Death of a dream?

For a few years, part of what has got me up in the morning in terms of my career and my spiritual quest, trying to see those two things as intertwined, has been the dream of bringing together the wisdom of Ken Wilber’s AQAL theory with the depth of heart and compassion that I felt coming through in the Dalai Lama's teachings.

 I had originally been focusing on Andrew Cohen's teachings as a source of inspiration, but when a friend can whose insight into character and interpersonal dynamics I trusted warned me that he didn't feel that Andrew Cohen possessed sufficient integrity as a spiritual teacher, I put Cohen’s teachings aside (for the time-being).

 That same day, I came across an interview of the Dalai Lama and I was struck by his humility, his humanity, and the warmth I felt he possessed.

 So I decided that I would move in the direction of the Dalai Lama's teachings as best as I could.  Doing so lead me to find out about the Mind and Life Institute, a think-tank based in Boulder, Colorado.  They host, every summer, research institutes for graduate students and others to learn about the interface between Buddhism and cognitive neuroscience.  With letters of support from my supervisor in my faculty and, as it happened, Ken Wilber, I applied and was accepted to attend in 2005..

Over e-mail, Ken Wilber and I developed some ideas regarding the research direction that he would like to see mind and life consider, in terms of continuing earlier lines of research on the transformative effects of meditation that was completed by Charles Alexander, in particular.  Some of the early meditation research apparently demonstrated that meditation practice could potentially push an individual up as much as two stages of development.

However, Mind and Life Institute has until this time not included any attention to stages of development in its research program.  So the plan Ken and I had, tentatively, was to explore whether or not we might be able to get stages of development on the research agenda of Mind and Life. 

Well, it hasn't worked.  I am disappointed, depressed, and angry about it.  It just seems at this time that no one at Mind and Life Institute is interested in taking a serious look at AQAL.  Paraphrasing the words of Joan Halifax, who I greatly admire, but who does not share my views about the relevance of AQAL for the mission of Mind and Life Institute, “Mind and Life and Integral Institute are just doing two different things”.

 
I feel sad about this state of affairs, and do not know what to do next, except that acknowledging my thoughts and feelings about this seems important.  And because I feel these two institutions and the people involved with them represent spiritual, philosophical and scientific leadership at the highest levels that I know of, I felt it important to share this story publicly.

If you have any thoughts about next steps I might take, please let me know.  I’m open to any and all suggestions from the good folks of Zaadz!

If you are interested, please check it out at
integralspiritualcenter.org!  Note: this is a subscription site ($5/month, I believe) in its early stages of development.