The Integral Message

Sight is a vital part of our human life. The most basic way is through our senses. Panikkar spoke of the sight of our senses as the first sight. Humans are uniquely able to comprehend the world of senses and make meaning of it according to the way we live.

The various capacities of the mind enable us to differentiate, organise, analyse, imagine, speculate, etc. We now live in a highly sophisticated world built upon the wonder of the human mind. Panikkar spoke of this as the second sight, while still incorporating the first sight.

A further capacity is to see an even more comprehensive vision of our reality. The integral understanding perceives the way all things are interrelated. It breaks through the limits of the second sight which divides all things into separate components. In traversing these limits, it enables one to see the unity of all. This third sight incorporates both the world of the first and second sights which is vital for enabling an enriched spiritual sight.

When perceived from the world of the second sight, Wilber identifies creation as a composite of individual entities beyond number. He calls each entity a holon. Beginning from the initial and most basic holon of creation, the 'spirit in action' is the life-force, energy which attracts holons to join other holons, to form more senior holons - where each new holon incorporates the junior one. In simple form, this is essentially the story of evolution. The entire system he calls a holarchy.

Panikkar speaks similarly but refers to each holon as a pole. Poles function in relation to other poles. It is the third sight that can see a more comprehensive reality of the relationality two poles create with one another. This relationality he refers to as the polarity of the poles. Spiritual sight perceives the relationality of all creation as it functions as one dynamic and organic entity. As the second sight incorporates the first sight, the third sight incorporates both the second and first sight.

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