Waking Down Integral

Reestablishing a Balance Between “Ascending” and “Descending” Spirituality

admin — Sun, 02 May 2010 15:15:40 +0000

“… we are offered a way out of many of our human and global problems by reestablishing a balance between “Ascending” and “Descending” spirituality.

Ascending spirituality is defined as movement from the Many to the One, otherworldly, transcendental—the Path of Wisdom. “Wisdom sees that behind all the multifarious forms and phenomena there lies the One, the Good, the unqualifiable Emptiness, against which all forms are seen to be illusory, fleeting, impermanent. Wisdom, the pursuit of the Good, penetrates beneath the surfaces to find the eternal One, radiant, empty, shining.”

Descending spirituality is defined as movement from the One to the Many, “whereby the One empties itself into all creation, gives itself to all forms, so that all of creation itself is a perfect manifestation of Spirit.” This is the Path of Compassion, so “all forms are to be treated equally with kindness, compassion, mercy. Compassion is the very mechanism of manifestation itself.”

—Jan Thatcher Adams, from Sex, Ecology, Spirituality-Predicted to be Classic in Consciousness Literature on integralworld.net

Integral Critique of Waking Down in Mutuality

admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:57:07 +0000

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.

Loving Kindness and Meditation

admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:27:01 +0000

When we start to meditate or to work with any kind of spiritual discipline, we often think that somehow we’re going to improve, which is a subtle aggression against who we really are. It’s a bit like saying, “If I jog, I’ll be a much better person.” “If I had a nicer house, I’d be a better person.” “If I could meditate and calm down, I’d be a better person.” Or the scenario may be that we find fault with others. We might say, “If it weren’t for my husband, I’d have a perfect marriage.” “If it weren’t for the fact that my boss and I can’t get on, my job would be just great.” And, “If it weren’t for my mind, my meditation would be excellent.”

But loving-kindness—maitri—toward ourselves doesn’t mean getting rid of anything. Maitri means that we can still be crazy, we can still be angry. We can still be timid or jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness. Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already. The ground of practice is your or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are. That’s what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest.

Curiosity involves being gentle, precise, and open – actually being able to let go and open. Gentleness is a sense of good-heartedness toward ourselves. Precision is being able to see clearly, not being afraid to see what’s really there. Openness is being able to let go and to open. When you come to have this kind of honesty, gentleness, and good-heartedness, combined with clarity about yourself, there’s no obstacle to feeling loving-kindness for others as well.

By Pema Chodron, Comfortable with Uncertainty

An Integral Model

admin — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:06:52 +0000

Video Introduction to Spiral Dynamics

admin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:13:59 +0000

Meditation Alone is Not Enough

admin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:45:49 +0000

“Across the vast spectrum of spiritual traditions, different methods and tools are offered as a means to reach inner awakening. But in all mature schools of enlightenment, the essence of an adept’s effort remains the practice of meditation. Meditation, in the broadest sense of the term, denotes the effort of consciousness to maintain a focus on the self. For our meditation to be real, this internal concentration of energy and consciousness must be based on self-knowledge and a certain degree of awakening, because in their absence, we cannot relate to the self and remain confined to the plane of forgetfulness. We need to sensitively practice self-enquiry in order to turn consciousness back to its source, just as we need to practice meditation to support our self-enquiry, so that our awakened experience deepens and becomes permanent.”

“The nature of the inner work changes as we focus on different areas of awakening: the work with awareness demands a great deal of concentration and mindfulness; the work with the heart is based on an opening to sensitivity, prayer and the divine; the work with being is founded upon the art of letting go and the consequent vertical expansion of energy; the work with the ego and the mind requires self-observation, non-identification and the cultivation of purity.

“Spiritual practice has to be intelligently applied, with sensitivity to both our potential and our limitations. Practice is not an end in itself, but rather a means to achieve a natural state, free from effort. The responsibility of a teacher is to prescribe a practice according to the specific needs of the student. The responsibility of the student is to understand the nature of that practice, and to recognize the point of its completion.”

~ Anadi (Aziz Kristof)

The Necessity of the Inner Work

admin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:41:33 +0000

“Although grace does play a vital role in our evolutionary progress, this fact does not diminish the necessity of the inner work. Practice manifests out of a deep command within the soul to use all means available to accelerate her spiritual enlightenment – an expression of our innermost collaboration with the divine will. Unless we activate our own capacity to support our evolution, how can we expect the divine to assist us? Waiting indolently for grace to do the inner work for us is an arrogant approach. It is no different than expecting water to spring from the ground without first digging a well. One needs to be prepared to receive grace, and through conscious cooperation with one’s evolution, to increasingly mature into that readiness.”

~ Anadi (Aziz Kristof)

Spiritual Traditions of the Past

admin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:24:25 +0000

“Not all teachings point to the highest truth, just as not all seekers seek the highest knowledge and realization. Traditions of enlightenment reveal varying levels of understanding, as they reflect the particular intelligence and capacity of their founders…”

“We may wonder why teachings of non-duality founded by seers of the highest order and expressing extraordinary depth have repudiated the existence of a personal essence. It is not that the conclusions of these masters sprang from incomplete realizations, but rather that their perception of reality was conditioned to express their experience in a purely impersonal way. The traditions we are referring to were created in times when humanity was not yet ripe enough to embrace the consciousness of the soul. They may have been revolutionary in their time, but from the viewpoint of the now, their spiritual vision is outdated. At its conception, any new tradition of enlightenment naturally reflects the unconscious evolutionary needs of the contemporary collective mind, otherwise it is rejected and forgotten. It is in fact the will of the divine cause to express truth at a level in accordance with the evolutionary capacity of humanity at any particular stage of its development. Traditions of the past were not designed to reflect the subtle dimension of the soul; their objective was the strict realization of impersonal peace and freedom. It’s not that their teachings were incorrect, only incomplete – and not in their time, but from the present perspective of the expanded potential of human consciousness.”“Even though enlightenment is a timeless realization pointing to the changeless principle of absolute reality, insight into that reality eternally evolves as the subject of illumination becomes increasingly whole. Ancient questions about our true identity and the nature of self have to be revisited in order to unravel the ultimate mystery of me within. In spite of the fact that the majority of seekers and teachers find their sense of security in conforming to past definitions of truth, it is the responsibility of our human intelligence to honestly probe the reality of self until it is seen for what it truly is, as it is.”

~ Anadi (Aziz Kristof)

Evolutionary Imbalance

admin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:11:27 +0000

“One of the most serious pitfalls on the path is an imbalance between one’s inner and outer evolution. Some misguided seekers suppress their psychological issues, fears and natural desires in the name of the quest for enlightenment. They see their outer reality as the ‘enemy’ of inner peace and stillness, and neglect their emotional development by spending all of their time in meditation and solitude. By becoming attached to the peace and calm of meditation, or spending excessive time alone, one tends to develop an unhealthy fear of the world, with its many challenges and distractions. The completion of the human personality requires that we engage in a well-balanced relationship with the world, for one can never be truly whole without psychological balance and emotional maturity.

“In addition to becoming imbalanced in our relationship with the world and our human existence, we can also develop an imbalance in our internal growth towards the self by becoming too extreme or one-sided in our practice. For instance, some over-crystallize awareness, neglecting the expansion into being or the awakening of the heart; others deepen being or awaken the heart, but fail to address the work with awareness. Perhaps the most common imbalance we come across is a disproportionate development between the mind and the heart. Many on path of love disregard the evolution of their intelligence and awareness and become trapped in emotional states devoid of clarity and inner stability, while those who strictly follow the path of awareness and understanding tend to repress their sensitivity, and remain alienated from their divine essence as a result. To become integrated and whole, one has to follow the principle of harmonious evolution and possess a complete and holistic vision of oneself.”

~ Anadi (Aziz Kristof)

The Measure of Evolution

admin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:58:02 +0000

“It must be noted that one’s level of evolution cannot simply be seen as a linear progression through various states of inner expansion. The inner state is merely the internal space requisite for the awakening of the soul. It is the consciousness that embodies the inner reality that is the true measure of the evolutionary value of any awakened state. It is not what has been attained that matters most, but who has attained it. That who is our level of consciousness and intelligence – and the existential depth of our very soul, the subject of all stages of awakening. Hence, someone with a profoundly realized state of presence may in fact be more conscious and evolved than someone abiding in the absolute state. The deeper our inner realization, the more we can embody our eternal self; but it is the relative awakening of the who that constitutes the ultimate significance of any attainment.”

~ Anadi (Aziz Kristof)