IOS: Summary and Conclusion

In this summary, you'll read about how the Integral Map is a framework that can be applied to literally any situation because it is the context out of which content arises.... Now that may sound fairly abstract but think about it. If you have a problem, let's say in teaching your third-grade class, the Integral Map can help with that, even though it never talks about a third-grade classroom. Understanding the types of kids you work with, the faculty you teach with, and your own type is a great start. Then add an understanding of levels of development: your own level of development, the third-graders you instruct, and the faculty that you teach with. Both of these elements, types and levels, will go a long way in "teaching you" how to understand and relate to these people in more effective ways. You may start to see the well-developed lines of your students, how to encourage their strengths, and perhaps fortify their weaknesses. You may even understand your own strengths and weakness. Now let's look at your situation through the quadrants: What kind of culture is at your school? What kind of system do you operate within? How does the structure or system impact the culture and vice versa? What could you do to influence it all to be more healthy? If you want to find that out, at the very least you'll need a comprehensive assessment tool... and the Integral Map fits the bill.

AQAL is short for “all quadrants, all levels”—which itself is short for “all quadrants, all levels, all lines, all states, all types,” which are simply 5 of the most basic elements that need to be included in any truly integral or comprehensive approach.

When AQAL is used as a guiding framework to organize or understand any activity, we also call it an Integral Operating System, or simply IOS. More advanced forms of IOS are available, but IOS Basic has all of the essential elements (quadrants, levels, lines, states, types) to get anybody started toward a more comprehensive, inclusive, and effective approach.

Of course, AQAL or IOS itself is just a map, nothing more. It is not the territory. But, as far as we can tell, it is the most comprehensive map that we possess at this time. Moreover—and this is important—the Integral Map itself insists that we go to the real territory and not get caught in mere words, ideas, or concepts. Remember that the quadrants are just a version of 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-person realities? Well, the Integral Map and IOS are just 3rd-person words, they are abstractions, a series of “it” signs and symbols. But those 3rd-person words insist that we also include 1st-person direct feelings, experiences, and consciousness as well as 2nd-person dialogue, contact, and interpersonal care. The Integral Map itself says: this map is just a 3rd-person map, so don’t forget the other important realities, all of which should be included in any comprehensive approach.

That’s where things like Integral Life Practice come in. When AQAL or IOS is used for real-life personal growth and development, we speak of Integral Life Practice, which appears to be the most comprehensive and therefore effective path of transformation available.

Here’s one other important conclusion. IOS is a neutral framework; it does not tell you what to think, or force any particular ideologies on you, or coerce your awareness in any fashion. For example, to say that human beings have waking, dreaming, and deep sleep states is not to say what you should think while awake or what you should see while dreaming. It simply says, if you want to be comprehensive, be sure and include waking and dreaming and formless states.

Likewise, to say that all occasions have 4 quadrants—or simply “I,” “we,” and “it” dimensions—is not to say what the “I” should do, or the “we” should do, or the “it” should do. It simply says, if you are trying to include all the important possibilities, be sure to include 1st- and 2nd- and 3rd-person perspectives, because they are present in all major languages the world over.

Precisely because IOS is a neutral framework, it can be used to bring more clarity, care, and comprehensiveness to virtually any situation, making success much more likely, whether that success be measured in terms of personal transformation, social change, excellence in business, care for others, or simple happiness in life.

But perhaps most important of all, because IOS can be used by any discipline—from medicine to art to business to spirituality to politics to ecology—then we can, for the first time in history, begin an extensive and fruitful dialogue between all of these disciplines. A person using IOS in business can talk easily and effectively with a person using IOS in poetry, dance, or the arts, simply because they now have a common language—or a common operating system—with which to communicate. When you are using IOS, not only can you run hundreds of different “software” programs on it, all of those programs can now communicate with each other and learn from each other, thus advancing an evolutionary unfolding to even greater dimensions of being and knowing and acting.

This is why thousands of scholars and teachers the world over came together and started Integral Institute, the world’s first integral learning community. Because all of the various human activities, previously separated by incommensurate jargon and terminologies, can in fact begin to effectively communicate with each other by running an Integral Operating System, each of those disciplines can begin to converse with, and learn from, the others. This has never effectively happened anywhere in history, which is why, indeed, the Integral adventure is about to begin.

However we look at it, it all comes down to a few simple points. In your own growth and development, you have the capacity to take self, culture, and nature to increasingly higher, wider, and deeper modes of being, expanding from an isolated identity of “me” to a fuller identity of “us” to an even deeper identity with “all of us”—with all sentient beings everywhere—as your own capacity for Truth and Goodness and Beauty deepens and expands. Ever-greater consciousness with an ever-wider embrace, which is realized in self, embodied in nature, and expressed in culture.

Thus, to cultivate body, mind, and spirit in self, culture, and nature. This is the extraordinary aim and goal of the Integral Approach, and we would love to have you join us in this exciting adventure.