Can you help us develop the principles of an integral life?

Hi Mark... I tend to agree, I wasn’t really satisfied with my response either, but it was just a quick brainstorm... It was not meant to blow anyone away...

For me, Robb’s question basically hinges on what you mean by Integral, and in that respect I was indeed playing it safe by leaning heavily on Ken’s AQAL framework, trying to show how this capacity to live with paradox (which I am passionate about) cuts across at least a big chunk of Ken’s work...

 If I was to be more forthcoming, I’d probably suggest that the capacity to hold paradox (e.g. suffering and love, free-will and grace, passion and equanimity) does indeed encapsulates the mystery of human transformation in a way that sheds any need for an understanding stages of development – which (as far as I can tell) is the Achilles heel of the integral map, e.g. its very difficult to extricate from a discussion of stages of development the notion that the one with this understanding is better than other people, and that’s kind of unattractive to many, I’m sure...

But anyone who understands this principle is already integral (taking multiple perspectives, honoring and including, taking the role of other, making judgments on more partial perspectives) - at least in the cognitive line, and so living with paradox by-passes value-hierarchies while doing the very thing that most facilitates vertical (depth) development...

And yes, living with the creative tension between opposites is the “edge-of-chaos” of evolution and it's secret impulse, the seat of novelty and surprise that the science of complexity, self-organization and emergence describe... as well as the “narrow gate” that Jesus’ spoke about...  or Zen’s “mosquito swallowing a hot iron ball”... MLK’s “power that can find a way out of no way”... for this critical tension between opposing forces takes things to the highest pitch and constitutes for me the very locus of transformation... 

 I would only suggest that putting something like this basic principle (which is actually a non-principle) into action would be a bold experiment in consciousness indeed... and probably needs a committed communal structure to make happen with integrity and transparency.

Cameron

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"Become passers-by" (Jesus of Nazareth)

Perhaps this is too little, too late, but I just found this blog and wanted to respond regarding another possible way of summarizing the principles of integral living.  As I am not an expert in this area, some of my simplifications are probably not quite accurate.  In which case, I welcome constructive corrections.  It was mainly the style I wanted to post.  My summation is as follows:

INTEGRAL LIFE:

  The principles of living an integral life can be summed up in the acronym: AQAL.  This stands for “All Quadrants and All Levels” and basically means that by looking at an event through four main perspectives (or Quadrants) as well as taking into consideration the developmental Levels of all the participants, a more “truthful” assessment or conclusion can be made.

  After reading hundreds of books, Ken Wilber noted that most theories describing humans behaviors, cultures, and societies fell into 4 main perspectives or quadrants.  He created a visual diagram of these 4 quadrants as 4 smaller squares that are part of a larger square.  This is symbolic of Ken’s determination that each of these quadrants was what he calls a holon, where each holon is both a whole (small square), as well as part of a whole (big square).  In the larger square, the Upper Left Quadrant is the interior “I” quadrant, the Lower Left is the interior “We” quadrant, the Upper Right is the exterior “I” quadrant, and the Lower Right is the exterior “We” quadrant.  Ken determined that while each quadrant gives a unique valuable perspective, each one is also affected by the other three.  Valuing and using each perspective is the beginning of an integral life and a path towards more finding a more complete “truth.”

Quadrant I:  This is the “I” or the singular individual quadrant that is concerned with the interior thoughts, feelings, etc. of the individual.  This category includes psychology, and phenomenology.  It also includes the various developmental Levels of the individual, such as cognitive and moral development.  These are the “Levels” referred to in AQAL.

Quadrant II:  This is the “We” or the plural quadrant that is concerned with the interior aspects of “we, such as our culture.  Based upon the average Level of development of the individuals making up the culture, that culture will also have a developmental Level for cognition, morals, ethics, etc.

Quadrant III:  This is the individual “It” or the individual quadrant that is concerned with the outside, mainly physical aspects, of the individual.  This is the domain of physical science, as its main concern is with exteriors.  Thus, Levels of development here may be described as going from say quarks, to atoms, to molecules, to cells, and on up to complete brains and organisms.  Each higher level is made of parts (holons) of the levels below them.  This encompassing of the lower level and yet transcending to a higher level of function is a pattern in all quadrants and of all holons, but is most easily seen concretely in this quadrant.

Quadrant IV:  This is the plural “It” or the plural quadrant that is concerned with the outside of societies, such as the development of families, towns, cities, states, countries, etc.  It also includes our economic system.  This implies that the economic system is also in the process of evolution and improvement, thus this perspective might help bring hope in light of our present social issues.

When developing the 4 Quadrant system, Ken Wilber also determined that each quadrant has 2 perspectives, the inside and outside.  This gives a total of eight perspectives, two from each quadrant.  The “inside and outside” of Quadrant I is probably the easiest to understand, as we personally have experience with it.  The “inside” of Quadrant I is the felt experience of an individual and is a subjective experience.  An example of the “outside” of Quadrant I is the developmental Level of the “I”.  This is the exterior expression of the interior of the person, and can be studied at objectively.

The use of all eight perspectives in assessing a person, event, or situation is called Integral Methodological Pluralism and is the basis for integral life.