings based not on beliefs but on direct spiritual experiences of Waking Up, show a remarkable similarity in what they say, which is why the mystics of virtually all the world’s religions have great ease in understanding each other, even as their exoteric brethren argue themselves silly.”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“There is a phrase for this that has become quite common: “I’m spiritual but not religious.” Polls show that some 20 percent of Americans identify overall with that phrase. And some polls have shown that, in the younger generation—those between eighteen and twenty-nine—this percentage explodes to an astonishing 75 percent!2 In other words, three out of four young individuals have a deep spiritual yearning that no existing religion is addressing.”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“When asked questions like “Is there an inside or outside to Big Mind?” everybody answers, “No.” “Is time present?” “Does Big Mind come or go?” “Do you see it out there?” are all answered, “No.” By spending a good deal of time calling forth and talking to the small, relative, finite, object selves, consciousness itself more and more dis-identifies with them, seeing them as an object, and thus comes closer and closer to the pure Witness, or pure Observing Self, or Absolute Subjectivity per se, and thus is more and more open to falling into ever-present nondual Big Mind itself in a moment’s notice.”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“Then next up might be, “Let me speak to the wounded child,” and so on, as up to a dozen different selves are called forth and dialogued with. At the end of an hour or so of this, the teacher says, “Let me speak to Big Mind.” And in something like over 95 percent of the cases, the individual will have a direct, immediate, authentic experience of ultimate Nondual Awareness, or Big Mind. I have participated in this process several times, and seen it done many more, and I am always stunned at how effective and profound the process really is, introducing individuals to a genuine experience of the Awakened Mind, in however an introductory fashion.”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“What do you want?” and so on might be a few of the questions asked and responded to.”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“As for the Enneagram, it is a sophisticated typology consisting of nine basic types, numbered from 1 to 9, whose names describe them well: (1) the perfectionist, (2) the giver, (3) the performer, (4) the romantic, (5) the observer, (6) the questioner, (7) the epicure, (8) the protector, and (9) the mediator.”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“As we saw, Gilligan’s work suggested that men tend to reason in terms of autonomy, rights, agency, justice, and ranking; and women in terms of relationship, care, responsibility, communion, and nonranking (with individual men and women capable of any of those across the whole spectrum).”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“And so I trust that, in addition to reading about my suggestions and priorities, each of you will contemplate your own ideas and possibilities, and will bring them forward on any of the forums that will emerge to discuss this most significant of issues facing the modern and postmodern world, all around a common theme: “Just how inclusive do you want to be?”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“(the average millennial gets or sends eighty-eight messages a day).”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“In the United States, for example, almost 60 percent of the population today is “churched”—hence likely at a Mythic or lower level (correlatively, Robert Kegan, in In Over Our Heads, estimates that 3 out of 5 Americans, 60 percent, are at Mythic or lower)—whereas in northern Europe, only 11 percent are churched. But the leading edge, in any event, and the mainstream cultural background philosophy, is Rational/Pluralistic, and NO GOD is its credo.”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“(This is also why an astonishing 20 percent of the population of the United States identifies with the phrase “I’m spiritual but not religious.” “Spiritual” almost always means some form of direct, 1st-person, immediate, authentic spiritual experience; and “religious” almost always means the standard, institutional, mythic-membership, fundamentalist version of “religion.” One poll, reported in the New Monasticism, showed an astonishing 75 percent of Millennials identified with that phrase. These are truths that are increasingly seeping into the culture at large, and all religions, sooner or later, will be forced to confront these very real issues.)”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“Of all the definitions of “human” provided over the ages—from the “political animal” to the “symbolic animal”—probably the most accurate is the “role-taking animal,” the capacity to see not only what one is oneself seeing but to put oneself in the shoes of an other and see the world as that other is seeing it.”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“A good way to explore those kinds of responses is to ask, “Just whose voice is that? Mom’s? Dad’s? A sibling’s? An early friend’s?” This is the opposite of projection, called “introjection,” the internalizing of an alien, false voice into your mind as if it were yours. In these cases, you don’t re-own that voice; you toss it out! So keep that possibility in mind as well. Most people have extensive nets of introjections—internalized opinions, directives, commands, drives, or notions—that they got from their parents, early teachers, close friends, and especially the culture at large. These internalized networks, part of what we call “the embedded unconscious,” are just that: embedded opinions and directives, whose internalized nature we are totally unaware of, but that tell us insistently what to think about virtually everything out there, and “in here” as well, and a significant part of shadow work is directly looking for the elements of this embedded network of introjections and then ejecting—dis-identifying with—these embedded introjected notions.”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“Step Four: Be It. Now, switch roles entirely. When it responds, you sit in its chair, and you yourself become the problem (person, monster, issue, and so forth). Identify with it. Speak in the dialogue as it, not to it. And speak to your regular self, sitting in the chair in front of you. Feel what it is like to be this symptom that is intentionally causing another person—the person sitting in the chair in front of you—these problems. It is here that you have to be the most observant and the most open. When the person (the regular you) sitting in front of you (as problem) asks, “Why are you doing this to me?” you have to be able to step into a role of someone who might be extremely mean-spirited and demeaning: “Because you’re a stupid little moron, and you deserve to suffer.” “You’ve always been a huge disappointment to me because you can’t do anything right.”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“Step Three: Talk with It. Ask it numerous questions, and listen carefully to what it has to say. “Why are you here?” “What do you want?” “Why are you doing this to me?” “Where did you come from?” “How long have you been here?” “When did you start?” If it doesn’t know the answer to any of these questions, ask it to guess. “Well, you say you don’t know why you’re here. Why do you think you’re here?” When it asks you a question, answer it, and see how the problematic person or entity responds; you might even ask the problem issue what it (or he or she or them) thought of your answer. Get to know it directly as a living, breathing, creative, next-door neighbor, a person addressed in the 2nd person, converting it from a 3rd-person “him,” “her,” “them,” or “it” directly into a 2nd-person “you” or “thou.” The more you do each of these steps, the more likely you will already notice a certain diminution of the symptom itself. Then finally:”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“Step Two: Face It. Once you have a good deal of videotape of the problematic item, then face it. If the symptom seems to be triggered by a particular person, then locate that person in your mind, and face him or her (or them). It might help to sit in a chair and put another “empty chair” in front of you. Put the problem in the empty chair—the person, monster, image, event, or simply the symptom itself (depression, anxiety, fear, envy).”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“So the steps in 3-2-1 are: Find it, Face it, Talk to it, Be it. Step One: Find It. Locate the symptom, pressure, pain, image, person, or thing that seems to be the core of the problem—the fear, anxiety, depression, obsession, jealousy, envy, anger. Locate it, and notice everything about it—the symptoms themselves (the uncomfortable feelings generated by the problematic person, place, or event). Notice its location in your body (for example, head, eyes, chest, breasts, arms, shoulders, stomach, gut, genitals, thighs, lower legs, feet, toes, perhaps single muscles or muscle groups, sometimes bodily organ systems—digestive, urinary, reproductive, respiratory, circulatory, neuronal). Notice its general size, color, shape, smell, texture (whatever comes to mind when you think any of those elements). Notice what seems to most trigger it, what seems to soothe it, and activities that often accompany it (for example, increased heart rate, increased breathing, particular muscle tightening, headaches, difficulty swallowing, sexual inadequacy or disinterest). Don’t judge them as good or bad, positive or negative. Just pretend that you are videotaping them, taking pictures of them, exactly as they are, not as you want or wish them to be—you are aiming for just a simple, comprehensive mindfulness of them. Get a lot of plain neutral videotape on every aspect of the problem. Get it fully in your awareness as an object.”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“Dr. Roger Walsh, as I mentioned, is a psychiatrist and a Buddhist teacher. When he teaches meditation retreats, he often has daily sessions where he meets with individual students one-on-one and addresses the issues that are coming up in their meditation practice specifically and their life in general. And he says that around 80 percent of the issues that come up are mostly psychotherapeutic, not spiritual or meditative, and so he responds with therapeutic techniques and suggestions, not meditative or spiritual ones. If he’s anywhere near typical, then meditation teachers in particular (and spiritual teachers in general) who are not also using therapeutic techniques are giving responses to their students that are off the mark 80 percent of the time, and thus not ultimately helpful, or not as helpful as they could be.”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“As my Dzogchen teacher said, “Come back when you can show me something that does not have a beginning in time.”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“This gives the feeling, vis-à-vis time, that you are not moving through time, but rather time is moving through you (that is, through your awareness), with your being not moving at all. It’s like sitting in a movie theater and, without moving from your seat, having the entire scenery move past you (and if the you is “headless,” then in you).”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“dozen multiple intelligences—cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence, moral intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, kinesthetic intelligence, logico-mathematical intelligence, spiritual intelligence, aesthetic intelligence, and so on.”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“If not, they will once again contract and move down, to the lowest state possible, the gross, egoic realm, and there they will live the life of a typical human—some happiness, much sorrow, some joy, great suffering—until and unless they take up a spiritual practice and rediscover the higher realms of their own being, ultimately WAKING UP to their vast, pure, deep, spacious, Nondual Awareness or Clear Light Void, thence to assist others in their own Waking Up.”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“As Robert Kegan, of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, put it, “I know of no better way to summarize development than that the subject of one stage becomes the object of the subject of the next stage.”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“Remember, even if the relative, finite, conventional self is not the ultimate, infinite, Real Self (or pure Suchness), it is the vehicle through which the Real Self and Emptiness must operate in order to communicate with the conventional world, and if you have a True Self trying to express itself through a finite false self, instead of a finite authentic self, then you really are not going to sound very enlightened. At best, an enlightened neurotic. Work on converting your false selves to authentic selves, as a way to honor and serve your own highest Self and true Suchness.”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

“Your “overall self” is your True Self (or Witness) plus your conventional, relative, finite self, and that finite self can be a false (inaccurate) or an authentic (accurate) self-concept. The choice is truly yours…”
― Ken Wilber, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions - More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete