At least according to my definitions, the "floor" levels of integral practice are defined - now, the issue is, how to build on that, and also building financially viable structures to allow functional integral practices to flow through easily.

As I define integral practice, as I've said many many times, it is in the following areas -

a.  Body -- diet, exercise, medicine
b. Relationships - partner, family, community
c. Service - (related to relationships) - giving, doing FOR others, love,etc.
d. Spirituality - meditation, non-dual, i-thou, realization, selfless love, sangha
e. Professional growth - productivity, developing skills, innate talents and abilities, discipline, accomplishment
f. Psychological - shadow work, therapeutic work, ego/sub-personalities and integration, optimistic attitude, the power of meaning in life,
g. Creativity - further self-expression, in any of the above areas, or simply creativity for creativy's sake.

I believe that most of the above -  a through g, currently has at least a "top 3" recommended activities, or where to focus. 

I'll spend time over the next month going through the "top 3" practices for each area, a through g. 

Now, this of course means that the "mysteries", are pscychological and structural - given all the great advice, knowledge, and information out there on "how best to live" - why don't more people take the advice, knowledge, and information, and make their life, and others, better?  How to deal with those resistances - be it the "7 deadly sins", or simple resistance.

Would be to develop Spiral Dynamics Tag Clouds - similar to the tag cloud of Bush's SOTU address - but of course adding the colors.

There is a big caveat here though, and that is assuming that particular words have specific values - in the spiral dynamics sense - associated with them.  I believe that may be 50% true, but I doubt much more true than that.

If you haven't see what Joe is doing recently, make sure to go over and have a look.

It's very "integral-meta", but also a new way at looking at integral writing, and what the writing is "about".  Taking a perspective on your perspectives, and words, and such, and labeling various writing - whether contemplation, statements about moral views, etc - with a color code. 

One of the reasons I personally like this, is because it really breaks up the view that a person is OF a certain color, in the simplistic Spiral Dynamics view.  This becomes very obvious in Joe's painstaking analysis and color-coding of the State of the Union address by President George Bush. 

Within one speech - one speech! - you find nearly all the different values as reflected in the spiral dynamic specrum, while at the same time, getting a visual take of the largest "percentage" of where the speech is coming from.   

For myself, it's quite useful, like seeing a spreadsheet chart graphed or grouped, on miscellaneous data, for the first time.  So much better than a simplistic take, showing that Bush "differentiates across the spectrum of values, while remaining pretty firmly centered in conformity values.

I highly recommend to go take a look at the work Joe has done, in advancing out of a simple view of Spiral Dynamics.

I know there have been these discussions between atheists and Christians - here is an interesting discussion between a Vedantin and a Christian.

Check it out.

UPDATE:

Regarding some of the atheists/Christianity discussions - I'm not sure why the simplistic discussions "capture" the oxygen around "what is God?".  C4 has commented on this, but there are much better and much more INTERESTING arguments to be had.

Lose weight playing games!

This image certainly isn't a very integral way to spend your money, is it?

From the New York Times, on the cost of the Iraq War.

Great post from Per at Mystery of Existence, on Big Mind and Indwelling God:


So where Big Mind is impersonal and everywhere, the indwelling God is personal and right here, in the heart space of the physical body. The experience of it, at least for me right now, is of a fragment of God for this particular individual soul and human self, and a fragment that includes and reflects the whole of God. It is not diminished in any way, yet also right here and for this particular individual.

Make sure to go read the whole post.  I'd love to see Chris at Indistinct Union comment on this as well, as he has commented on other MOE posts - and this seems right up his alley.

From The Advaita Show.

There is quite a question for me, on "resting" in a particular place. 

While most of my energy is in the way "I" am living my life, this alternates with small periods of simply resting in a "oneness".

Now, there isn't much to do in that space, but, there does seem to be a focus required, where the I choose to turn its attention back to the "source".  

Paradoxically, which then decreases the relevancy of the "I".  

Then mind patterns/life challenges interfere, and then the I reasserts itself as primary. 

It's a funny cycle.  

Now go forth, my Integralists!  Go forth and speak integral meta-comment!

I see from C4, that Boing-Boing has posted that Robert Anton Wilson is with us no longer.

Having spent a couple of evenings at lectures with the man, and at a dinner awhile ago, as well as being deeply influenced by his books - going back to the age of 18 (WAY too early to be reading RAW, by the way), I came to deeply care for the man. (The most influence was the books, only reinforced by the few times I spent with the man.)

Like all of us, he is a study in contrasts, with absolutely overwhelming "positive" attritbutes - incredibly intelligent, terrifically funny, deeply adventurous (even at his advanced age - one evening before we went to dinner, he was decided to go to dinner on the back of a guys motorcyle, and has just met the guy), as well as very sensitive, and deeply generous, always creative.

You couldn't do much better than spending an evening with Robert Wilson.   A fascinating man, always keeping things interesting, enlivening, funny, and warm.

He wasn't perfect, by any means.  In my own judgement,  he was still in "screaming rage" against the injustices of the world, power for power's sake, selfishness, greed, mindless conformity.  He never stopped paying attention to politicsHis whole stance was a giant "FUCK YOU!" against those things - of course, in his case, expressed much more wittily and funnily than the simple curse. 

The question is, is that "bad"?   When is the proper time to "accept" in a spiritual way, when is the proper time to rage against the injustices, because you CARE?   No one embodied that contradiction more than Robert Anton Wilson.

He also is one of the last of the "old men" of the sixties - and that's important, in a way I will ATTEMPT to explain.

Leary, Watts, Wilson, even though they were INVOLVED with the 60's, they were PRE-boomer.  The ponderous seriousness, the "all about me" of the boomer generation, also reflected in the boomer teachers - you never got that vibe from them.  It WASN'T about them, it was about the world - the spirituality, the adventure, the fun, the caring, the tragedy.   The "cause" was about US, together.  In most, but not all (sombunall as Wilson would say) of the teachers/spiritual adventurers today, there is that self-absorbtion, as an undercurrent. 

I've spent a lot of time around "spiritual masters", or "some of the people who "empower" you. 

If you had ever had a chance to spend with an evening with RAW, you are - entertained, challenged, listened to, enraged - ENGAGED, in a most HUMAN way - in the best of human ways. 

I would take that - over the spiritual masters.   Believe me - it's a lot more interesting.

Read this Tricycle post to find out why.

Noticed this at Blogmandu.

Is this post titled "Blog".

I find that particular April post amazing in its community contributions ingenuity.  An amazing capture of all possible "metacontent" of a blogpost.

We should be able to do an integral variation of this.

Check out the following interactive menu of the new IPod video:




If this is gotten right, this will be the future of the screen - for ALL screens, I have no doubt - computer, remotes, tv's possibly.

Another example here of "multi-touch interface" here:






When combined with the virtual world interactivity of Nintendo Wii:, well, very interesting devices coming down the pike in a few years.

Link is here.

Some cool products -

Widescreen Ipod
New Iphone - touchscreen, and you use your fingers. 

Worth reading - it really is a re-invention of the "all in one" device.  Smaller, thinner, everything done by touchscreen, very wide screen, OS X is the operating system.

Here a good guide for Google Reader.

For any gadget geeks out there, two of the best places to get up to the minute CES show news - (for me, this really means gagdet viewing), is at Gizmodo, and CES coverage at Endgadget.

Joe Perez left a comment on my last post pointing to a What Enlightenment? article.  I would like to respond more fully here.

I think it is worth exploring more fully, my current perceptions and motivations re: Cohen, and why I keep exploring this stream. 

In that vein, the below are exploratary thoughts to this seesaw phenomenon of guru-condemnation, not "final set in stone" opinions.  I am drawing first back to a larger picture, and as such, this post is sure to please nobody, but I will forge on anyway...

Joe starts with "I for one won't join in the crucify-the-guru mentality of the blogophere." 

I think Joe has a good point, and I would like to address it more fully here. 

There are a few types of "criticize the guru" elements, which, seem to me, to be offbase, unhelpful, and childish/defensive.  And one deeper challenge for guru critics.

1.  Gossip-mongering criticism.  Where what the guru does, gets pored over, with a fine-toothed comb, and an unrealistic attention to one or two "off-days", or bad moments, happen.  And those bad moments become the "excuse" to do "guru condemnation". 

In that case, the one or two moments are an EXCUSE for existing guru-condemnation that exists in the person.  This can especially be the case, in the blogosphere - where it is par for the case to be critical - this is the medium.  Usually this type of criticism is based in unhealthy and immature projection (as opposed to "healthy projection, I guess!)

2.  A lack of weighing of "bad" behavior.  So - for example with Wilber - for having a single blogpost with bad words, Wilber comes in for the SAME CONDEMNATION that a guru comes in for molesting students sexually, or physical abuse. 

An example of this is, if you read Goeff Falk, the same blistering tone of condemnation rings out, whether discussing Wilber's misrepresentation of philosophers/scientists, or whether discussing Scientology or the Unification Church.

This lack of perspective is incredibly damaging to any case - far to easy to dismiss as "ravings", given the presentation, even if the facts are accurate, the judgment is skewed regarding the interpretations of those facts.

The larger, Western issue, is regarding the whole "surrender" or "submission" area of spirituality. 

There is a deep - and justified - suspicion, of any type of spiritual group that asks you to "submit".   For some attitudes, any person who is asked to submit, is considered small-minded, weak - pathetic, if you will.

However, those people who join the military - where that type of will surrender is required - do what your superior tells you - this is acceptable, to the same group of people.

It seems to me that, that the type of power relations that exist in the military - and are respected - that same type of power relation should also be acceptable in spiritual circles, if that is the arrangement that helps move people.

So, it is incumbent on those of us who think Andrew Cohen is doing damage, to not source our objections in "only" the fact that Andrew Cohen demands "surrender" of his students - not at least without accurately holding forth a couple of acceptable versions of an arrangement of surrender in ACTUAL teacher-student relationships. 

(Any ideas on this, anyone?)

For myself, I believe that Joe's assessment of "crucify-the-guru mentality of the blogophere", can become a strawman - applied to some of the "false" criticisms as described above, but not applied to more sober, careful evaluations.

As well, Joe makes what I think is a false judgment: "there doesn't appear to be any illegal behavior on Cohen's part". 

I would submit that this isn't the final arbiter.  A lot of things that happen are damaging to people, without being illegal.  That shouldn't be the criteria.

The reason I am focusing on Cohen, of course, is because of my interest, participation and support of the Integral Institute.  Just look at the December archives of Integral Naked, and you find Cohen holding court on Dec.4, 11, and 18.   (Ironically enough, Cohen on the 4th is speaking on "Watching the Shadow", a model case of "teacher heal thyself".)

So Cohen is continuing to be "a part of" or in dialogue with, Ken Wilber and Integral Institute, an place where my money is going.

And Cohen has a history of psychologically abusive and manipulative behavior, as documented by his mother, his previous students, and WhatEnlightenment blog.   There has been a continual stream of evidence for Cohen's psychologically abusive and manipulative behavior - using the excuse of the guru/follower model, for up to two decades.

So, again, I will say - it is my wish that Wilber and I-I have nothing to do with Cohen - great magazine or not. 

That is the other excuse, and used by some of my favorite bloggers - "I don't know about Andrew Cohen [ ebuddha : despite the twenty years of evidence of psychological abuse] but man What Is Enlightenment is a great magazine!" 

Which, in my opinion, is again simply another way not to deal with the evidence honestly.

Flames, comments, excuses - always welcome.

Check it out!

Pelosi is officially elected today.

True to it's groundbreaking nature, WorldChanging has published an end-of-the-year "What's Next", for 32 of their contributors.  True to form, the articles tend towards the informative, without being overly long.

While there is some repetition - lots of "this will be the year", I definitely got a lot of reading this articles. 

This one from Gil Friend:

The key words I'm watching for 2007: generative feedback. Performance feedback that doesn't just track behavior; it drives it.


I think this also tracks with any "spiritual science", and tracks with integral feedback.

Also, from one of the articles, found the site Instructables - collaborative web 2.0 site for How-To.  Looks interesting!

Where Christ observes that Sam Harris doesn't recognize his own perceptual grounding, and also doesn't recognize intersubjectivity.

Still, it is a worthy project by Sam Harris, in my own opinion, to have a contemplative science.  Even within the framework of the "monological vision", if this ends up with better reported data.

Here is some information on how assessment works, when dealing with a diverse set of interests.

Since I have a comment by a reader, in a previous post, I will go ahead and point to a new article up at What Enlightenment, by a major contributor (millions of dollars) to Andrew Cohen's work. 

She details out, from her perspective, the process that Cohen went through to secure a 2 million dollar donation from her. 

Now, individual posts like this, you have to be cautious of - but given that, in this post, she details some of her own personal issues honestly, as well as gets some corroboration from other NAMED individuals in the comments, the post is worth paying attention to.

I'm not sure what it will take for Integral Institute and Ken Wilber, to STOP giving any oxygen to this guy, but hopefully it will happen soon.  After a year of exposure, from various sources, it can't come soon enough.  (I vote, with my Sponsor Plus membership in Integral Institute, to drop this guy).  When will Ken wake up about this particular issue?  Anyone at I-I ever do a Q&A with Ken on this particular issue?

(Note - don't do a Q&A NOW - Ken's had a marvelous and inspiring recovery, as detailed in this blogpost, but at some point maybe someone can find out Ken's stance.)

And a much-needed break from this strange taskmaster called the "internet", or some such thing.

At any rate, you can now look forward to the resumption of normal programming.  From important evaluative tools for living a full life, to spiritual meditations, to video, to occasional philosophical forays into integral matters, and occasional social commentary, to my skewed sense of humor, to what Ken Wilber had for lunch (note: goat cheese), to what my good blog buddies are wanking on about. 

So, wishing everyone well in this new year.  In 2007, may we all be blessed, and may all manners of being be blessed, and may all beings awaken to the Truth.

Carry on!