Burning the Last Stick

A weather-worn stick stirs glowing embers, coaxing higher flames—the same stick moments away from joining the fire it feeds.

How Ken Wilber’s brilliant map became an idol—and why Ramana Maharshi’s wordless warning still saves the traveller

Ken Wilber’s achievement is undeniable. With Integral Theory he wove developmental psychology, systems science, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and the world’s contemplative traditions into one breathing architecture of consciousness. His early books—The Atman Project, A Brief History of Everything, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality—let thousands see their lives against a cosmic grid rather than a single discipline’s snapshot.

Mark Manson’s essay “The Rise and Fall of Ken Wilber” traces how the same genius ossified into certainty. Because Wilber believed enlightenment renders a person morally flawless, he defended Adi Da and Andrew Cohen even after documented abuse. The map had become a throne; critique sounded like heresy. Mark Manson

Ramana’s one-line demolition

Long before the controversy, Ramana Maharshi cut through the very impulse that destroyed Wilber:

“A man does not go about saying, ‘I am a man.’
Why announce what is self-evident?”  ("Conscious Immortality")

The need to proclaim “I am enlightened” betrays doubt and recreates duality—someone still wants witnesses. The Self, like gravity or gender, simply is.

Annamalai Swami’s laugh

Ramana’s disciple Annamalai Swami sharpened the point:

“If he says, ‘I don’t know myself,’ or ‘I have known myself,’ both statements are to laugh at. Because you are That. If somebody says, ‘I am a jñānī,’,  ‘I am a enlightened’  - who is claiming it? ("Final Talks")

The laugh isn’t ridicule; it’s the last splinter of ego breaking in two.

The intermediate antidote: nimitta-mātraṁ

The Bhagavad Gītā offers a provisional safeguard:

nimitta-mātraṁ bhava savyasācin
“Be merely an instrument, O Arjuna.” (11.33)

 

Living as nimitta-mātra punctures the fantasy of personal authorship. Insight flows through you, never from you, leaving no pedestal for infallibility. Had Wilber kept this stance, he might have honoured Adi Da’s metaphysical brilliance without excusing cruelty.

But even the stick must burn

Ramana insists the medicine itself becomes poison if carried forever. The thought “I am only an instrument” still divides Lord and servant. When the fire is hot enough, the stick that stirs it must be thrown in too. What remains is awareness without commentator, presence without proclamation.

Four signposts for the modern seeker

1. Celebrate the cathedral, not the idol.
   Use Wilber’s maps to orient research and therapy—then step outside before the frescoes speak as God.

2. Practise nimitta-mātra daily.
   Let praise, criticism, failure, and talent pass like wind through a hollow reed.

3. Heed the laugh.
   When anyone (including the person in your mirror) says “I am realised,” remember Annamalai Swami and smile.

4. Feed the final stick to the fire.
   When even the identity “I am an instrument” feels heavy, drop it. The sun needs no slogan; it shines.

If we walk with these four reminders, Wilber’s brilliance remains a gift rather than a warning, Ramana’s silence stays luminous, and the path is clear of golden traps—until, at journey’s end, neither path nor traveller can be found.