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May 07, 2009

For Sri Aurobindo, spiritual devotion is through the Mother

For Aurobindo the Advaito-Buddhist teaching of liberation is a side issue or preliminary path and only one possible state of Liberation, for Wilber it is (in a rather Aristotlean manner) the goal and end of both the individual spiritual path and also the telos to which the cosmos is evolving, even if the phenomenal world, being stuck in samsara, can never get there.[15] (sect. 3-viii.)

Aurobindo refers to only four generic stages (matter, life, mind, and Supermind which is the Absolute), whilst Wilber has about twenty distinct subdivisions (albeit within similar general divisions) through which consciousness has to evolve.

Aurobindo taught the transmutation and divinisation of matter (“Supramentalisation”)[16], while Wilber in typical Buddhistic style teaches its transcendence; a teaching he presumably derives originally from his guru, Da Free John (Adi Da). (sect. 3-ix)

Aurobindo acknowledges and describes supra-physical as well as physical realities, whereas Wilber rejects “metaphysics” and includes all “higher” levels in the physical (“intra-physical”).[17] (sect 2-ii, 2-iii)

Aurobindo sees the Absolute or God as being multifaceted, incorporating theistic as well as monistic elements[18]; whereas Wilber insists instead only on a simple acosmic or shunyavada Zen-type mode to describe “Spirit” and the “Nondual” stage,[19] with all other experiences (Psychic, Subtle, etc) as less complete than that. (sect. 3-vi)

For Sri Aurobindo, spiritual devotion is through the Mother, while according to Wilber the Mother represents an archaic mythological and at best the “psychic” (pre-subtle) state.[20] (sect. 3-iii)

And so on. And although Wilber certainly regards Sri Aurobindo

M. Alan Kazlev is a self-taught esotericist and metaphysician, science fiction writer and fan, amateur biologist and palaeontologist, and student of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother's teachings and yoga. His website is at www.kheper.net and he can be contacted at alankazlev (at) ihug (dot) com (dot) au (sorry – problems with spam!)
PART TWO PART THREE PART FOUR
Historical and Comparativeuse of "Integral"
Towards a Larger Definition of the Integral, Part One
Alan Kazlev

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