“It’s Time for Enlightenment to Get Personal”

Ken Wilber and Marc Gafni in Dialogue

This is a special dialogue — part of a larger dialogue series – between Ken Wilber and Marc Gafni on Unique Self. This hour of the dialogue is about prayer. Ken initially accepts the idea of prayer as contemplative prayer; namely that prayer is a form of meditation. Marc suggests an alternative view of prayer in which prayer affirms the dignity of personal need. Prayer in this sense is an expression of God meeting God, the personal face of essence meeting itself in the unique self expression of the individual human being. On this basis Marc suggests that we need to re-include in integral theory not only contemplative prayer but also petitionary prayer. In this historic conversation, Ken agrees, and a new dimension of integral understanding was evolved and laid down.

One of the catalysts for the emergence of the idea of the Three Faces of God (God in the 1st person, God in 2nd person, and God in 3rd person) came from a series of conversations between Marc and Ken back in 2003 and 2004. (This was part of a larger series of conversations taking place at the integral spiritual center which included Brother David Steindl-Rast, Father Thomas Keating, Terry Patten, and many others.) In these conversations Marc was at once receiving an enormous transmission from Ken and at the same time trying to share with Ken his transmission of God in the second person (God as the personal face of essence). Marc did so by sharing the stories found in the link below:

“Prayer Is Not a Dogma; Prayer is a Pointing-Out Instruction for God”

Ken’s openhearted and brilliant receiving of the “You You You” story marked a turning point (one of many) in the integral understanding of prayer in the second person which led to a new chapter in integral theory commonly referred to as the “Three Faces of God.” The Three Faces of God originates in the great traditions. It is strongly formulated in explicit terms both in Kashmir Shaivism and Kabbalah. The Zohar, for example, says that God has three faces: first word ‘ani’ (I), ‘atah’ (You), and ‘hoo’ (He). This Zoharic passage is central in the teachings of Dr. Gafni’s lineage, the Hassidic school of Izbica. (For a full treatment of this lineage, see Dr. Gafni’s two volume series, Radical Kabbalah.)