Customer Reviews

One Taste

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Most of Ken Wilber's books do not reveal much about the man behind the work. For most academic writers that is fine. But Wilber's writing, though seemingly theoretical or academic at times, is in fact about the most intimate of topics: coming to know ourselves. Perhaps because his writing is so broad in scope and yet ultimately so intimate in its implications, Wilber thought his readership might be entitled to a peek at how he is doing with his own personal atman project. This book lets the reader peek away,and you may or may not like what you see.

This was the first Wilber book I read. I had known about him for years, but my reading list is long and I just didn't pick his work up, until a respected friend gave me a copy of One Taste, and I could no longer put it off. I have now read almost all of his published work. With that perspective, I offer these thoughts.

First, the part that may trouble some. KW does come off as pretty darn egotistical in this book. He seems to realize it and mentions in the introduction that these diary entries were (supposedly) not written with intent to publish, and therefore what may seem like boasting and namedropping were in fact just factual entries meant for himself. These now candidly published entries might to the outside reader seem a bit...immodest. This would be a trivial matter but for the nature of KW's work, which after all is ultimately about transcending the ego.

I found KW's disclaimers about that less than entirely convincing, but the fact that he may still personally be a spiritual work in progress in my mind does not diminish the brilliance of his work. I was electrified when I read this. I have been a serious student of philosophy and spiritual practice for 30 years, and I find KW's work among the most brilliant and, to me, practically helpful work I have seen. Some say he does no original thinking, but only synthesizes the work of others. Yes, he only synthesizes the work of an unprecedentedly enormous body of thought, writing and accounts of mystical experience in a staggering array of fields over millenia, in ways no one else has before. I think this would qualify as original thought. Some say he doesn't write well. I find that he explains the ideas of many great thinkers more understandably than they do themselves. He relates their work to that of other great thinkers in ways that I,and I suspect most, never saw before. His writing can be moving and inspirational as well.

I'm not sure I would recommend One Taste as the first Wilber book to read, although it worked fine for me. It is one of his most accessible books. One criticism of this book is that Wilber's references are too obscure. But, this being a journal, KW has taken less care than usual to explain all his references, because this was ostensibly originally written for himself. Readers already familiar with his other work will be less baffled, and this may be one more reason to start with one of his other books. One Taste has the advantage of being one of his more recent books. Because KW is constantly refining his thought, this gives the reader a look at his most current thinking. I give it four stars instead of five, because I wasn't interested in many of the boring personal details ("I went shopping today"), but the meaty parts are first rate. I find his work so personally helpful in my own practice precisely because it is a synthesis of so much other work. He links it together in ways I could never have myself and has helped me to take a more integral approach to what had before been disparate and disconnected elements of my practice and study.

Most of Wilber's books do not reveal much about the man behind the work. For most academic writers that is fine. But Wilber's writing, though seemingly theoretical or academic at times, is in fact about the most intimate of topics: coming to know ourselves. Perhaps because his writing is so broad in scope and yet ultimately so intimate in its implications, Wilber thought his readership might be entitled to a peek at how he is doing with his own personal atman project. This book lets the reader peek away,and you may or may not like what you see.

This was the first Wilber book I read. I had known about him for years, but my reading list is long and I just didn't pick his work up, until a respected friend gave me a copy of One Taste, and I could no longer put it off. I am now reading my eighth of his books. With that perspective, I offer these thoughts.

First, the part that may trouble some. KW does come off as pretty darn egotistical in this book. He seems to realize it and mentions in the introduction that these diary entries were (supposedly) not written with intent to publish, and therefore what may seem like boasting and namedropping were in fact just factual entries meant for himself. These now candidly published entries might to the outside reader seem a bit...immodest. This would be a trivial matter but for the nature of KW's work, which after all is ultimately about transcending the ego.

I found KW's disclaimers about that less than entirely convincing, but the fact that he may still personally be a spiritual work in progress in my mind does not diminish the brilliance of his work. I was electrified when I read this. I have been a serious student of philosophy and spiritual practice for 30 years, and I find KW's work among the most brilliant and, to me, practically helpful work I have seen. Some say he does no original thinking, but only synthesizes the work of others. Yes, he only synthesizes the work of an unprecedentedly enormous body of thought, writing and accounts of mystical experience in a staggering array of fields over millenia, in ways no one else has before. I think this would qualify as original thought. Some say he doesn't write well. I find that he explains the ideas of many great thinkers more understandably than they do themselves. He relates their work to that of other great thinkers in ways that I,and I suspect most, never saw before. His writing can be moving and inspirational as well.

I'm not sure I would recommend One Taste as the first Wilber book to read, although it worked fine for me. It is one of his most accessible books. One reviewer thought his references were too obscure, but, this being a journal, KW has taken less care than usual to explain all his references, because this was ostensibly originally written for himself. Readers already familiar with his other work will be less baffled. One Taste has the advantage of being one of his most recent books. Because KW is constantly refining his thought, this gives the reader a look at his most current thinking. I give it four stars instead of five, because I wasn't interested in many of the boring personal details ("I went shopping today"), but the meaty parts are first rate. I find his work so personally helpful in my own practice precisely because it is a synthesis of so much other work. He links it together in ways I could never have myself (which, to my knowledge, no one else has done either) and has helped me to take a more integral approach to what had before been disparate and disconnected elements of my practice and study.

I've read several books by Ken Wilber now and always come away from them impressed by the depth of his knowledge, moved by the passion of his prose, unsure about the validity of his models, and irritated by the size of his ego. However, if you can bring yourself to ignore for the moment the irritating self-importance (so paradoxical in a writer whose aim is to convince the reader that loss of self is the ultimate spritual goal) and the surprisingly non-compassionate attacks on people who disagree with him, Wilber does have an interesting way of organising many divergent systems in human thought into an apparently coherent whole (especially his "four quadrants" and his concept of nested holons). Many of the grand disputes of philosophy could be resolved if models could be constructed that gave equal importance to different ways of looking at the world: Wilber provides one such model. But the problem with models like this is that they are not in themselves "provable" (an upper right quadrant demand of course!) - rather like Jung's archetypes - and so may look solid but actually be built on sand. They are rather cleverly constructed to render almost all criticism of them invalid in advance (e.g., my desire to "prove" the validity of such models is because I'm limited in being a right quadrant thinker) - well, Karl Popper carried out a pretty rigorous demolition of philosophies constructed in such a way over half a century ago, in "Conjectures and Refutations". But as tools to use when trying to resolve dilemmas, or even to illuminate new possible approaches to intractable issues - I think they're great. As for Wilber the person, I'm not sure I'd want to get to know him too well (is he as intimidating in person as he is in his writing style?), but a few parts of the journal at least hint at the real human being who lives behind the dense curtain of prose.

When I was younger and a little less wise (and a lot less knowledgeable), I was one of those who was impressed by Ken Wilber's remarkable range of learning and his confident claims of an objective basis for his religious system. Intrigued, I searched down several of his source documents and, while they did not exactly disprove his model, it became clear that his castle was build on a foundation of shifing sands. Undaunted, I still thought it at least valuable as metaphor. Then, I read this one--his diary--and saw what all these grandiose, self-referential beliefs had done to their author, and I came to understand that in fact, Wilber's works do more harm than good. Wilber, as many have noted, is self-absorbed with his ideas to the point of delusion, and it has made him unreasonably defensive towards his many attackers. His followers do the same, and are showing all the signs of becoming an intellectual cult of the Ayn Rand or Sartre variety. I have read hundreds of spritual biographies, and if there is a pattern, it is that those who say you can only teach yourself are invariably humble, and those who are dedicated to topheavy systems (like Wilber's) always tell you that you need a teacher (the creator of the system, of course), and always degenerate into just this kind of madness. If this peek into Wilber's true nature doesn't make you think twice, you need to examine your own motivations in projecting wisdom onto a man who is merely a fluent writer indulging himself in a single theme, his own genius.

As someone who is only beginning to fathom the depth and scope of Ken Wilbur's thinking, I have to say that I wish this hadn't been the first book I had picked up by him. Not knowing how serious this guy's thought is, it did nothing for me to hear him blather about experiences of pure emptiness, or have him include his fawning fan mail in these pages. All this did was make me feel he was full of himself (or his non-self) and in need of a bit of a spanking. Fortunately I got A Theory Of Everything and began to realize this guy has a brain a mile wide. Sure would be nice, though, if someone less dry, technical, and academic would come along and write "Ken Wilbur For Dummies" or something. "One Taste" is not that book. It's a book that humanizes KW for people who think he's god. If you are new to KW, start somewhere else.

If you like Wilber's work, you will probably be affected very strongly as you journey through an interesting year with the benefit of an eye that wanders in and out of that year's reality. Wilber certainly does a great job of exploring his work and thinking with us in a well-developed and enjoyable manner. There are some very funny moments, as well as some very touching ones, as he shares events and people with us. You will find yourself meeting many people in public and private life that you would probably love to have over for dinner - dinner and a long conversation. The style of the text breaks things up into "get-able" chunks, and yet the whole thing stays together. What keeps the bits of the book together is also what makes it so profoundly affecting. Interestingly, it is not the book's chronology, but the continually dislocating glances into a way of being in the world that is certainly on the outskirts of most experience, but right at the center of his.

Of Shakespeare, Emerson wrote, "his mind is the horizon beyond which, at present, we do not see," and I think the same can be said of Ken Wilber. Written in 1997, just before Wilber's fiftieth birthday, this collection of "daily reflections" can be read as both a personal and philosophical journal. Observing him integrating "matter, body, mind, soul and spirit . . . the entire Great Nest of Being" (p. 58) in "the real world" of grocery shopping, paying bills, renting videos, promoting his books, "restaurant sampling, bar hopping, boutique shopping" (p. 89), and dancing while on vacation in Miami's South Beach, the territory beyond the horizon seems perhaps within reach. Whether Wilber is cooking his "world famous vegetarian chili" for friends (p. 259), or witnessing people in a shopping mall (pp. 77, 232), his journal reveals that integral spirituality is possible "through all states--waking, dreaming, and sleeping" (p. 51). "Yesterday I sat in a shopping mall for hours, watching people pass by," he writes in one entry, "and they were all as precious as green emeralds. The occasional joy in their voices, but more often the pain in their faces, the sadness in their eyes, the burdenous slowness of their paces--I registered none of that. I saw only the glory of green emeralds, and radiant buddhas walking everywhere . . . a paradise in a shopping mall" (p. 77).

In this book, Wilber explains that even at the level of "One Taste" cosmic consciousness, you can still get cancer, still fail at a marriage, still lose a job, still be a jerk;" reaching higher levels of integral development does not mean that the lower levels go away (p. 129).

In the introductory note to his book, Wilber writes, "I am not a private person, in the sense of secretive; I'm just not a public person, in the sense of seeking the limelight. Nonetheless, as one who has written extensively about the interior life, it seemed appropriate, at some point, to share mine" (p. vii). Measuring his interior life with these journal entries, Wilber indeed seems more fully conscious, more constantly aware than most of us. Although he references former teachers and many spiritual friends, as a side note, Wilber's journal is silent on whether he has an ongoing teacher of his own, and whether he is actively engaged in any sangha in Boulder, where he lives.

Reading Wilber is exciting, and ONE TASTE is no exception. I would place it in the easy category of reading Wilber. This is a five-star book, worth tasting. I have given it four stars only when measured against several of his other books, including NO BOUNDARY and A THEORY OF EVERYTHING.

G. Merritt

Favorite quote: "Narcissists are simply people whose egos are not yet big enough to embrace the entire Kosmos, and so they try to be central to the Kosmos instead."

Recently, I heard from an old friend that he'd been having some amazing experiences studying and working with this great guy named Ken Wilber. When I admitted I'd always found myself psyched out by the intellectual depth of his work, he suggested it was worth another try and off I trudged to my local Borders. Each time I went (and it was almost daily for a month), I would pick up a stack of Ken's books, sip my cappuccino, and get really, really angry.

It was only when I read through this intelligent, challenging, and at times laugh out loud funny diary style book that I realized why. Ken Wilber is smarter than me, a better writer, more disciplined, more enlightened, and from all accounts, more fun at a party than I am. But our quests have been similar - to find and share unifying themes in eclectic disciplines in such a way that the world becomes whole.

I am working my way through his entire oeuvre now, but suspect I will always hold a soft spot in my heart for this one - the inspired and inspirational diary of a year in the life of a beer drinking Buddha.

The personal side of an artist is in some ways more fascinating than his productions. This powerful journal provides the behind the scenes of Ken, You share everything from his highs and lows, to his taste in movies. This more humanized medium of expression proves inspirational as you see the man behind the wizardry of thought.Yes folks, He's human, phew!

I have read it twice and will read it again. KW is on the cutting edge of integrating East and West, science and religion, liberal and conservative. Most importantly, there are simple directions designed for us each to personally access the Self or the piece (also, peace)of God within each of us. What could be more important?