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Ken Wilber has articulated the power of three primary dimensions to our spiritual life: I, We, and It. These perspectives are framed by our use of language, and so close to us we often don’t see them. Yet every sentence I speak somehow refers to them, and with practice, each perspective discloses an important aspect of our spiritual experience: the 1st-person revelation of “I” or ultimate non-separation, the loving devotional exchange of "you" and "we" in the 2nd-person, and the overwhelming awe at the spectacle of All-That-Is in 3rd-person.
The 3rd-Person stands apart from us; objective, free from our wishes, interpretations, and projections. Think about the last time you stopped to experience nature directly on its own terms. In the third person, the natural world is awe-inspiring, magnificent, and unfathomable. A tree is an exquisite life form, not because it becomes wood for fire or provides shelter from rain, but because it is a self-existing, brilliant “other” with strange roots, branches, unusual leaves, smells, and streaming sap. The tree belongs where it is distinct, but not separate, from blossoms and bees.
Although we can come to understand it, describing its functions and patterning, from the position of the subject-observing-object, it remains just beyond us our reach. The distance between also affords us our separate identity. We exist here because it exists there. Like the child who becomes unique and autonomous when it experiences itself apart from the mother, we are able to witness the beauty of reality and stand in awe of the Great Mystery.
There is a power in our ability to stand apart and witness in 3rd-person, to see the world clearly as it is, and to create the respectful basis of true interaction, precisely because something is “not me.” Separation creates fear and loneliness, but in the spiritual context, the third person becomes conscious observation leading to autonomy, respect and awe for life itself.
The 1st-Person of Spirit closes the gap between I and it. Through meditation or deep contemplation, we see that a tree, a forest, an entire ecosystem, and the Great Earth itself have no permanent or fixed boundaries. There is truly nothing in between. Reality is One Bright Jewel as Dogen Zenji refers to it, and we are a shining bit of all that is.
When we experience as this absolute 1st-person perspective, all of reality is intimate. In Zen we say, “Mount Fuji is in your breast pocket,” and Blake writes “Infinity is in the palm of your hand.” Time is a continuous present moment without reference points of past or future; everywhere is right here. From this perspective, joy is immediate to us, and happiness is self-fulfilling. Being is sufficient entirely unto itself, and commentary about it, however insightful or poetic, is a hood ornament on reality. We must experience this true first person directly because thought creates a wide barrier to unity until we see beyond any illusion of separation.
The 2nd-person perspective is called the “Miracle of We” by Ken because it is a living paradox of self and other, sameness and difference. This perspective mediates the first and third person perspectives. On the one hand, we recognize the established boundaries between I and it—whether it is an object, another person, a culture, or nature herself. On the other hand, we feel the Namaste place where, in every moment, we share the same basic nature of all things.
The fun comes when we learn to truly play in the paradox, reveling in the sameness, curious about the differences. Using our God-given ability to communicate across our positions of relative separateness, we establish more and more commonality through language and shared experience. At some point, we can truly call ourselves “We,” because the sameness—and the difference—is mutually recognized. The miracle is there is always a contradiction in the 2nd-person, always moments of creative tension underscored by harmony and appointed with love. In the 2nd-person, we become devotees of spirit and each other.
Three Faces of Spirit Retreat
Every summer, I hold a retreat intended for integral practitioners from all around the world to gather and practice together in the desert of Southern Utah.
This summer, we will spend a full week camping on Boulder Mountain, directly engaging the grandeur of nature in 3rd person. David Holladay, a local legend, primitive skills expert, and wild man of huge heart, will teach nature-based practices and contemplation.
Our Integral friends from Venwoude in Holland with join us for the 2nd week. Sujata van Overweld, Anne Karen Bakker, and Leon Gras are deeply embodied, highly skilled facilitators and coaches, masterful in the domains of intimacy, sexuality, and the energetics of the intersubjective realm.
Finally, in week 3, we will engage a full week of dynamic Zen teaching and practice with Mugaku Sensei, my husband and partner, also a transmitted teachers in the Soto Zen Lineage of Maezumi Roshi. Zen invites us to directly experience the openness and fearless stability within our own unconditioned, essential nature.
Please join me and our fellow integralists for Three Faces of Spirit Retreat in August, 2012!
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Practice: The Three Faces of Spirit
In this practice we contemplate, think, and know about Spirit in the 3rd-person; we relate, dwell, and commune with Spirit in a 2nd-person relationship, and we meditate, feel and know ourselves as Spirit in a 1st-person apprehension of our source and substance.
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