Creative Genius: Why Ken Wilber Made My Top Ten List of Spiritual Teachers

Last week I saw a list of the Top 100 Spiritual Teachers published by the Watkins Review. I had never heard of this publication, but I like a good list like the next person, so checked I it out. Their criteria for being included is that the person “has to be alive, to have made a spiritual contribution on a global scale, are frequently googled, appearing in the Nielsen Data and highlighted throughout the blogsphere.”

Eckhart Tolle topped the list. Pondering this choice, I concluded that the quirky German is exceptional in his clarity, and he just might be the first person to bring non-dual teaching to the mainstream. The Dalai Lama was their second pick. For me, he is Bodhisattva Numero Uno for embodying enlightenment teaching in the face of the impossible suffering of the Tibetan people. He has the thankless job of being a political figure who has borne the difficult responsibility of leading Tibetans in exile for more than fifty years, all the while being threatened with death by the Chinese. For me, that puts him in a category by himself.

Oprah Winfrey was number eight on their list. On mine, Oprah would be moved right towards the top because as Chris Rock says, she is the Girlfriend Superhero, literally helping to liberate millions of people—mostly women—through her media genius.  And P.S., she is responsible for Eckhart Tolle’s success....

Of course, Deepak Chopra made their Top Ten, as well as Thich Nhat Hahn. On my own scorecard, while they haven’t been my teachers per se, my dog Ali made it for his offering of equanimity and intuitive insight, and my son Willie for demonstrating his Zen understanding.

Watkins included Wayne Dyer and Louise Hay, and I listed Genpo Roshi and Choygam Trungpa Rinpoche. Ken Wilber made their list at number nine, just before Rhonda Byrne—but for me, Ken comes in third, just after His Holiness and Oprah. Why? Because he has had more influence in my life that almost any other single writer or spiritual teacher.

Ken doesn’t claim to be a teacher. We all know that. True, he does not fulfill the role of guru, but a substantial number of people around the globe have discovered boundless perfection while sitting alone at night reading his books. Not only has reading Ken’s work opened their minds, but his writing evokes a deep, abiding compassion by helping his readers embrace the complexity-of-the-world-as-it-is through the door of their cognitive understanding. It is a bit of a quandary how one of the world’s most cutting edge thinkers also has the simultaneous capacity for opening the heart. But isn’t that what good theory does?  Help us turn towards the real? And isn’t Ken’s genius precisely for showing us that mind and heart are one—that truth and compassion are the same thing?

Ken’s writing throws nothing out—not evolution, neuroscience or biochemistry, not history, political theory, or social engagement. And certainly not the great spiritual traditions. He is able to bridge meditative insight from the East with the Western mystical traditions, and presence the latest and greatest innovations of science and psychology in our contemplation. And without the pretense of spiritual guidance, he implicitly encourages his readers to be free to grow and to awaken, participating in the magnificence of evolution, and trusting their unique moment of now in the coursing of history. And what a talent that is.

Finally, there is a third aspect of Ken-as-teacher that seals Ken’s place in my top ten. It is the way that his theoretical innovations model the creative burst that is our universe. The Kosmos as we experience it is a marvelous and profound expression of innate creativity.  Matter pops out from emptiness, and coalesces into the myriad forms, combining with time and landing in our very own precious life. And this creative innovation is intrinsic to Ken’s work, which also describes this creativity. It is quite remarkable. I have also found that the people who are drawn to Integral theory and its applications have a powerful connection to their creative life, and bring it fully into their work and their engagement with the world.

Ken demonstrates that Creativity is a spiritual virtue, and God is nothing if not an artist. Given that, we have also decided to explore creativity as the theme for Integral Spiritual Experience 3 (stay tuned for details) and to honor Ken for that one characteristic so innate to his work that it almost goes unnoticed—creative genius.

Diane Musho Hamilton

Diane Musho Hamilton Sensei is a gifted mediator, facilitator, and teacher of Zen and Integral Spirituality. She has been a practitioner of meditation for more than 25 years. Diane began her studies at Naropa University in 1983 with Choygam Trungpa Rinpoche, and became a Zen student of Genpo Roshi’s in 1997. In 2003, she received ordination as a Zen monk with her husband Michael Zimmerman, and received dharma transmission from Roshi in 2006. Diane facilitates Big Mind Big Heart, a process developed by Genpo Roshi to help elicit the insights of Zen in Western audiences. She has worked with the Integral Institute since 2004.