Reflecting on my own path as a meditation practitioner, I have come to believe that my Buddhist practices offers an Integral map for being human. This map can offer the practitioner a vehicle, a way to live a more Integral life. As Wilber points out, in the wisdom traditions there are three bodies that are interconnected, they are the gross body, the subtle body, and the casual body. In Mahayana Buddhism they name these bodies the Trikaya or "Three bodies.” The Trikaya doctrine is an extremely influential Mahayana Buddhist teaching on both the nature of reality and the nature of Buddha. Trikaya is a Sanskrit word used to refer to three levels of Buddhahood’s manifestation or activity. According to the Trikaya Doctrine, “Buddha” is a reality with a three-fold nature: the dharmakaya (the body of ultimate Truth), the sambhogakaya (body of bliss) and the nirmanakaya (emanation body, i.e. physical embodiment such as the historical Buddha). According to this doctrine since we all have a Buddha nature anyone of us can become a Buddha if favorable and certain conditions arise to produce that result. One of the conditions that must arise and may take many years of practice is the cultivation of compassion and empathy. This meditation practice of developing a compassionate mind and heart occurs in the body on a cellular level. Sometimes the meditation practice is called the Metta (Lovingkindness) practice in the Theravadan tradition and Wishing Love in the Mahayana. Many religions and spiritual traditions have their own version. I believe and it has been my own experience that it is necessary to develop and cultivate a mind and heart that is full of compassion. How is this accomplished?
We are often told to love our neighbor as thy self, but how does one actually go about doing that? How does one expand out from what Ken Wilber calls an egocentric stage, next to ethnocentric to a Worldcentric stage? We somehow need to link the body, mind and sprit with a compassionate intention for as Wilber points out these moral stages of awareness do not just float in outer space, we live them, and we embody the qualities of each stage. To me it seems beneficial as to the survival and sustainability to individuals and the planet as whole that we as a Global culture need to develop these qualities. It is imperative to our survival. To develop an Integral view it is necessary for an expansion from a “me” stage, which Wilber tells us is dominated by gross separate physical reality, next to a “mind” stage where we start to share relationships with others. It is this stage where we being to feel connected and can begin to put ourselves in other people’s shoes. Finally we expand and we realize that everything is interconnected and nothing is separate everything is for the good of the commonwealth. In the Pali language this is called, Pratitya Samutpada, the law of dependent origination. This is the mind of a Buddha or Bodhisattva.
The Bodhisattva Ideal is dedicated to raising all sentient creatures to higher ground. The Mahayana Buddhist tradition believes that humans are conditioned by ignorance and the illusion of a finite self. Its solution to the problem is to overcome the fundamental blindness of the ego. The Mahayana teaching of the Bodhisattva is meant to restore our vision, to elevate and transform the contours of the human condition. The Bodhisattva Path is a journey towards Enlightenment, ceaseless process of advancement towards wisdom and compassion. The goal of this journey is eternally achieved and eternally in the process of being achieved.
A fundamental investigation that the Mahayana teachings advise is to start searching for what one calls "self" or "ego.” Close examination will reveal that the ego is impossible to locate within oneself. In fact, no phenomenon one investigates exists, as it appears to do. It seems to have an inherent existence, but through analyzing it, one will see that it does not. The teachings explain that this means that the nature of all phenomena is empty. By analyzing reality repeatedly in this way, one can develop a firm intellectual understanding of emptiness. This conceptual understanding is a necessary step to developing transcendental wisdom, but the direct realization of emptiness is only possible through meditation.