Integral Buddhism

April 1, 2018

This new title from Wilber (Founder, Integral Inst.; A Theory of Everything) serves as an introduction to his much larger work The Religion of Tomorrow (2017). The author maintains that religion is stuck in prescientific thinking unsuitable for a postmodern society. Because his initial work dealt in developing a synthesis between developmental psychology and Buddhism, his merging of religion in general and Buddhism in particular here is not surprising. He starts with an overview of the three turnings as found in the Sandhinirmochana Sutra, a text that supports Wilber's view of Buddhism as a rationalistic religion with mythic elements and a pluralistic trajectory as the best candidate for what he calls a second-tier religion. All first-tier religions (even pluralistic ideas of religion as advocated by John Hick) are exclusive, seeing their own viewpoint as the correct one. Wilber attempts to map Buddhism into his quadrant schema, finding a place for all first-tier ideas. VERDICT Those already acquainted with Wilber's integral theory will find this work expands on those ideas. However, this portrayal of Buddhism is one most would not recognize and has little interaction with science.--James Wetherbee, Wingate Univ. Libs., NC

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