Here and here for more information.

This is worth paying attention to. 

From Bill.

Hey there,

Been awhile since I've posted.  Some updates -

1.  I've been obsessively trying out various web 2.0 applications, in the area of group projects, reviews, and wiki's - looking for the right combination of:

a. Groups interaction
b. Group task-tracking
c. Reviews - (both for projects, practices, books, etc)
d. Peer-to-peer.

That are also do it yourself.

So far, I haven't found the perfect combination. 

My views on Integral Practice have shifted over the last year and a half, from documenting the theory and practice of various practices, to seeing these practices DOCUMENTED, in realtime and online, in a group of mutually supportive advocates. 

Thus the search for web 2.0 software to fit this.   (If anyone would find it interesting to have my experiences with these applications documented here, let me know - but if that interest doesn't exist, no need to clutter the site.)

What this brings me back to, is what I would call "Skillful Mean Peer to Peer". 

Anyone reading my site here, has seen this ideal displayed for the last year or so.  The problem is getting that goal into practice.   Much harder than the idea!

Good PDF on emotional intelligence, covering different dimensions of emotional intelligence.

When Bush blocks Justice Probe.

In my own perspective, there is a frog-in-the-boiling-water type of constitional crisis going on in the United States.  This mainly has to do with the fact that one party is running everything - thus when the current administration goes outside the bounds of the law - there is no one on the "other side" to rein him in, so there is no accountability.

These things go as they go, of course - we will see what happens.  These issues are obscure and legalistic enough that there will be no massive call from the nation at large to investigate these issues.  Only a running commentary in that section of the press which stills considers itself part of investigative journalism.

For historical purposes, really.  (Or is that too cynical?)

Great article from Technology Review.

Read the post from Deep Surface.

The estimated costs of invading Iraq.

UPDATE:  Read the rest of the article to see what else could have been paid for.

A great post on Global Warming. 

A good response to C4 as well. 

It's interesting how education and learning technologies and practices, and how newer technologies apply - carry over to the framework of Integral Practice.

Another article from Elearnspace - specifically on Virtual Reality/Second Life.

I'm going to get myself a charcacter soon - start having Second Life Integral Practice Weekly meetings...

I'm waiting on when I get a new computer that doesn't have a bad card for the microphone, which mine does.  (Yes, I could get a new card, but I have a pretty old computer anway...)

Good post from elearnspace.

Cross-institution studies, informal learning (in the form of a portfolio, and other online activities are kept in separate containers. For education, an identity system should be one that allows users not only to authenticate, but to bring the content of their learning activities into a space each individual controls. In this regard, I find portfolios to be of greater value than a simple ID system.

This should be the same in practice networks.  Those who are practicing ILP, or Body For Life, or completing daily advaita lessons - all of these fundamental activities - and any associated learning/online trail - should be controlled BY the individual, through their own identity and associated attributes - then these would be relayed to any application/systems through an agreed upon open protocol.

I've had this discussion - or at least posted a couple of comments about eportfolio functionality - to Brian Johnson at zaadz, previously. 

This type of networked "skill and growth" portfolio - we'll see if there is a market for it, and, if there is, who will be the first social network to enact it.

Great little tool.

This is actually a tool whereby people can start creating more focused assessments, based on certain diets, exercises, career assessments, etc.

Architecting the skills, competencies, and assessments available for the integral practice.

Integral Practice starts with a five emanation star, emanating outward, thickening with the depth of the levels developed.

Creating these assessments using online tools, then gathering together practice groups for activies that suggest themselves out of the assessments.

The main five areas -

Body

a. Diet assessment
b. Flexibility assessment
c, Strength assessment
d. Supplements assessment

Spiritual practice

a. Meditation practice - brainwave assessment
b. Nondual understanding - assessment based on probing questions, assessment given online - answers rated by peers in the practice.
c. Merging assessment - seeing others, all,  as yourself
d. Dis-identification assessment - seeing others, all, own self, as NOT the Self.
e. Energetic practice

Career as self-expression, service

a. Personality assessment, broad trends and interests.
b. Career assessment - online, based on Pathfinder.
c. Initial and near term goals - evaluated by peers.
d. 5 year goals - evaluated by peers, based on a-c above

Interpersonal

a. Partnership needs/health assessment
b. Friends and family assessment
c. Community service assessment

Psychological health - personal and shadow work

a. Personal psychological assessment
b. Empowerment index - personal and 360 assessment
c. Blame/ownership pendulum.  Family and friend 360 assessment
d. Emotional reactivity/nonreactivity assessment

ACTION REQUEST: 

Since these assessments can begin to be created, I'm assuming the knowledge for the assessments is already out there as well.  For any of the above life dimensions, if you are aware of associated assessments, I would appreciate you pointing them out to me!

Good white paper on competencies.

I think that, to begin, Integral Practice can be rated according to simple assessments, rather than complex.  I'll have a few examples of this I'd like feedback on, in the next couple of weeks.

This is from NDhighlights, but I think it is worth reprinting:

Song of the Mahamudra (Tilopa's Song to Naropa)




Mahamudra, the royal way, is free
from every word and sacred symbol.
For you alone, beloved Naropa,
this wonderful song springs forth from Tilopa
as spontaneous friendship that never ends.
The completely open nature
of all dimensions and events
is a rainbow always occurring
yet never grasped.
The way of Mahamudra
creates no closure.
No strenuous mental effort
can encounter this wide open way.
The effortless freedom of awareness
moves naturally along it.
As space is always freshly appearing
and never filled,
so the mind is without limits
and ever aware.
Gazing with sheer awareness
into sheer awareness,
habitual, abstract structures melt
into the fruitful springtime of Buddhahood.
White clouds that drift through blue sky,
changing shape constantly,
have no root, no foundation, no dwelling;
nor do changing patterns of thought
that float through the sky of mind.
When the formless expanse of awareness
comes clearly into view,
obsession with thought forms
ceases easily and naturally.
As within the openness of universal space
shapes and colors are spontaneously forming,
although space has no color or form,
so within the expanse of awareness
realms, relations and values are arising,
although awareness possesses
no positive or negative characteristics.
As the darkness of night,
even were it to last a thousand years,
could not conceal the rising sun,
so countless ages of conflict and suffering
cannot conceal the innate radiance of Mind.
Although philosophers explain
the transparent openness of appearances
as empty of permanent characteristics
and completely indeterminable,
this universal indeterminacy
can itself never be determined.
Although sages report
the nature of awareness to be luminosity,
this limitless radiance cannot be contained
within any language or sacramental system.
Although the very essence of Mind
is to be void of either subjects or objects,
it tenderly embraces all life within its womb.
To realize this inexpressible truth,
do not manipulate mind or body
but simply open into transparency
with relaxed, natural grace
intellect at ease in silence,
limbs at rest in stillness
like hollow bamboos.
Neither breathing in nor breathing out
with the breath of habitual thinking,
allow the mind to be at peace
in brilliant wakefulness.
This is the royal wealth of Mahamudra,
no common coin of any realm.
Beloved Naropa, this treasure of Buddhahood
belongs to you and to all beings.
Obsessive use of meditative disciplines
or perennial study of scripture and philosophy
will never bring forth this wonderful realization,
this truth which is natural to awareness,
because the mind that desperately desires
to reach another realm or level of experience
inadvertently ignores the basic light
that constitutes all experience.
The one who fabricates
any division in consciousness
betrays the friendship of Mahamudra.
Cease all activity that separates,
abandon even the desire to be free from desires
and allow the thinking process to rise and fall
smoothly as waves on a shoreless ocean.
The one who never dwells in abstraction
and whose only principle
is never to divide or separate
upholds the trust of Mahamudra.
The one who abandons craving
for authority and definition,
and never becomes one-sided
in argument or understanding,
alone perceives the authentic meaning
hidden in the ancient scriptures.
In the blissful embrace of Mahamudra,
negative viewpoints and their instincts
are burned without remainder, like camphor.
Through the open door of Mahamudra,
the deluded state of self-imprisonment
is easily left behind forever.
Mahamudra is the torch of supreme liberty
shining forth through all conscious beings.
Those beings constituted by awareness
who try to ignore, reject or grasp awareness
inflict sorrow and confusion upon themselves
like those who are insane.
To be awakened from this madness,
cultivate the gracious friendship
of a sublime sage of Mahamudra,
who may appear to the world as mad.
When the limited mind
enters blessed companionship
with limitless Mind,
indescribable freedom dawns.
Selfish or limited motivations
create the illusory sense of imprisonment
and scatter seeds of further delusion.
Even genuine religious teaching
can generate narrowness of vision.
Trust only the approach
that is utterly vast and profound.
The noble way of Mahamudra
never engages in the drama of
imprisonment and release.
The sage of Mahamudra
has absolutely no distractions,
because no war against distractions has ever been declared.
This nobility and gentleness alone,
this nonviolence of thought and action ,
is the traceless path of all Buddhas.
To walk this all-embracing way
is the bliss of Buddhahood.
Phenomena on every plane of being
are constantly arising and disappearing.
Thus they are forever fresh,
always new and inexhaustible.
Like dreams without solid substance,
they can never become rigid or binding.
The universe exists in a deep, elusive way
that can never be grasped or frozen.
Why feel obsessive desire or hatred for it,
thereby creating illusory bonds?
Renounce arbitrary, habitual views.
Go forth courageously to meditate
in the real mountain wilderness,
the wide open Mahamudra.
Transcend boundaries of kinship
by embracing all living beings
as one family of consciousness.
Remain without any compulsion
in the landscape of natural freedom:
spontaneous, generous, joyful.
When you receive the crown of Mahamudra,
all sense of rank or attainment
will quietly disappear.
Cut the root of the vine that chokes the tree,
and its clinging tendrils wither away entirely.
Sever the conventionally grasping mind,
and all bondage and desperation dissolve.

The illumination from an oil lamp
lights the room instantly,
even if it has been dark for aeons.
Mind is boundless radiance.
How can the slightest darkness
remain in the room of daily perception?
But one who clings to mental processes
cannot awaken to the radiance of Mind.
Strenuously seeking truth
by investigation and concentration,
one will never appreciate
the unthinkable simplicity and bliss
that abide at the core.
To uncover this fertile ground,
cut through the roots of complexity
with the sharp gaze of naked awareness,
remaining entirely at peace,
transparent and content.
You need not expend great effort
nor store up extensive spirtual power.
Remain in the flow of sheer awareness.
Mahamudra neither accepts nor rejects
any current of energy, internal or external.
Since the ground consciousness
is never born into any realm of being,
nothing can add to or subtract from it.
Nothing can obstruct or stain it.
When awareness rests here,
the appearance of division and conflict
disappears into original reality.
The twin emotions of anxiety and arrogance
vanish into the void from which they came.
Supreme knowing knows
no separate subject or object.
Supreme action acts resourcefully
without any array of instruments.
Supreme attainment attains the goal
without past, future or present.
The dedicated practitioner
experiences the spiritual way
as a turbulent mountain stream,
tumbling dangerously among boulders.
When maturity is reached,
the river flows smoothly and patiently
with the powerful sweep of the Ganges.
Emptying into the ocean of Mahamudra,
the water becomes ever-expanding light
that pours into great Clear Light
without direction, destination,
division, distinction or description.

I'm late to this, but I have now also taken the PersonalDNA assessement.

I am a 'Generous Inventor'.

I must say - this is one of the cooler types of tests around.  sliding and percentages, x and y axis, very nice.

I also took the superhero test - I come out as mostly Superman - but a very average joe superman, as I scored only 60% at the highest.

And then, on the Medieval Archetype test (thanks Victoria), I come out as the Lover.

I'm not sure how accurate all of these are - after all, what do the Lover, Superman, and Generous Inventor have to do with each other?

But they are fun!

On a serious note, these same type of assessments, I hope to actually fall over to skills, and then be integrated with one's eportfolio.

As it seems he still isn't sure.

This makes me wonder how we (average informed people) pick sides on this important and critical issue.  Do we take Al Gore's (and the PRO) side? Do we take Michael Crichton's (and the CON) side? Do we take BOTH sides? If we do take BOTH sides, how do we INTEGRATE them?  These are the questions that I think we need to honestly ask ourselves before we decide and take sides on this issue. And this is the premise by which I started ZPod:CLIMATE CHANGE.

So I invite everyone to JOIN IN so we can all make ourselves more informed on CLIMATE CHANGE whichever side we choose to lean on to.

Now, this might be the C4 generating discussion - but at this point, we really should simply shut down this debate, since there is no scientific controversy at this point - there is only what are the best things to do.  So let's generate discussion, by dismissing the doubters!

And the obfuscators need to be treated like flat-earthers, because the possible effects are very worrisome.

At any rate, here is Pew Center site on Global Warming.

A new integral site, called Open Integral. 

Thanks to Bill for the heads up.

Of particular interest is the post around "cultish" behavior.  Quite a neutral analysis, not over the top on any side.

From the University of Texas:

Not being a procrastinator is essential for those who live "integrally", employing skills in different dimensions.

I'm curious.  Has anyone ever experienced a tremendous CHANGE in your own procrastination tendencies? 

With a caveat here, that you have had the same procrastination tendencies for at least 5 years. Has anyone changed, in terms of those tendencies, if there is an established 5 year pattern in adulthood?

If so - what changed this for you?

From Discovery, new research suggesting that "psychological immaturity" is more prevalent than ever, whatever age.

Also called "psychological neotony".  We now have the scientific name for Boomerism!

What is interesting also, is how economic needs tend to kickstart and maintain this immaturity:

In the mid-20th century, however, another force kicked in, due to increasing need for individuals to change jobs, learn new skills, move to new places and make new friends.

So the very activities that make us economically valuable - flexibility, the ability to learn on the job, create oneself anew - possibly are someof the same factors that contribute to psychological immaturity:

"People such as academics, teachers, scientists and many other professionals are often strikingly immature outside of their strictly specialist competence in the sense of being unpredictable, unbalanced in priorities, and tending to overreact.”

Charlton added that since modern cultures now favor cognitive flexibility, “immature” people tend to thrive and succeed, and have set the tone not only for contemporary life, but also for the future, when it is possible our genes may even change as a result of the psychological shift.

I am one of those who believe that part of spirituality necessarily implies NO torture is an unacceptable method of treatment. 

On this day, I am thankful that the Supreme Court seems to agree with me.

As I predicted below, the Court held that Congress had, by statute, required that the commissions comply with the laws of war -- and held further that these commissions do not (for various reasons). I have not yet read the complete opinions, but from what I've seen of not only the Stevens majority, but also the Kennedy and Breyer concurrences (see Orin Kerr with the relevant AMK and SGB excerpts here), it is hard to overstate the principal, powerfully stated themes emanating from the Court, which are (i) that the President's conduct is subject to the limitations of statute and treaty; and (ii) that Congress's enactments are best construed to require compliance with the international laws of armed conflict.

Even more importantly for present purposes, the Court held that Common Article 3 of Geneva aplies as a matter of treaty obligation to the conflict against Al Qaeda. That is the HUGE part of today's ruling. The commissions are the least of it. This basically resolves the debate about interrogation techniques, because Common Article 3 provides that detained persons "shall in all circumstances be treated humanely," and that "[t]o this end," certain specified acts "are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever"—including "cruel treatment and torture," and "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment." This standard, not limited to the restrictions of the due process clause, is much more restrictive than even the McCain Amendment. See my further discussion here.

This almost certainly means that the CIA's interrogation regime is unlawful, and indeed, that many techniques the Administation has been using, such as waterboarding and hypothermia (and others) violate the War Crimes Act (because violations of Common Article 3 are deemed war crimes).

If I'm right about this, it's enormously significant.

Through last year, I would occasionally point to the Inner-Net blog, while Nipun and Guri were doing their trek through India on a dollar a day.

Well, they've been back awhile.  And now, they have an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about their trip!

Truly inspiring lives, truly inspiring.

I've been waiting to reference this for a bit, basically until they had a blog - which they now do!

Some of my favorite creative types are creating a magazine, called Polysemy.  I'm very excited for the magazine, as all of the folks over there are bright, creative, and a deep pleasure to read. I'm looking forward to viewing/experiencing the dimensions that AREN'T so verbal, but are more visual, and in Wilberian terms, more centaurian driven, revealing in creative expression worlds of insight, passion, awareness, and exposing the Subtle realms in the everyday.

The blog is here.

Take the plunge and subscribe! 

I saw An Inconvenient Truth this last week.  My thoughts?  It is an amazing film.

There is a lot to be said about how society values things, how the media intreprets, etc, but this blog isn't an exercise in media criticism.

As for a review, I recommend Daniel O'Connor's, as his review is as wonderful and deep as it gets.

I see that Ken has posted his 3rd part of the "Earpy" posts.

A mixed bag, as the post tackles a lot of things at once.

The positive:

Regarding I-I as a cult, as I've mentioned, I-I is FAR from a cult, and while that concern is there long-term, pretty far away regarding the conformance on behavior required from cults.  Ken ably refutes this.

Also, as far as Ken personally, I pretty much agree with Dan.

"That being said, my take on Ken Wilber is based more on my own experience with him as a person than on his ideas and theory. I've been lucky enough to get to hang around the guy quite a bit in the past year and a half, and interact with him from time to time. And from what I can tell, he's a swell fella. He's got his shortcomings and funny quirks, like all humans. But in general, in my experience, he seems to have a warm heart, and he's got an interesting take on things."

I've had "friends of friends" who I've heard - for at least a decade - and they have offered the same personal observations about Ken Wilber.  Pretty much across the board.

Moving on, Ken continues with lots of positive emails sent to him, and then commenting on those.

One of the emails Ken posts reminded me I need to get Ken Wilber In Dialogue, at least if I want to contribute to this theory thing...

The negative: 

In terms of the actual first "Earpy" post, there were a lot of fallacious arguments - these still remain unadmitted, unrecognized, having been overshadowed now by the 2nd tier and marketing purposes of the post. 

At some point, it would be good to see that addressed.

Also, saw this from Shawn, from the Lightmind Ken Wilber forums, on some of Ken's responses to Meyerhoff. 

From the strictly logical perspective, this makes some great points. 

My concern over the long haul, is the mixture of persuasive rhetoric that Ken employs, mixed with the selective reading of the literature, of what Ken integrates.

But, when it comes to employing a faithful reading of the literature, guess what?  This is a task that is EMINENTLY suited to the blogosphere, and those suited for internet research in general.

As a strictly numbers game, what is generally true will get pointed out, and where Ken Wilber's generalizations depart from this, that will get pointed out as well.

Essentially, because they don't believe in it.

Saw this post on Holistic and Integral Education about virtual realities.

All that I've really done on virtual realities is, a demo for a couple of days.  It was pretty interesting, but there wasn't a so-called "group" that I knew of, to be interested in.

Are there any virtual - with avatar - groups devoted to integral out there? 

If not, who would be interested in avatar "get-togethers"?  At least one or two, to get a sense of things.

Looking forward to this book.

Ideally, in the job situation, at some point, I want to go from a six or seven assessment  (like my job, good pay, interesting) to an 8 or 9. 

And I've always liked the idea of working for myself.

We'll see.  I may be too lazy to do that...