Humanity's second Shock and Your Unique self

Praise for ‘Humanity’s Second Shock and Your Unique Self’:

Mauk’s love for the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and Ken

Wilber, his experience as a psychotherapist specializing in

trauma, and his position as a leader in a unique spiritual

community come together in this brave and brilliant work,

shining light on these troubled, “interesting times”.

A must-read for anyone interested in

spiritual awakening and evolution.

doshin hannya michael nelson roshi,

integral zen

This book answered a lot of my questions. And it gives voice

to many of my own intuitions and thoughts on why Unique

Self is so important -both as an evolutionary emergent

in spontaneous realization and as a Dharma that needs

to be shared and go mainstream in the years to come. I

especially like how Mauk Pieper interweaves insights from

his therapeutic work on individual trauma with what

he calls the collective shock experiences of humanity.

kerstin tuschik, center for integral

wisdom europe

This is an important book written by a true scholar,

psychotherapist- spiritual teacher and leader. It

will deepen and broaden your perspective of adult

development and how to bring that into your life.

A great synthesis of the pioneering

Unique Self and Integral Theory.

sean wilkinson, circling europe

In clear and compact language, Mauk Pieper succeeds in

conveying the essence of evolutionary spirituality and its

vital importance for coping with the present challenges of

mankind. The contents of the book refl ect Mauk’s inner

knowing, the fruit of his unceasing search for modes of being

and living in the world that enhance our human existence.

A very useful contribution to my work with students.

marijke heetveld, venwoude wisdom

council member and coach/trainer/

supervisor at venwoude trainings

Mauk Pieper has been on a 20-plus years’ mission to

answer the most fundamental questions that we face

in this 21st century: how can we live and how can we

survive in a world that is crumbling under its own

weight? Only by taking responsibility and diving into

ourselves to fi nd our deepest strength and inspiration

can we answer these questions. This book tells us how.

sjaak overbeeke, body-mind-spirit

therapist/management consultant

and author of ‘diepere drijfveren’

Integral Leadership & Spirituality

Foreword by Prof. Dr. Paul de BlotAfterword by Dr. Marc Gafni

UniqueSelf

Humanity’sSecond

Shockand Your

Mauk Pieper

Dear reader,

Thank you for reading my book:

Humanity’s Second Shock and Your Unique Self

With this link you receive the Flot Chart of the book.

http://mauk.nu/get-bonus/

This Flot Chart which will give you a visual overview of the unique self

process of mankind, as well as of the individual.

The Flot chart is especially handy if you have a more visual way of

learning, it will help to guide you through the book.

© 2014 Mauk H. Pieper

Venwoude Press, Lage Vuursche, The Netherlands

v3: augustus 2014

Editorial work: Giselle Gouverne

Illustrations: Jeannette Kommer

Production: Erik Kunst, MultiLibris, The Netherlands

isbn: 978 94 91946 00 4 (hardcover)

isbn: 978 94 91946 01 1 (paperback)

It is expressly permitted to copy and/or distribute this

publication in every possible way. We only request the correct

acknowledgement of Venwoude Press and the author’s name,

Mauk Pieper. The editor and publisher have made an effort to

produce a reliable publication. However, they cannot accept

responsibility for any inaccuracies.

- 5 -

Contents

About the author – 7

Acknowledgements – 9

Foreword by Prof. Dr. Paul de Blot – 11

Preface – 15

Introduction – 17

Chapters

1. Shock experiences show us how life works – 23

2. Potentiality in evolutionary spirituality – 31

3. Humanity’s First Shock and the separate self – 37

4. Humanity’s Second Shock and the conventional and

modern mind – 45

5. Is classical Enlightenment up to processing

the Second Shock? – 51

6. What about the sensitive self? – 57

7. Can the sensitive self + classical Enlightenment do

the job? – 65

8. Can evolutionary spirituality meet the challenge? – 73

9. The pre-modeling of an Integral ethics in

the personal realm – 79

10. The momentum in the emergence of

the Unique Self dharma – 87

- 6 -

HUMANIT Y’S SECOND SHOCK AND YOUR UNIQUE SELF

11. Unique Self: its sensitivity, leadership,

technology and mysticism – 93

12. Unique Self as the best candidate to process

the Second Shock – 101

13. Answering the call – 107

Afterword by Dr. Marc Gafni – 109

Bibliography – 114

Notes – 117

- 7 -

About the Author

Mauk Pieper is senior teacher at Venwoude, Hol-

land, director of Center for Integral Wisdom Eu-

rope and Unique Self teacher. He is also a well-

trained Mondo Zen facilitator. As a teacher, trainer and

coach, he specializes in helping people wake up to the level of

vision that emerges from an integrated mind, body and spirit

experience.

After studying the work of Ken Wilber and experimenting

with Integral concepts for over 20 years, Mauk has integrated

his own earlier insights from philosophy, political sciences,

psychotherapy, somatics and other body-oriented disciplines

into an organic whole that forms the basis for Venwoude’s

present Integral training curriculum, including a 2-year In-

tegral Leadership & Coaching course.

Inspired by Sri Aurobindo, Ken Wilber and Marc Gafni,

Mauk Pieper stresses the importance of integrating pre-mod-

ern, modern and post-modern insights into a new Integral

vision of consciousness for today’s world, transcending and

including the great achievements of both Western and East-

ern forms of Enlightenment. He is deeply convinced that this

- 8 -


great reconstructive project will contribute to the emergence

of the next level of consciousness that is so urgently needed

for coping with the enormous challenges of our time.

After discovering that Integral philosopher and spiritual

teacher Dr. Marc Gafni was working along very similar lines,

Mauk has adopted Marc’s term ‘Unique Self ’ to describe this

next emerging level of consciousness.

- 9 -

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the many people I have worked with, as

trainer, teacher and coach, for their courage and for al-

lowing me to take part in their personal journeys in so

many courses and individual sessions. I thank my students

for their support and for challenging me over the years. Each

of them held and revealed a piece of truth that has contribut-

ed to my life and work.

I offer a deep bow to my trainer colleagues in the laboratory

and hatchery of transformation that is Venwoude. My own

development, and this book, would have been inconceivable

without the high quality maintained in their work and lives

over these years.

I thank my teacher Ted Wilson, who was always prepared to

put me through seemingly impossible transformational chal-

lenges during the 18 years that I lived and worked in the Ven-

woude community, which he founded and led until his death

in 2007.

I thank Dr. Ananda Reddy for introducing me to the immense

mind of Sri Aurobindo. I thank Junpo Roshi for his ‘upgrade’

- 10 -


of Zen for our postmodern times and for his deep transmis-

sion of Deep Clear Heart Mind. I thank Doshin Roshi for

hours of intensive conversation about Integral Theory and

the signifi cance of non-dual state experiences.

I thank Marc Gafni for his great hart, his feedback and sup-

port and all the work he has done for the development of

the Unique Self concept through digging deep in his lineage

sources and then put it into the world in so many ways.

I thank Giselle Gouverne for giving her hart-mind to this

book far beyond her editorial work. Finally, I thank my part-

ner Angela for listening to so many of my mind’s endless trav-

els.

mauk pieper

- 11 -

Foreword by Paul de Blot

In our history as human beings, we have mostly followed

the seductive pull of material success, which is now lead-

ing to the destruction of the intricate web of Life on Earth

that we see in our time. Mauk Pieper calls our waking up to

this sobering fact ‘humanity’s Second Shock’. He argues that

this shock can and will trigger within us a new, higher per-

spective and consciousness, as we already begin to see hap-

pening all over the world. What are the characteristics of this

new level of consciousness that has the potential to lead us to

a more sustainable future? That is the big question that forms

the main theme of this book.

We have separated ourselves not only from outer Nature

(in reaction to what Mauk Pieper calls ‘humanity’s First

Shock’), but also from our inner nature, so that we are liv-

ing our lives predominately in a split state, torn between our

body and our soul, between our physical experiences and our

spiritual consciousness, between our ‘doing’ and our ‘being’.

How can we heal this split within ourselves, so that we fi -

nally will be able to also heal our relation to each other and to

Nature? For before we can solve our problems on the level of

thinking and acting, we must fi rst become whole on the level

of our being.

- 12 -


In our evolutionary development, we move from the lev-

el of ‘doing’ to the level of ‘being’ by transcending and in-

cluding this dualistic split within ourselves on a deeper level

of consciousness. In this deeper consciousness, in this book

called Unique Self consciousness, we experience a unity with

the All, in which everything is interconnected with every-

thing. This transcendent consciousness marks a break with

our separate, dualistic, superfi cial way of being in the world.

How humanity ended up in this dualism is elaborated in

the evolutionary view of the well-known paleontologist and

Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. He saw the making

of the world as a three-step process.

The fi rst step was the geo-phase, the development of the

inorganic, material world, a world that lacked any lasting co-

hesiveness or sustainability. Structures such as rocks were

formed through physical forces but would disintegrate again

under other physical forces, such as erosion.

In the second step, the bio-phase, the organic world was

born. Amazingly, material components such as oxygen, iron,

copper, phosphor and sodium were integrated in the DNA of

living beings and transformed into living components. Evo-

lution created a network of interrelated, ever more complex

forms, able to persist over time, sustained by the unconscious,

instinctual drives of self-preservation and procreation. In this

remarkable phase, sustainability is becoming a main trend

in evolution, creating an unconscious interdependence and

sense of unity between the Earth and all its creatures.

In the next phase of evolution, humans appeared on the

stage, and now life’s natural tendency towards ever greater

sustainability gained a spiritual dimension, expressed in the

- 13 -

FO R E W O R D BY PAU L D E B LOT

greater freedom that characterizes human beings. Humans

still have instinctual drives in the domains of food and pro-

creation, but are also able to make conscious choices in these

domains. Beyond these instinctual drives, humans strive for

more sustainability through the creation of more permanent

structures and institutions, inspired by a sense of ever greater

meaning. It is as if in this third, human phase, conscious-

ness wakes up from the slumber of matter into the freedom

of spirit.

So the most crucial component of human life is its freedom

of choice, the ability to say YES or NO, and the responsibility

that comes with it. In our time, humanity is not only becom-

ing aware of its over-all critical situation, but also of its free-

dom and responsibility to make the right, conscious choice.

We can continue to focus on short-term, material suc-

cess on the closed level of ‘doing’, cut off from the greater

whole. Then we will not only further harm the web of life on

Earth and its evolution, but also our own evolution as a hu-

man species. But we can also choose to follow our spiritual

urges, which come from the level of our ‘being’, our unity

consciousness or Unique Self, aspiring to what Teilhard de

Chardin called Omega, the divine peak of human evolution

in its journey from Alfa to Omega.

We are free to say YES or NO to this invitation. Our YES

implies a participation in the Whole, a divine world in which

everything is interconnected, driven by, and fi lled with, love

and care.

The choice is ours, individually and collectively.

- 14 -


Paul de Blot is a Jesuit and professor of Business Spirituality

at Nijenrode Business University. He was made a Knight in

the Dutch Order of Oranje-Nassau in 2009.

- 15 -

Preface

There are moments in life when intense things happen.

Sometimes we collapse, but at other times our con-

sciousness remains bright and clear, beyond fear, and

we have an overview of our situation. I consider these mo-

ments to be ‘wake-up shocks’, a state induced by a shock ex-

perience, in which we are opened up to a higher level of con-

sciousness. This happens not only in the lives of individuals,

but also in the evolution of the human species.

The development of new mental capacities in early humans,

in which time, space and context emerged for them, made

our ancestors aware of their own vulnerability and mortal-

ity. This led to what Ken Wilber calls ‘future shock’ and ‘the

most important transformation in the history of the world’. 1

In other words, the emergence of mental capacities and new

ways of surviving brought about mankind’s fi rst major shock

experience, which I call our First Shock. Our subsequent

creation of an illusory ‘safe haven’ in the form of a separate,

anthropocentric, human world on Earth may be seen as our

long-term defensive reaction to this shock experience.

Modern man now seems to be going through a second ma-

- 16 -


jor shock experience, as we are becoming aware that our an-

thropocentric ways of coping with the fi rst shock are totally

unsustainable and out of alignment with the whole. This is

leading us to horrible scenarios of a complete deterioration of

life on Earth and possibly even to our extinction. We cannot

deny any longer how we have utterly failed to become ‘keep-

ers of all life on Earth’ – the shocking, humiliating reality is

that we have become its most deadly destroyers. This aware-

ness will bring us, or force us, to the next stage of human

development.

Which level of consciousness does humanity need to be able

to process this Second Shock, in alignment with the unfold-

ing evolutionary impulse? 2 This is the question that I will try

to answer in the following chapters. I will be arguing that nei-

ther the rational mind, nor the sensitive self, nor Western or

Eastern Enlightenment, nor evolutionary consciousness per

se, is in itself up to this challenge. Then I will come to the

conclusion that what Dr. Marc Gafni calls ‘the Unique Self ’ is

the new, emerging level of consciousness that may be able to

process that Second Shock.

My main reason for writing about humanity’s present dilem-

ma, from an Integral, evolutionary spiritual viewpoint, is the

urge to support what I call ‘realistic hope’, not just as a con-

cept, but also as a level of consciousness that can be actually

lived and enacted.

- 17 -

Introduction

Throughout the day, we all pass through various states

of being, whether painful, blissful, happy or sad. But

usually we are not aware that our states of being al-

ways arise in a specifi c context. As human beings, we live in

a pre-existing, pre-structured context, which is the meaning-

ful lens through which we see and experience our world. Any

state of being, such as anger, shame or satisfaction, implies a

certain perspective. And this applies not only to the states of

being we refer to as feelings or emotions, but also to ‘non-du-

al’ states of being, or oneness experiences, which may lead us

to realize our ‘True Self ’ or become ‘enlightened’, as many

Eastern spiritual traditions would call it.

This means that we cannot escape from the constantly chang-

ing perspectives of our mind in peaceful, meditative experi-

ences, nor into any semi-permanent feeling of ‘happiness’. We

have to take responsibility for our world view from moment

to moment, especially in our present skeptical, deconstructed

and fragmented Western culture. More than ever before, we

urgently need new, reconstructive ways of thinking that sup-

port our next step in the evolution of consciousness.

Within the evolution of the human species, we have already

passed through different kinds of perspectives. In their anal-

- 18 -


yses of these perspectives, developmental theorists tell us a re-

markable story. It turns out that certain levels of perspective

and certain states of being go together, and that each level of

consciousness has created a specifi c world in space and time.

So mankind has passed through various levels of conscious-

ness that were co-arising with new mental capacities, life-

styles and ways of production and survival. The most recent

phases in this evolution have been the transition from the

pre-modern into the modern world and now into the post-

modern world.

The transition from one level to another can be very dramatic

and impressive. In this book, I focus on the two probably most

impressive moments in human evolution, which is why I refer

to them as ‘humanity’s First and Second Shock experiences’.

The First Shock is the most important watershed moment in

the early days of mankind. The Second Shock is the transition

we are going through today. The First Shock is also referred

to as mankind’s ‘future shock’ (a term from Ken Wilber), in

which human beings wake up to the concepts of time, space

and context, spurred on by new, emerging ways of surviving.

The real reason for me to rethink the evolution of conscious-

ness in this context was the realization that in our time, man-

kind is going through a second major shock. As a result, a

new, emerging level of consciousness is co-arising with our

dawning awareness of our devastating role on Earth. The

publication of the report of the Club of Rome in 1972 was cer-

tainly a shock to many people. It was one of the key factors in

the emergence of a new, unstoppable wave of consciousness

that is still rippling over the Earth today.

Of course we don’t know how the evolution of mankind on

- 19 -

I NTR O D U C TI O N

Earth will unfold. However, in the context of Integral think-

ing and evolutionary spirituality, it is unthinkable that the

emergence of this new wave of consciousness would be just a

random event without direction or meaning. If we could be-

come consciously aware of its characteristics and potential, it

would certainly support its emergence.

So I started to ponder about this Second Shock that human-

ity is now going through, and about the new level of con-

sciousness that it is calling forth in its wake. And then I asked

myself the question: What kind of consciousness is needed

to process this Second Shock successfully, for the benefi t of

mankind, the animal kingdom, plant life and the Earth itself?

The unfolding of new levels of consciousness is interdepen-

dent with what is happening on the planet, for consciousness

is always part of the evolutionary process. And as human be-

ings, through our own consciousness, we are becoming aware

of this. This also means that doing your personal work of

transformation and therefore your growing in consciousness,

is directly linked to the emergence of new levels of conscious-

ness.

Already there are many people doing the work of raising their

individual consciousness, thereby contributing to the emer-

gence of the new collective consciousness that we so urgently

need. It requires a lot of individual people transforming their

body, mind and spirit to create a new worldview and a recon-

structive, post-postmodern world and age. I honor all of these

people. We need them all. I believe that this work is one of the

most important challenges of our generation. By doing it, we

may be giving our greatest gift to others and to the Earth as

a whole.

chapter one

Shock experiences show us

how life works

{illustration}{i{i{i{i{i{i{i{i{i{i{i{i{i{iiiilllllllllllllllllllllllllllll usususususususususususussusuuuu trtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrttrtrtrtrtrtrtrtratatatatatatatatatatatattatata ioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioii n}n}n}n}n}n}}n}n}}nn}n}nnnn}n}n}

- 23 -

Shock experiences show us how life works

disciple: ‘Mother, why doesn’t the blow come all at once?’

mother mirra: ‘Because it would kill you. If the blow is

strong enough to cure you, it would simply crush you - it

would reduce you to pulp.’ 3

Life is like an ongoing, ever-fl owing, unpredictable riv-

er. Yet most of the time, we live in a narrow view of the

world, which hides this deeper reality from our aware-

ness. We live in our own, more or less predictable universe.

Some of life’s moments challenge our reality in such a way

that we are torn open. These moments, which can be either

very painful or very happy, have the power to open our aware-

ness up to a deeper river of existence in which we truly live.

It is a well-established fact, both in psychology and in spiri-

tual traditions and teachings, that we can react in different

ways to such impactful moments. The ego simply gets over-

whelmed for a while and things cannot be held in place any-

more. Our view of reality, bound to our limited worldview,

suddenly opens up and we fi nd ourselves in a state of aware-

ness beyond our ego. In fact, this is what happens all the time

in normal life, but in such a subtle way that we overlook it

- 24 -


because we automatically cope with it with our separate self.

From an Integral viewpoint, a state is always connected to,

and embedded within, a specifi c perspective and level of

consciousness. Roughly speaking, to cope with experiences,

there are three possible perspectives that can be taken here,

consciously or unconsciously.

1) The instinctual, regressive response to a shock experience

In this case, the experience overwhelms our ego and has too

much impact for us to be able to integrate it at our current

level. Our experiences of time and space change. The senses

start to operate acutely and impressions become very intense.

We respond to the experience in an instinctual way, with in-

stinctual behavior. If the experience is not integrated, and

this instinctual coping reaction keeps repeating itself after-

wards, we will be diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic

stress disorder.

The term ‘trauma’ implies that we keep trying to suppress on-

going images, feelings and reactions, albeit unsuccessfully. In

other words, a soldier’s instinctual reaction to a specifi c war

situation continues, even though the war itself is over. There

are various approaches in trauma therapy that deal with this

type of regressive reaction. One of them is to integrate the

trauma by bringing it from the instinctual level up to a more

sophisticated, cognitive level, where it can be processed by the

more refl ective capacities of the neo-cortex.

- 25 -

S H O CK E X PE R I E N CE S S H O W U S H O W LI FE W O R K S

2) Integration of the shock experience at a person’s current

level

If a shock experience does not entirely overwhelm our ego,

the available ego structures remain intact and will be able to

integrate the experience at our present level of consciousness.

The ego just opens up for a moment and is then able to inte-

grate the experience. The shock experience is adequately dealt

with and does not leave any symptoms. In a sense, this is what

happens constantly under normal life conditions.

3) The shock experience awakes the person to higher

consciousness

A shock experience can actually awaken us to a higher level

of consciousness. The shock crushes our ego for a moment, so

we are forced to surrender. This opens us up to a higher level

of consciousness. In this case, the shock experience invites a

new perspective and therefore a new meaning to our life, at a

higher level. It may take time before this new level of perspec-

tive becomes a structure of consciousness that is stable and

integrated, but a breakthrough has happened.

These three ways of regaining perspective usually take place

spontaneously and unconsciously, but we can also fi nd a new

perspective in a conscious way. And we can train our new

perspective, so that over time, higher levels of functioning be-

come automatic as well as conscious.

It is interesting to note that the fi rst type of response - the un-

- 26 -


healthy, regressive reaction - can be consciously transformed

into a breakthrough reaction of the third type, which would

be diffi cult to achieve through the second reaction. So even

a shock experience leading to trauma contains the possibility

of an awakening to a higher level of consciousness. In a way,

the shock that results in trauma may be seen as a ‘locked po-

tential’ or ‘bottled-up light’.

We can explain this as follows. A traumatized person will try

to suppress pictures of the painful event, but unsuccessfully,

so the pictures will keep triggering specifi c reaction mecha-

nisms. This implies that our consciousness is automatically

and repeatedly shedding light on that which is ‘not wanted’.

By trying to suppress the painful content of the experience,

we are actually simultaneously suppressing the light that is

coming in through a crack in the ego.

Today, a lot of experienced trauma workers report that they

can see the light of the ‘illumined eye’ , the enlightened per-

spective of love and compassion, shining through the ego

cracks. If the trauma is processed in the right way and the

therapist is able to transmit the state of an ‘illumined eye’, this

light may fully start to shine. In my experience, trauma work

then becomes much easier and may actually become pro-

foundly meaningful for the person involved.

As we know from training or retreat settings, anyone who has

experienced the transformational ‘game’ of ‘dying’ and ‘com-

ing back’, leaving parts of ourselves behind and then being

reborn and transformed, will be able to fi nd more clues and

- 27 -

S H O CK E X PE R I E N CE S S H O W U S H O W LI FE W O R K S

profound insights about the meaning of their life. The same

is true for people who bounce back from a great deal of pain

and suffering in their lives.

But after all, the trauma resulting from a shock experience

is just another case of how life works. As stated above, life is,

in fact, a moment-to-moment, fl eeting gift that is never sta-

ble. The problem is that we want it to be stable, in a specifi c,

limited way. Yet life is constantly unfolding and we are never

sure what is going to happen next. Life is one long sequence

of painful and blissful ruptures, large or small, one after an-

other. Who are we, in all those larger or smaller openings?

In what way do we react and cope? We can live in a constant

avoidance of life and close our heart, which is the lesser ver-

sion of an un-integrated shock experience, or we can choose

to really take part in life and let ourselves be stretched, allow-

ing ourselves to grow.

All this happens, not only on the individual level, but also on

the level of humanity as a whole. One could argue that the

unconscious reactions of most of our societies and cultures

have separated mankind from the greater whole, the inter-

connectedness of all life. This separation has enabled the hu-

man mind to create different areas of knowledge in which it

loses itself, getting out of touch and out of alignment with the

whole.

We all come from the One and have become lost in the many.

But we seem to have come to a point in the course of our hu-

man evolution where we’re becoming more and more con-

- 28 -


scious of our separation, marking the beginning of our pos-

sible reunion with the Whole.

What does that requires from us?

chapter two

The notion of potentiality in Evolutionary Spirituality

{illustration}{illustration}

- 31 -

The notion of potentiality in

evolutionary spirituality

‘But since Force is thus inherent in existence and it is

the nature of Force to have this double or alternative

potentiality of rest and movement, that is to say, of self-

concentration in Force and self-diffusion in Force, the

question of the how of the movement, its possibility,

initiating impulsion or impelling cause does not arise.’ 4

sri aurobindo

Modern man is now becoming aware that our ways

of being and living are totally unsustainable and

out of alignment with the greater whole. But we

have to be careful here, because we are used to solving prob-

lems by focusing our minds on them, yet it is precisely this

mental approach which got us into trouble in the fi rst place.

Alternatively, we may think we can create healthy and con-

scious ways of coping with our present crises and predica-

ments by sheer will power.

In reality, we only create what is on the brink of emerging in

our evolution. If something is emerging, it must already have

been there, as a seed. This element of ‘already being there’

- 32 -


has a very specifi c meaning within evolutionary spirituality.

Involution and evolution go together. To put it simply, when

the light of consciousness shines on possibility (involution),

something starts to move and evolve (evolution) - which is

not to say that only ‘good’ things appear.

We can become conscious of a seed’s potential, even before its

next stage of unfolding. What had been hidden, now comes to

the fore. It is a co-arising of the inside and the outside, of con-

sciousness and form. As Wilber states, “matter is not on the

bottom rung of that evolutionary spiral, but is rather the ex-

terior form of an evolution whose interiors contain correlative

levels of feelings, awareness, consciousness, and so forth.” 5

Without this assumption of potentiality, we risk making two

mistakes:

1. Flatland

We may become fl atland artists, creating from the limited

perspective of ego, instead of becoming conscious of the great

Process we are connected to and of which our consciousness

is an intrinsic part. The fl atland artist is coming from an ego

of separation, thinking he/she is able to create things all by

him/herself.

2. Metaphysical speculation

Or we may start to think in metaphysical terms, as if con-

sciousness were something without any physical correlation

and as if it were an independent higher force that can make

things happen from above. In fact, this is another kind of sep-

aration.

- 33 -

TH E N OTI O N O F P OTE NTIA LIT Y I N E V O LU TI O NARY S PI R ITUA LIT Y

As far as we know, mankind is the fi rst species on Earth that

is consciously partaking in its own unfolding, by means of

the relatively new (in evolutionary terms), mental faculties

of ‘mind’, ‘intuition’ and ‘imagination’. At fi rst, this partak-

ing happened unconsciously. We have always infl uenced our

own evolution, but were not consciously aware of doing so.

But mankind now has another option, which emerged only

recently. We have reached the point that we can become con-

sciously aware of the possibility of infl uencing our own evolu-

tion. This means that every human being can take part con-

sciously in the process of evolution!

The questions I would like to try and throw some light on are:

- What major shock has the human race had to cope with in

its planetary existence so far?

- How did mankind cope with that shock in the past?

- What major shock are we going through as a species at the

moment?

- What kind of consciousness do we need to be able to cope

with it?

chapter thr ee

Humanity’s First Shockand the Separate Self

{illustration}{illustration}

- 37 -

Humanity’s First Shock and

the Separate Self

‘Humanity was starting to wake up, and wake up very

quickly, from its prehistoric slumber in subconscious

Eden. But what specifi cally occurred at this date,

some 12,000 years ago, was the most important

transformation ‘in the history of the world’. 6

ken wilber

Applying our knowledge about responses to traumatic

shock experiences on the one hand, and the mean-

ing and signifi cance of the concept of potentiality to

the unfolding of human consciousness on the other, we can

distinguish two great shifts in the course of human history.

I call them mankind’s First and Second Shock Experiences.

In Humanity’s First Shock, our early human ancestors woke

up from a naïve, unconscious immersion in life, into a con-

scious experience of life. Somehow, they developed a new,

emergent worldview that went further than just the present

moment. By becoming conscious of the fact that they were

living in specifi c situations, these early humans entered a

mental level of functioning, without being consciously aware

- 38 -


of the mental level as such yet. As a species, we shifted from a

basic outlook, where we simply engaged with life and Nature

on an ongoing basis, to being conscious of life, of Nature and

of our own existence.

The development of new mental capacities must have made

these early humans acutely aware of their own vulnerability

and mortality, which must have come as a kind of shock. At

the same time, possibly partly as a defense reaction to this

shock, partly out of sheer curiosity and budding creativity,

they started to focus their new capacities on getting more

control over their surroundings. Whatever the actual process

was, it was a seemingly small but actually momentous step to-

wards overcoming ignorance. It marked the birth of the self,

of a conscious being with the potential to become free from

the mechanical, predetermined, unconscious aspects of life.

We can ‘play back’ the First Shock by imagining that we’ve

bought the best modern equipment for jungle survival and

are now fl ying in a rented helicopter to the most dangerous

place in the Amazon jungle. Let’s say I am lowered into the

jungle, and the equipment gets lost. At fi rst it still seems an

exciting excursion. It’s still a kind of game. After the helicop-

ter has left, I fi nd myself alone and disoriented. I see a croco-

dile eating a frog, and then a very large snake strangling a

deer and swallowing it. Suddenly, I realize that I may be eaten

at any moment, not as a television fi ction, but as a real possi-

bility. There is a kind of shock and the game is over.

Of course, imagining this situation will now involve our

postmodern mind. Still, this thinking experiment may give

- 39 -

H U M AN IT Y ’ S FI R ST S H O CK AN D TH E S E PAR ATE S E LF

us an idea of what it may have felt like when the human spe-

cies needed to make a ‘choice’, in response to their new aware-

ness. In reality, at that stage of development, there was not

much of a choice.

In retrospect, the unconscious ‘choice’ may have sounded

something like this: “Whatever it takes, I want to push this

feeling of moment-to-moment danger away from my day-

to-day existence, as far as I can.” This unconscious decision,

which was taken in the opening caused by the First Shock

(that of becoming aware of our vulnerability), represents the

fi rst step towards the big, anthropocentric project of ‘human

culture on Planet Earth’.

So the human species started to confront the world’s dangers

by creating its own safe zone within the dangerous place that

is this planet. In going this relatively unconscious but neces-

sary way, in some sense we separated ourselves from the natu-

ral world. We started to ‘resist’ the world, rather than trying

to align with its unfolding. From this position of separation,

we began to impose ourselves on the world and behave in a

dominating, colonizing, violent way, because we wanted to do

things our way.

Before mankind’s First Shock, we still lived as one species

amongst others. That does not mean that we were peaceful

or harmonious. We lived, died and tried to survive, taking

what we needed from the Earth, killing animals and even

each other. We might say that we still lived in a healthy, albeit

unconscious unity with the Earth. From a sustainable view-

- 40 -


point, we were unconsciously, yet adequately, adapted to our

environment.

So the First Shock to mankind happened when we became

consciously aware that we were not capable of coping with

all the dangers of Nature. We became aware of our vulner-

ability in a world full of circumstances beyond our control.

In response, we became anthropocentric and started to ‘solve

the problem’, instead of accepting and aligning with things

as they are.

From a conventional and modern viewpoint, this was the be-

ginning of our great project to ‘tame’ Nature, by discovering

and mastering its laws. This project reached its height in the

scientifi c revolution of the 17th and 18th centuries. Even in the

fi fties of our previous century, we were still very optimistic

about solving problems through scientifi c discoveries. From a

conventional and modern viewpoint we were very successful

at this, and some think that we still are - or that we just need

to try harder.

However, any person who has awakened to deeper unity now

realizes that what we used to see as our success as a species, has

in fact become the cause of our failure, from a sustainability

viewpoint. The planet’s ecological environment, along with

the core grid of the human world scene, is teetering towards

collapse. From an Integral spiritual viewpoint, it is clear that

we have run into problems because we come from separate-

ness, ignoring our interconnectedness with the whole, and we

cannot solve those problems at our present level of conscious-

- 41 -

H U M AN IT Y ’ S FI R ST S H O CK AN D TH E S E PAR ATE S E LF

ness. We are still in the dark about the next level of conscious-

ness, which must include the realization that we are part of a

greater Oneness and that we have the option of consciously

aligning ourselves with evolution’s unfolding. That potential

within our consciousness is still hidden to most of us.

chapter four

Humanity’s Second Shock and

the conventional and modern mind

{Illustration}{Illustrratatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatioioioioioioiioiiiiioioioioioiii n}

- 45 -

Humanity’s Second Shock and the

conventional and modern mind

‘We hope that “The Limits to Growth” will command

critical attention and spark debate in all societies. We

hope that it will encourage each reader to think through

the consequences of continuing to equate growth with

progress. And we hope that it will lead thoughtful men

and women in all fi elds of endeavor to consider the

need for concerted action now if we are to preserve the

habitability of this planet for ourselves and our children.’ 7

report club of rome the limits to growth

In our present, post-modern time, humanity got a Second

Shock Experience - a second chance to either align with

the rest of the planet or to relapse into another defen-

sive reaction. At fi rst, the Second Shock was a kind of mental,

conventional realization along the following lines: 8 “Even if

we are one hundred per cent successful in escaping from Na-

ture’s dangers, by creating our own ‘safe’ human world, the

human species and all other species will still fi nally die out if

we continue on this path.”

Looking back at our recent history, we can distinguish sev-

eral major events in the 20th century that forced this realiza-

- 46 -


tion upon our consciousness. The most important one may

have been the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan, which

made us realize that we now had the very real power of de-

stroying mankind and all life on Earth. Other events include

the publication of Silent Spring (1962) by Rachel Carson and

the fi rst report of the Club of Rome, The Limits to Growth

(1972).

‘Silent Spring’ showed the devastating consequences of the

use of pesticides, which could destroy all insects and conse-

quently all life, leading to a spring in which there will be no

birds left to sing their song. As a direct result of Rachel Car-

son’s message, President Kennedy set up a special panel of his

Science Advisory Committee to study the problem of pesti-

cides.

People who live on the conventional and modern levels of

consciousness can see that their ‘success solution’ is not sus-

tainable in terms of ecological infrastructures, be they man-

made, ‘natural’, political, fi nancial, social or environmental.

Yet their realization will probably not go beyond the dualistic

insights of ’sustainability thinking’, based on scientifi c dis-

coveries and cultural information.

So the conventional and modern rational mind will sim-

ply not be up to processing the Second Shock, since it comes

from separateness. Even if it were able to see the need for

aligning with the interconnectedness of all life on Earth, it

wouldn’t have a clue how to do it. Conventional and modern

man’s morality is linked to his external orientation. As his

functioning is based on outer knowledge and will-power, he

- 47 -

H U M AN IT Y ’ S S E CO N D S H O CK AN D TH E CO N V E NTI O NA L AN D M O D E R N M I N D

may end up in the pitfall of skepticism if his positive attitude

doesn’t get him where he wants to be. Operating predomi-

nantly on the mental level, he is unable to integrate the pre-

mental and pre-personal - in other words, life as it is - into his

personal worldview, let alone embrace the trans-mental and

trans-personal levels of consciousness.

But that doesn’t mean that the Second Shock is not happen-

ing. Within the paradox of potentiality, we might say: “It did

happen and it is happening, and still everything has to hap-

pen.” The Second Shock is spreading over the world now. It

is happening. We might see it as ‘the will and grace of Spirit’.

But as a species, we are only on the brink of waking up to it. It

may become a wake-up shock that brings us to the next level

of consciousness.

As humans we might like to believe that we are the center of

the Cosmos, but we know full well that the Earth actually

isn’t. This realization, too, helps us to wake up to the Sec-

ond Shock. We are living in the outcome of 14 billion years

of evolution and are really just a very small grain of sand in

an immense, infi nite whole. This realization is making more

and more people aware of the fact that the power of the sepa-

rate self is futile, and this new awareness leads to an ongoing

ego crisis. The Second Shock is creeping in until the ego can’t

stand it any longer.

What I’m coming to, in this book, is the possibility that this

situation can be addressed and evolved through a new awak-

ening - an awakening to a level of consciousness.

chapter five

Is classical Enlightenment up

to processing the Second Shock?

{Illustration}{Illustration}

- 51 -

Is classical Enlightenment up to

processing the Second Shock?

‘Understand that within this depth of mind, you are

just aware, not aware with an opinion. To be opinioned

is an ego view. To be just aware is to be in empty/

selfl ess mind, spirit or soul. Do you realize that within

this insight you are describing a Buddha, an Awakened

One, and claiming your deeper consciousness?’ 9

junpo roshi

It is clear that the Second Shock can’t be processed by the

separate self, not even by its ethical, well-educated, con-

ventional version. In the past century, this was already

clear to a lot of people in the most advanced, affl uent societ-

ies of the world. Therefore, the notion of spiritual Enlighten-

ment was a concept full of hope for them.

I refer to this type of Enlightenment as ‘classical Enlighten-

ment’ or ‘True Self Enlightenment’. ‘Classical’ refers to the

predominant Eastern traditions through which this concept

of Enlightenment came to the West: Hinduism, Buddhism,

Zen Buddhism etc. Classical Enlightenment can help us to

relax our minds and bring our self-referencing ego activities

- 52 -


to rest. We no longer identify with anything and we let go of

our attachments, which bring us into a state where there is no

fear. In classical Enlightenment, ‘to be enlightened’ means to

know, from a non-dual mind state, that the separate self is an

illusion.

This realization comes from a state of awareness that is called

‘True Self ’ or ‘True Nature’, amongst other terms. This state

may be characterized by words like ‘stillness’, ‘vastness’, ‘emp-

tiness’, ‘fearlessness’ and ‘bliss’. It is a state experience ‘be-

yond space and time’. If we look at all those beautiful qualifi -

cations, it is easy to understand the hope that this enlightened

state of mind would be much better than our average sepa-

rate-self awareness. Yet all those qualifi cations in themselves

are merely distinctions made by a dualistic, self-referencing

activity. The state of mind that is experienced as emptiness,

True Nature, Oneness, silence, vastness, timelessness and so

on, has no name of itself.

Moreover, in this state of classical Enlightenment, we can-

not fi nd any guidelines about anything; in this state there is

no morality, no directionality, nothing. That is also the rea-

son why this state of Enlightenment is inherently neither

good nor bad. It’s only ‘good’ in reference to the ego, which

is afraid, self-referencing and grasping to survive for its own

sake. But the classical enlightened one goes nowhere and po-

tentially can go anywhere. This is signifi cant, considering

how people who realize this state can be truly fearless. There-

fore, even the people who fl ew into the Twin Towers may have

been enlightened.

- 53 -

I S CL A SS I C A L E N LI G HTE N M E NT U P TO PR O CE SS I N G TH E S E CO N D S H O CK ?

So, to be classically enlightened is to be potentially sane, but

not sane per se. How we process mankind’s Second Shock,

from a classical enlightened perspective, just depends on the

perspective we take. It gives us potentially all perspectives,

which can be hopeful, but also disastrous. This is even more

frightening when you realize that anyone who experiences

this fearless state of being is already living from a certain per-

spective. Which perspective? That depends on the level they

are at. We can’t avoid taking some sort of perspective, and

from this vast, empty spaciousness of True Self, we will usu-

ally and automatically fall back on the one that was created in

our former, fearful state of separation. So although the True

Self may be full of possibilities, in itself it is not enough to

process humanity’s Second Shock.

chapter six

What about the sensitive self?

{Illustration}{Illustration}}

- 57 -

What about the sensitive self?

‘Philosophers no longer explain the nature of things or

pretend to tell us how to live. Students of literature treat

the text not as a representation of the real world but

as a refl ection of the artist’s inner state of mind.’ 10

christopher lash, the culture of narcissism

During the cultural revolution of the sixties in the

last century, the next level of human development

arose on various developmental lines: culture, self,

morality, worldview, cognition, and so on. In Spiral Dynam-

ics’ hierarchy we call this level ‘the Green meme’. 11 In the

line of self or ego development, this level is also referred to as

‘the sensitive self ’, which emerges when we leave behind the

conventional and modern mind. Its birth in Western culture

was marked by the Flower Power movement, characterized

by feelings of love, freedom and new hope. It even claimed to

be a solution to many problems that had been caused by the

conventional and modern mind.

Many developmental theorists agree that this ‘sensitive self ’

emerges at the sixth level of consciousness. Clare Graves and

his students Beck and Cowan attributed the following advan-

- 58 -


tages to this level: sensitivity to gender, freedom from dogma,

against hierarchy, decision by consensus, a pluralistic relativ-

ism, affective warmth, multiculturalism, social construction

of reality, a need for equal distribution of power, etc. This lev-

el of consciousness will undermine privileges that are based

on tradition or status, and turn its back on cold rationality.

The shorthand term for it is the ‘Green meme’ or the ‘sensi-

tive self ’.12

And of course this sensitive self is, at fi rst, narcissistic, af-

ter eons of external orientation and suppressed feeling. But

beneath many layers of externally imposed morality and re-

bellious willfulness, the inner child is still alive, yearning to

be acknowledged, seen, felt and honored. In a society where

parents educate their children while coming from their own

separate self, that inner child will most likely harbor anger,

derived from very early feelings of separation. It’s important

that we don’t skip or suppress this evolutionary phase, or re-

gard it as merely an immature, unhealthy ego development. If

we do, we will ignore internal blockages subtended by all the

associated feelings.

Moreover, in Western culture, this sensitive self marks the

return of subjectivity, in the sense of an awareness of our in-

ner being. It involves a conscious experiencing of the subtle

body, which is the starting point of a conscious ego develop-

ment from within. With this, we can begin to feel and intuit

the unfolding of developmental lines in the physical, emo-

tional, relational, moral, mental and other spheres of our be-

ing. As we will see, this capability is also crucially important

to the pre-modeling of our higher, ethical potential.

- 59 -

W HAT A B O U T TH E S E N S ITI V E S E LF?

Humans arriving at this level of ego development have the

possibility to reintegrate the life energy that has been fi xated

and conditioned over generations in our body-minds. All this

blocked life energy, consisting of a mixture of stories of hor-

ror, courage, confusion, love and wisdom, can come to the

surface when we focus our attention on it in our personal

work of inner transformation. Accessing this energy is a great

challenge as well as a splendid opportunity – it seems to be

our generations’ responsibility to heal karmic situations of

the past.

How do we best approach this process? Certainly we need an

appropriate post-modern Integral practice, a new yoga. For

most people however, this is an unconscious process. It just

happens. For many, the prospect of accessing blocked inner

emotion is fundamentally scary. They don’t see it straight

away as the opportunity for transformation that it represents.

Whether we actively start to work at releasing these ener-

gies within ourselves or not, the crumbling conventional and

modern mind in our society, will release strong waves of pre-

viously stuck, pre-personal life energy anyway. Unconscious,

latent and suppressed pre-personal survival refl exes from the

dim and distant past may suddenly emerge into our present

individual lives. After 50 years of expansion from our ‘60s

lifestyle, it will not be possible to just close Pandora’s box by

sheer willpower.

Perhaps we are now living a lifestyle comparable to the well-

heeled gentry living in Great Britain in the 1800s, living in

- 60 -


their country estates, beholden to no-one, governors of ten-

ants with a complement of domestic staff, their spouse, and so

on. Then the a-moral, pre-conventional human being starts

to take over the scene and unexpected, unpleasant things

start to happen. Finally Sherlock Holmes has to restore sanity.

Things get worse when the new sensitive self begins to focus

only on states that just feel good to the body, regardless of

their stage, level or even their relevance for its life and the

world in space and time. Christopher Lash, quoted in the be-

ginning of this chapter, clearly states the problem in his well-

known work The culture of Narcissism published in 1979.

The sensitive self tends to regard feelings as valid in them-

selves, without considering their contextual background. It

overlooks the fact that a feeling is the correlate of a mental

perspective, which implies an interpretation of the situation,

creating inter-subjective, emotional states as well as feelings

in the physical body. It doesn’t realize that any cognitive in-

terpretation of things happening in space and time will give

rise to different emotions and feelings.

We need a practiced awareness to be able to realize how we

are reacting to situations, coming from different levels within

different developmental lines. It helps to be clear on whether

a feeling is connected to a physical condition, an emotion-

al or relational issue, a mental perspective or a trans-mental

phenomenon. This is important because each line of devel-

opment needs to be addressed in a different way. You cannot

solve an emotional or relational problem by just going for a

- 61 -

W HAT A B O U T TH E S E N S ITI V E S E LF?

walk or going to the sauna. It’s good to relax before talking,

but relaxation in itself will not solve a relationship problem.

And this applies to all kinds of problems on different lines of

development.

What makes things even trickier is that this postmodern sen-

sitive self, in its urgency to be politically correct and protect

the ‘weaker’ ones, tends to be anti-hierarchical. So the sensi-

tive self might refuse to take a stand on which developmental

line is the most important to fulfi ll its higher goals. It tends

to think that acknowledging that everybody is important im-

plies that everybody is equal, or even worse, that ultimately

everybody is a sensitive, good person. Dismissing all moral

and other qualitative hierarchies, it cannot make any judg-

ments anymore.

Moreover, one-dimensional trying to ‘feel good’ can easily

end up in a hedonistic lifestyle with a narcissistic orientation,

leading to all sorts of addictions. Such a distorted sensitive

self tends to reduce everything to the physical line of develop-

ment at its lowest levels: the sensations must feel good now.

On the other hand, it tends to associate good feelings of the

subtle body with spiritual experiences. Here the sensitive self

easily falls into the pitfall of the pre-trans-fallacy, in this case

mistaking pleasant pre-mental, pre-personal experiences for

trans-mental or trans-personal spiritual realizations. More-

over, its chaotic tendencies may push it to regress to more

conventional solutions to solve problems. So although the de-

velopment of the sensitive self is very important for our con-

scious inner development, without a post-postmodern yoga

discipline it can be a challenging phase.

- 62 -


Still, the potential of this level of development is consider-

able. If assisted by a regular Western yoga, an Integral prac-

tice, this narcissistic sensitive self may grow up and start to

distinguish the importance of different developmental lines

and their different levels. Then it can start to operate in life

through an intuitive awareness of these distinctions. It would

learn to integrate its previous ethics and morality into an in-

ner knowing about different levels of importance, value, and

right or wrong. However, the undeveloped, Green-meme,

anti-hierarchical sensitive self may think this prioritizing of

values is a very arrogant thing to do! For the Green-meme

sensitive self, to say that some things or even some beings are

better or higher than other things or beings, is to create an

unacceptable hierarchy.

Will this updated version of the sensitive self be able to pro-

cess the Second Shock to mankind? It’s still a separate self we

are talking about. So, no matter how educated it will become,

in the end it will not be able to embrace anything other than

separation. It’s still grasping and based on fear. So this form

of self, however grown up, will not be able to meet the call to

process the Second Shock.

chapter seven

Can the sensitive self + classical Enlightenment

do the job?

- 65 -

Can the sensitive self + classical

Enlightenment do the job?

‘Furthermore, the type of psychological solutions

required for these crucial problems of contemporary

adaptation, both human and planetary, cannot

be adequately addressed solely through the limited

conceptualizations offered by mainstream psychology

but require, instead, transpersonal considerations.’ 13

the international journal of

transpersonal studies

The next step is to think about a solution in terms of

the sensitive self integrating its shadows and then

moving on to add True-Self, non-ego states to itself.

We have two versions of this combination. The fi rst is the so-

called Transpersonal Psychology, the second is the modern,

Western, often rather escapist ‘search for Enlightenment’.

Critique 1: Transpersonal Psychology is piling up states upon

stages.

In the seventies, a new kind of psychology emerged: Tran-

spersonal Psychology. At fi rst sight, it seems to give us the

- 66 -


perfect solution for the problem we ended up with in the pre-

vious chapter. It holds out hope: What if the narcissistic, sen-

sitive self were to mature and become enlightened? Yet before

we go on, we have to get clear about what version of Transper-

sonal Psychology we are talking about, for Lajoie and Shap-

iro reviewed forty defi nitions of it.14 Mariana Caplan speaks

about it as ‘an attempt to integrate timeless wisdom with mod-

ern Western psychology.‘ 15

Notwithstanding how sophisticated it might be, the more

popular version of Transpersonal Psychology goes like this:

“We must fi rst have a strong and mature ego, and then on top

of that we can have a transpersonal non-ego development.”

This seemed to make sense, because Westerners who started

to meditate were often becoming dysfunctional in all sorts of

ways. The conclusion was that their egos were not strong and

integrated enough to enter into transpersonal states.

Ken Wilber criticized this model over the last ten years and

developed the Wilber-Combs Lattice.16 What became clear in

his critique is that non-dual states of awareness can happen

at any level of development. A baby experiences pre-personal

states of non-dual awareness. A seven-year-old can have ex-

periences of (unconscious) states of non-dual awareness, the

conventional self can have them, and so can the sensitive self.

How they interpret the state of non-dual awareness depends

however, on which level they are.

So the problem with the popular version of Transpersonal

Psychology is that it is just incorrect. It wrongly puts two dif-

- 67 -

C AN TH E S E N S ITI V E S E LF + CL A SS I C A L E N LI G HTE N M E NT D O TH E J O B?

ferent faculties of the human species (self and no-self) into

one developmental line. There are many points to clarify

here, but one of the consequences of this view is that classical

Enlightenment is only possible for the elite of more advanced

ego’s and maybe only older people in society. That means that

the potential benefi t of classical Enlightenment becomes in-

accessible to most people. If it were correct, then we would

have to accept this, but actually, so much more seems pos-

sible.

Critique 2: The modern, Western, escapist ‘search for Enlight-

enment’

Then there is a more popular and primitive way of combining

the ‘sensitive self ’ with the ‘True Self ’ of classical Enlighten-

ment, in the West often called ‘the search for Enlightenment’.

It is a more unconscious combination, because actually it is

the sensitive self trying to get rid of the ego. The sensitive self

becomes aware of the well-known setbacks of the ego, such

as misery and greediness, stress, exhaustion, the tendency to

fi ght and so on, and concludes that it only needs to become

enlightened and then its problems will be over. Why? Because

then we will be peaceful, live in harmony, be kind to each

other and so on.

This sounds like a premature spiritual retirement from life

into a retro-romantic worldview. The sensitive self feels the

hard edge of life and rejects it. For example, during a Vipas-

sana retreat we may have experienced a peaceful state of non-

dual awareness. Then we get back home and fall out of this

- 68 -


state, and start comparing our daily consciousness with the

peaceful feelings of the retreat. In our attachment to these

peaceful feelings, we decide to stop quarrelling and arguing

with our partner, and then get very frustrated when we’re not

able to do so.

We are overlooking the fact that it is our unrealistic, childish,

dualistic ego preferences that are trying to translate the state

of True Self into a model of how to be and act in everyday life.

The sensitive self does not want to recognize that most of the

time, daily life is not perfect, nor is it much good ethically.

For the sensitive self, this kind of pseudo-spirituality actually

legitimizes a retirement from the evolutionary project. Given

the opportunity, especially in an affl uent society, it may even

get away with it. I call this lifestyle ‘premature spiritual re-

tirement’, in which people tend to stop growing. Ken Wilber

called it Boomeritis Buddhism 17, where the richest generation

on the planet misuses experiences they get from meditation

in order to protect their narcissistic, sensitive self. Even medi-

tation itself can be used to suppress any unpleasant feelings

triggered by life.

Here we can see the enormous importance of doing shadow

work. If we do not want to grow, the whole potential of the re-

discovery of the inner subjective world will be lost to Western

society. Then the ego remains locked in a narcissistic stage of

development, unable to answer the challenge of mankind’s

Second Shock. So ‘premature spiritual retirement’ is a special

ego version of classical Enlightenment, leading to leaving the

world behind in an escapist way.

- 69 -

C AN TH E S E N S ITI V E S E LF + CL A SS I C A L E N LI G HTE N M E NT D O TH E J O B?

Therefore we need to add something to the combination of

sensitive self + classical Enlightenment, if we are ever to ar-

rive at a level of consciousness that can handle mankind’s

Second Shock.

chapter eight

Can evolutionary spirituality meet

the challenge?

{Illustration}{Illustrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtratatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioion}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}

- 73 -

Can evolutionary spirituality

meet the challenge?

‘Enlightenment brings to us the knowledge that the

ego is only an instrument; we begin to perceive and

feel that these things are our own in the sense that

they belong to our supreme and integral Self, one with

the Transcendent, not to the instrumental ego.’ 18

sri aurobindo

So none of the versions of the separate self, nor the eth-

ical responsible one, nor the sensitive one, nor the sen-

sitive one that gets to True Self, will be able to process

mankind’s Second Shock. But what about an evolutionary

Enlightenment that goes beyond True Self?

The fi rst and great Integral mystic, the sage and visionary

thinker Sri Aurobindo, talks about going beyond awakening

and True Nature, or classical Enlightenment. In his terms,

he wants us ‘to wake up at the other side of the Moon’, the

Moon standing for our True Nature. In classical Enlighten-

ment teachings, Enlightenment is seen as the overcoming

of ‘maya’, which is taken to mean ‘illusion’. But Aurobindo

reminds us of the pre-Buddhist, Vedic meaning of the word

- 74 -


‘maya’, where it refers not to emptiness, but to fullness, in

its original sense of ‘knowledge’, ‘skill’, ‘intelligence’. So if we

go beyond classical Enlightenment, we may see ‘maya’ as the

intelligence of the evolutionary process, emanating from ‘the

inside of the inside’ of our own awareness, a process to which

the human race can wake up now. We might also say that

evolution is God-in-becoming, and now we can become con-

sciously aware of this process within and as ourselves.

Yet whatever heights of awakening Sri Aurobindo may have

foreseen for the mind beyond ego, and whatever support he

tries to give to the maturation of the ego, he still maintains

that at some point we will have to leave the separate self and

ego behind. His evolutionary spirituality and mysticism may

be seen as a special case of German Idealism, whose represen-

tatives claim that we can go beyond ‘das Ding-an-sich’ and

unite with a consciousness that does not belong to anyone in

particular anymore.19 And further, according to Sri Aurobin-

do, the whole being can then become a conscious instrument

of the Divine, and ultimately we can evolve into a supra-men-

tal being without ego. The problem here is that this elimi-

nates the personal and/or ignores the most advanced stages of

ego development.

Although Aurobindo’s teachings honor the uniqueness of ev-

erything in time and space, his perspective of uniqueness is

still predominantly impersonal. And although Sri Aurobin-

do holds the concepts of ‘the Psychic Being’ and ‘the Divine

Soul’, which refers to the real individuality of the person, his

‘listening to the Divine’ is devoid of the personal. 20 His spiri-

- 75 -

C AN E V O LU TI O NARY S PI R ITUA LIT Y M E E T TH E CHA LLE N G E?

tual partner, Mother Mirra, too, talked extensively about the

unique call and the unique relationship of each individual

with the Divine, writing statements like “Beyond the imper-

sonal Divine, there is the Divine that is the person himself ”, or

“After that (reaching the impersonal Divine), they will go far-

ther and have once again a personal contact with the Divine’ 21.

Yet she could not, of course, integrate into her realization the

more recent (and therefore more advanced) level of ego devel-

opment that we call the sensitive self, in which ‘the personal’

becomes an inner, intimate, felt realization.

If the ego or individuality could not somehow make a come-

back in the post-Enlightenment sphere, it would mean that

the larger evolutionary process would be all that matters, and

the individual would be only a means to that greater end. If

that were the case, we might dedicate our hearts to the Di-

vine, but the Spiritual Father or the Great Mother would not

know us as a ‘person’ anymore. When the individual becomes

a means to an end, he/she loses his/her meaning, value and

signifi cance as a living soul with its own dignity in this very

moment.

Any devaluation of individuality becomes a threat to the in-

tegrity of the individual, as we have seen happening in the

perverted mutations of German Idealism called Leninism

and Fascism. Moreover, such a devaluation will probably not

be accepted anymore in Western societies, which operate pre-

dominantly on ‘Orange’ and ‘Green’ levels of consciousness.

Nor will these societies accept a spirituality that ignores the

higher levels of separate-ego development, for a spirituality

- 76 -


that does not include those levels, is in fact a type of regres-

sion to a conventional altitude.

In Western affl uent societies particularly, where the subjec-

tive dimension of the sensitive self is rampant, we want to

be recognized as a sentient person, in touch with our own

feelings and those of others. One of the risks of promoting

only impersonal Enlightenment is that in so doing, we will

repel very committed and creative people living on the most

advanced levels of ego consciousness. These are the kind of

people who are not prepared to give up their personal ego,

and rightly so.

So just ignoring our ego development in favor of a post-en-

lightened, impersonal evolutionary position, will not work

and is not desirable. This can end up, in Spiral Dynamics

terms, in a kind of pseudo-Turquoise 22 level that is overly de-

termined by a Blue or Amber23 type of impersonal Enlighten-

ment, losing track of new, emerging levels of consciousness

and important individual contributions to the evolution-

ary process. We may see this as a dangerous alternative for

processing mankind’s Second Shock. It could even seriously

harm the great achievements of the anthropocentric project

of mankind regarding individual human rights, catalyzed by

the French Revolution and later the women’s and gay libera-

tion movements.

chapter nine

The pre-modeling of an Integral Ethics

in the Personal

{Illustration}{IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIllllllllllll ussssssssssssssssssstration}

- 79 -

The pre-modeling of an Integral

Ethics in the Personal realm

“The skin of the face is that which stays most naked,

most destitute. It is the most naked, though with a

decent nudity. It is the most destitute also: there is an

essential poverty in the face; the proof of this is that

one tries to mask this poverty by putting on poses,

by taking on a countenance. The face is exposed,

menaced, as if inviting us to an act of violence. At the

same time, the face is what forbids us to kill.” 24

emanuel levinas

Let us address one more subject, so as to be able to ful-

ly understand the next level of evolutionary unfolding

called the Unique Self.

There is a very important reason why it is sometimes so dif-

fi cult for the sensitive self to break through its narcissistic way

of being. That’s because in childhood, it was raised by parents

and minders who were themselves identifi ed with their sepa-

rate self, unable to transmit to the child a state of mind, and

a correlative felt-sense, of interconnectedness with the whole.

Therefore, the sensitive self lacks the inner knowing that we

- 80 -


are all connected, or at least is not in touch with this inner

knowing, which would have helped it grow beyond its deep

sense of loneliness. So in spite of the sensitive self ’s propensity

to be kind (as it loves any type of connectedness), it will only

be as kind as its narcissistic sensitivity can deal with, and only

as long as its narcissism can be preserved and defended. And

this sets the limit to its capacity to develop its ethical line of

development, which of course is an indispensable aspect to be

able to process the Second Shock.

I would like to go into two ways of looking at the prerequisites

to develop the ethical line of development. The fi rst approach

comes from a psychoanalytic theory of attachment, and the

second from Levinas’ philosophy.

1. Psychoanalytic theory of attachment and the capacity of

mentalizing

Not surprisingly, in psycho-analytic theory there is much in-

terest in all kinds of inter-subjective faculties relating to in-

terconnectedness.

‘Mentalization is the ability to understand the mental state of

oneself and others, which underlies overt behavior. Mental-

ization can be seen as a form of imaginative mental activity,

which allows us to perceive and interpret human behavior in

terms of intentional mental states (e.g. needs, desires, feel-

ings, beliefs, goals, purposes, and reasons). 25

Peter Fonagy developed an infl uential psychoanalytic theory,

- 81 -

TH E PR E - M O D E LI N G O F AN I NTEG R A L E TH I C S I N TH E PE R S O NA L R E A L M

supported by empirical observations, in which the notion of

‘mentalization’ plays a central role:

‘Attachment history partially determines the strength of

mentalizing capacity of individuals. Securely attached indi-

viduals tend to have had a mentalizing primary caregiver,

and consequently have more robust capacities to represent

the states of their own, and other people’s minds. Early child-

hood exposure to mentalization can protect the individual

from psychosocial adversity.’ 26

So empathy for others goes hand in hand with inner aware-

ness. Mentalization is, in other words, the connection be-

tween brain and heart. To feel and understand oneself goes

together and unfolds together with empathizing and under-

standing the perspective of someone else. Moreover, this abil-

ity to stand in another’s shoes is the start of an inner ethical

awareness. And this ability is learned through critical devel-

opmental phases in childhood.

It is not so diffi cult to see that someone living alone on an

island does not need ethics that come from the capacity to

mentalize, for such a person can do whatever he/she wants.

Yet someone living together with others does need ethics.

Ethics are not primarily based on the mind alone; ethics are

based on the ability to feel and know how one’s behavior may

affect someone else, beyond any advantages for oneself. If I

can feel into the pain of the other, caused by my behavior, I

am aware of the consequences of my behavior on someone

else. This implies the ability and willingness to feel authen-

tic shame, if necessary – something that the narcissistic self

would rather avoid, of course.

- 82 -


Let’s look at the notion of ‘shame’ for a moment, or ‘embar-

rassment’ if you prefer to tone the word down a bit. In theories

of emotions, the word ‘shame’ denominates a certain group

of feelings,27 and different levels of shame are distinguished.

Shame can be based on external, conventional Amber/Or-

ange cultural codes: ‘You should be ashamed of yourself if

you…’ Then there is another, more egocentric, narcissist

kind of ‘ethics’ that basically says: “I don’t want to be shamed

by you. I just do what I want.” In fact, this is not shame but

shamelessness - the mean, anti-conventional, Green-meme

power game.28 In its more extreme forms, this shamelessness

can be seen in very dangerous individuals whose immature

ego’s allow them to do anything without any qualms about

how their behavior affects others.

But if, in early childhood, our attachment process goes well

and we develop this ability to mentalize, then we will be able

to go beyond ourselves and feel into someone else, aware of

the possible impact of our behavior on others. This enables

us to feel authentic shame from within, without devaluating

oneself or making oneself wrong. It requires an awareness

of one’s subtle body and the ability to translate feelings into

higher qualities of mind and heart. It also enables us to de-

velop inner ethical reference points that go beyond incidental

encounters with others. Here we begin to get in touch with

the infi nite within the fi nite.

- 83 -

TH E PR E - M O D E LI N G O F AN I NTEG R A L E TH I C S I N TH E PE R S O NA L R E A L M

2. The primacy of ‘The Other’ in Levinas’ philosophy

This realization does not only come from scientifi c insight

but also from one of the most well-known philosophers in

this context, Emanuel Levinas. He developed the idea of the

primacy of ethics derived from the encounter with the other:

“Society does not proceed from the contemplation of the

true; Truth is thus bound up with the social relation, which is

justice. Justice consists in recognizing in the Other my mas-

ter. Equality among persons means nothing of itself; it has an

economic meaning and presupposes money, and already rests

on justice – which well-ordered begins with the Other.” 29

He maintains that seeing the face of another person is the

only ethical demand that exists that needs no context. ‘The

face is a source from which all meaning appears.’ 30 It is just

there, as soon as you look into someone’s eyes. For Levinas,

‘the Other’ is the infi nite in the fi nite. Any encounter with an-

other person refers automatically to all other persons whom

I do not meet here and now. The ethics I derive from this one

encounter carries me into the whole of human relationships,

because it reveals to me a reference point that goes beyond

this meeting with this particular person. So the transcendent,

or the infi nite, or God comes into play here.

Levinas also points out that he does not like a God who is

endlessly forgiving. He prefers a God who is sometimes losing

his patience with the human race when it does not fulfi ll its

ethics. So here the notion of God as unconditional love is put

- 84 -


into a whole new context. Love is not kind per se, nor without

conditions. Love may have all kinds of characteristics that are

not always harmonious or peaceful.

The ability to develop, over time, an inner ethical authority

in the inter-subjective domain, pre-models an ethical author-

ity on other levels and in other domains. We can develop the

ability to feel pain and shame, not only in relation to another

person, but also on a Cosmo-centric level. The greater our

ability to mentalize in the interpersonal domain of love and

relationship, the better we will be able to apply this ability to

other domains, such as feeling pain when seeing a polluted

river. We can become ethically capable to treat the Earth with

the same care as we treat another human being. And that is

clearly the beginning of our capacity to process mankind’s

Second Shock.

What is not addressed explicitly here, not in the interconnect-

edness that exists in a healthy mentalizing process, nor in the

ethical references derived from the encounter with the other,

is the question whether this consciousness can really exist on

the level of the separate self. For the ethics of the separate self

hits a limit as soon as fear and pragmatic survival reactions

take over. As long as the love and fearlessness and total free-

dom of True Self are not the foundation from which all our

personal capacities arise, we will always tend to regress to the

‘good will’ and ‘positive outlook’ of the separate self. But that

is not suffi cient to kindle the fi re that we need to process the

Second Shock to mankind.

chapter ten

The momentum in the emergence of the Unique Self dharma

{Illustration}{Illustrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrratatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioionn}nnn

- 87 -

The momentum in the emergence

of the Unique Self dharma

‘In the old days in India it was customary for royalty

to host great debates between proponents of confl icting

points of view concerning the nature of reality and the

realization of the Self. It is a shame that this tradition

has fallen by the wayside in our materialistic times.’ 31

james swartz

Great discoveries tend to arrive in different plac-

es around the world simultaneously, such as book

printing. It cannot be a coincidence that in the past

few decades, so many great minds in the fi elds of religion,

society and spirituality have been striving to fi nd a new syn-

thesis between the personal /individual and the impersonal.

It is as if they all feel this inner urge to fi nally bridge the gap

between the Eastern emphasis on transcending the ego in or-

der to reach impersonal Enlightenment, and the Western em-

phasis on the development and inherent value of the individ-

ual (an emphasis that started in a historical period in Europe

that, ironically, is also called ‘the Enlightenment’).

The search for this new synthesis can be found in the work

- 88 -


of mystics like A.H. Almaas 32, of former students of Advai-

ta teacher Papaji such as Isaac Shapiro and Arjuna Ardach,

and even of Zen masters who go beyond their tradition like

Genpo Roshi and JunPo Roshi. (Whether they meet all the

distinctions we try to put in place here, especially in the case

of A.H. Almaas, is a question beyond the scope of this book.)

I believe that the world has been waiting for the philosoph-

ical and spiritual understanding of Marc Gafni and Ken Wil-

ber, who have been able to clarify, include and transcend all

related concepts and distinctions in the discussion about the

value of the personal and individual, beyond the impersonal.

They both take the importance of the dharma of this evolu-

tionary unfolding very seriously.

After their ‘dharma combat’, which took them several years,

they were fi nally able to condense their views into a formula.

Marc Gafni put the term ‘Unique Self ’ on the table, which

he originally introduced in his earlier book ‘Soul Prints’ and

subsequently elaborated on in his dissertation ‘Radical Kab-

balah’.33 Instead of using the term ‘Personal Essence’, which

was in circulation at the time, they opted for a term from 18th

century Jewish mysticism: ‘Unique Self ’. Upgrading this re-

alization to an Integral level of understanding, they came up

with the formula: True Self + Perspective = Unique Self.34

Let’s look at this in the context of the popular philosophical-

spiritual phrase ‘Form is emptiness, and emptiness is form,’

where ‘form’ refers to anything within time and space, in-

cluding perspective, and ‘emptiness’ refers to anything out-

side time and space, such as True Self.

- 89 -

TH E M O M E NTU M I N TH E E M E R G E N CE O F TH E U N I Q U E S E LF D HAR M A

If form is emptiness and emptiness is form, and form is per-

spective, then perspective is ontological. That means that

‘perspective’ does not come into being as a result of your con-

ditioning or your psychological history, nor even from the

highest altitudes of ego development. It implies that every

(human) being will always have a unique perspective, from

moment to moment.

Yet, even though ‘form = emptiness’, that does not mean that

both parts, or even one part, of the equation is conscious

within a particular person. So there is a big difference be-

tween the unconscious Unique Self and the conscious Unique

Self. A person who has realized True Self, isn’t necessarily

consciously aware of his or her perspective-taking, let alone

of the fact that there is always some kind of developmental

level involved in this. A case in point was that Maharishi Ma-

hesh Yogi, after meeting The Beatles, considered that these

loving people might be enlightened. He was not able to dis-

tinguish between love emerging from True Self on the one

hand, and their Green-meme level of consciousness on the

other. On the other hand, postmodern people who are con-

sciously aware of their perspective-taking are not necessarily

consciously aware of their True Self.

And if we have realized the True-Self state of oneness, fear-

lessness, freedom and compassion, what happens when our

fear-based, dualistic mind or ego comes back online? What

usually happens after realizing True Self, is that after some

time we fall back into our previous state of separate-self con-

sciousness. Then the only way we can think of to regain that

- 90 -


wonderful True-Self state, is try and meditate more, or reg-

ister for another satsang retreat, in the hope that we will be

graced again with glimpses of this higher consciousness.

But once we have become consciously aware of our True Self

and have become consciously aware of our perspective-tak-

ing, we can also take a more active role. We then may con-

sciously start to base our dualistic perspective-taking on the

True-Self characteristics of oneness, fearlessness, freedom

and compassion. Then the whole accumulated harvest of our

personal, separate-self experiences can suddenly become a

deep source of Unique-Self wisdom. Then we may truly say

that the separate self (level 1), after its surrender to the imper-

sonal phase of classical Enlightenment or True Self (level 2),

returns on the other side of the Moon as Unique Self (level 3).

In other words, then we go from unconscious Unique Self to

conscious Unique Self.

And once the integrated, fully developed sensitive self, with

a well-developed, inner ethical authority, reaches the level of

Unique Self and a Cosmo-centric worldview, then this con-

scious Unique Self turns out to be a very interesting candi-

date for processing mankind’s Second Shock. From a Unique-

Self level, in touch with the interconnectedness of the whole,

we encounter everything in life as ourselves, all being unique

parts of the whole.

chapter eleven

Unique Self: its sensitivity,

leadership, technology and mysticism

- 93 -

Unique Self: its sensitivity, leadership,

technology and mysticism

‘It (the Evolutionary Unique Self) is the creative force

of the kosmos, which is, intends, and moves All-That-Is

towards healing and transformation. It is the evolutionary

impulse that lives in you, as you and through you.’ 35

marc gafni

‘Perspective’ is something that can only be taken in

time and space. Since all sentient beings have con-

sciousness and live in a unique body in a unique

place and time, each and every one of them has a unique per-

spective on reality. Human beings are able to become con-

sciously aware of this fact, and we are potentially waking up

to this awareness all over the globe now.

As human beings, we can’t NOT take perspective, whether

we do this consciously or unconsciously. And any perspec-

tive that we take, will produce a correlating state of being in

our total body-mind. But the opposite is also true. For any

body-mind is always positioned, in space and time, between

other objects and body-minds. As we know from quantum

physics, any object in space and time will be refl ected in all

- 94 -


related objects surrounding it, at least within a certain range.

So the body-mind is always infl uenced by, or reacting to, oth-

er body-minds and objects surrounding it, usually in an un-

conscious way, which will have an effect on our unconscious

perspective-taking.

How do these infl uences impact our state of mind? That de-

pends. Usually, because most people live at the level of the sep-

arate self, these infl uences will simply confi rm and strength-

en people’s likes and dislikes. But those same infl uences can

also be consciously received by a body-mind that has already

been structured at the level of Unique Self, through a series of

conscious experiences of unique interconnectedness with the

whole. Every one of those experiences will produce a corre-

lating, more fi nely-tuned state in our body-minds, and once

we have these experiences often enough, a new, more fi nely-

tuned structure will develop in our body-minds, through a

process that in modern social theory is called ‘structuration’.

The concept of ‘structuration’ is a very fruitful concept. An-

thony Giddens developed a new approach, which transcended

and included both the notion of ‘Structure’ and the notion

of ‘Agency’ and gave them their place in the formation of

‘Systems’. Agency presupposes Structure. Structures are not

only limitations but enable Agency. Structures come alive in

the moment when people act. So Structure also presupposes

Agency. Finally this process of Structuration leads to the for-

mation of Systems that exist over time.36

- 95 -

U N I Q U E S E LF: IT S S E N S ITI V IT Y, LE A D E R S H I P, TE CH N O LO G Y AN D MY STI CI S M

This gives us the possibility to conceptualize Unique Self as

a new subtle structure that enables us to respond in the mo-

ment to our surroundings, not with a separate-self reaction

based on fear, but coming from a Unique-Self perspective

connected to the whole. This moment-to-moment structura-

tion in our body-minds may fi nally create the system real-

ity in the world that corresponds with the new level of con-

sciousness called the Unique Self.

This means that the Unique Self, aware as it is of its intercon-

nectedness with the whole, will not only express itself, from

moment to moment, in specifi c, fi nely-tuned states of mind

and perspectives, but will also generate a more over-all, lov-

ing perspective that is structured over time. Of course, that

over-all perspective cannot be a rigid structure, such as the

separate self tends to have. Yet the Unique Self cannot exist

without a structuring of the body-mind, gained over time, ei-

ther. That leads us to the following formula: Unique Self over

time = True Self + Perspective + the uniquely structured sensi-

tivity of a specifi c body-mind. This comes down to the unfold-

ing of a new level of consciousness that is now emerging in

the evolution of the human species in time and space that is

creating a new system reality.

Since the Unique Self comes from the perspective of inter-

connectedness, or love, or the heart, anybody looking at the

world from a Unique-Self perspective, on a Cosmo-centric

level, will be pained in a unique way by the suffering and im-

perfections of the world. From a Unique-Self dharma per-

spective, this pain is not a defi ciency, but an indicator of the

- 96 -


treasure of love that lies hidden in this uniquely structured

Unique Self. In such a person, his/her pain is not merely a

reminder of earlier psychological wounding. It was precisely

this wounding that structured the unique sensitivity of this

specifi c body-mind, resulting in the ability to be touched in a

very unique way by specifi c suffering in the world.

If this pain is not avoided, then the person will allow the

painful imperfections of life to rip their hearts open and per-

ceive things from a loving, Unique-Self perspective, propel-

ling them into action. What does it mean to us when we see

children dying from hunger, insects being destroyed by pes-

ticides, the extinction of species, people being sandwiched

between their need for an income while their jobs consist of

making harmful, unsustainable products? On a less dramat-

ic level, the Unique Self expresses itself in the gardener who

cannot stand any imperfection in the growing of his fl owers,

the writer who won’t overlook a sentence that does not fl ow,

the scientist who cannot stop before things become clear.

That inability not to do something about things one loves is a

characteristic of the Unique Self and may express itself in ever

higher, more complex domains of life.

So the shocks of life can awaken us to our highest possible,

unique perspective. The specifi c areas in life where this hap-

pens will point to, and inform us about, our unique gift and

involvement in life. Even as an adult living as a separate self,

we can already become aware of that unique involvement. Yet

it is only through self-inquiry from the level of Unique Self

that this involvement can be made truly clear to the separate

- 97 -

U N I Q U E S E LF: IT S S E N S ITI V IT Y, LE A D E R S H I P, TE CH N O LO G Y AN D MY STI CI S M

self. Our specifi c involvement in the world will then call forth

an almost spontaneous sense of responsibility and care in us.

In this way, true leadership and commitments are born. Still,

since our ego or separate self will often take over, we have to

re-inform our ego’s repeatedly about the truth we see from

our Unique Self perceptions.

In Gafni’s words: ‘Unique Self Enlightenment is a genuine

possibility, and therefore a sacred obligation, for every single

person.’ 37

Your ‘personal’ vision is not something you can choose by

preference. You can only discover it through your Unique-

Self realization. Realizing your Unique Self will require quite

a clean-up of all sorts of compromises that the separate self

has been prepared to make in life, and a healing of the pain-

ful consequences of these compromises. These compromises

were made to cover up our pain and seek solace in comfort,

but the price we paid for this was that we closed our hearts.

Realizing one’s Unique Self also requires a deep transforma-

tional practice of dying, transforming and then being re-

born, a transformation that is structured and informed by

the Unique Self dharma. Fortunately, we already have an ex-

tensive, Integrally informed Unique-Self technology at our

disposal.

Once you have heard your unique call to life, you don’t just

come from a desire to fi x problems, as on the Orange altitude,

nor are you striving to ‘become’ your vision, as on the Yellow

altitude. One’s Unique Self vision can be a conscious part of,

- 98 -


and aligned to, the unfolding of the whole (Unique Self Tur-

quoise altitude). Moreover, it is not a fi xed vision anymore,

but has the character of fl ow (Indigo altitude). Your knowl-

edge about it is not knowledge of something; it is knowledge

by identity. You know your Unique gift to life, because you

are it. You know it from the inside, by the way life itself has

touched you. God has played the violin that’s you, and you’ve

heard and understood the sound. Then a decision can come

in, but it is a decision from a ‘divine level’, where the Divine is

so free that it can decide to limit itself if called to do so.

chapter twelve

Unique Self as the best candidate

to process the Second Shock

{Illustration}{I{I{I{I{I{I{I{I{I{I{I{I{I{I{I{I{I{I{I{Illlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllusususususususususususususususususussustrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrtrttrtratatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatattioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioioon}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}n}

- 101 -

Unique Self as the best candidate

to process the Second Shock

‘In developmental psychology terms, the fullest fl owering

of Unique Self might best be articulated as a living

glimpse into Indigo altitude: This is the stage of evolution

of human consciousness at which my felt, ever-present

unity of reality – a state of ongoing ‘fl ow presence’ if you

will - and the unique characteristics of my own life and

perspective - the unique evolutionary features of my life -

intersect and fi nd a cohesive and stabilized integration.’ 38

marc gafni

So we have recognized the Unique Self as the next evolu-

tionary unfolding of

True Self + Perspective + the uniquely structured sen-

sitivity of a specifi c body-mind.

As we have seen, the connectedness that we experience in a

healthy personal development is what enables us to put our-

selves in someone else’s shoes - to take the perspective of an-

other. This connectedness also enables us to feel a healthy

type of shame, when we see the consequences of our own

behavior for someone else. This is the starting point for a

- 102 -


healthy development of our ethics. It pre-models an ethic

that will emerge when we go through impersonal Enlight-

enment, which connects us to the whole, and then arrive at

the Unique-Self level. Coming from a Cosmo-centric level

of consciousness, this ethic enables us to empathize with the

Earth itself in our personal, unique way.

We then have the potential to live deliberately and conscious-

ly in the interconnectedness of All-That-Is, in a situation that

may seem similar but actually is different from the one in

which our early, unconscious ancestors lived. Now our inter-

connectedness is not an unconscious fact, but can be a con-

scious choice and realization. The only ‘self ’ who is able to do

this, is someone who realizes his/her Unique Self, living be-

yond True Self as a fully realized Individual, able to think and

feel beyond culture, transcending and including all previous

levels, and receiving their impulses from the whole as well

as from sentient and insentient ‘others’. People coming from

their Unique Self can be unconditional, evolutionary and un-

wavering in their sense of ethical obligation, which comes

from an inner realization, whatever the outcome.

Marc Gafni gave the Unique Self its clear, postmodern dhar-

ma birth. Now that we have the knowledge about Unique Self,

we can develop the technologies that support our awaken-

ing to it. And let’s not forget, if the Unique Self is an actual

possibility, potentially it must have been already there. We

may well remind ourselves of this whenever the ego tries to

‘make’ the Unique Self a possibility. The Unique Self is really

a next level of unfolding, which we can get in touch with by

- 103 -

U N I Q U E S E LF A S TH E B E ST C AN D I DATE TO PR O CE SS TH E S E CO N D S H O CK

consciously becoming aware of it and then becoming it, in the

sense of ‘knowledge by identity’.

Of course, we cannot really know our Unique Self before

having experienced it. Still, anyone who, through meditative

practice, touches classical Enlightenment, will realize they

have had glimpses of this enlightened state earlier in life. In

the same way, everyone has already had glimpses of Unique-

Self Enlightenment. We already fi nd indications and testimo-

nials of human beings who have reached and stabilized this

level of consciousness. They have known it from the inside

over considerable time, and have allowed themselves to be

deeply restructured by it.

Surely, the Unique Self, with its awareness of the intercon-

nectedness of all with the All, in an utterly personal and inti-

mate way, is the best candidate at this moment to process the

Second Shock to mankind.

chapter thirteen

Answering the call

- 107 -

Answering the call

‘I have no confi dence in Guruhood of the usual type.

(….) What I want is for someone, awakened by my

touch or that of another, to manifest from within his

sleeping divinity and to realize the divine life.’ 39

sri aurobindo

To recapitulate: In the earliest phase of mankind’s his-

tory, we lived in unconscious unity with the Earth

and all its creatures, until new mental capacities

started to emerge, which made us aware of our vulnerability,

resulting in what Ken Wilber calls ‘future shock’ and what

I’ve called here ‘mankind’s First Shock’. In a defensive re-

action to this First Shock, we separated ourselves from the

whole and created our own, split-off, anthropocentric world.

In our present time, we are becoming aware to what degree

we have been cutting ourselves off from our interconnected-

ness with Nature, endangering not just our own existence but

the whole web of Life on the planet - a realization that I have

called mankind’s Second Shock.

In a sense, our Unique Self can lead the way for us to become

one with the whole again, but now in a conscious way, and

- 108 -


without losing the personal dimension. Once we consciously

take the perspective of our unique interconnectedness with

the whole, aware of the evolutionary impulse within our-

selves, we may progress towards a new kind of union with

our fellow human beings, animals, plants and the Earth it-

self. Not as some sort of heroic act, imposed by an ideal, nor

as a desperate effort of will to fi x things, but simply, and quite

naturally, because we feel an inner call to new, deeper and

more extended forms of care and responsibility towards our

fellow sentient beings, the sacredness of Life on Earth, and

the even greater Mystery of the Universe in which we live and

have our being.

That call, coming from our Unique Selves, is now welling up

spontaneously in millions of people all over the globe, and

it only requires us to become conscious of it, accept it, and

then take it seriously, not as a dutiful responsibility, but as a

sacred obligation that fi lls us with fi ery passion, creative joy

and deep, heartfelt satisfaction.

- 109 -

Afterword by Dr. Marc Gafni

It is an honor to write a short afterword for this important

book by my friend and colleague Mauk Pieper. Mauk is

an important teacher and Integral theorist. He has been

instrumental in integrating trauma work, enlightenment

studies, Unique Self-realization and Integral theory in a way

that produces a new and critical link in our growing self-con-

sciousness as a species.

Mauk is one of those people on the planet who is contrib-

uting to evolution waking up to itself through our own col-

lective and personal awareness. He is also a wonderful human

being. Mauk is an awakened heart and a person of radical

personal integrity. This, together with his brilliant mind and

piercing inquiry into the very heart of things are part of what

makes him one of our great teachers. Read him. Let him shift

your awareness and wake up your bodymind. You will be the

better for it. We will be too.

Mauk asked me to write this afterword. As I said above I am

honored. I am also delighted. What I will share with you in

the next few short paragraphs is the new way that I am think-

ing about Unique Self. In the book Your Unique Self I focused

on Unique Self both as your Unique Perspective and as the

- 110 -


Unique Personal Taste of your essence. In this short essay I

refer to this latter quality of Unique Self-fragrance as Unique

Intimacy. It emerges that Unique Self has two dimensions:

Your Unique Perspective and Your Unique Intimacy.

There are two questions that you must answer to make

your life a triumph. The fi rst is, Who Are You? The second is,

are you willing to play a larger game?

We live in a world of outrageous pain. The only response

to outrageous pain is outrageous love. We live in a world of

outrageous beauty. The only response to outrageous beauty is

outrageous love.

What is the path of the outrageous lover?

It is to live as an outrageous lover. What does an outra-

geous lover do? She keeps every boundary that should be kept

and breaks every boundary that should be broken.

But what does an outrageous lover actually do?

The outrageous lover commits outrageous acts of love.

But which outrageous acts of love should you commit?

There is so much that you might do, and so much that needs

to be done. Yet the answer is simple.

You commit the outrageous acts of love that are yours, and

yours alone, to commit. You commit the outrageous acts of

love that are an expression of Your Unique Self.

Who are you? You are a Unique Self. What does it mean to

be a Unique Self? It is not merely the typology of your ego’s

structure. To realize your Unique Self is to realize your es-

sence. Your Unique Self is the answer to your most essential

question, Who Are You?

Your Unique Self is the healing for your worst nightmare.

Your worst nightmare is that you do not matter, that you are

- 111 -

AF TE R W O R D BY D R . M AR C G AFN I

an extra on the set. Your Unique Self tells you that You Mat-

ter.

Who are you?

You are an irreducibly unique expression of the love-intel-

ligence and love-beauty that is the initiating and animating

Eros of all-that-is. This irreducibly unique expression of the

love-intelligence of all-that-is lives in you, as you and through

you. The irreducibly unique love-intelligence lives in you and

as you in a way that it never has, does or will ever again, other

than through you.

You occupy a unique place in the space-time continuum.

You have a unique perspective. Your unique perspective cre-

ates unique insight. Your unique insight expresses itself as

unique gifts. Your unique gifts address a unique need in your

unique circle of intimacy and infl uence. There is a unique

need in the cosmos that can only be addressed by you. To be

awake, aware, and afl ame in love is to live your deepest pur-

pose. Your deepest purpose is to address the unique need that

can only be addressed by you, which is to live your Unique

Self.

But your Unique Self is… even more than that. It is the

quality of intimacy that lives in you, as you and through you.

It is fulfi lled in you tasting like you. It is the personal face of

Essence, awake as you. It is God awake in you. And remem-

ber, the God you do not believe in does not exist.

Who is God? The great traditions experience God as infi n-

ity. They emphasize particularly the infi nities of power and

knowledge, omnipotence and omniscience. But the outra-

geous lover, the Unique Self mystic, senses another face of in-

fi nity in the divine. This is the infi nity of intimacy. And that

- 112 -


infi nity lives uniquely in you. You incarnate a unique quality

of that infi nite intimacy that lives nowhere else but in you.

Who are you? You are God’s Unique Intimacy.

So Your Unique Self has two faces, two tastes. Your Unique

Self is the irreducibly unique perspective that lives in you as

you and through you. At the very same time, Your Unique

Self is God’s Unique Intimacy that lives in you, as you and

through you. Two faces of the One. In that unique insight, in-

timacy is your being and becoming, your spacious silence and

ecstatic urgency, the two tastes of your love. Divine intimacy

loves the world open uniquely, in you, as you, and through

you. Divine insight and creativity evolve the world uniquely,

in you, as you, and through you.

Now we can answer the question we posed above more

deeply. What does an outrageous lover do? An outrageous

lover commits outrageous acts of love. But which ones, you

asked?

You have outrageous acts of love to commit that can be

committed by no one else other than you, that ever was is or

will be. Your Unique Self has outrageous acts of love to com-

mit that heal a corner of the world that is Un-Love, which can

only be engaged and healed by you. You are God’s irreducibly

Unique Perspective. You are God’s irreducibly Unique Inti-

macy.

Marc Gafni is a visionary thinker, philosopher and wisdom

teacher and artist. He is Director of the Center for Integral

Wisdom and Scholar-in-Residence at Venwoude, Holland.

He is a leading voice in bringing Unique Self enlightenment

into the world, an emergent post-postmodern wisdom lin-

- 113 -

AF TE R W O R D BY D R . M AR C G AFN I

eage which builds on his national bestseller Soul Prints, win-

ner of the Nautilus Award for Best Spirituality Book, as well

as on the highly acclaimed Your Unique Self (2012) and Radi-

cal Kabbalah (2012), which is based on his doctoral disserta-

tion at Oxford University.

- 114 -

Bibliography

Alfassa, M. Basis of Yoga, Mother’s Talks. Sri Arobindo

Ashram Trust. 1988.

Alfassa, M. The Mother’s Vision, Selections from Questions

and Answers. Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust. 2002.

Almaas, H.A. The Pearl Beyond Price. Diamand Books. 1988.

Aurobindo, S. Life Divine. Sri Arobindo Ashram Trust. 2005

Aurobindo, S The Synthesis of Yoga. Sri Arobindo Ashram

Trust. 1999

Beck, D., Cowan. C. Spiral Dynamics. Blackwell Publishing.

2003

Caplan, M. Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discernment on the

Spiritual Path. Sounds True. 2009.

Carson, R. Silent Spring. Fawcett Publications, Inc,

Greenwich, Conn. 1962

Damasio, A. Looking for Spinoza. A Harvest Book Harcourt,

Inc. 2003

Fonagy, P. Affect Regulation, Mentalization and the

Development of the Self. H. Karnak. 2004.

Fonagy, P. Bateman AW. Mechanisms of change in

mentalization-based treatment of BPD. J Clin Psychol. 2006

Gafni, M. Radical Kabbalah. Integral Publishers. 2012.

Gafni, M. Soul Prints. Atria Books. 2002.

- 115 -

B I B L I O G R A PH Y

Gafni, M. Your Unique Self. The radical path to Personal

Enlightenment. Tucson: Integral Publishers, LLC, 2012.

Gafni, M. “The evolutionary Emergent of the Unique Self, A

New Chapter in Integral Theory.” Journal of Integral Theory

and Practice – Vol. 6, No.1.

Giddens, A. Central Problems in Social Theory. The

Macmillan Press. LTD. 1983

Hedlund-de Wit, A. Worldviews and the transformation to

sustainable societies.

An exploration of the cultural and psychological dimensions

of our global environmental challenges. Annick Hedlund-de

Wit, 2013.

Heehs, P. The lives of Sri Aurobindo. Columbia University

Press. 2008.

JunPo Roshi. Mondo Zen. Ego Deconstructing Koans

Emotional Awareness Intervention Koans. Training Manual.

April 2012.

Lajoie, D.H. & Shapiro S.I. “Defi nitions of transpersonal

psychology; The fi rst twenty-three years.” Journal of

Transpersonal Psychology. Vol. 24, 1992.

Lasch, C. The Culture of Narcissism. Norton paperback.1991.

Levinas, E. Totality and Infi nity. Kluwer Academic

Publishers. 1991. Dordrecht. The Netherlands.

Club of Rome. The Limits to Growth. Potamac Associates

Books. 1972.

Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentalization

Wilber, K. A Theory of Everything. Shambhala. Boston. 2001.

Wilber, K. Boomeritis. Shambhala Publications. Boston

Massachustissets

Wilber, K. Integral Spirituality. Integral Books. Boston &

London. 2006.

- 116 -


Wilber, K. The Mariage of Sense and Soul, The Collected

Works.Volume Eight. Shambhala. Boston. 2000

Wilber, K. Up from Eden, The collected Works. Volume two.

Shambhala. Boston & London. 1999.

- 117 -

Notes

1 Ken Wilber, “Up from Eden”, The collected Works. Volume

2. p. 405 – 407.

2 There is also the concept of Integrative Worldview Frame-

work, which differentiates and integrates fi ve aspects of re-

ality: Ontological (about what is), epistemological (about

how what is can be known), axiological (about a good and

ethical life), anthropological (about what a human being

is) and worldview (a vision about society). See for an ex-

tensive elaboration on these terms Annick Hedlund-de

Wit. Worldviews and the transformation to sustainable so-

cieties. An exploration of the cultural and psychological di-

mensions of our global environmental challenges. p.77 – 80.

3 Mira Alfassa, Basis of Yoga, Mother’s Talks. p. 16.

4 Sri Aurobindo, Life Divine. p. 90

5 Ken Wilber, Integral Spirituality p. 222.

6 Ken Wilber, “Up from Eden”, The collected Works. Volume

2. p. 405

7 Club of Rome, The Limits to Growth. p. 12

8 The conventional mind (level four) as well as the

modern mind (level fi ve), of human conscious-

ness, both have an external mental orientation.

Level 4: Blue: Mythic Order. Conduct is based on absolut-

- 118 -


ist principles of right and wrong, based on an all-powerful

Other or Order, with obedience to the rule. It is strongly

conventional and conformist and often religious or myth-

ic.

Level 5: Orange: Scientifi c Achievement. The world is a

rational machine, with natural laws that can be learned,

mastered, and manipulated for one’s own purposes. On

both levels people take conscious responsibility for their

cultural role. They do so with their mental capacities and

external orientation, whether it is a religion imposed on

them or a scientifi c objectifi cation.

9 JunPo Roshi, Mondo Zen. Ego Deconstructing Koans Emo-

tional Awareness Intervention Koans. Training Manual.

April 2012.

10 Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism.1979

11 Here I mention the 8 levels, using passages and terms that

Ken Wilber uses in his summary of Clare Graves’ model

of Spiral Dynamics as developed by Don Beck and Chris-

topher Cowan. Ken Wilber, A Theory of Everything. p. 6-13.

A short, general indication of the levels of conscious-

ness might be helpful here: 1. Beige: Archaic-instinctu-

al. 2. Purple: Magical-Animistic. 3. Red: Power Gods. 4.

Blue: Mythic Order. 5. Orange: Scientifi c Achievement.

6. Green: The Sensitive Self. 7. Yellow: Integrative. 8. Tur-

quoise: Holistic.

12 The Green level of consciousness is that of the Sensi-

tive Self. Ken Wilber gives the following qualifi cations:

‘Communitarian, human bonding, ecological sensitivity,

and networking. The human spirit must be freed from

greed, dogma, and divisiveness; feelings and caring super-

- 119 -

N OTE S

sede cold rationality; cherishing of the Earth, Gaia, Life.

Against hierarchy; establishes lateral bonding and linking.

Refresh spirituality, bring harmony, enrich human poten-

tial. Strongly egalitarian, anti-hierarchy, pluralistic values,

social construction of reality, diversity, multiculturalism,

relativistic value systems; this worldview is often called

pluralistic relativism. Ken Wilber, A Theory of Everything.

p.10 - 11.

13 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002,

Vol. 21, p. 175.

14 Lajoie, D.H. & Shapiro S.I., Defi nitions of transpersonal

psychology; The fi rst twenty-three years, Journal of Transper-

sonal Psychology. Vol. 24, 1992.

15 Caplan, Mariana, Eyes Wide Open: Cultivating Discern-

ment on the Spiritual Path. Sounds True. p. 231.

16 Ken Wilber, Integral Spirituality. p. 88-93

17 See for an extensive elaboration on this consciousness Ken

Wilbers’ novel Boomeritis and chapter 5. “Boomeritis Bud-

dhism” in Integral Spirituality. p. 103 – 118.

18 Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga. p. 59

19 See for an extensive elaboration on ‘Idealism’ in this con-

text for example Ken Wilber, “The marriage of sense and

Soul”, The collected Works. Volume eight. p.170 – 179.

20 Sri Aurobindo writes “What then would be the existence

of a divine soul, (…). What would be its consciousness, liv-

ing in the original Truth of things, in the inalienable uni-

ty, in the world of its own infi nite being, like the Devine

Existence itself, but able by the play of the divine Maya and

by the distinction of the comprehending and apprehending

Truth-Consciousness to enjoy also difference from God at the

- 120 -


same time as unity with Him and to embrace difference and

yet oneness with other divine souls in the infi nite play of the

self-multiplied Identical.” (Italics by me.) Life Devine p.164.

Marc Gafni started the Unique Self discussion in his book

called “Soul Prints”. The discussion about the concepts

‘Divine Soul’ and/or ‘Psychic Being’ in Sri Aurobindo’s

writings and the concept of ‘Soul’ or ‘Soul Print’ in rela-

tion to the concept of ‘Unique self ’ is relevant here, but is

beyond the scope of this article.

21 Mira Alfassa, The Mother’s Vision, Selections from Ques-

tions and Answers. p. 4.

22 Ken Wilber describes Turquoise as follows: Level of con-

sciousness no.8. Turquoise: Holistic. Universal holistic

system, holons/waves of integrative energies; unites feel-

ing with knowledge; multiple levels interwoven into one

conscious system. Universal order, but in a living, con-

scious fashion, not based on external rules (Blue) or group

bonds (Green). A “grand unifi cation” [a “theory of every-

thing” or T.O.E.] is possible, in theory and in actuality.

Sometimes involves the emergence of a new spirituality

as a meshwork of all existence. Ken Wilber, A Theory of

Everything. p. 13.

23 The Blue/Amber level of consciousness creates an order

that ‘enforces a code of conduct based on absolutist and

unvarying principles of “right” and “wrong.” Violating

the code or rules has severe, perhaps everlasting repercus-

sions.’ Ken Wilber, A theory of Everything. p. 9.

24 Emanuel Levinas, Ethics and Infi nity. p. 85 - 86.

25 Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mentalization

26 Peter Fonagy, Affect Regulation, Mentalization and the De-

- 121 -

N OTE S

velopment of the Self. According to Peter Fonagy, individu-

als without proper attachment (e.g. due to physical, psy-

chological or sexual abuse), can have greater diffi culties in

the development of mentalization abilities.

27 I know I’m touching here on a big topic about feelings and

emotions with a lot of possibilities for different interpreta-

tions. Damasio wrote an excellent book about the differ-

ence between emotions and feelings in which he develops

a very important distinction between them, which makes

human beings potentially more free from emotions than

mammals. See Antonio Damasio, Looking for Spinoza.

28 I am well aware that one cannot measure the ethical line

of development by using the levels of Spiral Dynamics line

of development. Then one makes the same mistake when

saying for instance: ‘This is a liter water of apple juice.’

Therefore Wilber introduces ‘consciousness on a certain

altitude’ as a measurement for all lines. That is an emp-

ty scale, just as liters are an empty scale to measure the

amount of liquids of different kinds. In the same way

‘consciousness’ and ‘altitude on a developmental line’ are

empty scales, which can be used for different kinds of de-

velopmental lines. Moreover, each line has its own termi-

nology for different levels on that line. So if I use Spiral

Dynamics to refer to an ego level as ‘Green’, or a ‘cultural –

historical’ category to refer to an ego level as ‘postmodern’,

that is just for the sake of avoiding too much complicated

defi nitions for levels on different lines of development. See

for Ken Wilber’s explanation. Ken Wilber, Integral Spiritu-

ality. p. 62 -69.

29 Emanuel Levinas, Totality and Infi nity. p. 72

- 122 -


30 Emanuel Levinas, Totality and Infi nity. p. 297

31 James Swartz, a Vedantic teacher wrote this passage.

http://www.shiningworld.com/Home%20Page%20Links/

Dharma%20Combat.pdf

32 A.H. Almaas, The Pearl Beyond Price.

33 Marc Gafni, Radical Kabbalah, an academic volume lay-

ing the groundwork for key dimensions of the Unique Self

Teaching. Gafni introduces in this work the Enlighten-

ment teaching of non-dual humanism.

34 Marc Gafni, Your Unique Self, the radical path to personal

enlightenment. p. 38

35 Marc Gafni, Your Unique Self, the radical path to personal

enlightenment. p. 39

36 Anthony Giddens, Central Problems in Social Theory, espe-

cially p. 69 – 73.

37 Marc Gafni,Your Unique Self. The radical path to personal

enlightenment. Integral Publishers p. 22

38 Marc Gafni, “The evolutionary Emergent of the Unique

Self, A New Chapter in Integral Theory.” Journal of Inte-

gral Theory and Practice. – Vol. 6, No.1. p. 5.

39 Peter Heehs, The lives of Sri Aurobindo. p. 322

Humanity's second Shock and Your Unique self

Documents

Transcript of Humanity's second Shock and Your Unique self