Holons
As a young student I was very taken with Arthur Koestler’s concept of “Holons:” processes or things that are both individual and part of a greater whole.
Here Ken Wilber talks about them in more detail:
“A holon is a whole that is part of other wholes. For example, a whole atom is part of a whole molecule, a whole molecule is part of a whole cell, a whole cell is part of a whole organism, and so on…. The universe is fundamentally composed of holons, wholes that are parts of other wholes.”
–Ken Wilber (American Philosopher, 1949-)
Integral Psychology: Consciousness, Spirit, Psychology, Therapy
Plato’s Permanent Principle
“Plato’s cardinal idea was that there existed a permanent principle of unity beneath the forms, changes, and other phenomena of the universe.”
–Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (Russian Author, Translator and Founder of the Theosophical Society, 1831-1891)
“Isis Unveiled (Volumes 1 and 2)” (Helena Petrovna Blavatsky)
The Whole in Every Part
“Every discernible part or process is a sort of microcosm or hologram. That is to say, the whole is expressed in or implied by every part, as is the brain in each one of its cells.”
–Alan W. Watts (English-born American Philosopher, Writer, Speaker and Expert in Comparative Religion, 1915-1973)
“Behold the Spirit: A Study in the Necessity of Mystical Religion” (Alan W. Watts)
The Holographic Universe
“Classical science has always viewed the state of a system as a whole as merely the result of interaction of its parts. However, the quantum potential stood this view on its ear and indicated that the behavior of parts is actually organized by the whole.”
–Michael Talbot (American Writer, Intellectual and Proponent of the Holographic Model of Reality, 1953-1992)
“The Holographic Universe: The Revolutionary Theory of Reality” (Michael Talbot)
Finding the Underground Stream of Life
“We are each like a well that has its source in a common underground stream which supplies all. The deeper down the well I go, the closer I come to the source which puts me in contact with all other life.”
–John Welch, O. Carm (American Carmelite Priest and Professor at the Washington Theological Union)
Evolution By Opening Your Heart and Mind
“Evolving is about being able to enlarge the sphere of your concerns and activities with each day that comes. But what do we find? Humans are concerned above all with their personal interests and slightly with those of their family and their country, all of which leads to so many misunderstandings.
Many people will say there is no greater ideal than to work for one’s country. This is not so, because their country does not represent the whole. If everyone set to work solely for their country, it would inevitably lead to conflicts with other countries. When you concentrate exclusively on a part of the whole, you necessarily enter into conflict with other parts of the whole. World peace would require people to see things from the broadest, most universal perspective.
In order to evolve, you have to continually expand your point of view, open your heart to an increasing number of creatures and use all your will to make the universal family a reality.”
–Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov (Bulgarian Spiritual Master, 1900-1986)
Infinite Spirit and Total Enlightenment
“If Spirit has any meaning, it must be omnipresent, or all-pervading and all-encompassing. There can’t be a place where Spirit is not, or it wouldn’t be infinite.
Therefore, Spirit has to be completely present, right here, right now, in your own awareness. That is, your own present awareness, precisely as it is, without changing it or altering it in any way, is perfectly and completely permeated by Spirit.
Furthermore, it is not that Spirit is present but you need to be enlightened in order to see it. It is not that you are one with Spirit but just don’t know it yet. Because that would also imply that there is some place Spirit is not. No, according to Dzogchen, you are always already one with Spirit, and that awareness is always already fully present, right now. You are looking directly at Spirit, with Spirit, in every act of awareness.
There is nowhere Spirit is not. Further, if Spirit has any meaning at all, then it must be eternal, or without beginning or end. If Spirit had a beginning in time, then it would be strictly temporal, it would not be timeless and eternal. And this means, as regards your own awareness, that you cannot become enlightened. You cannot attain enlightenment. If you could attain enlightenment, then that state would have a beginning in time, and so it would not be true enlightenment.
Rather, Spirit, and enlightenment, has to be something that you are fully aware of right now. Something you are already looking at right now… We are all already looking directly at Spirit, we just don’t recognize it. We have all the necessary cognition, but not the recognition.”
–Ken Wilber (American Philosopher, 1949-)
“Grace and Grit: Spirituality and Healing in the Life and Death of Treya Killam Wilber” (Ken Wilber)
The Emergent Mind
“Indeed, as proclaimed by all great religious convictions, a unity characterizes this emergent mind and the basic order of the universe.”
–Karl Pribram (Austrian-born American Neuroscientist, 1919-)
“Ancient Wisdom – Modern Insight (Quest Books)” (Shirley J. Nicholson)
The Holographic Universe
“Every discernible part or process is a sort of microcosm or hologram. That is to say, the whole is expressed in or implied by every part, as is the brain in each one of its cells.”
–Alan W. Watts (English-born American Philosopher, Writer, Speaker and Expert in Comparative Religion, 1915-1973)
A Vast Cosmic Orchestra
“Kinship with All Life” (J. Allen Boone)
“All living things are individual instruments through which the Mind of the Universe thinks, speaks and acts. We are all interrelated in a common accord, a common purpose and a common good. We are members of a vast cosmic orchestra, in which each living instrument is essential to the complementary and harmonious playing of the whole.”
–J. Allen Boone (American Author, Film Producer and Correspondent for the Washington Post who specialized in Nonverbal Communication with Animals, 1882-1965)
