Go read here, but the key lines in my opinion:

One comment I have about the 321 process, however, is that in and of itself, it might only clear away minor emotional charges. I agree it's a great tool for identifying where projections might exist in relationships - and if you're lucky enough to be someone who's fairly clear and free flowing, then 321 might be all you'll ever need. But for deeply embedded or particularly snarled emotional stuff, some actual therapy and additional energy work is probably going to be required. The farther back in time an "emotional charge" is originating - in other words the farther back into your childhood or infancy a pathology goes - then the more difficult it will be to truly discharge that emotional energy and clear that block or snarl. Or you might find that you identify or clear a projection with one person, only to find the pattern repeating itself in other relationships, over and over again. It's like playing that damn gopher game at the carnival - you bash one, only to have another pop up right next to it.

The "mystery" of both our own personal emotional content and interactions, and then the emotional (and power) dynamics with others are worth commenting on, as this gets short shrift in integralism.  I think you also must have been DOING emotional work for awhile - either in therapy, or as part of some group process - to truly be able to grok this level that Jean is speaking about. (deeply embedded or snarled emotional stuff).

For myself, I was in therapy for a few years - and then also had the following.

A long time ago now, I participated in a MUCH different community, and a much different emotional practice.  I won't say too much about the community, because there were definite "cultish tendencies" happening, that I don't want to reward, even by mentioning - but there were some valuable lessons as well.

As far as the practice went, it was really "turning up the volume" on emotions, and giving it to God, praying with the emotional energy for clarity and for God to enter.

One of the revelatory aspects of that work, was FEELING - on a deep, existential level - just how much how I act, and everyone acts - is based on a constricted, egotistical self-justifying, emotional and defensive ego structure, rather than truly being PRESENT.

Basically, I - and we - act out of bure bullshit a hell of a lot more than I - and we -  think. 

Imagine this scenario -

Every time you act out of something other than "love" or "truth", or "wisdom" - and the same with others around you - you feel it, like a pain, or like a nails across a chalkboard.

When someone acts with a very constricted emotionality -
When I or someone justifies their position
When I or someone gossips,
when I or someone is mean,
when I or someone is defensive,
when I or someone is irrational,
when I or someone makes unnecessary conflict.

You feel it.  Like a throbbing toothache,  or a stab in the heart, I feel the consequences of being divorced from God, in how I defend, in every rude comment, in every lost soul on the street, in every snobbish intellectual commentary proclaiming union with source (as opposed to actual union with source)

That ability to feel separation from source, from being present - this was both a blessing and a curse (and in the end, more of a curse).

And the thing is - I would feel on a gut level that the daily actions and interactions from separation from source, quite outnumber the interaction from being one with source. 

And yet, nothing can be done about it - I feel my own limitations to "act" in a more loving, true way, and definitely with others, I cannot do much, except to feel the separation. Although slowly, I would end up being more present.

As one can imagine, confrontation was sometimes utilized in this mode of interaction, and being made aware of acting from that which is not source - "acting from illusion", as the case is made.

This was sometimes painful and rewarding - as truth is rewarding, when the confrontation was focused on my own limitations/games.

And sometimes this was painful and not rewarding - when the confrontation was meant to prop up the cultish aspects of the organization.

This "emotional and existential separation from God" - that can be delved into and felt by anyone, and with it my own and other people's ACTS are also felt - as coming from separation or not, or some combiation of the two.

It's a powerful ability, but a bit of a hopeless one as well.

At any rate - the integral approach offers nothing I have seen to facilitate growth on this particular level.  This level of emotional and gut truthfulness of being separate - acting out of fear, ego, greed, etc (seven deadly sins and more) or acting out of a deep, solid, loving, and strong, emotional open and flexible- "real" presence.

Are you LOVE or are you separate?  Who and what do you SERVE? In this moment?  And this moment?

On the other hand, experiences of oneness can happen on a level OUTSIDE the normal mode of mind/body emotional and will interactions.  And focusing on the separation AT THE LEVEL of emotion and will - is this useful, or is this in itself, reinforcing the separate world??

At the end, I had to disconnect myself from the process - not only because of the cultish tendencies of the organization (I always kept a distance from the org), but also because the process ended up being too painful - the daily grind of feeling separation both in myself and around me, mellowed by the sense of emotional merging with the Divine that the practice encouraged.

And now, I have more peace.  Less agony/ecstasy.  Also, I am still "aware" of the B.S., of separation - but now I "see" it, rather than "feeling" it, on an ongoing basis.

And I don't know whether this is good or bad.  During that time, I was more emotionally connected to others - and people felt this - but I was suffering a hell of a lot more.  Now, I am less emotionally connected to others - but I am much happier and more at peace.

I've wandered far afield from  Jean's original post.  

But what is clear is - and this goes back to the issue of things that are emotionally and gut charged -  there is very little in integralism itself which deals with the immediacy of FEELING the daily separation from source, and how to integrate this, on a gut and emotional level.  There is a lot of "assuming the close" - we are already one with THAT SOURCE - which of course is also TRUE, at one level.

I'm not sure this core PERSONAL level - of being truly present or being separate - must be worked through to truly be FULLY realized.

But my gut feeling is, yes, this PERSONAL knot of separation must be untangled, or released.

Great post from coolmel, regarding his flow of blogging - basically, he is "being blogged" by flow, rather than being a guy just blogging.

Now - is this just a function of creativity?  I posted this as a comment - that creativity is touched by God, and can flow through any type of activity - Quarterbacks have reported it while playing football, dancers have reported it while dancing, scientists have reported it, etc.

Now, is "flow", its own type of realization?  A glimpse into the realization of what already is so? Or is flow a glimpse of future human's capabilities?

I would hate to say that "blogging is spiritual practice", as clearly blogging is not physical practice.

But of course, divine creeps in everywhere - so is flow and inspiration from the self, the super-self, or the Divine?

Or all three?

Jean at the Human Bean has a pointer to the type of sychronicity and flow that Rommel speaks about - worth a read to hear Philip K. Dick speak.

I wonder how tongue in cheeck this is?

Hmm, somehow I doubt that blogging counts as transformational, although it can be very translational.

I'm going to borrow Vince's excellent post to deal with the category confusion apparent here.

Still, the value of blogging is perspectival, and ongoing dialogue, can point to the real, as much as the false.

There's a decent chance that blogs like Mystery of Existence , may have the ability to shift the perspective of identity from the false to the real.

When multi-media gets incorporated, shift is here!

One month ago I wrote this:

You know there has been all this discussion of whether Google, or Yahoo would come out with an office application, and "take on" Microsoft.  (And notice, nowhere did I mention Microsoft in ANY of the above applications, or actually anything installed on your desktop.)  And for myself, I always thought that it would be stupid to challenge Microsoft in terms of Office.  Office is a great product, and always has been.  Notice that Office is still an amazing seller on Apple machines, when there really is no NEED for it, per se.

But the truth is, the online world, and the various web applications are ALREADY taking on Microsoft.  If Google, or Yahoo, don't get in the game, or BUY one of the above better applications...they'll be left behind.  So they have to get moving, there really isn't much of a choice for them.

And today, I read that Google has bought Writely, the online word processor.

So, now the competition begins.  Those who can use Google for mail, IM chat, voice talk, as well as blogging, will now - once Writely is integrated into Google architecture - be able to have all documents stored on Google.

This of course, is a direct shot at Microsoft - but as I said, this was a market that moving forward, so Google had no choice but to get in the game.

If we work out this feminine/masculine dynamic thing, we will be cooking with gas!

Even though I enjoy the rant, it is serious as well, in the sense that have of the population would "benefit" from Integral Practice - so what would be a feminine name for this type of practice?

Full Spectrum Living?

Euphorice Living?

Suggestions...? 

I'm working on the details, but this will revolve around -

up to 8 people
Weekly conference call
Stating commitments to integral practice, for the week, on phone and by spreadsheet list
Buddy support - commited to frequent conversations (email, phone, IM) with buddy around own keeping practice commitments. (Group will need to be 6 or 8)
Assessment of "progress" - both in initial intake, and then group assessments.

I have the use of a few cool web tools to do this process.  And luckily, this won't take a lot of work to setup, as the tools are pre-existing (God bless Web 2.0)  But the long and short of it is to:

a.  Make your integral commitments and intentions available to a small, dedicated group.  This in itself has more effectiveness than we give credit for.
b. Create a history and trust with this small group, to take advantage of the power of a small group.
c. Track progress over time.

Please send me an email if you are interested in this.  I think this will be highly useful to people out in the boonies, but we will see.  

This is an experiment in web 2.0 support groups.

I would love for you to join the experiment!

I left a comment over at Ideological Putty, on "happiness".   What was surprising, was how definite an opinion I had on this topic, that I had never really coherently thought about, or put on paper. 

At any rate, I'm reprinting the comment here, because, basically, this is my current opinion on happiness.  I'm not cleaning up the comment for clarity either, so there are a couple of sentences that are confusing..

"Happiness is a learned process, and the learning process for happiness is grounded in "correct" motive and emotional stances towards life. These are MUCH more foundational for happiness than contemplative stances in life. Meditation in this sense is helpful, but it is icing on the cake, rather than the the parts of the cake (happiness) itself.

Happiness isn't much of a mystery anymore, actually.

a. Every human is born with a certain baseline emotional modality, predisposed towards harmony/disharmony, positivity/negativity, and stablility/instability.
b. The first four years are formative in either enhancing or debilitating this certain emotional baseline, in the sense of belongingness/lovingness. Various forms of natural wounding happen here.
c. The next 10 years, forming the rule structure/ideation phase of life, develops a natural trust in ego/self, rules/structure, or being enveloped in B.S. family rules, attitudes, and actions, that again, form the basis of cognitive/motive "stances" towards life, played out inside of one's ego.
d. The next seven years determine the stance of engagement with life - this of course is deeply influenced by the above - but here the "stance" towards life is taken - openness, experimentation? Retreat, surrender? Fixedness or flexibility? Very related to the sexual persona's success/failure in sexual experiences.

e & f. The process of "working on oneself", and "finding ones place in the world". In this process, healing of previous "woundings" occur (and self-actualization) because of internal lack of love/support, or internalization of various action/belief stances that are - for lack of a better word - anti-life.

In this sense, 80% of the people you meet are "not happy", or "not sane", in the sense of good mental health. (and of course, that is "average" mental health, without getting into the possibility of recognizing and living various spiritual truths). In this sense, everyone is "the walking wounded".

E&F of course, can last for a long time, perhaps one's whole life.

But with an "integral" education, one realizes certain "living truths", or the secrets of life.

1. Take care of your health.
2. Maintain a positive attitude.
3. Develop a deep sense of faith and gratitude (in life, God, meditation, community, whatever)
4. Be open and available to new experiences, challenges ("he not busy being born is busy dying")
5. ENGAGE FULLY with life, in the sense of living life with MEANING,and CONFIDENCE, in actions and beliefs.
6. While paradoxically, recognizing "humility" - that flexibility that comes with loving your neighbors as yourself, recognizing that your actions have only a limited influence, so "don't sweat the small stuff", etc - which is paradoxical in a way, because part of "e" - Engaging Fully - is CARING about the small stuff. A happy medium, basically living the Alcoholics Anonymous creed. Use good judgment, without being judgmental.
7. Find an occupation/way to express in the world that agrees with you. Doesn't have to be "the soul's job", although if that happens, great. But, something that agrees with you!

At any rate, engaging in Step "e" and "f", raises a person to the outer limits of the baseline in which "a" through "d" has given you in life. In some cases, of course, a through d might have done such a job on a person, in terms of derailing natural happiness, that chemicals may be required while healing from the effects of a negative a through d. That's why chemicals are always used as an adddition to the PRACTICE of living well.

That's the theory of happiness.

Meditation adds to happiness, in the sense of aiding the process of fast-forwarding humanity's future evolution into deeper calm, bliss, truth, etc.

But again, this is an extra on the Practice of happiness.

That's my view."

And:

"The hardest part is the psychological stuff we aren't aware of, at least for me. The psychological scotomas we suffer from, that we are blind to. These ostensibly are CAUSED by yourself, but at the same time, is unknown to yourself. In cases like that, therapy is very useful, as you can see - perhaps - how and why you are actively destroying "practicing happiness"."

Any thoughts on this, by others?  Who would agree that "happiness" is NOT some static state, but it is more a way of actively being in the world?