Integral Critique of Waking Down in Mutuality

I think that the Waking Down container holds the aspirant and “greenlights” all of the person, including broken parts, and this catalyzes a shift from self-distrusting outer-directed focus to contact with one’s own “Divine humanity.” Then there’s much deeper consequent self-trust and self-allowing, and a relaxation of many seeking motivations.

But people can undergo sequences like this at various levels of structure-stage and state-stage development. So some folks are having a radical nondual embodied awakening (which is how Saniel characterizes it.) Others are just dropping out of the periphery of their outer-directed focus into a more inner-directed self-trust (which might be fairly egocentric and maybe even lacking in lots of kinds of self-awareness.) Red, and/or Blue, and/or Orange, and/or Green, in other words.

And there’s no critical quality control in the WD community — they offer the Waking Down process to all comers. (This is where I’m a bit critical — I think some folks would be well-served to take up an ILP first.) So you’ve got profound realizations co-arising with more ordinary psychological transitions. Establishing a vantage point on experience as free consciousness is part of the formal criteria for a 2nd Birth, but I think it’s been applied permissively. And the interpersonal cultural norms are hugely biased towards the extremes of the “sensitive self” of Green. (For some good reasons, I should add.)

So you’ve got a pretty widely mixed group of folks claiming “the second birth” and I think this has been confusing. It sometimes makes the Waking Down work look good, sometimes bad, but it certainly hasn’t helped people see clearly and accurately what’s most beautiful and compelling and unique about that work, or helped them understand it in a larger context.

That said, I have a hunch that you might have a really positive and powerful experience of a deeper investigation of the Waking Down work. I get a sense that you might get profound value from doing the WD work. For one, you’ll find a way more profound and embracing home for your broken and exiled parts than you’ll find in the “Integral” community, and additionally, you’ll encounter some very ordinary human people with profound awakenings in consciousness who will take you in and be with you in the process of following and unfolding your own idiosyncratic, sometimes fussy and crabby humanity without judging or suppressing or rushing past any of it, in fact paying attention precisely because they see and trust the divinely human nature of all your parts.

On the other hand, it’s good for you to be forewarned that you probably will not find a community that will share all your integral awarenesses and distinctions, and this might sometimes feel limiting and frustrating. But if you can forgive this in advance (since as a broken soul pressing into the leading edge of emerging culture, you’re not fully met and tracked on all levels by anyone ever) you might find a kind of holding that allows you to drop down and relax into a dimension of your being that has long been needing to let go, and something new might bloom.

— Terry Patten, Integral practitioner, teacher, and author (with Ken Wilber of the book Integral Life Practice), www.integralheart.com.

Terry Patten - Integral Life Practice - integralheart.com

I think that the Waking Down container holds the aspirant and “greenlights” all of the person, including broken parts, and this catalyzes a shift from self-distrusting outer-directed focus to contact with one’s own “Divine humanity.” Then there’s much deeper consequent self-trust and self-allowing, and a relaxation of many seeking motivations.
But people can undergo sequences like this at various levels of structure-stage and state-stage development. So some folks are having a radical nondual embodied awakening (which is how Saniel characterizes it.) Others are just dropping out of the periphery of their outer-directed focus into a more inner-directed self-trust (which might be fairly egocentric and maybe even lacking in lots of kinds of self-awareness.) Red, and/or Blue, and/or Orange, and/or Green, in other words.
And there’s no critical quality control in the WD community — they offer the Waking Down process to all comers. (This is where I’m a bit critical — I think some folks would be well-served to take up an ILP first.) So you’ve got profound realizations co-arising with more ordinary psychological transitions. Establishing a vantage point on experience as free consciousness is part of the formal criteria for a 2nd Birth, but I think it’s been applied permissively. And the interpersonal cultural norms are hugely biased towards the extremes of the “sensitive self” of Green. (For some good reasons, I should add.)
So you’ve got a pretty widely mixed group of folks claiming “the second birth” and I think this has been confusing. It sometimes makes the Waking Down work look good, sometimes bad, but it certainly hasn’t helped people see clearly and accurately what’s most beautiful and compelling and unique about that work, or helped them understand it in a larger context.
That said, I have a hunch that you might have a really positive and powerful experience of a deeper investigation of the Waking Down work. I get a sense that you might get profound value from doing the WD work. For one, you’ll find a way more profound and embracing home for your broken and exiled parts than you’ll find in the “Integral” community, and additionally, you’ll encounter some very ordinary human people with profound awakenings in consciousness who will take you in and be with you in the process of following and unfolding your own idiosyncratic, sometimes fussy and crabby humanity without judging or suppressing or rushing past any of it, in fact paying attention precisely because they see and trust the divinely human nature of all your parts.
On the other hand, it’s good for you to be forewarned that you probably will not find a community that will share all your integral awarenesses and distinctions, and this might sometimes feel limiting and frustrating. But if you can forgive this in advance (since as a broken soul pressing into the leading edge of emerging culture, you’re not fully met and tracked on all levels by anyone ever) you might find a kind of holding that allows you to drop down and relax into a dimension of your being that has long been needing to let go, and something new might bloom.

April 29, 2010 | Filed Under Waking Down in Mutuality, integral 

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