Time to Take Out the Trash: Peaceful Warrior, the Movie

Perhaps the best known integral blogger, Coolmel (Also known as ~C4Chaos, one of the bloggers on Ken Wilbers' website, and a member of Seattleintegral) has posted this review of the movie Peaceful Warrior, based on Dan Millman's book, Way of the Peaceful Warrior.

Several SI moviegoers gathered last night at a special screening, followed by what was billed as first-time 6-city video conference of movie audiences in Phoenix, San Diego, LA, SF, Portland, and Seattle, with Dan Millman, the actors, the producers, and various "celebs."

~C4 is right on with his review. This is a good movie!!! It is very well done, well acted, quality production, all in all, I give it a 5 on some sort or other of scale. Yes, it's not a new message, but it's a timeless message.

Besides just going to see it because it's a damn good movie, there's one other area in which I think the movie can be valuable: You know how your co-workers, some of your friends, maybe even members of your family seem to just kind of tune out when you tell them about your practices, or integral, or make any reference to consciousness or awareness?

Take those friends, family members, and loved ones to this movie, and at the end, stand up and yell at the top of your voice, "That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!"

No, seriously, just say that's what you feel, model it for them, love them, and just be with them. If you can't do that, what's all this awareness and conscious stuff for, anyway?

The "What is Integral" Elevator Speech

Anyone who has done any sort of management or sales training knows about the "elevator speech." What do you say to someone, in an elevator, when they ask what you do, and you only have "x" amount of seconds before they get off on their floor?

Those of us who are "integrally informed" have the same problem. Have you met anyone who could tell what integral is, in 30 seconds or less? Ha! you say...that's impossible!...and you'd be right. But you can give a brief overview without stumbling all over yourself.

When SeattleIntegral was just new, several of us took on that task, and wrote our own elevator speeches. What I am presenting here is the evolution of my elevator speech.

My first draft effort said:
"Integral, meaning composed of parts that make a whole complete, refers to an emerging philosophy that provides a comprehensive picture of our universe, and a way of thinking that leads to a better world."

"It's a multi-dimensional philosophy as well as tool with broad implications for the arts, business, science, religion, and philosophy. It unifies east, west, past and present, focusing on spirituality and human development, and is a vision for problem solving and enlightened living."

Phew! In an effort to simplify my "commercial." then i wuz thinkin'.....
"Integral is an emerging multi-dimensional philosophy with a heart-centered worldview and strategies that create the potential for trust, understanding, and transformation of ourselves, our communities, and our world."

After listening to other SeatleIntegral members' responses, particularly my dear friend Tom Mull's contribution, I came back to this, which was basically where I was before this exercise:
"Integral is an emerging all-inclusive philosophy that combines science, religion, western and eastern philosophies, and the great wisdom traditions into models for personal, community, and global growth, and greater enlightenment."

The problem with some of these is that when you start talking about enlightenment to blue and orange vMemes, you lose them.

So here's my most recent version:
"In a nutshell, 'integral' is a comprehensive and inclusive philosophy, and on a deeper level, an emerging consciousness; a grand sysnthesis uniting eastern and western philosophy, religion, science, politics, business, art, morals, values, meaning, etc., that can apply to any contemporary issue. It's a new way of looking at the world, it's problems, and their possible solutions....here...let me give you my card...." :)

Any of these, and your own, should be short enough to prevent the familiar "glazing over the eyes" that we've all experienced when explaining "integral" to our families and friends. You're welcome to borrow anything I've written here, but if you haven't done this exercise, you should, I believe it's a critical step in solidly formalizing your cognitive awareness of what integral means....even if you never wind up in an elevator.

More on Insight Dialogue

One of my favorite people in this world, or any other, is Terri O'Fallon. Terri is a long-time member of seattleintegral, one of the principals in Pacific Integral, and a member of the Integral Institute's Integral Education Committee. My understanding is she is developing a lot of the online classes I-I will be offering so people (like me!) can get AQAL Kosher I-I certified. Terri has a long history of developing online learning communities, having also been a mentor for masters' students at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS).

Terri is one of my favorite people for a lot of reasons. Besides all of the above, Terri walks into a room in full presence , and unassuming humility, unlike anyone else I have ever seen. In my non-expert opinion, she radiates and embodies Spiral Dynamics' Turquoise level of development.

All of this aside, Terri introduced our first-year "Generating Transformational Change in Human Systems" cohort to Insight Dialogue, for which I will be forever grateful. It was co-developed by Terri and Greg Kramer in 1994

Here's how Insight Dialogue listening and speakingworks in a nutshell (thanks to Cain at Zaadz, for this outline):

• Commit to the process---bring your awareness to the present moment
  
• Pause–call forth to slow down, to drop ignorance, to see more deeply, and brighten the mind.
• Relax—call forth in the face of stress, of challenging truths, and to bring ease to the body-mind.
• Open—call to move out of isolated practice, loops, and selfish patterns, to be out of contraction.
• Trust Emergence—call forth for energy, to end doubt, and to ride the moment.
• Listen Deeply—call into inquiry, receptivity, and to extend the heart.-
• Speak the Truth—call forth to end stasis, to enhance generosity and courage, to bring meditative interaction.

Insight Dialogue is a meditation practice that includes listening and speaking, and in an on-line format, reading and writing. It expands Insight Meditation and Bohmian dialogue into interaction, turning conversation into a transformative, creative vehicle where something brand new and unanticipated might emerge into a deeper awareness. The process also creates an amazing field of shared consciousness between particpants.

This is, by far, the deepest, most powerful, mediative experience I've ever had, and to share it with others is even more amazing.

3 Months Down the Road with ILP: Group Practices

After more than a year of ITP (Integral Transformative Practice), the SeattleIntegral ITP group has been alternating between Murphy and Leonard's ITP and Integral Institute's Integral Life Practice (ILP) 3-Body Workout.

Perhaps not exactly what has been described by Wilber as "transcend and include,", where earlier developmental levels have been differentiated from, transcended, and included in our repertoire of practices, but pretty damn close!

We've loved the ITP we've been doing, and a couple of members still prefer it, but everyone in the group pretty much agrees, there's a deeper spiritual presence in the ILP 3-Body Workout than in ITP. It's certainly not that spirit is lacking, or not present (spirit is ever-present), in the ITP, but with the gross, subtle, and causal body movements, and awareness created by the moderators and theme on the ILP DVD, spirit is right up there in your face. I like that my awareness of spirit is brought to full presence in the ILP DVD. It reminds me to be more present when switching off to ITP on alternating meetings.

Let me also say that ILP owes it's very existence to ITP, and we should never lose sight of that.

One small critique of the 3-Body Workout DVD with an eye to the future: the Home Study Kit is just that - a home study kit. There is no group practice as such. Oh, a group can do the Kata (form), but that would only involve the lower right quadrant. The 3-Body Workout is hyper-agentic, or masculine in its approach, and most of us guys would be probably go right along with that, no problem. But for women, or men who recognize the importance of balancing the masculine and feminine, it's just not there. The group process must pay attention to all four quadrants.

And while I-I is working on creating a group process, SeattleIntegral is already doing it. We are developing the community aspects of the 3-Body Workout, and the first element is community dialogical processes that open up our hearts, communication, and a sense of intimacy for our members.

High on my list to bring to the group is Insight Dialogue, co-created by Terri O'Fallon, one of SI's beloved teachers, and member of I-I's Integral Education Committee. I'll write more about Insight Dialogue and how it brings the feminine to ILP in a future blog.

Integral Relationship: One on One

There have been more than a few postings on Integral Relationship.....like Joe Perez' posting on polyamory. Integral Options Cafe actually shares the pain and effort that goes into growing an Integral relationship (I heartily applaud your extraordinary bravery, William and Kira), Meetups have been organized around the subject, and relationship in any form, evidenced by the proliferation of internet dating services and sites, weighs heavily on our individual and collective minds....and trust me...there's a dating service for every imaginable seeker!

Some of the newer and more interesting dating sites, from my perspective, that is, are David Deida's Spiritually Sexy, Conscious Singles, and Enlightened Match, just to name a few.

Like most people, I have gobs of friends in relationships of all kinds, and, DAMN, if I'm not just a little envious!

I've been married once, for seventeen years, and I was really good at it. I'm someone who should be deeply involved in a relationship, and yet, here I am, almost 61, and so solidly single I can't believe it. My whole foray into integral began with my marriage falling apart in the late 90's, and then, several years later, a painful, and painfully short and unsatisying relationship that sent me into psychotherapy. It was through that therapy that I began meditating, and well, one thing led to another. I find it amazing how many people come to radical change in their lives through painful means. I have come to call these painful paths "AFGO's", or, "another fucking growth opportunity"....please......no more AFGO's!

So what is with me and relationships? I want one, but don't have one. I suspect there's more than a little shadow work to be done, here. I have filled out profiles on five different dating sites, and not one is active. Wha's up wid 'dat? I keep telling myself I'll come across her profile, join the site, and tell her I only joined to meet her (been there, done that). Okay, when would I have time?....excuse. I'm okay alone...I am, but know it would be fuller not to be. A woman handed me her card and phone number in the grocery store this weekend....nice, but not my type.....what's my type? There's also a bit of not wanting to be disappointed, again.

Maybe it all comes down to having loved someone intensely, fully, passionately....seeing and recognizing the divine person within them that they wouldn't allow to come out.....watching helplessly as their fear drove them away.

Once you've experienced that, how do you accept anything else? I think by trying to recognize the divine in each and every person that you meet. And then you're never alone....and practice....lots of practice....I want to make this part of my practice, but it's not like you can start doing relationship, as if it were weights or meditation!

Somehow, I doubt this will be my last word on this subject.

Satori at the strangest time

I was on my way to the first SeattleIntegral Integral Spirituality meeting last Sunday, sitting at a stoplight in Fremont, when I had a sudden overwhelming recognition of the connectedness of everything. It's a good thing my windows are tinted, because I started crying at the realization (once again) of ever-present awareness.

Actually, I didn't give a hoot if anyone was watching, or not. Such is the ground of being.

Satori is a key concept in Zen Buddhism. It is the goal of Zen Buddhism, and roughly translates into individual Enlightenment, or a flash of sudden awareness. I have no doubt that mine was a "state," or peak, awareness: that is, a temporary state. It's the fourth Satori I've had, the first at 14, but I had absolutely no idea what the hell that was! I had already pretty much disassociated from the mythical relgion of my youth, and had not yet discovered the Objectivist philosophy of Ayn Rand. Unknown to me, I was in Satori limbo.

What I now know is that each of these peak experiences brings me closer to the next level of consciousness, and that while I patiently wait for that state awareness to become vertical (transcendent) stage awareness, I'll continue to work on my horizontal (translative) development, as well. Ah, span vs. depth.....another blog.

An Integral Governance System?

About three weeks ago, in a conversation with Ken Wilber, I was introduced to a unique governing system called "Sociocracy." During that conversation, Ken referred to it as "Sociocracy" and "Holacracy."

In a nutshell, Sociocracy is all about agile organizations, natural holarchies, and integrating the world, and is a form of government based on synergic consent, wherein everyone wins.

Brian Robertson, founder and CEO of Ternary Software, Inc., was pioneering Agile software development processes long before the term "agile" was coined, and presented at SD Best Practices 2005. Ternary's unique organizational design, governance structure, and business practices have forged new ground and tested new possibilities in the fields of human organization and culture.

There are four primary practices of Sociocracy:

• Decision making by consent: Consent is a method of decision-making whereby the arguments presented in discussing a decision are of paramount importance, and the the result of the discussion is that no one present has a reasoned and paramount objection to the decision being made.
• Circle Organization: The organization is built of a hierarchy of semi-autonomous circles. Each circle has its own aim, given by the higher-level circle, and has the authority and responsibility to execute, measure, and control its own processes to move towards its aim.
• Double-Linking: A lower circle is always linked to the circle above it via at least two people who belong to and take part in the decision making of both the higher circle and the lower circle. One of these links is the person with overall accountability for the lower-level circle’s results, and the other is a representative elected from within the lower-level circle.
• Elections by Consent: People are elected to key roles exclusively by consent after open discussion (this is not a democratic majority-vote election!). Most notably, the election process applies to the representative elected from a lower-level circle to a higher-level circle.

Sociocracy needs to be understood as a whole, not as a collection of independent practices – for example, consent-based decision making (the first practice) doesn’t work well unless it is done in the context of a circle of individuals with regular contact working together towards a common aim (the second practice).

We used a trial of this process at a recent SeattlIntegral Core Group meeting, and everyone was favorably impressed with how it works. Of course, we have much to learn about this process, but, upon first glance, it trully appears to be an integral approach to governance.

Creativity, Spirituality, and the Integral U-Process

I presented my first 2-hour workshop this past weekend, and judging from the feedback I've received, it went well. I'm delighted, because I busted my butt putting it together after feeling I'd been roped into doing something I didn't have enough time for!

I was first introduced to the "U-Process" last year at Pacific Integral's 2-year program on Generating Transformative Change in Human Systems. The "U-Process" is thoroughly described and documented in the book Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future. Ken Wilber and Otto Scharmer (one of four authors of Presence) expanded on the "U-Process," showing how the process can effectively plunge someone at intermediate or upper level stages into the gross, subtle, and causal states of consciousness, and help speed along the transformation to higher stages.

The process consists of gross/waking cognition fixed on anything that can be described "it" language ("Seeing" from the outside, using cognition that is distancing), "Sensing from the whole," in the subtle realm, reflecting to allow an "inner knowing" to emerge, and "Presencing," accessing your Self, or Source, which is a simple version of the causal Self. You have to contact this vast open Self expanse to have intentionality, the only time we truly have free will.

Again, this process allows people to fluidly access these states, at whatever stage they’re at. When we come out of these states we crystallize and institutionalize them. This is basically taking these subtler causal forms and materializing them in the near future. So, you’re essentially calling forth the future and embodying it by working with these creative states. The U Process means you can teach somebody who, in terms of Spiral Dynamics, is Blue or Orange or Green to be the most effective change agents that they can be at their stage.

If you haven't read Presence, I highly recommend it.

Or, you could book me for your next event!

How full can a life be?

I am moved and settling in to my new digs. My eldest daughter is married and in Cancun with her new husband. I'm recovering from the whirlwind 4-day wedding weekend in Houston and the two seven-hour flights to get there and back, and from the heady thrill of being able to sing James Ingram's "Give Me Forever (I Do)" for their first dance....not a dry eye in the house!

Now I'm jumping in with both feet to prepare for the workshop I'm participating in with members of the Integral New York City Salon at the end of the month, a first-time ever collaboration between integral salons on both coasts, and a little bit of "who cares" integral history. I care.

What a remarkable event! Leaders and participants of two salons on opposite coasts, uniting to present an all day integral event on "Art As A Transformative Practice." Go here and here to find out more about the event and the presenters. I love that we keep creating new paths, new opportunities, and new models for the integral approach!

In addition, I am in the process of designing the jacket (book cover) for the re-release of the book Don Beck co-authored with Graham Linscott, The Crucible: Forging South Africa's Future. This fits right in with a personal goal to serve the integral community with my design abilities. Imagine talking to someone about your graphic and presentation needs that you don't have to teach a new language!

Hmmm....what will I do with my spare time? Oh, yeah....Help create the first local Integral Spirituality group and group processes for the ILP Home Study Kit.

God, I love my life!

Moving beyond a Post-Modern Spirituality

While fundamentalism militantly expresses it self in various religious forms around the world and here in the USA, others are struggling to reassess their religious traditions: traditions and visions of God that were born of a different time. In other words, many are trying to find new ways to be religious.

There's a verse in the Qur'an that says, "Therein God will not change the state of the people unless they change the state of their own selves."

An Integral Spirituality means we participate in divinity, and that our own evolution is the evolution of God.

In a conversation I had with Ken Wilber yesterday, Ken pointed out that the leading edge of progressive consciousness today is Turquoise (2nd tier), a self that goes beyond ego and individuality. Maybe a thousand years from now, this "2nd tier consciousness" will be the conservative viewpoint, and the leading edge at that time will look back and smile.

But like today's conservatives, amber and orange (1st tier conciousness that was once the leading edge), we pioneers, stumbling and erring, will have laid down the framework for that new leading edge.

In the meantime, one of our responsibilities at the current leading edge, is to create tension that compels and challenges others to meet us at higher and deeper levels. And unlike our 1st tier green bretheren (think today's Democratic Party), we can't be wimps about it.

For an amazing viewpoint of both our insignificance and our magnificence, check this out.

A quick note....

A message to my readers....both of you: practice, shmactice, moving is a pain....I officially move next weekend, but am pretty sure getting settled will be much harder than packing.

I will get back to blogging.

All Day ILP

Today, our 11-member ITP/ILP group will spending the whole day in sangha examining, practicing, evaluating, and discussing Integral Institute's ILP home study kit. I'll write about it soon.

Stay in the moment.....

Moving is a wonderful practice! If you can stay in the moment while you're looking for a place to live, checking online rentals, reading papers, driving around to look and talk to owners, leasing agents, managers, enter a possibility and stay in the moment, you are a more evolved human being than I.

Everything in this process demands that you look forward: do I like the area, can I see myself living here, how will my possessions fit in this space....how will I fit in this space? How does this all fit in with planning for my future?

Ah...blessed balance. I am maintaining my meditation, weight lifting, have picked up the pace on my cardio/walking, and further refining my diet with more complex carbs, less "bad" stuff (I know...."who is to say what is good or bad"...favorite Chinese story).

New study indicates two glasses of red wine a night has a positive effect on longevity....In addition, red wine also reduces the number and size of fat cells in our bodies.....finally, some good news!!! I think I have a new affirmation for my ITP!

Oh, yeah....I did find a place with more than a little help from a friend. Think I'll like Fremont!

Now I'm packing.....There's a task you can stay in the moment with! My posting may be sporadic for a bit.

Assessing an organization

What does it mean, and look like, to lead from a second tier capacity? Seattleintegral's Core group, the leadership group trying to develop that second tier capacity, has some specific tasks for the individuals in that group before our next meeting in March.

Specifically, we have asked ourselves to answer the following questions:

• What is the the purpose of the group?
• Why does this group exist?
• What are our individual passions and how might they relate to the Core Group and to SeattleIntegral in general?
• Map these answers into the 4-Quadrants.

An integral assessment using the 4-Quadrants is one of the most useful applications of Ken Wilber's AQAL model. The quadrants are four basic dimensions that any sentient being possess, and they can be summarized as the interior and exterior of the individual and the collective.

We can assess ourselves and our organizations by reflecting on these four dimensions:

1. What are our intentions and reflective practices?
2. What are our relationships and of what quality?
3. What behaviors and skills do I/we possess?
4. What are the systems within yourself and those you are a part of?

By accurately and honestly responding to these questions, and others, we can determine where the organization is weak, and needs attention and strengthening.

"Food Fight!"

Yikes, every body's lining up for the"Food Fight."

I never liked the term "food fight" when talking about 1st tier memetic warfare. It minimizes the distress and sometimes terribly real pain that accompanies defending ones values. In the case of abortion rights, it's easy to see how conservatives and fundamentalists can, and do, believe in life begins at conception. No matter what scientific facts one might present to contrary, the facts just aren't going to change their minds (The jury is still out on evolution....heh, heh - G.W. Bush). For them, it's not about science.

Likewise, those who support a woman's right to choose/the right of privacy (not the same thing as supporting abortion...I know, I'm one of those) authentically believe that no one has the right to tell someone what they can and can't do to their own body.

Can both be right? Well, yes, from their own perspectives.

But what about a larger picture that transcends these two opposing views?

I'm going to suggest something that will, no doubt, piss a lot of people off. I'm going to suggest that we give the conservatives and the fundamentalists Roe v. Wade. Well, for a while, anyway.

Huh? I can hear the howling beginning already. hear me out.

How many voters in this country are single-issue voters? What number of those voters have abortion as their "one issue?" I did a quick google search, and while I couldn't find any statistics, I'll bet there's a lot of them.

How about enough to swing elections away from the far-right Bushie neo-cons to a more moderate middle if they are taken out of the equation? Here's what I think would happen if abortion were no longer an issue.

Voters who now include abortion as part of voting their moral values would have an opportunity to consider other "moral issues" such as:

• not raising our hand to those who haven't harmed us
  
• helping the homeless, the sick, and the poor
• providing education for our children
• loving our neighbors instead of fighting with them
  
• spreading the wealth around, not letting just a priviledged few control it

Do these sound familiar? If you came up through Blue, they do.

Meanwhile, we give up Roe v Wade for a few years. There's a whole new generation of people coming who, because of technology, will look at the world very differently, We need to be nurturing that for the long run.

Consider it. Shoot holes in it. Play "what if" with it. There's more than one way to change the world, and maybe it's time we got smarter.

Just thinkin'......

Rambling.......

I found out recently that the condo I've been renting for the past six years is for sale, and I've been spending a lot of time looking for another place to live. I've dropped my weight training down to 2X a week, but I'm still meditating every day. My ITP practice is still intact. My blogging has slowed.

SeattleIntegral hit a new milestone this week....Laura from Sacramento was member 110.

I make my living as a graphic designer and I've also been working on a freelance book jacket design for a re-issue of a book by an author most of us know. When I was introduced to the "U" concept of Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future, I immediately got it. As an artist called upon to find design solutions, I had been using the "U" process most of my adult life, but here it was, laid out in clear terms exactly what the creative process is, and how it happens: "Downloading" (operating with habitual ways of knowing and doing) to "presencing" (awareness of the present moment). Presence is about what it means to be an authentic agent of change.

I'm very concerned about what's going on in the world. On one hand, I remain calm and accepting, and on the other, I embrace imbalance..... of corporatocracy with no concern for how it affects people's lives; the incompetence of a failed U.S. administration who has never spoken for me, or to me; The out and out civil war that appears to be emerging in Iraq and the U.S. role in creating that and other chaos; Out of control debt that requires that the U.S. sell off assets, today, terminals within ports; U.S. debt held by foreign countries that is pushing us to a possible collapse of the dollar; U.S. imperialism of a hundred years creating an empire most of us are unaware of and the resentment that goes with it; Gobal warming.....On and on. It's almost time for the shift. It appears to unfold before us.

Chaos and change: What will cause that shift? Global chaos with millions of lives as the price? Or will we awaken in time and face the hard truths before us? Who will we choose to become? Who will we be forced to become?

Lucid Dreaming is Conscious Dreaming

Dreaming has been called everything from a "subconscious reading between the lines" to communication from God. While dreaming, we apparently process chaotic information in our minds in the form of a visual "screenplay." When we remember them, it's because we've viewed them with a conscious mind and recorded them in our memory.

There are a lot of different types of dreams: eposidic, flying, repetitive, precognitive, shared, universal, just to name a few, and lucid. Lucid dreams are when you realize you are dreaming and you can actually alter the events in the dream. It appears that some people have lucid dreams easily, while others have to learn how to do them. It also appears that anyone can learn how to have them.

This has to do with the three major states of consciousness that all of us are familiar with: waking, dreaming, and sleeping, or gross, subtle, and causal states. Dreams occur while surfing the subtle state - between the gross world of matter and the emptiness of causal deep sleep.

I've started a self-guided program to induce lucid dreaming into my practices, and have begun keeping a journal of my dreams. There are a couple of reasons for this: I want to see if there are any recurring messages my subconscious might be sending me, and, by becoming aware of my dreams, I might be able to identify those repetitive dreams as they are occurring, and control them. Why control them?

Lucid dreaming can be used to ask for guidance. It can help people face and overcome fears and inhibitions that might be preventing them from getting the most out of life. It can help people overcome nightmares. It can be used to gain knowledge about ourselves and grow spiritually.

Adventure and fantasy/overcoming nightmares/rehearsal/creativity and problem solving/healing/transcendence......

Why, indeed!

The Limits of Integral Vision

When I talk of "Vision," I usually apply it to a sense of what might be, and how one sees the possibilities of the future, but it can also be applied to how one sees from a particular perspective, or level of consciousness. In the journals I kept during the Generating Transformative Change in Human Systems program, I became more aware of the evolutionary aspect of myself and how my vision at previous levels was held by the filters of that level.

The Integral Approach can be be applied to any level of development, but only from specific levels above green of the Spiral Dynamics model. Does that mean that an integral approach would be more integral at Turquoise than at yellow? Will I look at all of these ideas with different filters when I arrive at the new alpha of of Turquoise, as opposed to the old alpha of Yellow?

The answer seems obvious: Yes. A fixed place in evolutionary consciousness is both a paradox and a contradiction in terms. The filter I find myself peering through lately is the filter of "What would I do if I were truly second tier?"

At every stage of development, it is our fundamental need for meaning making that creates concepts and erects boundaries where there are none. Integral is no different, and even second tier is an aspect of a filter, or lens, through which we view the world. My task, and my practice, is to carry the awareness of these filters into the moment.

Leadership as Practice

SeattleIntegral has a fairly new Core Visioning Group consisting of eleven or twelve individuals who deeply care about creating the next step in the evolution of an Integral Salon (There are a lot of amazing things about this, not the least of which is that our salon is getting so big, that the core group is larger than most salons).

On Integral Visioning, there’s a forum on Integral Organization. In that forum, “Theurj” posts the following:

“Diederick Janse's article "Integral organization, and then some" says that organizations do not go through step-like development because they do not have a dominant monad like individuals. An organization can begin at the level of development of its members. I've also heard Ken say this in the 2003 discussions with JFK students."

He continues: "Ken has said that Integral Institute is not an integral organization, yet most, if not all, of its members are of at least an integral level of development. So why isn't I-I integral? And if not, what level is it and why?"

I don't know the answer to those questions, but I'd sure like to. You see, I want to build a second tier Core Visioning group that oversees the development and organization for SeattleIntegral. We've been meeting a few months, and there's a growing number of members who are also feeling that vision.

My felt sense is that responsibility for a group's center of gravity lies solely with the collective leadership. In my case, as the current leader (facilitator might be a better word) of SeattleIntegral, it is imperative that the group not be guided by one person, and that the group can find the balance where I can step back, to let go of the reins, so to speak, so that this new leadership can emerge.

That also means shared responsibilities.

"One of the roadblocks for groups moving forward now is thinking that they have to wait for a leader to emerge - someone who embodies the future path. But I think what we've been learning with the "U" process is that the future can emerge within the group itself, not embodied in a 'hero' or traditional 'leader.' I think this is the key to going forward - that we have to nurture a new form of leadership that doesn't depend on extraordinary individuals." -(from "Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future")

In a world of global institutional networks, we face issues where hierarchical leadership is no longer adequate, and personal cultivation of individuals within larger collectives of people is essential. I am thinking of leadership as changing from someone in charge at the top to more like distributed, shared networks.

For those networks to lead effectively, and work with awareness, and from second tier, we will all need to be deeply committed to cultivating our capacity to serve what wants to emerge. As Janse points out in his article, we need our individual holonic horizons to intersect at the highest stage, or Kosmic groove, available to the group.

Easing back into the flow....

I know I have no one to blame but myself for the horrid lapse in my ITP over the past couple of years, but I'm finally pulling all of the aspects of it back together again: meditation (Who? me: upper left quadrant), Weight lifting, walking (how, lower right quadrant), Diet (what I'm eating Upper Right, how I'm eating, lower right quadrant), affirmations, ITP community, and all my SeattleIntegral work and community (why: lower left quadrant).

I do the KATA (Japanese for form, a combination of Yoga, Akido, and Tai' Chi) when the group meets, but I just can't seem to add it into my daily practice. For some reason, I think it's just not bold enough for me (but then George Leonard does it so much more competently than I, and he's 83, 23 years older than I at 60!). I only know it doesn't seem like enough to me.

When I first heard about ITP several years ago, I hadn't actually met another person who was interested in Ken Wilber. Oh, there was the former girlfriend who first recommended I read Wilber, but it took me a year to get through my reading list and finally get around to that, long past her ungainly departure from my life, so I couldn't exactly talk about it with her.

My first brush with ITP came about from Ken's recommendation in the book, "One Taste," his highly personal journal notes about his own meditative experiences and how they relate to the Great Chain of Being. I became very interested in learning about this "ITP." I bought "The Life We Are Given" and immediately discovered that I was already intuitively doing an "ITP." I just didn't know that's what it was. I was swimming competitively 4-5 days a week, lifting weights, carefully watching my diet, meditating, and seriously reading. The only component missing was community and giving back.

I eventually found others who were into the ITP concept, Wilber, and what appeared to be a new-found revitalization of Spirit in my life. Long story short, I eventually became so wrapped up in creating this amazing integral community of SeattleIntegral, that I seem to have lost my integral way. Now I feel like I'm coming full circle, realizing that truly living an integral life means making time for yourself as well.

The ILP Home Study Kit will be here in a week or two....can't wait to see it!