As a beginner, Kenneth suggested that I practice in 1st gear, and aim to dis-embed from feelings, thoughts, body sensations and states of mind. I am grateful for his advice because, at my level, just resting in awareness results in spacing out and not clearly seeing the patterns that have bound me in habitual reactions. Before I know it, I'm caught up in the same old stories with my thoughts running the show.

Objectifying my experience has helped me see how deeply entangled I am in the thinking mind and it allows me to notice what's happening in the world of sensations, which, when done consistently, allows less time get caught up in thoughts and more of a chance to notice how quickly sensations arise and pass away in awareness.

I didn't think enlightenment was possible for me until I visited Kenneth's website. Check it out and see for yourself that people who hold jobs and have families are getting enlightened. No matter what your level of experience, Kenneth is a skillful, compassionate guide who is open to all sincere seekers on the path!

For Wilber, the ‘State-Stages’ of awakening are the Psychic, Subtle, Causal and Nondual (and/or sometimes One Taste, depending on which book you read). None of these State-Stages correspond with what is normally meant by the head, the heart or the pants; what these terms usually mean is covered by what Wilber calls ‘Lines’ that demonstrate intellectual, social, emotional and physical developmental, and these usually appear within a graph whose axes are respectively the State-Stages and the holons of Spiral Dynamics.

It seems to me that what Kenneth is describing as the Personal is what Wilber describes with the Lines, the Transpersonal is both the Psychic and the Subtle, the Transcendent is the Causal (Wilber also describes this as ‘the Witness’) and the Absolute would be the Nondual.

So in other words, you can experience any of the State-Stages of awakening mediated by any of the perspectives of Spiral Dynamics whilst exhibiting a unique combination of intellectual, emotional, social or physical development.

Some people start there, or have heart as a primary aspect of their entire path. Similarly, some people discover the body first, middle, or last, and others never integrate the body.

I've found the Enneagram helpful in illustrating these differences in personality type, but really any typology will do (5 Buddha Families, Astrological signs, MBTI, etc.). It sounds to me like Mr. Folk's advice is specifically for intellectual men who do a kind of technical, dry Vipassana. For intellectual types, the heart usually does come later, if ever.

Personally, I found this article too speculative, making too strong of claims for how the spiritual path "must" proceed. But perhaps Mr. Folk has illustrated what typically happens on the path using Mahasi Sayadaw's approach? I don't know, since that hasn't been a part of what I've practiced.