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)
Reality as a whole is not composed of things or processes, but of holons. (wholes that are part of other wholes)
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)
Holons emerge.
Holons emerge holarchically.
Each emergent holon transcends but includes its predecessor(s).
The lower sets the possibilities of the higher; the higher sets the probabilities of the lower.
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’.
Each successive level of evolution produces greater depth and less span.
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].
Destroy any type of holon, and you will destroy all of the holons above it and none of the holons below it.
Holarchies coevolve.
The micro is in relational exchange with the macro at all levels of its depth.
Evolution has directionality.
Evolution has increasing complexity.
Evolution has increasing differentiation/integration.
Evolution has increasing organization/structuration.
Evolution has increasing relative autonomy.
Evolution has increasing telos [Omega].
Addition 2: every holon issues an IOU to the Kosmos [God The Father].
Addition 3: all IOUs are redeemed in Emptiness [Emptiness = God The Son].
Addition 4: involution has directionality.
Addition 5: involution has increasing simplicity.
Addition 6: involution has increasing sensitivity/texture.
Addition 7: involution has increasing relative communion.
Addition 8: involution has increasing telos [Alpha].
Addition 9: all holons receive a receipt for the IOU from the Kosmos and Kronos [Holy Spirit].
Addition 10: all holons arise in the occasion of acknowledging receipt for the IOU.
Addition 11: destroy any type of holon and it adds to the increasing telos of Kosmos and Kronos [Holy Spirit].
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]
Addition 13: the unity of Kronos and Kosmos is greater than the sum of its parts. [God the Father + God the Son + Holy Spirit]
or: Kalen’s Speech to Surya Upon the Start of Her Quest for the Golden Egg
(Photo Credit: PetarPaunchev/BigStock.com)
Remember these, the first words spoken by Kalen O’Tolan, Slayer of Capricorn, when returned from the underworld after falling in his famed battle with the Old Zodiac which had grown too greedy, self-satisfied, cruel, and corrupt.
Kalen emerged as a newborn person in New Zealand, innocent in New Flesh. Like a chick hatched from a golden egg on the Day of Embodiment, held in the arms of his daughter Surya and her husband Benedict In a Māori occupation at the site of present-day Dundein, in 1227 CE, shortly after the death of Genghis Khan, the Great Khan.
He spoke to her when he learned to talk at the age of two, speaking in Tolang so as to reveal the secret location of the Golden Egg, highest treasure at the Throne of Treasuring in the Kalendar’s most spectacular Month.
Surya, I see the swirling path you have gone through a Grass-Green wood since I left you. You sojourned from one continent to another, searching for evidence to lift your spirit, seeking for a new significance from within your self-citta, seeing more than you could reason through science and schemes for success. The priests offered you absolution from sin, and you refused. Everything old you stopped; a new world started in your svelte arms. I watched you running to stay one step ahead of danger, never far from samsara and suffering, needing new, personal ethics. Nothing did you prize more than the solace of your soul, your new integrity, until you had to sacrifice even such self-certainty to a new sort of servitude.
I watched you, semi-immortal daughter, standing upon the Gold Coast at 1111 CE, looking as youthful as a girl of merely nine years, her hair twisted tikitiki in the Māori fashion. Your once pristine self-root became misshapen with shame. It was not your fault; it was the collective shame that your soul took to glue to itself out of its goodness. Your way was once shining, and you shone. Your way was once chivalrous, and you were kind to animals and old people. Your way was once shimmering and chicanery, until you made a living for yourself in the wild and on the pirate ships. I looked the other way at times, daughter. Economics and reforming the social ethos were your passions. Fighting against evil you became the twin of that which you opposed. I remember how you nearly sold an Artifact of Orr to feed your firstborn son. The gods and goddesses took it from you then, but it will return one day, its retrieval to become the task of your heirs. You shouldn’t have tried it. Shriveled in misery, shady as a shifty showman, you stunk of shit and stain. Your gold-haired beau fell in love with you, young lovers shacking up in a shantytown, sharing a bed out of wedlock. Do you see where the Grass-Green road left you? You become nothing but walking, talking, living shadow! Bankrupt. Corrupt. Your soul had to shout before Allah would listen, asking for mercy upon you and help for your family. In response, God showered you with shunyataa: nothing.
Listen to me, Surya, your beloved father reborn as your adopted toddler. I have a message for you: the Grass-Green Gate is shut to you forever. A Sea-Green Gate with Teal undertones shining under a Yellow sky beckons now. Grieve what you once won on the Gate’s other side: nothing. And now, nothing accumulates. You have even lost the nothingness. Your mind grew quiet and peaceful. Your education was your illumination. Your ways grew smooth as the skin-lotion you pour on your epidermis. Embodiment is the Way now. Let your body lead you on the road ahead. Empathy is the Way now. Let your feelings lead you on the road ahead. Enfoldment is the yang, Enclusion is the yin, and Enactment is the yung. Let these three principles energize you to ever greater degrees of Enlightenment. Be an emissary of Shikaina as you know her, and Allah will show you the way which is the yung to the yang of Science and Evolution and the yin of Essence and Should, which is the yung to the yang of Self and Soul and the yin of Shiva and Shakti, and there — Ʒblokohɛt: It Becomes Unblocked! The Golden Egg is within your reach now, tucked inside the Green Forest.
I have consulted the Atlas of Uvoha, and I will now tell you the secret spot where the Greatest Treasure is hidden for you, Surya. The Omphalos of Delphi says you must leave behind the world you know in Australia. Head North to Anadyr, the easternmost point in Russia. In the town center, you will see the Trinity. Be well. You will leave me in the care of a peasant woman and return to me, my beloved daughter, only when you have the Golden Egg in your possession. Thereafter, we will seek the Goose who laid it at the Throne of Gunas.
Make Your Life a Sport of Psyche, Wife of Eros, Signifier of My Sutras and Suras
Kalen O’Tolán, the immortal prophet born at Delphi in the Bronze Age, offered an unusual prayer at the Summer Olympics of 2044 CE in the Age of the Blue Castle. As it is recorded in the diaries of Bonsai, the heir of Beionai, translated from the original Lingua-U…
Sportsmen and sportswomen: You are at the core of my all-body, Your life is the ‘liciousness at the core of my love-body. Make your life a sport of Psyche, wife of Eros, signifier of my sutras and suras. Listen at the knees of spirit at the Kai’ai, intestines of my sea-foam, protector of the knees of sport. Life is not a course to be cruised. It is eeking-bruising. Life is not a game to be gamed. It is an abolishment of abomination and an upholding of appreciation. Life is not a play to be pretended. It is purity of a good will. Life is not a football to be fumbled. It is finding your feet where they fall and humble. Life ought not be spoken of with makeshift sayings. They will make you shifty. Life ought not be spoken of with loose analogies. They will make you a lucky loser. Speak of life in the language of the Real. Listen at the knees of Spirit at the Kai’ai, the abode where I-yʊ dwelt ere my-yɪ descent to Delphi. Be a protector of the knees of sport at every Kai. Learn to talk of life in the language of the Real, not the stupidity of turpid sense. Life is located where there is fire to be lighted and unfiled. Ignite the light within the soul and the body-brightness and the spirit-sparkles will follow. Spirit inspires within and spirals and sprays and spins and spoons and spreads and spends and spokes and spans and spouts and sparks light to the ends of the earth, from Grecian Delphi at my atheist birth to Sofia Bulgaria at my nude denudement. Light up your spirit! There is no half-time. Fuel your life with abundant knowledge for navigation, pleasure for play, energy for endurance, and acceleration for actualizing the negative. Speak not of life as a sport. Such words dock Being of its spear-like, piercing awesomeness; sport is an oakish root. Listen at the knees of Spirit at the Kai’ai, protector of the knees of sport at every Kai. Learn to talk of sport in the language of the Real. Spirit and sport are both based at the knees of Psyche! Bend to pray. One bends to praise. Bend over at your knees to bow and make baleful tears. Bend fingers to hold a football. Bend your back to catch a baseball. Bend your flapping ass to protect the basketball. Bend at your knees to put your head where your core was. Think with your gut. Bend at your knees to put your eyes where your heart was. See with your feelings. Bend at your knees to put your shakti-yoke where your shoulder was. Do it with your invisible muscle. Kneel to pray, but not for sport, unless there is an important need to compete. Prayer takes you to the root of the knees of Psyche. There you take your shot before God: Śūnyatā, 0; God, 1. Give the ball to Him: He is nimble instead of kneeling in sport. Look: A Galaxy is shouting. What did you say? Sport takes you to the front of the knees of Psyche. Push them forward. Port sprightly onward in your sportsmanship. There you win or lose the risk-toil at the center of your roiling self-citta. Do not strive to win or lose a game. You have already won and lost the game. Look: the razor-tipped Stars are argent. What’s the point? Gain with every game at the thighs of Jaia’s Center if you would change the game’s eighth outing to an inning. I have just told you a secret; try to forget it. Forgive me. For many years have I dwelt in the high altitudes of Quetzaltenango; my wits are like a merry-go-round. I must extirpate now.
Bonsai records that the prayer ended so. He added these words:
Blessed be Kalen O’Tolán, keeper of the knees of spirit at the Kai’ai, protector of the sportsmen and sportswomen at every Kai. And blessed be God forever, God’s diadem of greatness forever shining in the light of the Great Spiral.
An Excerpt From My Epic Poem, “The Surrender of Symbiosis”
(Image Source: William Blake via The Morgan Library)
Ed. Note: The following poem is an excerpt from the larger poem, “The Surrender of Symbiosis”.
Part 1. Vocation
Reaching intolerable suffering in the Veldt and simultaneously in the dungeons of the Castle of Wands, the spirit of Kalen breaks down.
“Let the day perish which brought forth my birth! Job spoke true when he was with pain reeling, for in the land of Uz there is no worth! Desperate, trapped am I! Here am I, kneeling! I spin in a whirl of conflicted breeze, out of ernst into terrified fearing!” I shout: “Whoever you are, help me please! You, God which my own understanding finds! Wild boar, pinned without floor, O what it sees! To the Earth’s horizon does the sky bind but with wings of flying things do I sweep! I wish not to be loft like shifts of minds soaring over decisions of substance which finds my logic most hurly burly! God, show yourself, if you have balls to dance! I thank you for waking me so early. Talk, or I will take a more forceful stance! Eh, you won’t talk! To sleep I go, surely.”
Master Yang: Tongues of fiery speech inflame the city.
Response: Job’s complaint to God.
Part II. Vortex
The spirit of Kalen leaves the desert of Kara Kum and nears Ashgabat in Turkmenistan, its name meaning “city of devotion.”
A powerful voice came out of a whirlwind: “Who is this that muddles meaning by words yet without my light that one who is blind? Have not the dignity of worms but birds! So I am questioning you, dare answer! Have you witnessed firing neurons split worlds? Have you seen that cosmos free of cancer? For it is real as this! Did you rehearse on that Earth where the mountains are dancers? Where were you when uncoiled your universe? Tell me now if you have crossed over boundaries of the thin clouds wrapping your multiverse? Who was there when I turned on the Foundries which mark the spot of the number zero and every fraction’s remainder carries? Who was there when I established macro which made rows and columns in all ledgers and distinguished every schema’s micro? Who was there when I engaged the edgers who put shrubbery between number bases and employed all the labyrinth’s hedgers? Can you say you have seen through the spaces in the ocean between the galaxies, that sea of foam with eleven faces? Can you say you have known all families’ deoxyribonucleic bubbles and walked every street in the world’s cities? Surely you know, certainly your troubles concern the ancient and subtle angels not yet witnessed by your tiny Hubbell’s? Have you passed through the devil’s nine channels with riddles more cunning than Cairo’s sphinx? Massive thunderous shaking farewells await those whose follies break logic’s links! Your every nightmare could be real and raw, your fortune cursed by Pi’s abysmal jinx! You’d feel a neutron star’s inner plasma where your perception is also its cause and flesh is liquefied to miasma! Hear! Awful end now threatens an abyss of hope on every sea and every land! Not just a recess, permanent dismiss! Not just Mauritius, not just Oman, in not just your day, not your century, all Kosmic dimensions, manned and unmanned! Are you ready all atoms to bury, not just in your world but heavens also? Ancient spirits are sinking in worry! They are angry and sad, above and below, set for war in this existence askew! The odds are long to wager you must know for your grandmother’s grandmother’s rescue! So listen now, the dark storm comes closer! Don’t you think I have other things to do? Hear me now, those in body or ether: This task I leave you, entrusted not dropped! Say, ‘Thus far shall darkness come no farther! Here shall the Death of Everything be stopped!’”
Master Yang: He reaches for the clouds drifting overhead, only to fall from heaven.
Response: God’s response to Job. To reach for divinity is to take on responsibilities beyond one’s limited reckoning.
