A great post by David Jon here.

"Yet, I was still taken up with the promise of what a comprehensive philosophy would look like. It wasn't Ken Wilber's vision that held me in thrall anymore. It was the underlying nature of a comprehensive philosophy–i.e., a non-reductionistic philosophy–that I sensed as being the original basis for my resonance with Ken Wilber's work and what I might now choose to call 'Integral Cognition.'"

I would agree with this - and I find that those who attempt to embrace the highest forms of - Spirit, Mind, Body, Other, Soul, Skillful Means In Living - these are the people I want to be my "tribe" so to speak.

Grounded in the world.
In communion with the Divine Soul
Self aware, of one's own shadows and B.S.
Learning, giving, growing, creating - "He not busy being born is busy dying".
Relaxing into the Buddha's smile, that is perfect as it is.

One thing about the Integral Life Practice - it includes:

Mind
Body
Spirit
Shadow

But - there isn't SOUL there - any good community practice must have some SOULfood, IMHO.

At least a heart practice, right?

I've practiced a few different heart practices, but I wonder - is there a specific INTEGRAL heart practice that people know about?  That takes as little as 5 minutes, up to 30?

I guess the "official" heart practice is Tonglen.

But this truthfully, isn't as effective as it should be.

I was speaking about this in our ILP Support Group, and one person said that, when he was working with a Buddhist master, the master said it was important to "pray to the Gods" before doing Tonglen, that your Tonglen would be EFFECTIVE.  And that this was very necessary.  (Being Western, he found it weird to pray to say, Amitabha.  But he did notice that his tonglen was more effective.)

At some point, there is going to need to be an "integral ritual", that involves the heart, prayer, (song perhaps?), as I believe humans basic physiology is built to commune in faith, in that way. This also has a double effect to bind communites together.

But - damn - what ritual is going to WORK for us integral types?  If any??

This post from P2P is certainly very true.

No one can be "shut up", in the new era, at least not effectively.  Stories get out.  And the example of Andrew Cohen is a good one, detailing What Is Enlightenment's primary role in getting the world out at A.C.'s abuses.

It's also incredibly humorous, to see Andrew Cohen attempt to "embrace" blogs.   Here is a blog of his on Integrity.

He declares his allegiance to "authenticity, transparency, and integrity", pretty early on, using this new blogform.

Why is that humorous? 

Well, because if you attempt to leave a comment - which I did - it doesn't post, but gets caught, and "reviewed".   The reasons why  a comment wouldn't get posted are many - you can read the subtext - the comment I left was mildly oppositional, slightly mocking,  certainly nothing that supposedly wouldn't get by the filter. 

But it wasn't posted, of course. 

So much for transparency!  I've heard from others, and they have had the same experience.
As well, the post is full of abstractions, strawmen, and defensiveness, when speaking about his "controversial path". 

Also, he mentions why he hasn't spoken of his detractors before:

The motives of my detractors appeared so transparent that I thought they would be obvious to others, and I naively concluded that there was no point in responding. Besides, it just felt beneath my dignity to do so. I was wrong. I have now, obviously belatedly, come to understand that my lack of response is being considered by some as an admission of guilt or wrongdoing, or even worse, as a lack of integrity in itself.

This chilled me, especially, when considering the following story from What Enlightenment blog, about a british 70 year old female follower:

The following day, on Sunday 12 December 1999, her phone rang once more and it was again Steve Brett on the other end of the line. Clearly dissatisfied that in the previous phone call Caroline had not "cracked" under his pressure and "admitted her sin," Steve Brett went on to deliver a renewed but far more devastating attack on Caroline. Caroline said later that the conversation lasted for about forty five minutes and that during it Brett repeatedly insulted her with a ferocity that left her completely traumatized. Caroline said that she had to keep the phone handset away from her ear on many occasions as Brett was literally shouting at her from the other side. She was told that she was going to “die a miserable old woman” and how awful it was on her part that she had dared to leave the venue without waiting to see Cohen. Without any consideration whatsoever for her physical and spiritual frailty, Brett again and again furiously scolded Caroline for her apparent egotistical and independent ways that completely infuriated her teacher. Caroline was told that, instead of surrendering her soul to Andrew Cohen now that she was coming close to dying, she was still holding on to her small life and her ego and would die as such. Caroline also spoke about her intuitive feeling that Cohen was in the room with Brett, listening to the latter delivering his attack.

 Caroline died 11 days after this conversation with Brett - (and the suppositions is, (no proof, I will say) that this was at Cohen's direction), and the case is made that it was mainly due to the severe effect of the "talking to".  I'm sure that isn't all, as bodies go when they go, especially 79 year old bodies - but wow, what a great last gift to a dying woman, huh?

Whether the story is true or not - the story certainly doesn't seem something "beneath Andrew's dignity", to speak about, or clear up.  It seems exactly opposite that.

And, of course, that is just ONE story, out of many, from many, MANY different sources.

So, let's continue to use these peer-to-peer tools to expose the corruption, in the communities we belong to.   Just remember, it's like weed-whacking.  Something you have to do again and again.

I clearly haven't been posting a lot here - mainly because I've been pretty busy.

But also, this particular blog has focused on the "basics", of integralism (when not veering to tech stuff and philosophy!)

For various dimensions, it is now pretty clear what the basic practices are.

Physical - I've blogged before - but 2 to 3 times a week, cardio, stretching, and weighlifting for exercise.

For diet - barring special circumstances - less carbs, and balanced eating.

Meditation - while there is a lot around the map here, the basic practices involved for integral involve:

Basic Zen/Vipassana sitting
BigMind/Advaita training
Compassion/Heart work


Now, of course, I'm missing a lot of the I-Thou meditations.  Perhaps I could blog them.

In terms of professional, career - one of the best books out there for this is Pathfinder, and What Color Is Your Parachute?

Both are passionate and practical, and give a very good sense of what are the gifts one has to GIVE, in terms of skills, abilities, and desires.

Psychological/interpersonal- while there are a lot of books out there, self-assessment is fairly easy to use, and I have also used this site to point to inexpensive therapeutic options.  And then there is the Shadow Work of the 1-2-3, as well as Byron Katie's work.  I could write more about relationship as well, but it is so easy for this to become narcissistic, in my opinion.

Now - community - this is probably one of the biggest lacks that I personally have, or have not written a lot about, and I've been attempting to address this through the Ken Wilber MeetUp, and organizing the San Francisco ILP Group. 

And then, when you do all the above, do you have time for rest, play, and creativity? Where is the balance?

I still believe there are things that are important for an "integral practitioner" to deal with - deeper delving into the interpersonal, dealing with MOTIVATION and destructive subpersonalities (just because all the practices are out there, doesn't mean you are doing them!), and also re-introducing some concepts into the integral community with ethics - such as "duty", "community commitment" etc.  A community is defined by the individuals that "take on" the duties of that community, and it is duty and volunteerism that is the glue of community.  Which conflicts a bit with "my/your integral growth".  And you want to keep away from any cultism, as such.

At any rate, opening up for questions - what integrally, needs to be worked on?  My integral growth, rather than "our" integral growth?