KW Blog Post Conspiracy!

 Not sure why I didn't make this post earlier... 

Basically, I had read this entry around '07 and there were none of these capitalizations. Then around '10 I check it again and BOOM, it's changed. The last sentence even changed twice! I distinctly remember it starting off as "Home is more than just a place." which turned into "HOME IS MORE THAN PLACE." and then settled on "HOME IS MUCH MORE THAN PLACE." 

I have copied the whole thing below...

One of my guesses is that Ken or someone in the inner circle wants to force Me in their direction/pull My awareness towards them (and well it's kinda working...) Another guess is there was a glitch that accidentally did it all. And I guess there's a chance it was always like that and I'm just trippin'. What do you think?

I have already contacted Michael Richardson and he didn't make the changes. 

I also believe there were different titles originally. Is Angel in the title referring to Rebecca Carlson?

 

Thanks. 

 

Manjushri, Vajrapani, Angel, Bodhi-Part 1

May 01, 2006 00:03

1. Prologue

In February, I finished the first section of my book Suicide Dictionary. It is the result of four grueling years and represents the end-product of what I deem to be the proper frame. From the first time I read Charles Olson’s Maximus Poems, I was hooked on the idea of continuing the tradition of the ‘Great American Personal Epic.’ Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, Pound’s Cantos, Zukofsky’s “A”, and William Carlos Williams’ Paterson are all prominent examples. Needless to say, my attempts at an epic began with poetry. After years of false starts and thousands of poems, I finally figured out why my AQAL approach to literature wasn’t working. It wasn’t AQAL!! I knew Whitman was too GREEN. I knew Pound and Williams were wallowing in flat-land (Williams famous dictum, “No ideas but in things.”). I found that I, like Zukofsky, was trapping myself into the left-hand quadrants. What I was saying in the poems was truly integral, but the FORM was not working. I spanned the history of poetry writing in STYLES ranging from vers libre to villanelle, trying to force integral thought INTO the CONCRETE FORM of poetry. Then it dawned on me. I had transcended the old left-hand paths of literary thought. But I was attempting to do this without equally transcending the CONCRETE FORMS or right-hand paths of the literary quadrant. Poetry had been DONE. Shakespeare was poetry’s supernova. It’s taken 400 years for this form to fizzle completely (Pope to the Romantics to Browning to the Moderns to the Post-moderns). Today, Anne Carson hangs on (barely). My next thought was to move to prose. I quickly figured out that this was TRANSLATION not TRANSFORMATION. James Joyce had killed prose. What about drama? Nope. Shakespeare nuked this too. The final embers showing up in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (Perfect title, huh?). Just for the record, I’m not saying that beautiful poems, novels, or plays can’t be written. What I AM saying is that the ‘common’ collection of poetry, the linear ho-hum novel, or the ‘average’ stage play can not be fully Integral because they use old FORMS. Can this be correct? Can the birth of a ‘trans-literary’ thought be blooming?

My answer is yes. But how you ask. Easy. The CONTENT must transcend and include the two left-hand quadrants while simultaneously the CONCRETE FORM must transcend and include the right-hand quadrants. Put differently, the writer must transcend and include the FORMS of poetry, drama, and prose while doing the same with the CONTENT from beige to yellow (and beyond). My attempt at this has turned into what I call the “Creative Dictionary.” I started using this FORM in October of last year, finishing part one, Shakespeare’s Hazing, in February. I sent this chapter to two friends of mine (both very GREEN professors), via the internet. I received one response: “Is this about religion?” This, as you can imagine, left me wondering what to do with the manuscript. I knew I had tapped into SOMETHING, but who could I send it to just to make sure? Who could I find that would instantly understand an Integral Literature. This was simple. Ken Wilber. I sent the manuscript and a week later, Ken’s personal assistant, Colin Bigelow, called me at home (in Kentucky) and invited me to Denver. I instantly agreed. A month later (today) I sit at Colin’s computer ready to share my first experiences with Ken, Colin and the family.

 

 

2. There is no beauty without the WE and the IT

I arrived in Denver at noon yesterday (April 21), had a shuttle deliver me to the Oxford hotel where Colin picked me up to be “instantly taken to the Maha Pandit to report for duty.” 

I spent the afternoon watching Colin and Ken buzz around the Integral Hive of Ken’s loft.

a) Colin Bigelow’s Insights

1. When Colin first arrived, the first thing I noticed in SEEING him was that he didn’t really walk per se, he floated. Or maybe hovered is a better word. His gait seemed to be all heels then all toes combined with the impression of skating. 

2. Shaking hands with Colin was, for me, like physically bumping heads. As for him? Colin looked at me and giggled.

3. -What form of meditation do you practice? I asked Colin. -None really, he responded. I don’t need to create space. I have enough space. I find ways to pull this space into day to day activities.

Colin ate a bowl of chili accentuated with “yum” after every bite.

b) Ken Wilber’s Insights

4. Ken’s gait is rare. He appears to fall forward as if walking down a hill completely giving himself to gravity. It seems uncontrolled (at first) but he somehow includes abrupt spins and changes of direction. Watching him work in his loft (shirtless), he gives off the impression of JEANS and ARMOR.

5. But he’s gentle. 

-Are you nervous Michael? Ken asked. -Very, I said. -Embrace your anxiety, Ken said, and most of it will disappear. 

Thankfully, he was correct.

6. Ken’s energy is a Vortex. Vortex being too strong a word. And too SMALL.

7. The first time I SAW Ken, I envisioned him standing on a pyramid. It made me think of a tetrahedron. The three prongs of the pyramid representing the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. Could this be what Buckminster Fuller meant by claiming the tetrahedron as a basic form of nature? 

c) Rebecca Carlson’s Insight

8. Ken’s girlfriend, Rebecca, attended a screening of The Celestine Prophecies with Ken, Colin, and me. The psychic energy of the three of them combined took me to a place I’d never been. What WAS this? Ken calmly spinning. Colin releasing his never-ending stream of ballons into the wind. And then Rebecca, talking to me on the way home, every sound an indistinguishable sequence of butterflies and cylinders.

d) The Ninth Insight

9. I met Ken and Rebecca’s dog, BODHI.

 

3. Tetra-mesh 

The night ended with me in a deep confusion. On the elevator to Ken’s loft, listening to him talk about Father Keating, I felt as if I could burst into tears. And I did, making it to the balcony of the loft before doing so. What WAS this? I eventually walked down the stairs to find Colin smiling. 

HOME IS MUCH MORE THAN PLACE.

 Michael Richardson

 Guest Blogger