Clean Up, Wake Up, Grow Up - Ken Wilber

Useful practices for transitioning from the 1st to the 2nd tier of human development.

We are continuing our big interview with philosopher Ken Wilber, the creator of Integral Theory and one of the key figures in the area of consciousness studies of our time.

In the following two videos we talk about useful practices for waking up, growing up, cleaning up, and showing up for life, i.e. for transitioning from the 1st onto the 2nd tier of human development.

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[lunhing]

Thanks for not interrupting him and letting this man talk phenomenal work ❤❤

[JamesMullooly]

The first half of this holds the best 8-minute description of "shadow work" or "cleaning up" I've ever found. Thank you, Ken Wilber and Future Thinkers

[suleymanshah]

ken wilber says the shadow has only been around for 100 years or so and that's true, but in Vedic traditions the idea of samskaras (repressed energies) has been around for 5000 or whatever years ... and it sounds quite similar (blocked energies that you hold on to or push away get stored into your unconscious)

[KaiWatson]

I was a, "Zen Teenager" that ended up with severe PTSD and, "mild social displacement" due to being, "super woken up" in the contemplative sense (many hours on the mat, working through the Cloud of Unknowing/Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Vedanta) but not having adequate development in the, "showing up" and, "growing up" sphere. I'm so excited about these new developments as it seems like we can take, "the kids" and get them, "where they want to go" without the, "years of drug abuse and strained relationships" that can sometimes accompany the path.

Instead of Dark Nights of the Soul we might have Bright Nights of Divine Kirtan. Hare Krsna. All glories to Her Divine Grace Srimati Sri Lekha Devi Dasi our beloved Siksa Guru and teacher. Life's now good. For now!

[squamish]

Ken really is a gift. I hope he lives another 15-20 years, that is to say, long enough to see the power of AI create mass enlightenment for the West, which is going to happen in that time frame, or it will never happen at all, and we will doom ourselves.

Ken perfectly elucidates here what happened with many Eastern spiritual teachers who came to the West, and Western teachers too for that matter, who went astray so notoriously in the 1970s-80s (and still to some extent today).


Chogyam Trungpa is the perfect example. There is no doubt that Trungpa had woken up to some extent. But he never cleaned up or grew up. His alcoholism and womanizing was excused by his disciples as "He never concealed his behaviour or said it was an example to follow". But now we know that he snorted a lot of cocaine. This he DID conceal from his disciplines, not least because it's illegal, and in the time when he was doing it, VERY illegal - if he'd been busted, he would have gone to prison forever, and destroyed his spiritual community. He also had a 15-year-old 'consort' (!) who he eventually tired of, and she killed herself. The guy was an asshole, and there is no excusing that kind of behaviour, no matter what claims to 'attainment' you may have.

Trungpa was dead at 47. All of the excuses which he made to himself did not save him from the chemical effects of booze. His deluded wife claimed his death was due to diabetes, but his doctor made clear it was due to cirrhosis of the liver brought on by alcoholism. Trungpa maintained a remarkable clarity and equanimity through his dying process, according to his nurse, but then again, so do many people. He definitely had some degree of spiritual power, but again, so do many human trainwrecks.

More importantly, imagine what he could have been if he'd have done everything that Wilber advises here. He might still be alive and teaching and contributing today. But he may have been too arrogant to listen to such 'Western' advice, which is its own problem to this day in Eastern spiritual communities.

[yidakiman]

Thank you for letting him talk, unlike many podcasters that interrupt their hosts unnecessarily

[bodor.o.c.k.s]

I am from Germany. Some books from Ken are not translatet here in our country. And for me difficult to translate. But I try to learn English. "Religion of tomorrow " for example .But, whatever I' ve read from Him - It' s great. He would be a great chance for the whole world in time. It' s my meaning. Greetings to Kenneth and all his Integral Readers all over the world. I must learn English long

[lmwthree]

So grateful for Ken Wilber. So grateful for this interview.

[GavDuggan]

Not sure I’ve ever learned so much within 30 minutes

[brpragyanchaitanya]

Cleaning up refers to heart,
Growing up refers to intellect and
Waking up refers to Self.

Cleaning up is psychological,
Growing up is philosophical and
Waking up is spiritual.

While cleaning up and
Growing up make you sane,
Waking up makes you a Saint.

But in Vedic system, the three are hierarchical. You cannot grow up unless you clean up, and you cannot wake up unless you grow up sufficiently.

[ilyakhasin]

Ken's final words in this video were profound. What a horrible idea to stop growing after graduating college, and yet I did it.

[alexmichelli]

Growing Up: Take the Role of Other
Waking Up: “not this, not that”—you are the Witness disidentified from all the seen objects
Cleaning Up: 3-2-1 Shadow Integrating

You put them all as “Growing Up” 24:10. Thought I’d let you know so nobody gets confused 🤓

[emmaclarke]

The world is you pushed out. That's what I'm getting from that first bit and it's so true. I worked a lot on this for a while and noticed people 'treated' me way better and with more respect because I felt more respect for myself. Also got my favourite job. Interesting!

[pplasqui]

3 cheers for Ken! He inspired me to take up and integral practice 12 years ago. His books make my brain explode. :-)

[christopherebhabha]

I have known about ken Wilber for years, but finally got listen to him! What a brilliant compassionate spirit to freely and dynamically share his depth of wisdom with humanity. You can tell that His head/Brain vibrates at very high frequency❤️🙏

[LamSlide]

I like the way Ken thinks about the subject of waking up. The only thing that gave me pause was when he said that the awareness of or discovery of "shadow material" is only 100 years old. This is simply not true, at least not in the way we talk about other discoveries, such as electricity. We have known and talked 'shadow material' in many ways for millennia. It is an intuitive part of the human experience especially for those on the journey of waking up. Plenty schools of thought have talked about looking past our waking minds to understand our true beliefs in the ancient world. These beliefs are grounded in our experiences (i.e. trauma) and our interpretation of those experiences. Look towards the many sects of Buddhism for an example.

We have made progress though of course and I believe this is what Ken points out. Freud popularized (in the West) the understanding that our childhood experiences shape our behavior. Moreover, modern neuroscience has shown us how the 'body keeps score.'

[AlanPhan]

TLDR: Integrating shadow elements and discovering pure witnessing awareness are essential practices for personal development and spiritual awakening.

1. 00:00 🧠 Integral practice involves waking up, growing up, and cleaning up by addressing unconscious material and childhood experiences.
1.1 The speaker discusses the importance of practice in navigating cultural transitions and the challenges posed by technological advancements and climate change.
1.2 Practice waking up, growing up, and cleaning up are important for integral practice, with cleaning up involving addressing unconscious and repressed material.
1.3 Freud, Jung, and Alfred discovered that people can push aspects of their own awareness out of consciousness, making them unconscious.
1.4 People often develop shadow material from childhood experiences, and one common defense mechanism is to deny and disown certain traits, projecting them onto others instead.

2. 04:36 🌱 Acknowledge and address our own shadow elements to improve interpersonal relationships and mental health.
2.1 People often react impulsively when feeling pressured to complete a task, leading to outbursts of anger or misinterpretation of others' intentions.
2.2 Facing and acknowledging our own shadow elements is a difficult but necessary practice in order to address interpersonal problems and symptoms of depression.

3. 06:50 🌱 Integrate qualities from others, confront internal aggression, and reverse the steps that created the monster in your dreams to achieve personal growth and healthier relationships.
3.1 Identify and integrate the qualities in others that strongly affect you, whether positive or negative, in order to clean up and reintegrate your own shadow elements.
3.2 Reverse the steps that created the monster in your dreams by making it a second person sitting in front of you and identifying with it.
3.3 The speaker discusses the presence of internal aggression and anger and its impact on one's feelings.
3.4 Confronting and reowning projected qualities can lead to personal growth and healthier relationships.

4. 11:35 🌱 Recognizing stages of growing up and waking up leads to important human discovery, with practices for cleaning up and achieving unity experiences, involving recognizing that defining qualities are not your true self.
4.1 Baldwin and James discovered stages of growing up and waking up, leading to important periods in human discovery about aspects of themselves, with practices for cleaning up and achieving unity experiences.
4.2 Discovering your true self involves recognizing that the qualities and attributes that define you are not your true self.

5. 14:15 🧘 Meditation helps to disidentify with subjective thoughts and objects, leading to a realization of the true self as the witness of all experiences.
5.1 The seer, the witness, is a vast emptiness, not the objects we identify with, and is not who we really are.
5.2 Meditation helps to disidentify with subjective thoughts and objects, leading to a realization of the true self as the witness of all experiences.

6. 17:08 🌟 Pure awareness leads to enlightenment and radical freedom, while children develop perspective-taking abilities as they grow older.
6.1 Pure awareness is the freedom from identification with objects, leading to enlightenment and the discovery of radical freedom.
6.2 A child's perception of color is based on their own perspective and not on the actual color of the object.
6.3 Children develop the ability to understand and take on the perspective of others as they grow older, transitioning from egocentric to group-oriented thinking.

7. 20:35 🧠 Your true self is a pure witness that doesn't change, include waking up and growing up experiences, practice empathy and perspective-taking to grow up.
7.1 The speaker discusses the different nature stages of growing up and how each stage adds a new perspective, with empirical evidence going up to around seventh person perspective.
7.2 Your true self is a pure witness that doesn't change, and it's important to include both waking up and growing up experiences, as the relative self goes through stages and learns to take the perspectives of others.
7.3 Put yourself in the role of the other person, imagine their perspective, and practice a three to one process to exercise the brain and grow up.

8. 24:14 🌱 Teaching integral approaches in schooling can help humanity reach a tipping point where more people will be at second-tier stages and continue their education beyond high school or college.
8.1 Teaching integral approaches in schooling can help humanity reach a tipping point where more people will be at second-tier stages and continue their education beyond high school or college.
8.2 Teaching people today is a disaster and impacts every major world problem, enter the future thinkers giveaway to win a community membership and cognitive upgrade.

[julieanderson]

Thank you again Ken. Your passion to bring insight/recommendations to/for human immaturity is understandable. Especially given the present engrained problems humanity, as a whole, have demonstrated thus far. It is "fair enough" to say, as a generalization, that the unconscious shadow is/has not been sufficiently dealt with by humanity, in any arena of life. And, yes!, also in the pursuit of religious and spiritual seekers who are often desperately needy because of thier feeling awareness of human problems and suffering. Thus deeply yearning for freedom. Seekers, who are either beginning students or advanced students or even adept practitioners, playing whatever roles within any old or new tradition/ culture/program, are often vulnerable to being unconsciously activated (making choices) and moved by these unconscious cyclical repetivtive universal/cosmic forces that define all beings (gross, subtle or causal).

Adi Da's life and teachings and process were given and based upon and are precisely about the ego act, (shadow play) that obstructs True Freedom (not about delusions, bypass or escape).

I personally understand and responsibly practice beyond (in full excruciating detail) this "shawdow/light dynamic". It is a constant struggle and ordeal. Coined, comprehensively, as radical understanding of "the psycho biography of the ego" in relationship to the whole "esoteric anatomy of the body-mind-self", unique to each human being.

This radical process in Reality Itself, practiced in detail via self- understanding, encompasses, embraces, takes responsibility for all of what you necessarliy, easily and clearly speak of here. Awakening growth and full Realization is not possible otherwise.

There are deluded cultists who assume and pronounce otherwise...

In equally necessary addition to what you elaborate on, Adi Da reveals the Source/ Context of Conscious Light that is Being-Reality Self, (all inclusive) radiating Love Bliss ("beyond" Witness, which is non exclusive of all arising) that enables, by illumination/transmision, constant and all prevading, True resonsibility and matured developmental freedom relative to all aspects of life and relationships, universally.

It is also clear very few people were/are keen to embrace Adi Da's Heart Wisdom Way because it is real and a most difficult ordeal of growth, outgrowing and awakening and "selfless" service. This new and unique yoga that takes full responsibility for shadow and ego self transcendence, can only happen via awakened intuition, recognized Divine Self Condition which enables unqualified in love relatiinship to all beings and things.

At Adi Da's time of death he indicated NO one had sufficiently responded to his work or teaching, nor tested and proved or authenticated what he brought into this world.

Even all those who have ever responded to Adi Da and his life work have yet to fully understand and embrace, coopetatively test and prove or fully respect what he offered.

Do you feel you have sufficiently responded in order to Radically understand your own shadow personna and activity?

This question is being asked here in response to your not acknowledging the profound details within Adi Da's Teachings, that go into remarkable depth, around the matters addressed here in this interview. You open by stating this insight is absent on the world stage of processes offered.

Yes, absent in terms of individual and cultural demonstration. Yet not absent as if there has never been any teacher or Realizer who elucidated these key matters of responsibility nor demonstrated this kind of humanly responsible religious, spiritual transcendental transfiguration or transformation process.
This is simply not true. Adi Da has.

I heart intuite you are aware of this....and are even attempting to carry forth with much of Adi Da's Teachings? Yet, without Adi Da, the "controversialsource", being consistently given due respect and gratefully acknowledged. Doing so without also drawing unbalanced negative attention to "his flaws".

This error is a diservice to humanity. Especially seekers.

My heart prayer is that you, by going beyond your own shadow impulses, are able to correct this deliberately public rebuke of Adi Da that you have chosen to put out into the world. ❤

[grzegorzbugajak]

The idea which is now (after Freud and Jung) expressed as 'projecting your shadow onto someone else' is present in some ancient sources. E.g.: "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not see the beam that is in your own eye?" (Luke 6:41). Also, the Old Testament story which the prophet Nathan tells king David (the story of the lamb: 2 Samuel 12:1-7): "David said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die." (...) Then Nathan told David, “You are this man!" ".

[fantastic]

The vast openness, infinity, detached and just witnessing I have with me since birth.
I have found it incredibly difficult to participate and take anything particularly seriously.
It's useful to hear Ken taki about this witness experience.