Beginning with the premise that there's "arguably no more important and pressing topic than the relation of science and religion in the modern world", Ken Wilber's, "The Marriage of Sense and Soul" has artfully proposed a framework for the prodigious enterprise of "integrating Science and Religion". This presentation has been prepared to assist a study of, "The Marriage of Sense and Soul".

2. Powerpoint Templates Book Study & Meditation The Marriage of Sense and Soul

4. AQAL: An Introduction to Ken Wilber’s Integral Framework – Part 1 Click here for video :

6. Powerpoint Templates The Marriage of Sense and Soul Part 1: The Problem - Chapters 1 & 2

7. “ There is arguably no more important and pressing topic than the relation of science and religion in the modern world. Science is clearly one of the most profound methods that humans have yet devised for discovering truth , while religion remains the single greatest force for generating meaning .” 1 - The Challenge of Our Times . . .

8. “ The reconciliation of science and religion is not merely a passing academic curiosity. These two forces— truth and meaning —are at war in today’s world. Modern science and premodern religion aggressively inhabit the same globe, each vying in its own way, for world domination.” 1 - The Challenge of Our Times . . .

9. What do we mean by ‘religion’? . . . one thing is immediately obvious: many of the specific and central claims of the world’s great religions contradict each other, but if we cannot find a common core of the world’s great religions, then we will never find an integration of science and religion.

10. The Great Chain of Being

11. The Great Chain of Being . . . virtually all of the world’s great wisdom traditions subscribe to a belief in the Great Chain of Being .

12. The Great Chain of Being As Arthur Lovejoy abundantly demon-strated in his classic treatise on the Great Chain, this view of reality has in fact ‘been the dominant official philosophy of the larger part of civilized humankind through most of its history.’

13. The Great Chain of Being . . . the actual view is more like the Great Nest of Being, with each senior dimension enveloping or enfolding its junior dimension(s) – a situation often described as ‘ transcend and include ’.

14. What do we mean by ‘religion’? . . . this simple hierarchy of body , mind , and spirit was nonetheless the backbone of even the earliest shamanic traditions , showing up as the hierarchy of earth, human, and heaven. This three-level scheme reappears in the Hindu and Buddhist notion of the three great states of being: gross (matter and body), subtle (mind and soul), and causal (spirit).

15. The Modern Denial of Spirituality With the rise of modernity in the West, the Great Chain of Being almost entirely disappeared. In its place was a ‘flatland’ conception of the universe as composed basically of matter (or matter/energy), and this material universe, including material bodies and material brains, could best be studied by science, and science alone.

16. What is ‘Modernity’? Various scholars . . . have suggested that what specifically defines modernity is something called ‘ the differentiation of the cultural value spheres ,’ which especially means the differentiation of art , morals , and science. (italics added)

17. “ The wonderful differentiations of modernity went too far into actual dissociation , fragmentation, alienation. Dignity became disaster. Science became scientism — scientific materialism and scientific imperialism —which soon became the dominant ‘official’ worldview of modernity.” What is ‘Modernity’?

19. “ The traditional view of epistemological pluralism was given perhaps its clearest statement by such Christian mystics as St. Boneaventure and Hugh of St. Victor : every human being has the eye of flesh , the eye of mind , and the eye of contemplation . Each of these modes of knowing discloses its own corresponding dimension of being (gross, subtle, and causal) . . .” Epistemological pluralism . . .

21. Goodwill Has to Be Circumspect Single click here for audio : A Dharma Talk by Thanissaro Bhikkhu From Dhamma Talk Archive (Jan. 27, 2012) at dhammatalks.org

22. Powerpoint Templates Book Study & Meditation The Marriage of Sense and Soul