Synopses & Reviews
Includes bibliographical references (p. 344-368) and index.
Synopsis
"Allan Combs...adroitly presents the grand possibility that systems/complexity theory, cognitive neuro-science, and the great mystical traditions can work together to illuminate that most ordinary yet mysterious power we all possess, which Combs prefers to call "subjective presence" or more plainly, "consciousness..".. Combs centers his reader in a consciousness that beholds the entire living museum and artifice of mental structures while also describing the most evolved, if distant-sounding stages in the evolution of consciousness. If while reading The Radiance of Being you become a bit giddy, perhaps it will be because Combs' words and incisive quotes have guided you into, then out of the labyrinth of the mind and onto that "farther shore" where only the One Shines, ever-new."--Stuart Sovatsky, California Institute of Integral Studies, Cybernetics & Human Knowledge, Vol. 6, No. 4, 1999
Table of Contents
Foreword to the Second Edition by Ken WilberForeword to the First Edition by Herbert GuentherIntroduction: The roots of consciousness I Complexity 1. Minding Consciousness: Consciousness and mind 2. The Fire and the Rose: Beauty in chaos 3. Like a City Built across the Ages: Consciousness and the brain II Evolution 4. Here and Elsewhere: Historical tales of evolution 5. The Ever-Present Origin: The diaphanous landscape of Jean Gebser6. They Climb Indra Like a Ladder: The Myriad Tiers of Being7. All Quadrants, All Levels: From Eden to the Grand Integral VisionIII Emergence 8. Right in Front of our Eyes: The perennial philosophy 9. A Benchmark for Evolution: Complexity, evolution, and the farther reaches of human nature 10. While the Mind is Utterly Indivisible: Unconscious thoughts 11. A Condition of Complete Simplicity: Conscious evolution and spiritual practice 12. Living the Integral LifeEpilogue Appendix I: Technical TermsAppendix II: States, Structures, and Lines: A Conversation with Ken WilberEndnotes Quotation Sources Bibliography Index