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Engaging the Mainstream

Posted November 22nd, 2009 by Linda Hollier

If our everyday endeavours to share integral concepts with others are to be more successful, we will need to discover and develop “teaching tools” which will make these ideas attractive and appealing to the mainstream and at the same time encourage stage growth.

I came across the following on youtube which immediately struck me as being useful to illustrate the fact that the way we look at things i.e. our worldview, our perspective – influences experienced reality.

It is entitled “Lost Generation”. Please read it and then pause.

“I am part of a Lost Generation

and I refuse to believe that

I can change the world

I realize this may be a shock but

“Happiness comes from within”

is a lie, and

“Money will make me happy”

So in 30 years I will tell my children

They are not the most important things in my life

My employer will know that

I have my priorities straight because

work

is more important than

family

I tell you this

Once upon a time

Families stayed together

but this will not be true in my era

this is a quick fix society

Experts tell me

30 years from now I will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of my divorce

I do not concede that

I will live in a country of my own making

In the future

Environmental destruction will be the norm

No longer can it be said that

My peers and I care about this earth

It will be evident that

My generation is apathetic and lethargic

It is foolish to presume that

There is hope.”

What are your views on this lost generation?

Now read the piece from the bottom up!

You can listen to it here.

Any more suggestions or ideas for everyday integral teaching tools?

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smile-inducingly clever

Posted November 22nd, 2009 by Ambo Suno

Hi, Linda, that is smile-inducingly clever. It also is looking at some serious stuff. Yes, it seems that this is another way to get people's attention and tweak there views into curiosity and re-considering.

ambo

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On reversals, etc. . . .

Posted November 23rd, 2009 by Charles Bowling

Hi Linda,

The 'exercise' you have posted here reminds me of a similar experience, back in the days of some group 'work'. We were seated in a circle of 20 or so folks, and it was suggested that a poem be created by the group with each person in turn offering a single word. And when the loop was completed, someone suggested that it be read backwards! The effect was quite remarkable in that there was consensus that it actually made better sense that way than its original mode.

But beyond exercises like this, it's my view that there is a principle at stake here. It all has to do with the play of the opposites. There is a centrality involved with this principle, because as far as i can tell nothing manifests outside of this play. Integral theory in part is based on this notion, especially when it comes to the quadrants. Singular and plural make up a pair; as does individual and collective. There is a name for this sort of pairing, it's called syzygy. The examination of pairings turns out to be an excellent tool in refining understanding. For example it's possible to see karma and grace more clearly by seeing them as a syzygy, where it's possible for our actions to cause reactions (what goes around comes around); or where our actions seem to be disconnected from causality, and where something wonderful just falls on our heads, without seeming effort.

Missed pairings, or groupings that fall short of a true syzygy, often prove to be problematical. For example, evidence suggests that the true syzygy with death is birth, i.e. birth is signaled by first breath, and death by last. But when 'life' is paired with death, all sorts of problems arise as can be seen in the abortion question that proves to be so culturally troubling. But this principle of the play of the opposites is so deep and profound that it applies even to simple everyday tasks. Often obstacles arise when trying to accomplish something in the physical world, it's been my experience that a simple reversal is the key to accomplishment. The vast majority of threaded bolts for example are right-handed, but occasionally a task may involve a left-hand thread; where normal procedures of tightening and loosening are reversed.

An especially poignant moment of this play happened when i was camped in the Teton Mountains just south of Yellowstone. Behind my tent was a mountain stream.. It seemed to offer an invitation for a bit of wading, and turned out to have two sources; the experience that followed prompted this haiku . . .

In the Tetons

Wading upstream the

River forks; left cold, right hot:

Perfect bath between!

Warmly,

Charles

41N54'51' 88W18'31""

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Syzygy

Posted November 23rd, 2009 by Linda Hollier in response to On reversals, etc. . . .

Dear Charles

I’ve never figured out why, but I do know that I am a great lover of words.

Today you introduced me to one I first thought I had never heard of before: Syzygy.

When I googled it, however, I recalled having learnt about it in my biology classes at school - the pairing of chromosomes in meiosis.

Syzygy is the shortest English word containing three y's. It is also the second-longest common English word containing neither a, e, i, o, nor u. I often think of words as being forms of energy with the power to bring about transformation when spoken, and somehow I think “syzygy” must be special. (Try saying it out loud – I hear something bubbling or sizzling as it attempts to find equilibrium).

I was not aware of the many fields “syzygy” is used in. Pairing of opposites is listed as the philosophical use of the word.

The way in which you have related “syzygy” to Integral Theory seems most appropriate – the individual and the collective, interior and exterior, LH and RH quadrants, upper and lower quadrants, pre and post, manifestation and liberation, inside and outside, subjective and objective, subjective and intersubjective, the conscious and the unconscious, horizontal and vertical enlightenment, etc, etc. And all the time watching the play between them and attempting to hold them in balance. As you said “nothing manifests outside of this play”.

I don’t see these terms as opposites though; to me they are complements. Life and death is certainly a mispairing, but even the correct pairing of birth and death does not present opposites in the strict sense of the word. Again, there cannot be the one without the other.

“Lost generation” illustrates the effects of perspective taking. As you have shown, it can also be used to examine reversals and pairings. Opening oneself up to these pairings and the play between the two sides, invites the participant to include more and more perspectives as understanding is refined.

Charles, your haiku is excellent. It speaks to me of the middle way, the yin and the yang, the need for balance and a resulting oneness – “Perfect bath between!”

Much in my life at the moment seems to consist of seeming opposites and extremes. Your haiku is a reminder to hold it all and wait.

Linda

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Thus i have heard, "Waiting is the fullness". . .

Posted November 23rd, 2009 by Charles Bowling in response to Syzygy

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Hi Linda,

If memory serves me well, it was Robert Heinlein in his classic science-fiction retelling of the Christ story, "Stranger in a strange land", who coined the phrase, "Waiting is the fullness". But as one of my translations of the I Ching advises, this sort of 'Waiting' is not mere empty hoping; but i suspect is tied to something much more substantial, the unfolding or manifestation of human spirit in the life of an individual so blessed.

The I Ching of course is not only a marvelous book of wisdom, but is unique among the sacred texts of world literature, in that everything in it is testable. The fifth chapter in that text is indeed called Waiting. Each chapter has a symbolic signifier; in English it is common to refer to this as a hexagram, because each symbolic signifier is made up of six lines, either firm or yielding. And when all six lines of chapter number five turn into their opposites, the result is chapter number 35, a highly welcome augury that speaks of great Progress, and refers to something similar to the sun at high noon, that shines light everywhere, however briefly.

Now if it was integral award time, and there was a category for indefatigable researcher/wordsmith i would happily submit your name as candidate for such recognition, if not honor.

But back to the play of the opposites, a subset within them tends to view them either as antagonistic, or as you suggest complementary. I hadn't thought about this before, but these two views of the play of the opposites, may well be a distinction between first tier and second tier levels of unfoldment. After all whenever I am sure I'm right and go about asserting myself blithely, i'm almost certain to raise someone's hackles, if not their antagonism.

But if i am more modest in mindset and demeanor, and refrain like any good adult, from telling another adult what to do, and can confine myself to saying this is what has worked for me, the result tends to be more complementary. And here in this special bit of cyberspace, one hand often washes the other, sometimes from one continent to another, seamlessly crossing the Great Water.

Warmly,

Charles

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Waiting and Progress

Posted November 24th, 2009 by Linda Hollier in response to Thus i have heard, "Waiting is the fullness". . .

Dear Charles

May I say how much I always appreciate you references to the I Ching. I follow your comments about it with interest and have started picking up copies of it when I come across it in book shops. I also recall you recommending a particular translation in one of your comments but when I tried to find this reference this afternoon I was unable to do so. Please could you let me have it again.

There must be something in the air – opposites are cropping up in whatever I read today.

Earlier today it was about Jung and his profound understanding of the “twoness” of nature. He saw the opposite as being always present, usually hidden in the unconscious.

The discussion included a look at gratitude and envy, light and shadow.

You introduced another beautiful syzygy – the pairing of waiting and progress.

A syzygy often signifies completion, unification and wholeness. Integral theory has much to do with wholeness and so looking at reversals and opposites has much to teach us.

For Jung “wholeness” is a term that is equivalent to the self. According to Jung, wholeness results, practically speaking, when the self is realized in consciousness.

“In fact, this is not completely achievable, since the polarities and opposites resident in the self are forever generating more and new material to integrate. Nevertheless, practicing wholeness on a regular basis is the way of the self, Jung’s version of living in Tao.” (Jung’s Map of the Soul: An Introduction by Murray Stein, p 158)

From this it appears that wholeness transcends and includes the syzygy.

I wonder if anyone has ever written on Integral Theory and Jung’s works. His mandalas with their four quadrants, and his quarternities would certainly be a good starting point.

I will continue to wait.

Best wishes

Linda

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What a treat, thank you. . .

Posted November 24th, 2009 by Charles Bowling in response to Waiting and Progress

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Hi Linda,

Oh how perfectly delighted i am to respond in this space to an inquiry about my favorite of all texts the I Ching. (The "I" in I Ching is typically pronounced Yi, it refers to change or changes -evidently Chinese is a little free and loose with the difference between singular and plural; 'Ching' refers to a text, often a sacred book.)

Carl Jung was definitely familiar with the I Ching, and wrote a forward to the 1950 publication of Richard Wilhelm's classic translation from Chinese to his native German; which was subsequently translated into English by C.F. Baynes, and published by Princeton University Press. This was a breakthrough publication, because the previous translations into English were less than adequate.

But for a definitive and fresh translation of the ancient text, it will be difficult to surpass, The Complete I Ching, by Alfred Huang, published here in the states by Inner Traditions.

According to something in the vast writings of KW i got the idea that Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud represented a sort of syzygy of their own. In that from KW's viewpoint, these two giants in Western psychology, fell a bit short of the integral ideal in opposite ways, especially in what they chose to emphasize.

It's worth noting that the poles in any pairing of opposites, are always subject to change, typically when one pole culminates, or dies, it tends to be born again as its opposite; day turns into night, etc. Recognition of this sort of tripartite influence is nothing new. If we look at the gunas for example, we find the pairing of rajas and tapas transcended in satvas. In terms of foods this would mean when we ingest something it either tends to cause contraction or expansion in the human body, but there is a third option, sometimes called balance. In integral terms this is part of the transcend and include phenomena, and can be thought of as a manifestation of the non-dual. Genpo Roshi's recent work involves this tripartite view, as can be seen through his extensive use of symbolic triangles.

But all this theoretical talk can seem a bit dry; let me hasten to add that working with the divinatory aspects of the I Ching is nothing like that at all. In fact it is quite 'juicy'. I have described it as, working with a sage friend (like a dear uncle, or grandmother) who always has our long-term best interests at heart, and importantly who is always available. Now the actual divination ritual(s) can easily be seen as a God in third person phenomenon, and of course working with a sage friend can be seen as a God in second person phenomenon; this leaves us of course with God in the first person. This is something i have pondered over mightily; and while i don't have anything definitive to say about it, the evidence is very suggestive that the diviner him or herself takes on this role. This happens through their continued questioning, which is clearly an aspect of (evolving) consciousness.

Elsewhere i have written about the importance of inquiry, and how central it has been in many traditions around the world. It turns out though, that learning to ask the right (or optimum)question is much more difficult than it is to obtain answers. Although if my own life is any example, it is possible to develop expertise in inquiry; and even mastery. Much in the same way that the Zen tradition of koan also operates.

Warmly,

Charles

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As always - thanks

Posted November 25th, 2009 by Linda Hollier in response to What a treat, thank you. . .

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Hi Charles

Many thanks for all the information on and sharing about the I Ching.

After your mention that Jung was familiar with the I Ching, I immediately got out my copy of “Memories, Dreams, Reflections”. There is an appendix devoted to Richard Wilhelm.

It was interesting to read of Wilhelm’s relationship with the sage Lau Nai Süan who introduced him to Chinese yoga philosophy and the psychology of the I Ching. Apparently when the last page of Wilhelm’s translation was completed and the first printer’s proofs were coming, the old master died. “It was as if his work were completed and he had delivered the last message of the old dying China to Europe.”

In “Sex, Ecology, Spirituality” Wilber writes: “Freud was a reductionist, Jung an elevationist – the two sides of the pre/trans fallacy. And the point is that they are both half right and half wrong. A good deal of neurosis is indded a fixation/regression to prerational states, states that are not to be glorified. On the other hand, mytical states do indeed exist, beyond (not beneath) rationality, and those states are not to be reduced.” (Second edition, Revised, Shambala, Boston & London, 2000, p.212)

So yes, Charles, the two of them do seem to form some kind of syzygy, and again we are reminded of the need to transcend and include it as we strive for balance and an experience of the non-dual.

Let us keep on searching for the right questions.

Best wishes

Linda

P.S. Just noticed that both book titles form a trinity. Jung would now search for a quaternity.

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