Deep Surface

Tomorrow I head to Seattle for another Integral experience. As an apt preparation, today I read some excellent writing by Vince Horn. I met him briefly while passing through Colorado last summer, and again in the fall during my ITP course. He has some thoughts related to a six week Vipassana course he attended recently. Six weeks! I can rarely muster the willpower to meditate once a week, let alone 12 to 14 hours a day for six weeks. If his words are any indication of spiritual progress through meditation, Vince is an inspiration for those of us with less than regular practices.

Here’s some of what he had to say:

The mantra I developed during this retreat went like this:

Nothing can be held onto
Nothing is worth holding onto
And there’s no one to do the holding…

Three dimensions of emptiness, three doorways to the absolute, three refuges which have served me well. But even these must be released for they are characteristics of that which is changing, not that which is Unborn.

Pure poetry. This is the kind of expression of ultimate reality (as I believe it to be) is what drew me to Ken Wilber’s work. It rings true on a fundamental intuitive level like little else and bring an unmistakable visceral response.