Well, I'm not sure of the quality of this assessment.  If I'm a ham, I'm rather bad at it - Will Ferrell, I'm not!

Thanks to Nicq for this! 

Now, for the  results - read them and wonder - HUH?

Came across this Naropa Collection, that has been preserved in the Internet Archive.

For anyone who has ever been interested in the Beat Generation, this is a dream.  It looks like you get amazing readings from Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs.  Good stuff on Jack Kerouac as well.

Those of you who read here, who like contemplating about the idea of integral organizations, go ahead and check out Mike's post on the "Integral Marine Corps".  

If you feel like it, go ahead and use that space to answer the question - "What is the most integral organization I have been a part of?"  For Mike, it has been the Marines. 

What has it been for you?

I'll answer over there!

I've been working on an evaluation form for evaluating practices - an evaluation form that engages the what, why, how, and benefits of a practice - that will function across different types of practice.

This will continue to get better, but if anyone can give me feedback or suggestions, I would appreciate it.  The directory I hope to form using Integral Commons will end up being based on the following evaluation shell:

What is the practice/injunction name?
By doing the practice/injunction, what indvidual qualities are gained/improved?
What would be a way to measure this quality?
What are the assessments to evaluate one's current measure of this quality?
What are the immersive programs (30, 60 90 day) to quickly incorporate this quality into one's life?
What are the ongoing "integrate into life" programs - for daily use?
What is considered the minimum discipline/attention/time to practice, in order to still retain value?
What are the online support mechanisms/people to help one maintain the practice?



That's it for now.  Feedback welcome.

You can find at this page. 

I'll be updating KosmicBlogger later in the week, as well as my integral blog page here. 

Still, the Yahoo method of quickly adding new blogs, is simple, quick, easy - if only I had more control of the layout.

I'll be at the IWET Integral Weekend Experiential Training this weekend, in San Francisco.   (With this blog being named "Integral Practice", I sort of have to go - don't I?)

It will be interesting to see exactly what can be accomplished in two days - we'll see!

I'm also hopeful that there will be enough local "practitioners", that we can form some type of "IP Club" - hopefully not too snooty:

"Chad, I say, I'll be down at the IP Club this afternoon - will you be around?

"Ken, yes, that sounds FABulous!".

"Absolutely SMASHING!!  We'll meet for tea, tennis, and meditation!"

We'll see - is Integral Practice, because of the variety of disciplines one can choose from, end up being a solitary pursuit?  Or can the practices be generalized enough that the "power of group practice" is engaged? 

For myself, I've always been a big proponent of laid back clubs - the debate club, the chess club, the long distance running club.  For me, these are perfect, combining the collegiality, motivation and companionship of other people (one of the best ways to STAY with your practice), without all the power issues that come with an official organization, with a GURU.

Just enjoy reading.

Is to be immersed.

Think of this as another variation on the 90 day rule - throw yourself into a new practice, immerse yourself in it, surround yourself with others doing the same practice, if at all possible. 

In 90 days - take stock.  Is it working?  What is working? What isn't? Analysis of a practice ahead of immersion in a practice, suffers from unreality.

A MeditationWiki has been created!  From the front page:

"The point of this wiki is to create an "open source" place for people to discuss meditation techniques and contemplative methods, giving specifics, pros, cons, and other information about a variety of techniques."

I think this can be a very worthy addition to the maintenance of knowledge.  At some point, when Wiki's interact with other function based applications, then things will really get moving.

NOTE:  I would be surprised if this doesn't already exist, as meditation and wiki's have been around for awhile now.  But if not, those who are interested in an open source common knowledge, should login and start posting what you know.

If you have a meditation, what is it?  Simply post your own experience of the PRACTICE (guidelines you follow) then post YOUR own effects.  What happens to YOU after 3 months of practicing that style of  meditation?  After 6 months of meditation? 

If possible, be as specific as you can. 

We can make this a research project - if people have the time, that is.

Saw this on Slashdot - cruise the moon.  I especially like when you get to the closest settings - who knew that this is what the moon was REALLY made of??

I talk a lot here about awareness, but it is important to remember, that in any consistent meditation practice, there will be periods of energetic "happenings", for lack of a better. word.   more »

I'm in a video mode for some reason - decided to do a search at Yahoo Video on yoga, and here are the results.

Here's a link to a "no copyright" Australian/New Zealand video - about 70 minutes. .  You can download it. 

It's not really my cup of tea - the two guys are far too buff (why don't I look like that??), and they focus a BIT too closely on their bodies for my taste.  Perhaps the females here may get a kick out of a free 70 minutes yoga video, and being trained this way!

Video novices at ourmedia.org

See snippets of movers and thinkers (not necessarily movers and shakers) right here.

This video by Yasuhiko Genko Kimura was interesting, but there are a lot more.

This is old hat to many reading here, but still, it is an interesting take on happiness.

This is a bit technical, but the "standard" specfications for e-portfolios has been released.

Once this specification is combined with what coolmel calls algorhythmic match-making services (and remember, the matchmaking doesn't have to apply only to romance - can apply to friends, jobs, skills)), and then you combine THAT with a deep and comprehensive mode of assessing skills and GAPS in those skills, and then this is combined with open source repositories of knowledge, and then you combine this with sophisticated recommendation engines, and then combine this with Google Maps+GPS,

well,  guess what?  It's a whole new ballgame! 

Imagine your personal e-portfolio being "recommended" for and against.  Imagine querying your interests, passions and skillsets - embedded in your eportfolio - matched up with others who possess similar eportfolios - 60% match?  80% match?  Then you run your Google-GPS against that portfolio, and discover that there is this guy down the street who matches your portfolio interests to 98%?

Should you IM him - through your cell, with your "eportfolio match" being your calling card?

Imagine running that portfolio against a job opening, and coming back with a match on both sides of 75%? 

It's both exhilarating, and quite scary, depending on how this is used.  Definitely Big Brother esque, if we're not careful.

Imagine running your own portfolio against the ideal job - assessing the training you require on the spot, with recomendations FOR that training (numbers, locations, etc) coming up immediately.

It's a a brave new world, again and again,isn't it?




 

According to this article. maybe so. 

Here's a link to the the Echo Chamber Project.

I'm happy to report that this veers into a new direction - Integral Media, Journalism, etc. 

Good articles:

Integral Journalism

Integrating Film, Internet, Blogs, and Open Source

Take a look, when you are feeling geeky - just make sure not to get indigestion.

I've seen at least three posts this week regarding the  "I'm dancing as fast as I can" challenge of life.

First, this post over at Auspicious Coincidence, relating frustration at lack of discipline.  I think she's being too hard on herself, personally.

Second, this post of (successful) Getting Things Done, meeting the challenge of productivity and balance in life.

Thirdly, this post by Vince on the Sham of Practice, which really is a different note on the same thing, looking on both sides.

The Getting Things Done post above, is very good.  I especially like the "Life Balance" computer program that gets pointed to.  I've downloaded the demo version, and I hope to try it out and report on it. 

All three of the above perspectives are true, and have validity.  Finding the balance between being productive, managing life, and yet simply being here now, in THIS moment, without escaping into the future, or worrying about the past - that's a challenge in and of itself.

A cautionary article at Proactive Living, regarding lack of mobility of the past 30 years.

One of the important things that is needed for an "integral life", is TIME. 

Time to exercise.
Time to eat right.
Time to be socially engaged.
Time to meditate.
Time to be creative.

At this point, this is getting harder and harder - although this may also change in the future.

I've been trying out the new My Web Beta, as well as adding content using the My Yahoo feature. It's pretty useful so far - check out this "folder" of bookmarks that I can save. In this case, I'm saving Integral type Blogs. In this way, it's similar to del.icio.us functionality - I can save what I want to, and then show it.   more »

Meditation for revolution indeed.

Under Integral Views, in the left column, I've added "Integral Wiki changes". 

This will have the recent changes that have added to the Integral Wiki, so most articles one should find at least somewhat interesting. 

Please contribute!  Everyone who contributes will get a backrub  administered by Ken Wilber's personal massage therapist.

(Okay, that last sentence is a flat-out lie...)

Is propositional knowledge a necessary and sufficient mode of knowing truth, or does Integral Methodological Pluralism add necessary components?

Are these two modes of knowledge gathering:

The same with different names?
Different but complementary?
Different and opposed?

Inquiring minds both want to know -and don't want to know.

When I first saw the title of this post on GenSit I thought, "Oh no.  They've found me out!"

Ok, not really.  But if you have a chance, go read it - it's a good meditation on both the necessity of practice, and yet being careful not to hold the "practice" to an unnecessary state of perfection. 

Fascinating article from the New York Times (if you don't have a login, go to BugMeNot, to get one) regarding how, if other people see something different, it can ACTUALLY work at the brain perception level to change what you see.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why cults form.  Not only is there the social pressure, but that social pressure can actually work at the perceptive level. 

Got a heads up from Vince about a new paper from Ken Wilber, available to all, called What is Integral Spirituality.

Not a breezy read - not that it should be.

It's always important to remember that Ken's main function is as a theorist, and this paper reminds me of this - here's a section -

"For you advanced students out there, notice that the 8 methodologies are really giving us perspectives on perspectives on perspectives. For example, meditation involves the inside view of an interior view of an individual view. Francisco Varela’s approach to biological phenomenology is the outside view of the inside view of the exterior view. Hermeneutics is the inside view of the interior view of the collective view. And so on.

This leads to a new type of mathematical notation that we sometimes call “integral math,” which replaces traditional variables with perspectives. (For you not-so advanced students, don’t worry about this section.) Using the shorthand of 1st person (for the inside in general) and 3rd person (for the outside in general), then Varela’s view is 3-p x 1-p x 3p (a third-person conceptualization of a first-person view from within the third person or “objective” organism). Meditation is 1-p x 1-p x 1p (or the inside view of the interior awareness of my first person). Spiral Dynamics, as it relates to an individual,
is 3-p x 1-p x 1p (a third-person conceptual map of the interior awareness of a person), and so on. It can get much more complicated than that, with many more terms, but those are some examples for a start (you can actually build a type of mathematics here, with the equal sign representing “mutual understanding or resonance”)"

Got that?