Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #312550 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 356 pages

Synopsis
A glimpse into the personal life and mind of a leading thinker.

Customer Reviews

Personal diary from the man who shuns publicity.
Wilber's reputation as a hermit has always slightly jarred with his work. He does not give interviews, does not lecture - he avoided talking to anyone for three years when writing SES. How can this be true of a man whose work is full of such insightful humanity? One Taste is the diary which plugs the gap showing insights into his daily practice, life, holidays and a summary of his integral model of the Kosmos. He comes over as very much walking the talk; a practical as well as theoretical philosopher of our age. The book is light and does not provide the intellectual and spiritual challenges of his theory books or the agonising passion of Grace and Grit. It does, however, satisfy a reader's curiosity about this enigmatic figure and answer the many critics who've publicly challenged Wilber to reveal his personal experience of the Transpersonal Realms. It also presents a thoughtful approach for those interested in the implications of his theories to living a modern life. If you are interested in the man, buy it. If you are interested in the theories, buy Theory of Everything. If you want the full theoretical picture, take a couple of days off work and read SES.

Interesting but exasperating, inspiring but paradoxical.
I've read several books by Ken Wilber now and always come away from them impressed by the depth of his knowledge, moved by the passion of his prose, unsure about the validity of his models, and irritated by the size of his ego. However, if you can bring yourself to ignore for the moment the irritating self-importance (so paradoxical in a writer whose aim is to convince the reader that loss of self is the ultimate spritual goal) and the surprisingly non-compassionate attacks on people who disagree with him, Wilber does have an interesting way of organising many divergent systems in human thought into an apparently coherent whole (especially his "four quadrants" and his concept of nested holons). Many of the grand disputes of philosophy could be resolved if models could be constructed that gave equal importance to different ways of looking at the world: Wilber provides one such model. But the problem with models like this is that they are not in themselves "provable" (an upper right quadrant demand of course!) - rather like Jung's archetypes - and so may look solid but actually be built on sand. They are rather cleverly constructed to render almost all criticism of them invalid in advance (e.g., my desire to "prove" the validity of such models is because I'm limited in being a right quadrant thinker) - well, Karl Popper carried out a pretty rigorous demolition of philosophies constructed in such a way over half a century ago, in "Conjectures and Refutations". But as tools to use when trying to resolve dilemmas, or even to illuminate new possible approaches to intractable issues - I think they're great. As for Wilber the person, I'm not sure I'd want to get to know him too well (is he as intimidating in person as he is in his writing style?), but a few parts of the journal at least hint at the real human being who lives behind the dense curtain of prose.

Re.Ken Wilbers - Collected Works
One Taste, is just one of a number of Ken Wilbers brilliant books ...and yes some readers say he is arrogant...maybe..at times.. he is abit. Nevertheless, I am reviewing his books as one who has trodden this difficult and lonely path.. and it is just this.. the EXPERIENTIAL..that enables me to stand in judgement of his works. K.W. is one of the most exceptional and inventive evolutionary thinkers of our time, his works are essential reading for THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY. I would like to suggest.... put aside this perception of arrogance and just allow him to take you on this beautiful and true evolutionary odyssey.