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No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches Wilber, Ken

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No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth Paperback – 15 December 2000
by Ken Wilber (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars 152 ratings




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A straightforward and accessible study of personal development and human consciousness, as seen through the lens of Eastern and Western therapeutic traditions

A simple yet comprehensive guide to the types of psychologies and therapies available from Eastern and Western sources. Each chapter includes a specific exercise designed to help the reader understand the nature and practice of the specific therapies.Wilberpresents an easy-to-use map of human consciousness against which thevarious therapies are introduced and explained. This edition includes a new preface.




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160 pages
Language

English
Publisher

SHAMBHALA - TRADE
Publication date

15 December 2000










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Review
"Ken Wilber is one of the most important pioneers in the field of consciousness in this century."--Deepak Chopra



"The most sensible, comprehensive book on consciousness since William James."--Dr. James Fadiman, President, Association for Transpersonal Psychology



"No Boundary does for this generation what Alan Watts' writings did for an earlier one. It brings the most difficult subject of all--nature of consciousness--into an easily grasped presentation that is both elegant and simple."--John White, editor of Kundalini, Evolution, and Enlightenment






From the Back Cover
A new, easy-to-grasp map of human consciousness against which the various therapies from both Western and Eastern sources are introduced. Designed to help individuals understand the practice of each therapy.

About the Author
Ken Wilber is the author of over twenty books. He is the founder of Integral Institute, a think-tank for studying integral theory and practice, with outreach through local and online communities such as Integral Education Network, Integral Training, and Integral Spiritual Center.

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Product details
Publisher ‏ : ‎ SHAMBHALA - TRADE; 1st edition (15 December 2000)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 160 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1570627436
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1570627439
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.27 x 1.17 x 22.78 cmBest Sellers Rank: 134,726 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)483 in Religious Philosophy (Books)
571 in Psychology Movements (Books)
579 in Philosophy of Consciousness & ThoughtCustomer Reviews:
4.7 out of 5 stars 152 ratings





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Ken Wilber



Ken Wilber is one of the most widely read and influential American philosophers of our time. His recent books include "A Brief History of Everything", "The Marriage of Sense and Soul" and "Grace and Grit".




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Helen Speer
5.0 out of 5 stars Book just as seller described.Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 June 2019
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An inspiring read with the theme "All life is One" - expanded consciousness - nice to see this from several perspectives world wide. Only part way through reading it as yet, but it is a subject that is close to my heart. I recommend it.

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Manya
5.0 out of 5 stars Mind-blowingly intelligentReviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 January 2019
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Perfect for the curious sceptics among us, the book takes a western, evidence-based view of popular, eastern philosophy. Compellingly written and accessible, it offers thought experiments and practical instructions that (with some practice) can lead to meaningful self insight.

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David James Longley
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book, full of important information and comparatively easy ...Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 July 2018
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An excellent book, full of important information and comparatively easy to understand. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in enlightenment.

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sylvia
5.0 out of 5 stars Five StarsReviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 June 2018
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Bought this to replace the one I lent to someone 15 years ago.
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A A
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential readingReviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 July 2016
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If you only read one of Ken Wilbers books then make it this one. It's short, too the point and will change your view of everything.

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==
No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth
by Ken Wilber
 4.29  ·   Rating details ·  1,430 ratings  ·  98 reviews
A simple yet comprehensive guide to the types of psychologies and therapies available from Eastern and Western sources. Each chapter includes a specific exercise designed to help the reader understand the nature and practice of the specific therapies. Wilber presents an easy-to-use map of human consciousness against which the various therapies are introduced and explained. This edition includes a new preface. (less)
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Paperback, 149 pages
Published February 6th 2001 by Shambhala (first published 1979)
Original TitleNo Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth
ISBN1570627436  (ISBN13: 9781570627439)
Edition LanguageEnglish
Other Editions (15)
No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth 
No Boundary: Eastern And Western Approaches To Personal Growth 
La conciencia sin fronteras: Aproximaciones de Oriente y Occidente al crecimiento personal 
Уилбер. Кен. Никаких границ. Восточные и западные пути личностного роста 
Rajaton viisaus
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 Average rating4.29  ·  Rating details ·  1,430 ratings  ·  98 reviews

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T.J. Beitelman
Dec 07, 2011T.J. Beitelman rated it it was amazing
It was about a week after my mother died and I was in Reagan National Airport, in D.C., reading No Boundary as I waited for the plane to take me back to Birmingham and some semblance of the regular, workaday world. A woman came up to me and said, “Ooh, Ken Wilber. Deep.” I nodded, made the obligatory self-deprecating comment: “I only understand about every third word.” Which was pretty much true.

The lady told me how she thought it was fine to be brilliant and all, but a writer-thinker has a responsibility to communicate that brilliance so other people can understand it. Touché. But most of the important stuff’s hard to talk about. Self. Psychology. Love. Death. Art. God. Time. Timelessness. Etc.

Wilber does it with some histrionics, yes, and OBTW he sure as hell aint afraid to go sleeveless (the better to show off his fully enlightened and carefully cultivated guns) or to write about how indefatigable he is in the sack.

Nor is he afraid to concoct some jargon or intricate and/or fairly unintelligible diagrams. But if you just sort of let all of that wash over you — i.e., allow yourself to be okay with only understanding every third word or so — he’s actually pretty good at getting at the crux of matters.

No Boundary is probably Wilber’s most accessible work, and it’s very interested in the practical endeavor of making one’s life more whole. The book is short, which is always good, and he repeats himself enough so if at first you don’t get it (and, if you’re anything like me, you won’t), just keep reading. He’ll say it again, in other words, soon enough. (less)
flag14 likes · Like  · 2 comments · see review
Alan
Nov 09, 2007Alan rated it did not like it
Shelves: abandoned-because-blew
Every thing is everything. Oh, and it is what it is. 1=1. A tautology is tautologous. Now you don't have to read a massive compendium of references in service of the point. (less)
flag9 likes · Like  · 3 comments · see review
Neelesh Marik
Aug 09, 2011Neelesh Marik added it
The most authentic book on consciousness I 've read to-date. There's no Integral Theory in this book. Given the inherent limitations of language in representing experience, this book comes closest to what could be possible. The last chapter appears complex at first, but is actually the crowning glory of simplicity. For any and every seeker in this world, this book will provide a new perspective to the act of seeking itself.

Some pearls from a book which is a veritable necklace:

Something very simple happens when answer the question, 'Who are you?' You draw a boundary between your perception of 'self' and 'not-self'. 'Who are you?' means 'Where do you draw the boundary?'

The actual world contains lines but no real boundaries. A real line becomes an illusory boundary when we imagine its two sides to be separated and unrelated; that is, when we acknowledge the outer difference of the two opposites but ignore their inner unity.

If we carefully look at the sensation of 'self-in-here' and the sensation of 'world-out-there', we will find that these two sensations are actually one and the same feeling. It is true that anything I see is not the Seer- because everything I see is the Seer. As I go within to find my real self, I find only the world.

You thus have nowhere to stand but in the present moment, and thus nowhere to stand but in eternity.

I looked, and looked, and this I came to see:
That what I thought was you and you.
Was really me and me.

As a pure witness, your relationship to your mind-and-body becomes the same as your relationship to all other objects.

Honsho-myosho therefore means that true spiritual practice springs from, but not toward, enlightenment.

There is neither creation nor destruction,
Neither destiny nor free-will;
Neither path nor achievement;
That is the final truth. (Sri Ramana Maharshi) (less)
flag7 likes · Like  · 1 comment · see review
Jessica
Jun 23, 2012Jessica rated it it was amazing
Shelves: favorites
I don't even know what to say about this book except that it opened up parts of my intellectual knowledge base in a way that has never been opened before. The root concepts in this book are nothing new to me but the way in which he went about explaining things, illuminated a completely new light. I finished the book with tons of highlights, tons of notes, places I need to return to for further clarification at a different time, a few questions and a deep desire to tell all my friends, who would be interested, about it so we can discuss it in depth. This was a simply incredible read.

(less)
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Giorgi Bazerashvili
Dec 07, 2018Giorgi Bazerashvili rated it it was amazing
This is an amazing book by Ken Wilber, a modern-day mystic, who gives us a comprehensive map of the development of consciousness in very practical terms. What I like the most in his teachings and writings, is his style, which encompasses models that create a sense of big-picture understanding and a bird-eye view over the psychological and spiritual planes of humankind.

He claims that there are no boundaries in the universe and tells us that all the boundaries are being created by us in every moment of our being. The boundary creates a battle between two opposites, for example: bad vs good, white vs black, rational vs irrational, etc. All of these boundaries are conceptual in their nature and therefore they are not fundamentally real, meaning that they are not found in the fabric of reality itself.

Then he gives us a comprehensive model of human development, starting with persona level all the way to the unity consciousness. According to him, to go through the spiral of consciousness means dissolving more boundaries, surrendering resistance and unifying and merging together aspects of the psyche, then the body, and finally all of the reality.

Also, I like his multi-perspective approach. He mentions Freud, Jung, many western or eastern sages, mystics and saints, founders of quantum physics, etc. He quotes many of them in order to give us many points of view. This is great because it gives me the possibility to further research workings of those people and find many other sources of reliable insights.

He also gives us practical techniques to go through each of step on the spiral, and that is very useful after identifying your place on it. Then it becomes clear what should you be doing in order to increase your awareness and frustrate your resistances, as he tells us is important for each stage.

Also, if techniques provided by him is not enough, he made a list of recommended books and authors at the end of each developmental stage. That list of book is really useful for me because I might use it as a map to navigate the field of psychology and spirituality much easier.

In short, if you are interested in psychology, consciousness, mysticism, metaphysics, spirituality, enlightenment, meditation, shadow work, eastern vs western philosophy and much more, this is a must-read. (less)
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Ben Guterson
Jul 26, 2018Ben Guterson rated it it was ok
I think I'm throwing in the towel on Wilber. This is the fourth or fifth book I've read by him over the years, and I've never been able to figure out if he's too profound for me or, rather, a guy with some cool but hazy ideas whose writing style doesn't work for me. I'm landing on the latter. This book, while it started off promising, veered into the fog about midway through, and I just couldn't see my way through the jumble of guru-speak, semi-arbitrary quotes, and sluggish explication. (less)
flag4 likes · Like  · 2 comments · see review
dp
Aug 19, 2018dp rated it it was amazing
No Boundary Review REDUX

It's crazy that this has happened ... but I re-read and actually finished reading this, and my current opinion of it is the polar opposite of my initial one. After my DNF, 1-star review where I unfairly and unflinchingly slammed the book, I kept hearing & reading things in various podcasts, books, articles, conversations, etc. that would contain hints of ideas I first read about in No Boundary. It was after a very deep conversation over coffee with a friend, where I found myself suddenly agreeing with Ken Wilber's theories, that I decided to give the book another shot (and thereby appease my conscience) - and it was almost as if I was reading a completely different book. Everything in it started to make sense, and I am not exaggerating by saying it's truly one of the best books I've ever read.

I don't know what happened to cause such a radical shift in my perspective in such a short amount of time. It's not like I did anything significant ... I guess life just happened? Regardless, what I'm convinced of now is that this book isn't "self-help babble" as I so arrogantly and foolishly proclaimed in my initial review, but rather a succinct treasure trove of esoteric, mystical, and perennial wisdom. Reflecting on my meditation practice was helpful in understanding the book, but I didn't "try" to understand it - it was more like it quite literally just happened to me out of the blue. I started to reflect on my meditation experiences only after I began to be "caught up", so to speak.

I urge you to read No Boundary with no expectations, including the expectation to understand it. Simply absorb it, and let the ideas in it work on you as you go about your day. Ken Wilber didn't create any of the philosophies in this book - many of them are ancient, stemming from Hinduism, Buddhism, or esoteric Judaism, Christianity, & Islam. Others are more recent, like Freudian and Jungian psychoanalysis. What Wilber does is amalgamate these various therapies and philosophies into a larger framework that really works to gradually produce deep meaning, peace, and self-understanding with practice, even if some of the theories are not initially self-evident or seem counterintuitive. Give it a read, stick with it, and hopefully you'll find it as profound a catalyst for growth and wisdom as I did.

I'm going to leave my initial review below, so that I can have this radical contrast in mindset on hand for future reference. I would suggest you don't read it though.



Original Review

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Joel
Jun 23, 2020Joel rated it liked it
I started to read this book with excitement and enthusiasm. I really wanted to "get" this Advaita / unity consciousness idea. I thought the first three chapters were well written, and I eagerly began chapter 4, No-Boundary Awareness, where he really gets into his thesis of "oneness." But starting on page 46 I slammed into a brick wall, to which I have returned several times for additional head-banging, but I'm still stuck, perhaps permanently. On the sense of sight, he says "Is perception really that complicated? Does it really involve three separate entities - a seer, seeing, and the seen?" This doesn't sound terribly complicated to me. Then he goes on to flatly state, with no real evidence or explanation, that there is only seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, etc., but no separate self who sees, hears, touches, smells, or anything that is seen, heard, touched, or smelled. There is only seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, etc. "When I heard the temple bell ring, suddenly there was no bell and no I, just the ringing." Thus a Zen master reached enlightenment.
He talks about the "convincing illusion" that the human race lives with and I can imagine he feels quite superior to have reached a higher level of awareness. "You do not have a sensation of a bird, you are the sensation of a bird. You do not have an experience of a table, you are the experience of a table. You do not hear the sound of thunder, you are the sound of thunder." I know that this is the Advaita / unity consciousness viewpoint, and I've read other authors' attempts to convey this, but it sounds like pure nonsense to me. I don't see how these dogmatic, unsubstantiated assertions can convince anyone.
For the time being I'm going to put this book back on the shelf and turn my attention elsewhere. Try as I might, I've reached an impenetrable barrier. A philosophy that is so based on paradox and the claim that words (and even human thought!) are inadequate to convey the truth of this dogma is something I can't quite cope with right now. I wish I could.
6/28/2020 I went ahead and read through to the end. Although Chapter 4 exasperated me (and still does), there was plenty in the remainder of the book that was thought-provoking and useful. I especially liked his description of the persona/shadow, ego/body, and total organism/environment boundaries relate to different psychological problems and to different therapy approaches. But his writings on the "eternal present" and "unity consciousness" still seem paradox-laden, and I get tired of being told that our lives are fully based on an "illusion." It just seems like another belief system to me. (less)
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Michael
Mar 21, 2015Michael rated it really liked it
Shelves: more-than-meets-the-eye, meditation-etc
“As Korzybsky and the general semanticists have pointed out, our words, symbols, signs, thoughts and ideas are merely maps of reality, not reality itself, because the map is not the territory.”

My fear of disappointment in this book came from two primary sources. One, the subject matter. For seemingly, for every respectable work subtitling the phrase 'personal growth', countless others, offering no more than superficial self-help drivel, sprout up to usurp one’s attention and define the genre. And two, Ken Wilber himself, who can be seen, by even the shallowest of internet searches, as a man shamelessly inclined to the ego trappings that one sooner associates with frat boys than philosophers. Hence the unlikelihoods, that first, I’d give the book a chance, and second, be pleasantly surprised by it. And yet here it is, positively read and reviewed.

I recently confronted one of my meditation teachers with the quandary of why the biggest truths in this world seem to be both simplicity itself and utterly thorny when we try to get a grip on them. I found his answer could not be more convincing: ‘Because [getting a grip on it] is like a razor’s edge against everything we’ve ever done.’

In No Boundary, Wilber has rather masterfully delineated both the simplicity of a particular and fundamental truth and the complexity that we must confront in ourselves if we are ever to come to a more than superficial (i.e. self-helpy) understanding of it. Which is to say, that it takes more than reading a book, even this one, to come to that understanding. What Wilber succeeds in, is showing the open-minded reader that this task must be taken up. What he doesn’t quite succeed in, is presenting to the reluctant westerner a sufficiently compelling entrance into the means to do so – which I’ll just say in passing, in my opinion, begins and ends with vipassana. This failure, however, is something shared by almost every philosophy, religion and self-help charlatan - i.e. it should not in itself dissuade one from reading this work. It is really not that surprising that providing a proportion of recognizable truth is more likely to elicit dogma than to oblige one into the rigors of self investigation. There's a part of everyone of us that simply doesn't want to understand.

“Thus, as Wittgenstein pointed out, because our goals are not lofty but illusory, our problems are not difficult but nonsensical.” (less)
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Juan
Feb 11, 2009Juan rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: anyone wondering waht it's all about
Ken Wilber, who has mastered most of the mystical religious traditions of the world, makes the mystical very very practical in this down-to-earth book. He examines the way in which we create boundaries as a instinctual act of consciousness, and the fallacies it results in as far as our understanding of the world, our selves, reality, and spirituality. Nothing esoteric, just a simple, matter of fact examination of the make-believe we treat as real, and an analysis of how various psychotherapeutic and spiritual traditions help us re-integrate our personae with our consciousness, our mids with our bodies, and our selves with the wider universe. It changes my understanding of spirituality. (less)
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Jaïr Cijntje
Aug 03, 2015Jaïr Cijntje rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
In this book you will find thé most clear explanations of every level of consciousness there is: from the shadow of the ego to the unity consciousness. Ken Wilber also does this without sounding like a mystic or a saint; he uses terminology and examples that are easy on the mind for us (read: sceptical Westerners). He manages to bundle the basics of everything you need and want to know, and offers book referrals at the end of each chapter, if you feel the need to further your self study. Which I predict, after reading this book, you most likely will. (less)
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Marianna
Dec 02, 2018Marianna rated it really liked it
Shelves: spirituality, personal-growth, psychology
Great read. It covers a lot of ground in a very organized and succinct manner that is easy to follow as it gets to the crux of the matter. However, its simplicity, straightforwardness and at times witty and amusing smile-inducing prose by no means undermine its seriousness and depth. Very well written.

My only "But" to this book is that Wilber seems to suggest here that the integration of the ego (between persona and shadow) and the centaur (between mind and body) are necessary in order to stand a chance at "dissolving" (or rather, realizing the non-existence of) the primary boundary between "knower/seer" and "known/seen" and experiencing unity consciousness. I don't think that's the case, and while I agree that there are different levels of integration, which Wilber describes and organizes for us so well, I don't think that the development process occurs in a "linear" fashion, so to speak. And an example of this are the spiritual teachers who certainly have a certain direct "experience" (for lack of a better word) of unity consciousness while having a pretty active and unintegrated shadow causing all sorts of problems for themselves and others.

My understanding is that today Wilber doesn't believe this process is linear and I'm guessing he clarifies this further in his later books. In this early work, however, that's what he seems to be suggesting. Or at least, he never points out and clarifies here that it's not. (less)
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Temo Tchanukvadze
Mar 20, 2019Temo Tchanukvadze rated it it was amazing
Amazing! A little book about our consciousness, shadow, and nonduality. Ken Wilber has astonishing explanation skills. Every time I kept reading I felt I was experiencing a little glimpse of no boundary world. He reveals some practical techniques to raise your consciousness. No Boundary is filled with sources for every subject you can research. He repeats the main subject many times from different perspective in case you can't grasp at first and sure you won't. I am planning to reread soon! (less)
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Matt Harris
May 30, 2007Matt Harris rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: everyone
Ken Wilber is one of my favourite western philosophers who has integrated the milestones of all disciplines of science, and eastern philosophy into a roadmap for us modern seekers. This book was particularly important for me in giving a link between Buddhist theories of interdependance and rational, empirical scientific observation.

It discusses at length the actual concept of a Boundary, what it means, and why it doesn't so much separate as join, and this insight alone is worth exploring the book for.

The book will take you into an indepth look at where you believe the boundary of your own existence lies. Is it your mind? Your body? something else entirely?

Wilber can be rather hard to stay with at times, needing a big effort of engagement intellectually, but there are always rewards for the heart if you stick with him.

I would like to get to grips with his massive extended version of this book - "Sex, Ecology, Spirituality" at some stage. When I'm feeling really daring! (less)
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Thomm Quackenbush
May 19, 2021Thomm Quackenbush rated it liked it
When it is good, you feel it hard. (Oh, *so* sorry for making a judgment as though good and bad had any definition!) When it is bad, it is needlessly impenetrable and repetitive, given to citing many other philosophers on the same page instead of explaining himself, too reminiscent of an undergrad trying to stretch out an essay.
Or, if I may paraphrase Einstein, if you can't explain it to a child, you don't understand it. I suspect Wilber doesn't embrace unity consciousness, but rather frets over royalties.

(But, again, when he hit a good vein of original thought -- like in the shadow work chapter -- and doesn't seem to be posturing via obfuscating and quoting, he does effective work.) (less)
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Derek
Jan 27, 2021Derek rated it it was amazing
Shelves: psychology
I once heard that some Buddhists believe every moment is occurring simultaneously, though we perceive it in a linear fashion. In other words, we already are enlightened, we just need to realize it. I used to think this way of seeing time felt supernatural, but I’ve come to see it’s actually quite logical.

I’ve read loads of religious and psychological texts, and this book has helped me wrap my head around some of the concepts and ways of thinking I’ve come across. I was a bit unsure during the first half, but by the second half I was extremely happy to have read it. (less)
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Joseph Knecht
May 05, 2021Joseph Knecht rated it it was amazing
Shelves: psychology, spirituality
A simple and yet very powerful text that tries to erase all boundaries.

There are many relevant insights, but I found the style of writing very pleasant to read.

Somehow the early writings of Wilber are better than the late writings, even better than his magnum opus.


The exasperating fact which Adam learned was that every boundary line is also a potential battle line, so that just to draw a boundary is to prepare oneself for conflict. Specifically, the conflict of the war of opposites, the agonizing fight of life against death, pleasure against pain, good against evil. What Adam learned—and learned too late—is that “Where to draw the line?” really means, “Where the battle is to take place.”

In blindly pursuing progress, our civilization has, in effect, institutionalized frustration.

The ultimate metaphysical secret, if we dare state it so simply, is that there are no boundaries in the universe. Boundaries are illusions, products not of reality but of the way we map and edit reality. And while it is fine to map out the territory, it is fatal to confuse the two

If naming seemed magic, counting seemed divine, because while names could magically represent things, numbers could transcend them.

Because the subatomic particles possessed no boundaries, there could be no meta-boundaries, no measurements; and hence also, no precise meta-meta-boundaries, no “laws.”

This is precisely why the sages advise us not to try to destroy the “self,” but simply to look for it, because whenever we look for it all we find is its prior absence

Suffering, then, is the initial movement of the recognition of false boundaries. Correctly understood, it is therefore liberating, for it points beyond boundaries altogether. We suffer, then, not because we are sick, but because intelligent insight is emerging

This reinforces the illusion that happiness and pleasure can be piped in from the outside, an illusion which itself is responsible for blocking pleasure, so that we end up striving for that which prevents our own joy.

Seeking unity consciousness is like jumping from one wave of experience to another in search of water. And that is why “there is neither path nor achievement.

In theological terms, we are always resisting God’s presence, which is nothing but the full present in all its forms. If there is some aspect of life that you dislike, there is some aspect of unity consciousness that you are resisting

Thus, from all sides, to move away is to separate ourselves from present experience and to project ourselves into time, history, destiny, and death. This, then, is our primal resistance—the unwillingness to look upon all experience, as a whole, as it is, now; and the attempt, instead, to globally move away. I

However innumerable beings are, I vow to liberate them; however incomparable the Truth is, I vow to actualize it.” If you feel this deep commitment to realization, to service, to sacrifice, and to surrender, through all present conditions to infinity itself, then spiritual practice will be your way naturally. May you be graced to find a spiritual master in this life and enlightenment in this moment.


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Ruben Mes
May 31, 2022Ruben Mes rated it it was ok
Shelves: psychology, is-in-my-dream-library, therapy, integraltheory
Bleh what drudgery.

As another reviewer stated: "Tautology is tautologous." He repeats himself way too much for my liking.

I can't recommend this, for the simple fact that it seems outdated, and a dull repetition of what I read before in his other books, but rather redundant.

If this was the first one to read, then fine, but now it seems completely redundant. I do however, appreciate Wilber's style in his earlier works, like Spectrum of Consciousness and A Sociable God. However, the fact remains that it seems he wrote it for his time, and now it seems we are more advanced at this point in time. I did not get any more enlightened reading this, but that's mostly because of my extensive self-work, experience with Jungian psychology, working as a therapist myself and because of my recent drive-through his bibliography - not because he's a fool. On the contrary, I believe Wilber achieved incredible scholarly things with his work on consciousness, and I owe him a lot.

Regardless of the above, I am still honestly and deeply disappointed by this book, as I expected a thorough exposition of the stages of development ( ala Atman Project/Spiral Dynamics) and how the therapies and traditions help an individual grow through them. I did not get what I was looking for.

Instead, I was unexpectedly blasted with Wilber's core message of Spectrum of Consciousness for the first 60 pages about non-duality, which took way too long for my liking ("I got the point, please move on").

The actual stages were only briefly outlined and, although Wilber offers some insightful tips and exercises that can help a person progress through these stages, he keeps it very minimal, with just an indication of what is possible, and a short list of recommended further reading to learn more about it.

In all, I hoped the same thoroughness as I'm used to in Integral Spirituality, but was let down.

It's an outdated book, and I hope that someone took these principles and elaborated upon them, because the core of it is unbelievably important, and is part of my personal vision for a new psychedelic religion.

Does anyone know if Religion of the Future will make up for the massive disappointment I got from No Boundary and A Sociable God? And who are these thinkers that took his work further?

Please let me know if you have recommendations. Thank you. (less)
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