Integral Blind Spot

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Hi Stanley,

I'm all for a compassionate response to the manifold suffering of our world; however, commensurate with a growth in compassion, a matching growth in wisdom is required if unintended consequences are to be avoided.

I can't speak for the actions of any group, proposed or otherwise; but the way i deal with this question in my own life is to address only those issues that appear directly in front of me, and to give those unique issues the very best of which i am capable. This is based on the notion that it's better to apply myself to my own dharma than that of someone else.

I have dharma here at Integral Life; and you have raised this question. So my call is for clarity, what for example, does this quote of yours mean? "Are we yet ready to begin getting over our neurotic fascination with our misconception of our collective egoistic impotence?"

Not only is it unclear to me, but it appears to be gobbledygook; and fails to inspire the sort of confidence required for me to support any group activity based on it.

From my view, the integral impulse requires more of us than good intentions.

Warmly,

Charles

41N54'51" 88W18'31"

In response to your questions about "the gifts of our integral community...", "how might our service be different...", and "what would that look like...":

Among the gifts we have, though not unique to this community, are a variety of meditative, contemplative or spiritual practices by which we can learn self-observation, detachment and other ways to notice and catch ourselves in states of emotional reactivity, contraction and defensiveness. These disciplines of attention and will can allow us to pause from unconscious, conditioned reactivity and then move to appropriate response.

The widespread application of these practices and ways of being/doing would have an enormously positive effect on how we might serve differently — if not for anything else, because it might cause us to engage others, perhaps especially those within our own community, with more than just patience and tolerance, but with actual respect and dignity.

So, basically what I'm saying is that it would be different—and would make a big difference—if we actually applied what we already know and practice it at ever-deeper levels in our interactions and relationships with each other.

Peace,

Raúl

Dear Terry,

In The Netherlands and its seems als in Sweden Norway and Denmark is a large movement around O. Scharmers Theory U. Ken has been speaking with him about it. Within this community is a lot happening which is about a new way of working, thinking and acting in the world. The alignment of head, heart and hands. We have f.e. been talking in Amsterdam about creating an Economy of Friendship. Really listening to each other, becoming an authentic human being developing her real potential by Meditating and turn actions into Meditation in Action. Very positive and very promising. Everybody knows that it is essential to pay attention. But what does it really mean..........individually and collectively....to pay attention.

Dick Poel

Amsterdam

Holland

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Bravo!

What I know thus far is that people like those below keep kicking my ass and showing me how far I have to go to really be “enlightened” or “Integral” or whatever:

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“The solidarity of the progressive world with the Vietnamese people has something of the bitter irony of the plebeians cheering on the gladiators in the Roman Circus. To wish the victim success is not enough; one must share his fate. One must join him in death or in victory.”—Che Guevara

“Solidarity means sharing the same risks.”—Che Guevara

“Anger at injustice is the political expression of love.”—attributed to Martin Luther King

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."  --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Without people, nothing is possible, but without institutions, nothing is enduring."—Jean Monnet, the great postwar French civic leader

"Human institutions prepare people for continuity, not for change."—Gail Sheehy

"When a cause comes along and you know in your bones that it is just, yet refuse to defend it—at that moment you begin to die. And I have never seen so many corpses walking around talking about justice."—Mumia Abu-Jamal

“Take it easy, but take it.”—Old Labor Movement slogan with which Studs Terkel signed off his radio program

"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it."—Karl Marx

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."—Leo Tolstoy

"The pessimist complains about the wind; The optimist expects it to change; The realist adjusts the sails."—William Arthur Ward

“All men love the smell of their own farts”—Old Icelandic proverb relevant to people—especially politicians—believing their own lies

 “Anyone working for a saner world will, from time to time, be faced with the choice of caring for present suffering or working to remove the cause of suffering. The choice is always painful. More so because we know that a preoccupation with present suffering—of which there is apparently an inexhaustible supply—is a means of social control. We all know people who have become so involved in caring for present suffering that they have not time and eventually no optimism for the radical changes which would remove the source of the problem.”—Larry Law from Spectacular Times pamphlet series

“I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves.”—Che Guevara

“Who struggles can fail. Who doesn't struggle has already failed!”—Bertolt Brecht

 "We know how to transform this world to reduce our impact on nature by several fold, how to provide meaningful, dignified living-wage jobs for all who seek them, and how to feed, clothe, and house every person on earth. What we don't know is how to remove those in power, those whose ignorance of biology is matched only by their indifference to human suffering. This is a political issue. It is not an ecological problem."—Paul Hawken, from a speech in Oct. 2002

“We don't need civility. We need civilization, which is something very different. The ancient Greeks were civilized. They had fiery debates, which were far from civil. The Melian dialogue, put by the historian Thucydides in the mouths of the Melians and the Athenians about to overwhelm them, is one of the glories of the world. It is also an uncivil, harsh evocation of the political realities of imperial power. Bipartisanship is another fraud word, which reminds me of the anthropologist Laura Nader's brilliant phrase ‘coercive harmony.’ And how cozening a word is this "community," with its agreeable intimations of the village, the meeting hall and the amiable ethic of all-for-one-and-one-for-all. But America is not a community. It is a nation encompassing faction, partisan interest, the powerful, the weak, the rich, the poor -- with a future to be alloyed out of the crucible of fierce antagonism.” –Alexander Cockburn, in The Nation, 2/10/97

"If you don't turn on to politics, politics will turn on you."–Ralph Nader

"Freedom is participation in power.”–Cicero

“Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it.”—Arabic saying

"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world, and a desire to enjoy the world.  This makes it hard to plan the day."- E.B. White

 "One final paragraph of advice:  do not burn yourselves out.  Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast - a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it's still here.  So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for awhile and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk- bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators.  I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards."–Edward Abbey

 "The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you're going to lose, because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins. In order for somebody to win an important, major fight 100 years hence, a lot of other people have got be willing -- for the sheer fun and joy of it -- to go right ahead and fight, knowing you're going to lose. You mustn't feel like a martyr. You've got to enjoy it."--independent and incorruptible journalist, I. F. "Izzy" Stone

 “Compassion in action is paradoxical and mysterious. It is absolute yet continually changing. It accepts that everything is happening exactly as it should, and it works with a full-hearted commitment to change. It sets goals but knows that the process is all there is. It is joyful in the midst of suffering and hopeful in the face of overwhelming odds. It is simple in a world of complexity and confusion. It is done for others, but it nurtures the self. It shields in order to be strong. It intends to eliminate suffering, knowing that suffering is limitless. It is action arising from emptiness.”—Ram Dass, from “Compassion in Action: Setting Out On the Path of Service” by Ram Dass & Mirabai Bush

 "No matter how cynical you get, it's impossible to keep up."--Lily Tomlin

 "Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us."--Jerry Garcia

 And finally:

 "It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it."--Joseph Joubert (1754-1824, French moralist)

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Marty Schoen, the Quote King.....

Because a movement requires movement! :-)

My suggestion is to focus on making sure that as many humans as possible have unconditional  access to what humans need most to be healthy - the very bottom two levels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs (which correspond to the Infrared level in AQAL:

• Whole food,
• Clean water
• Fresh Air
• Warmth
• Light
• The Freedom to express themselves physically.

The first five are the very first level of interior individual needs (Physiological), and the last one is the first level of exterior individual needs (Maslow called it "Safety" while I call it "Freedom"). 

When everyone has these basic needs met, they will naturally move up the levels of development, so it's in everyone's interest that everyone does have these needs met, unconditionally.

Unfortunately, nearly everyone, even in the modern world, is deficient in one or more of these regularly, so our growth and development and health are stunted.  Our air is polluted, our water intentionally and unintentionally dosed with toxins and drugs,  most of our "food" is a joke, and most people don't get enough sunlight because they've been brainwashed by mainstream media and "modern" society to have the insane belief that being stuck in an office, car, or school all day long is better than being out in the real world of nature.  Warmth is the only one that we do reasonably well with in the modern world.  Though having been homeless myself, I know all too well how easy it is to lose that warmth when no one wants you in their home, and shelters are more like jails than places to be safe and taken care of.

So yeah, I'd say that the number one thing we can all work on, together and separately, is to repeat this simple message as the goal we are all working for:

All communities, of all sizes, function better when each individual has their six most basic needs met unconditionally - food, water, air, warmth, light, and freedom - so this is our shared goal, locally and globally.

Personally, I try to spend at least a couple of hours a day bringing the highest quality of at least one of these things into my life.  And doing this simple ritual has significantly improved my life and my ability to do good work, which is why I encourage everyone to do something similar.

Peace, Love, and Bicycles,
Turil

You said: "To date there has not yet been one positive attempt (bother?) to address this question. Please don't look away. Selfless service, charity, generosity, engaged Buddhism, sacred activism; I looked for this module in my Integral Life Practice Book and it is not there."

I hate to break it to you, but it is.

I suppose if you're searching ILP (book) looking for the exact terms of engaged Buddhism or Sacred activism, or chapters and chapters on those subjects, then ya, you'll be sorely disappointed.  But it only took me a few cursory glances through the chapter on Ethics to find refrences to "how we care for the systems and environmen...including government, schools, health system, justic system, etc." and "how can we make this system serve the greatest depth for the greatest span?"

or "The environmental movement's central concern is the earth system... so when we deal with questions of conservation, renewable energy, recycling, sustainability, land use, etc., these are Lower-Right ethical concerns.  Civic responsibility, social actvism, and political action engage both the LL and LR quadrants, often in the SERVICE of evolving our institutions." p.268

Under the heading "Three Reasons for Living Ethically":  "Living ethically enables you... to bless others freely.  You find yourself living in a field of goodwill."

"Ethics is not only how we can express care and compassion for others..."

On pg. 270 "Anytime you take another's perspective , not only do you better serve that person..." and "Ultimately...we start actively attempting to do good--through compassionate service and even a passionate personal mission."

Under a section describing how Integral Ethics is not meek or mild: "Healthy care begins with care for self and extends in concentric circles to care for our family, friends, community, and world.  We care for self and others, not others instead of self." p.276  "

Then they get into a whole page on "Expanded Ethical Responsibities" (p.282) "Am I responsible for the behaviour of the orginization for which I work?  For the insitution I belong to? My community? My culture at large? My nation?  ...these groups have no locus of responsibility other than their individual members... No way around it, we each do have some real and crucial responsibility."  To me this easily and obviously translates into sacred activism.

And ILP finishes the Ethics chapter highlighting how "our practice can be ethical in the sense that is heartfelt, caring and generous... Expand joyfully into profound and ever-growing freedom and responsibility."

So I think your criticism of the book is unfounded.  I'm sure they could expand so many details of ILP that it could be 4 volumes easily.  But the fact is that it is we who have to take those few words of service and generosity and responsibility and put them into practice and creatively figure it out in the real world.  And since I'm new to Integral Life, maybe your point is indeed justified in light of what's being--OR NOT BEING--emphasized on-line or in day to day life.

Sincerely,

John

--I have also noticed a rather yawning gap between theory and practice in the integral community. While it would be great to stop a small or even a large war, if the inspiration is there, a difference can be made even on the smallest of scales. I was inspired to try to help the children of the Sihanoukville dumpsite a couple of years ago when I was taken for a ride out there by a neighbor. I helped my neighbor start a small NGO (charity). I signed on as secretary, while he, being Cambodian, became director. My duties included everything to do with the English language, including fund raising, bookkeeping, making a website and managing the email.

It was hard work and I'm the first to admit that I was not the ideal candidate for the job. However, we attracted enough funds to make a difference and even got a cottage industry (handmade paper and Christmas cards) going. After a year I was burnt out and broke. Serendipity stepped in in the form of a young Danish man, who got funding for a house for the children in a neighboring village. I passed the baton on to him and got a "real" job, since I didn't want to end up living on the dumpsite myself. Now, 1 1/2 years later, 30 children who formerly lived and worked on a dumpsite have a home, clean water, 2 meals a day and they attend school regularly. They've integrated into the village community and no attempt has been made to westernize them. In my view, at least, that's a big plus.

If I've failed to make it clear before that there was nothing heroic about the small part I played, let me make it clear now. I made a million mistakes and could have done the job infinitely better. I'm not trying to be humble - it's just true. I also have a lot of reservations about NGO's in general, so I'm not advocating that either. The bottom line, though, is that now these kids have a chance, whereas before they had none. The larger NGO's in Sihanoukville had been unsuccessful at the dumpsite for a variety of reasons, one of them being that the community didn't trust them, largely because of their large size and impersonal approach.

While I've found a lot of value in integral theory or however you like to label it, in my opinion, it remains theory and is useless until it's put into practice, personally or collectively. It's irrelevant whether or not we're operating from a "green meme" level or a more exalted level of consciousness, just as long as we're operating at a higher level than personal gratification, be it physical, emotional, intellectual or spiritual. That's the lesson I learned from my experience, anyway. I was only motivated to do anything after seeing the kids' plight first hand. I trust you can do better than that in your communities.

The Chef (aka Rob Schneider)

--I have also noticed a rather yawning gap between theory and practice in the integral community. While it would be great to stop a small or even a large war, if the inspiration is there, a difference can be made even on the smallest of scales. I was inspired to try to help the children of the Sihanoukville dumpsite a couple of years ago when I was taken for a ride out there by a neighbor. I helped my neighbor start a small NGO (charity). I signed on as secretary, while he, being Cambodian, became director. My duties included everything to do with the English language, including fund raising, bookkeeping, making a website and managing the email.

It was hard work and I'm the first to admit that I was not the ideal candidate for the job. However, we attracted enough funds to make a difference and even got a cottage industry (handmade paper and Christmas cards) going. After a year I was burnt out and broke. Serendipity stepped in in the form of a young Danish man, who got funding for a house for the children in a neighboring village. I passed the baton on to him and got a "real" job, since I didn't want to end up living on the dumpsite myself. Now, 1 1/2 years later, 30 children who formerly lived and worked on a dumpsite have a home, clean water, 2 meals a day and they attend school regularly. They've integrated into the village community and no attempt has been made to westernize them. In my view, at least, that's a big plus.

If I've failed to make it clear before that there was nothing heroic about the small part I played, let me make it clear now. I made a million mistakes and could have done the job infinitely better. I'm not trying to be humble - it's just true. I also have a lot of reservations about NGO's in general, so I'm not advocating that either. The bottom line, though, is that now these kids have a chance, whereas before they had none. The larger NGO's in Sihanoukville had been unsuccessful at the dumpsite for a variety of reasons, one of them being that the community didn't trust them, largely because of their large size and impersonal approach.

While I've found a lot of value in integral theory or however you like to label it, in my opinion, it remains theory and is useless until it's put into practice, personally or collectively. It's irrelevant whether or not we're operating from a "green meme" level or a more exalted level of consciousness, just as long as we're operating at a higher level than personal gratification, be it physical, emotional, intellectual or spiritual. That's the lesson I learned from my experience, anyway. I was only motivated to do anything after seeing the kids' plight first hand. I trust you can do better than that in your communities.

The Chef (aka Rob Schneider)

I noticed that Terry Patten, the man who inspired this post, will be beginning an integral practice community on March 24th in the San Francisco Bay Area, http://www.integralheart.com/events/practicing-integral-spirituality-with-terry-patten-craig-hamilton 

It will be interesting to see if a part of this practice will include some sort of sacred service.