Religion in the Modern World

Sally Kempton

Sally Kempton, formerly known as Swami Durgananda, is recognized as a powerful meditation guide and as a spiritual teacher who integrates yogic philosophy with daily life. She is the author of the best-selling book Meditation for the Love of It, and writes the popular Wisdom column for Yoga Journal. She is a teacher in the tantric tradition of Kashmir Shaivism, conducts workshops and retreats on its applied philosophy, and is also a core founder and faculty of iEvolve: Global Practice Community.

Sally Kempton is one of the most extraordinary pioneers in more integral, comprehensive forms of spiritual teaching, and the remarkable story of her life shows us why.

"Back in the 60s and 70s, there was an anticipation that Realization would take care of everything—and when it didn’t, there was substantial disillusionment. But all that’s needed is an Integral Approach to spirituality, and we’re seeing that more and more…."

In this dialogue Sally and Ken discuss the future of spirituality, what it might look like, and who is going to lead the way. Sally's perspective on this topic is nuanced, based on a lifetime spent delving into the depths of what is problematic about religion and spirituality, what the fundamental core of Liberation is in each tradition, and what isn't even addressed by most forms of spirituality—like psychological shadow work, which Enlightenment per se doesn't touch.

Born to socially-conscious parents, Sally describes herself when she was a young woman as an "ultra-leftist bohemian rebel" with a powerful feminist bite—who then abandoned the progressive cultural elite of New York City to go to India and become a devotee of Swami Muktananda. This, shall we say, was a radical change. Not only was she embracing spirituality and religion (a Leftist no-no, being seen as "the opiate of the masses"), but she was also submitting herself to a male guru in a distinctly hierarchical society (unthinkably anti-feminist, certainly for her peers).

But this was not giving up, and this was not regression. This was an important step in Sally's life, and a bold move towards integrating truths about human existence—not deconstructing and dividing them. Sally spent nearly three decades in the Siddha Yoga community as a highly-regarded senior teacher, under the traditional name bestowed on her by Swami Muktananda: Swami Durgananda. Then, in 2002, Sally saw that she could no longer continue to deepen and evolve her teaching methods while remaining in the ashram. So, with the community's blessing, she laid aside her monastic robes, and started teaching independently. She is currently working with a small community of students on developing a four-year curriculum based on the best of Siddha Yoga, and informed by the Integral Model. Sally is a founding teacher at Integral Spiritual Center, and a gift to anyone lucky enough to cross her path. We invite you to listen in and enjoy....

An Integral Approach to spirituality introduces and applies the revolutionary synthesis of both structures of consciousness (archaic, magic, mythic, rational, pluralistic, integral, super-integral) and states of consciousness (gross-waking, subtle-dreaming, causal-deep-sleep, witnessing-turiya, nondual-turiyatita). Nearly any state of consciousness can be experienced at any stage or structure of consciousness, which is why, for example, one can have a genuine mystical experience of nondual unity consciousness, and then interpret that to mean that Jesus Christ is the one true savior, and only those who believe in him will be saved.

The "Wilber-Combs Lattice" demonstrates the interplay of structures of consciousness (vertical axis) with states of consciousness (horizontal axis), revealing a matrix of possible spiritual experience.