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The Fourth Turning of Buddhism
Contributors:
Patrick Sweeney and Ken Wilber discuss Patrick's work as a Buddhist lineage holder, as an integral practitioner, and as an architect of the religion of tomorrow. Patrick's work exemplifies the intersection of Buddhism and Integral thought, what many are calling the "fourth turning" of Buddhism. In this audio series, Patrick Sweeney and Ken Wilber discuss some of the core issues of Western Buddhism, including the positive and negative effects postmodernism has had upon the tradition in the past few decades, as well as the intrinsic irony of an ego-free lineage being hijacked by narcissism.
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Tibetan Buddhism is unique among religious traditions for its "turnings," the recognition of its own evolutionary unfolding. The first turning, Theravadan Buddhism, is based on the realizations of Gautama Buddha himself, who illuminated the path of nirvana (the end of misery). The second turning, Mayahana Buddhism, stressed that "nirvana and samsara are not two." The third turning, Vajrayana Buddhism, added an awareness of the three bodies, and an exquisite set of practices for realizing our true nature.
The great tragedy is that our life is marked by a continual contraction against this nature of mind. As a result of this distortion, we separate reality into self and other, subject and object, and we begin asserting our perceived self against all that is perceived as other. This gives rise to the 84,000 (!) conflicting emotions, and to karma. In all this, we are veiling the true nature of our mind—tragedy, indeed. Buddhism exhorts us to move, without hesitation, to dismantle the veils. What might the fourth turning be? Ken Wilber's suggestion: you might as well call it Integral. Integral Buddhism preserves the great contemplative heritage of Buddhism, but reinterprets it in the light of the very best of modern, postmodern, and Integral thought. Its injunction: follow the venerable instructions, pointing out Emptiness. But navigate in the world of form as skillfully as you possibly can. As Traleg Rinpoche points out, on the relative side, the Buddhist precept of Right View is fundamental, and AQAL is the best map we have to date. From an Integral altitude, we can see both the good news and bad news of the situation that Buddhism in the West finds itself in. Having blossomed in a largely postmodern context in both Europe and North America, Western Buddhism has inherited many of the qualities of its green, relativistic backdrop, including the inherent limitations. In this week's featured audio, Diego Sobol (a.k.a. Hokai) of Croatia poses this problem to Patrick Sweeney and Ken Wilber. To begin with, Patrick reminds us, this samsaric realm is without end. The process of translating Buddhism in the West is beyond its infancy, but has reached somewhat of an adolescent plateau. From this plateau, one can become complacent, using Buddhist practice to avoid personal issues, and perhaps to reclaim aspects of power or control that one is insecure about. Ken adds that the notion of structure-stages and states-stages is very helpful here. Few contemplative teachers—let alone their students—are aware of the vertical dimension of growth through structure-stages. As always, state experiences are interpreted from the stage that one is at; in this case, extraordinary experiences of awakening are interpreted from a green altitude, from which one is unable to see their own embeddedness. From this altitude, certain limitations become apparent. Non-conceptuality—and by extension, anti-intellectualism—is subtly identified with Emptiness, in defiance of a remarkable intellectual tradition. Absolutistic thinking is confused with absolute truth. And any challenge to the green altitude is taken as a challenge to Buddha nature itself. The great teachers, in Patrick's experience, all had a common denominator: they were unwilling to let themselves become permanent objects of awareness. In every case, they placed the onus of interpreting his experiences squarely on him. They insisted that he take responsibility for his own growth, and just when he would begin to get comfortable, they would pull the rug from underneath his feet. As the Buddha himself said on his deathbed, "be lights unto yourselves, that you may discover that which I've realized." There are no guarantees on the spiritual path; in Western, green-oriented Buddhism, this is difficult to accept. Patrick's suggested way to move forward: a truly Integral Buddhism. But in its absence, the tradition has taken on several flavors in the West. In one form, "Boomeritis Buddhism," a tradition known for its selflessness is adopted with utter narcissism. In another, a scientific materialistic view prevails, reducing profound states of consciousness to the brainwaves they exhibit. When initially posed with the question of Buddhism in the West—and its green underpinnings—Patrick hilariously responds, "I myself am the question." Few people have experienced this problem as directly and as consciously as Patrick. The stakes are enormous: as Patrick points out, understanding the context and its potential traps can take decades off of a student's journey. Patrick sees several levels of unfolding in the transmission of this teaching. First is the teaching of "the view," the basic pointing out instructions that mark the beginning of the path. Second is the teaching of the six paramitas, or transcendent actions, which are concerned with the effort to step out of the egocentric mentality: generosity, virtue, patience, diligence, meditation, and transcendental wisdom. The second level also includes practices such as deity yoga—the "baby" which integral must be careful not to throw out with the bathwater. The third level involves a complete transmission of the Six Yogas of Naropa, some of the subtlest and most esoteric teachings in all of Vajrayana. So, Integral Buddhism is designed to take advantage of the extraordinary contemplative technologies that have come to us through the centuries, in the most expansive framework we have to date. As Ken points out, the Tibetans—while, in an external, technological sense, "barely progressing beyond yak butter"—spent ten centuries sitting and looking at their minds. The extraordinary gifts they attained cannot and must not be lost. It is our great honor and privilege to carry them forward, but also our great responsibility.
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