Originally Posted by
Gautami
Ken Wilber, one of the utmost integrative thinkers in the US, suggests a model where development of human consciousness is illustrated neither as regressing or transcending, but as 'nesting', or integrating all previous developmental levels in to the new ones.
Imagine a developmental curve with beginning at the point A, with the top center of the curve at the point B, and the other point back to the starting level at the point C (a kind of a half-a-circle).
Point A is the newborn, or, arguably, sometime before, a baby well described by Jundo in the quote above. The baby's development includes development of an ego, or a sense of "I". All traditional western psychologies are concerned with this stage of maturation, which culminates at the point B, at the top center of the growth curve. At this point enter Transpersonal (beyond personal)theories of development. The ego is fully mature and able to transcend itself. Enter Buddhist psychology, with various techniques leading toward this objective, which is letting go of the ego, growing beyond it. All previous levels and awareness of them is not left behind, but included in the new levels of awareness. At the point C (enlightenment?) the person remembers all levels, but has grown beyond them, beyond any sense of duality or separation.