Integral Stuff

"This is an interesting post from Bren Hudson at Integral Life -- a very cogent defense of Spiral Dynamics against the linearity of Ken Wilber's model. I'm not so sure about the rest of her ideas, bringing in the chakras and all, but she presents an interesting series of ideas that could be much more fleshed out." - ~C4Chaos via Bookmarklet

"Daniel Ingram is a medical doctor who works in Alabama. He is also a teacher in the Theravada tradition, who was given permission to teach by Christopher Titmuss and Sayadaw U Pandita Jr. The author of Mastering the Core Teachings of the Dharma: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book, Daniel has a no holds barred approach the dharma and encourages people to master the original teachings of the Buddha." - ~C4Chaos

"Dynamic lecturer, progressive scholar, and one of the most prolific writers and translators of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, Alan Wallace, Ph.D., continually seeks innovative ways to integrate Buddhist contemplative practices with Western science to advance the study of the mind. Dr. Wallace, a scholar and practitioner of Buddhism since 1970, has taught Buddhist theory and meditation throughout Europe and America since 1976. Having devoted fourteen years to training as a Tibetan Buddhist monk, ordained by H. H. the Dalai Lama, he went on to earn an undergraduate degree in physics and the philosophy of science at Amherst College and a doctorate in religious studies at Stanford." - ~C4Chaos

"Ken Wilber, at age 56, is the first thinker and writer to have his collected works published while still alive. With 25 books translated into some 30 foreign languages, he is the most widely translated academic writer in the United States. Ken is the internationally acknowledged originator of Integral Theory and founder of Integral Institute." - ~C4Chaos

"The Wilber-Beck stream of the Integral Movement owes Da Free John / Adi Da much much more than it realises. It was Bubba/Da Free John (I use his old names because those where the names he used when he was teaching those ideas) who first fomulated a single physico-psycho-spiritual developmental spectrum (the "Seven Stages of Life" (official page, my page, another page, with useful diagrams); itself perhaps inspired by Theosophy or Rudolf Steiner); it was this same spectrum of seven stages that Wilber used as the basis of his entire philosophy and cosmology, causing him to reject his earlier Transpersonal-Jungian model, once he became a devotee. What would AQAL (All Quadrants and All Levels (my page, another page from old Wikipedia page, official Journal) be without the Levels? And it was Da Free John who formulated the levels." - ~C4Chaos via Bookmarklet

"At the heart of Christianity's monastic, contemplative, and mystical traditions lives the spirit of a fourth-century band of Christian renunciates known today as the Desert Fathers. These spiritual zealots lived outside the boundaries of society, pursuing spiritual purification through the renunciation of all worldly distraction. The legacy of their devotion lives on today in the inspiring lives of the contemporary practitioners who are dedicated to the pursuit of the timeless spirit and true meaning of the sacred Word." - ~C4Chaos

"In this week's special WIE Unbound release, set to appear in the inaugural issue of our newly named EnlightenNext magazine this fall, Cohen and Wilber get back to basics, teasing out the "fascinating, complex, and infinitely subtle" relationships between enlightenment and evolution, consciousness and culture, inner and outer, that have framed their discussions since day one. Drawing on decades of experience in the trenches of conscious evolution, they describe why it is becoming increasingly obvious to both of them that for anyone interested in pushing into the next stage of human development, it is essential to cultivate both a deep connection to the timeless, immortal dimension of consciousness itself as well as a sophisticated understanding of the dynamic and ever-changing structures of cultural development." - ~C4Chaos

"Do you need a map to guide you through the territory of your own life? The following series of e-learning programs will give you an experience of the components of the Integral approach—quadrants, levels, lines, states and types—which will help you to see and work with more of yourself, others and the world you live in. If you’re new to Integral, this series will help you to get familiar with some terms used on Integral Life and will help you understand how you can benefit from adopting a more Integral approach to the various aspects of your life. If you’re an experienced watcher, this series will help deepen your understanding of the fundamental components and will give you a sense of the learning platforms we’ll be using on the website. Whatever your level of experience, sit back, relax, and enjoy whatever arises as you witness new ways for understanding your life!" - ~C4Chaos

"The Integral Map is nothing less than a map of the human experience - a composite framework that honors the key insights of the world's greatest traditions and distills them into five simple factors, five keys to unlock and facilitate your growth and development. Sound too daunting and complex? Well, that's the thing. Life is complex enough as it is, so we’re sharing this map with you as a means to help you find your way. And what you’ll find, with just a little perseverance and a willingness to learn and "not know," is greater understanding and love for yourself, others and the world you live in. Watch this introductory e-learning program to begin the journey and find out how to better navigate your life." - ~C4Chaos via Bookmarklet

"The blogosphere is undergoing a shift toward lifestreaming. The efficiency and clarity of lifestreaming offers an alternative and a complement to blogging that enables time-strapped internet content creators and enthusiasts a better way to display, distribute and champion the content that matters to them. It’s a game-changer that also hints at the increasingly seamless way the internet is part of every aspect of our lives. 2008 has been a year of transitioning to lifestreaming for me. An increasingly time-strapped life has left me less time to devote to blogging, but my drive to share content with friends and strangers hasn’t relented. Lifestreaming has allowed me to point out more content and share more pieces of my life than I could have if I focused on longer pieces. I still love and appreciate blogging —I read dozens of blogs each day—, but lifestreaming is the future of how we share on the internet." - ~C4Chaos

""Here Ken is asked about his own relationship with surrender, grace, and inner knowledge. He shares a glimpse into his own creative process, namely the need to make a choice to fully surrender to the creative impulse."" - ~C4Chaos

"What if we took everything that all the various cultures have to tell us about human potential—about spiritual growth, psychological growth, social growth—and put it all on the table? What if we attempted to find the critically essential keys to human growth, based on the sum total of human knowledge now open to us? What if we attempted, based on extensive cross-cultural study, to use all of the world’s great traditions to create a composite map, a comprehensive map, an all-inclusive or integral map that included the best elements from all of them? In the following article series, Ken Wilber shares an overview of this map: The Integral Operating System (IOS)." - ~C4Chaos

"Abstract: An extensive data search among various types of developmental and evolutionary sequences yielded a `four quadrant' model of consciousness and its development (the four quadrants being intentional, behavioural, cultural, and social). Each of these dimensions was found to unfold in a sequence of at least a dozen major stages or levels. Combining the four quadrants with the dozen or so major levels in each quadrant yields an integral theory of consciousness that is quite comprehensive in its nature and scope. This model is used to indicate how a general synthesis and integration of twelve of the most influential schools of consciousness studies can be effected, and to highlight some of the most significant areas of future research. The conclusion is that an `all-quadrant, all-level' approach is the minimum degree of sophistication that we need into order to secure anything resembling a genuinely integral theory of consciousness." - ~C4Chaos

"Moral: there is no going back to the restoration of an Indic spiritual culture in the induced postmodern rubble of modernity. It is a fascist notion that has been turned into chewing gum ever since its hidden conspirational birth in the nineteenth century and echoed in such figures as Blavatsky and, indeed, even the unwitting Nietzsche. Meanwhile, the sheer presumption in this passage, that Ken Wilbur single-handedly is going to replace the Enlightenment with a new one is breathtaking, and completely stupid. It is a misunderstanding of what the Enlightenment was, and its place in world history. Quite apart from anything else (as a study of the eonic effect makes clear) the rise of modernity is far larger than the Enlightenment, and is constructed to be more than the sum of its parts, not so easy to dismantle with confused New Age cults." - ~C4Chaos via Bookmarklet

"I've got mixed feelings about Ken Wilber. Sometimes he strikes me as a self-absorbed guy who's fervently marketing his Integral Philosophy as the answer to every question, even though it strikes me as a conceptual exercise without much reality meat behind it. Then I read something Wilber has written and resonate with it." - ~C4Chaos via Bookmarklet

"John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, needs no convincing about the merit of an Integral Approach to business: "I'm certain that Integral Business is a higher synthesis... that it is going to grow at an extremely rapid rate... and that it will out-compete anything else out there." If the success of Whole Foods is a sign of the more integral endeavors to come—and we think it is—the future looks very bright indeed! For a sneak peak at the politics of tomorrow, and the business models leading the way, listen in to this hopeful dialogue about the future." - ~C4Chaos via Bookmarklet