ArchiveAugust 2018

Excerpt From His Sermon in the Hills of Lazica

Blessed is the peasant: for theirs is the penchant and zeal to repent, bringing purity.

Blessed are the poor: for theirs is the hope for and opening to more without requiring money.

Blessed are the purposeful: for theirs is the peace of virtue’s and vulnerability’s teachings.

Blessed is poverty: for it is the possibility of virtue’s and vulnerability’s teachings.

Blessed is paucity: for it is the positivity of the siddha.

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall make aches into putty, turning small blessings into kingly endings through curbing.

Blessed is the partial: for it knows purity through showing the heart.

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they know perfection of humanity.

In reply to a question from the crowd, Kalen said, “All this is known plainly by listening gently to the words already on your own lips.”

Pressed further, he added, “Some insight comes from listening with educated innocence, and some comes from understanding a word’s placement in The Kalendar. The secret meanings require study of the Daarma.”

Originally Published as “Does Involution Have a Telos?”, a Guest Blog on KenWilber.com

The state of Integral philosophy concerned me in the mid-2000s. Although I was not a professional academic philosopher, I sought to explore its incongruities and incompleteness and contribute to the ongoing development of these fields. At the same time, I wanted to create the scaffolding for a more holistic and future-looking Christianity.

These two tasks met for the first time in my prose poem “The 30 Tenets of All Holons” (formerly “Trinity”), a deceptively simple ten lines written in 2007. I added ten lines of prose poetry to twenty lines of philosophy, specifically Ken Wilber’s “The Twenty Tenets of Holons” from Sex, Ecology, Spirituality.

Wilber’s 20 tenets were never intended as poetry, but as a summation of his research in a wide range of evolutionary theory. He had identified the major underlying patterns of the “spirit of evolution” and presented these in a concise formula. Ken was gracious enough to publish the poem on his blog in 2007 under the headline “Does Involution Have a Telos?”

“The 30 Tenets of All Holons”

(first 20 tenets by Ken Wilber; additions in brackets and last 10 tenets by Joe Perez)

1. Reality as a whole is not composed of things or processes, but of holons. (wholes that are part of other wholes)

2. Holons display four fundamental capacities: self-preservation, self-adaptation, self-transcendence, and self-dissolution.

• self-preservation (agency)

• self-adaptation (communion)

• self-transcendence (Eros)

• self-dissolution (Agape)

3. Holons emerge.

4. Holons emerge holarchically.

5. Each emergent holon transcends but includes its predecessor(s).

6. The lower sets the possibilities of the higher; the higher sets the probabilities of the lower.

7. The number of levels which a hierarchy comprises determines whether it is ‘shallow’ or ‘deep’; and the number of holons on any given level we shall call its ‘span’.

8. Each successive level of evolution produces greater depth and less span.

9. Addition 1: the greater the depth of a holon, the greater its degree of conciousness [in the sense of: the degree of fulfillment of the telos of Kosmos, but see also tenet 29].

10. Destroy any type of holon, and you will destroy all of the holons above it and none of the holons below it.

11. Holarchies coevolve.

12. The micro is in relational exchange with the macro at all levels of its depth.

13. Evolution has directionality.

14. Evolution has increasing complexity.

15. Evolution has increasing differentiation/integration.

16. Evolution has increasing organization/structuration.

17. Evolution has increasing relative autonomy.

18. Evolution has increasing telos [Omega].

19. Addition 2: every holon issues an IOU to the Kosmos [God The Father].

20. Addition 3: all IOUs are redeemed in Emptiness [Emptiness = God The Son].

21. Addition 4: involution has directionality.

22. Addition 5: involution has increasing simplicity.

23. Addition 6: involution has increasing sensitivity/texture.

24. Addition 7: involution has increasing relative communion.

25. Addition 8: involution has increasing telos [Alpha].

26. Addition 9: all holons receive a receipt for the IOU from the Kosmos and Kronos [Holy Spirit].

27. Addition 10: all holons arise in the occasion of acknowledging receipt for the IOU.

28. Addition 11: destroy any type of holon and it adds to the increasing telos of Kosmos and Kronos [Holy Spirit].

29. Addition 12: the greater the span of a holon, the greater its degree of conciousness. [that is, the degree to which it fulfills the telos of Kronos]

30. Addition 13: the unity of Kronos and Kosmos is greater than the sum of its parts. [God the Father + God the Son + Holy Spirit]