I have been reflecting on the development of this site, and some of the development of my own views.  I've started to come to the realization that the concept of Integral Practice is probably more richly reflected in the concept of Skillful Means.


"Working is the natural human response to being alive, our way of participating in the universe. Work allows us to make full use of our potential, to open to the infinite range of experience which lies within even the most mundane activity. Life extracts a price for less than full participation. We lose touch with the human values and qualities that spring naturally from a full engagement with work and life: integrity, honesty, loyalty, responsibility, and cooperation. Without the guidance these qualities give to our lives, we begin to drift, prey to an uneasy sense of dissatisfaction. Once we have lost the knowledge of how to ground ourselves in meaningful work, we do not know where to turn to find value in life. Skillful means is a three-step process that can be applied to any situation in our lives. The first step is to become aware of the realities of the difficulties, not simply by intellectual acknowledgment, but by honest observation of ourselves. Only in this way will we find the motivation to take the second step: making a firm resolve to change. When we have clearly seen the nature of our problems and have begun to change them, we can share what we have learned with others. This sharing can be the most satisfying experience of all. . ."


The concept of Skillful Means for Life is a richer concept than Integral Practice - in my view Integral Practice would be a subset of Skillful Means.

Skillful Means of course, is used everywhere.  It's used in science, sports, psychology, ethics, etc.  Skillful means is right knowledge applied correctly, whether this is in energy healing, economics, architecture, art,  meditation, technology, or diplomacy.

On this site, I am pointing to skillful means, in exercise, diet, career, meditation, etc. 

And I will continue to do so. 

As well, if things work out, in the next couple of months, I will either expand in the use of Integral Commons, forming a peer to peer Integral Project for listing detailing, and grouping together skills, and the skillful means of utilizing these skills.  (Michael has done the enormous favor of putting together an Integral Commons site.  I have just begun to add some of this information to the wiki there.)

Or, I am looking at putting together a Drupal site for the same, depending on the functionality needed.

The other factor in this, comes with my viewpoint as an LMS consultant and designer.  There is already a formidable amount of work that has been done, in terms of software to track skills - one example here.  As well as some companies who have built skill libraries, and sell these libraries.

An even better summary is the graphic at elearnspace.

The same type of process can be used in an integral peer to peer, and can expand to the other "softer" dimensions of life - such as ethics, meditation, etc.

I'm thinking that this information should truly be open, not closed - but it might be useful to review some of this functionality that these companies have.

At any rate, any feedback on some of the above ideas will be very, very welcome!