States, Stages, and Skillful Means

Duration: 8 mins 44 secs

Integral is all about finding a "big picture" view of ourselves and the world around us, using our most comprehensive maps and methods to identify the fundamental patterns that connect everything with everything else.  These maps help us integrate the very best of science and spirituality, of consciousness and culture, and of technology and intention, setting the stage for a new renaissance of spiritual awakening across the globe. 

Integral theory can be seen as an intellectual toolbox to help us make sense of the world and our relationships.  One of the most valuable tools in that box is the distinction between "structures of consciousness" and "states of consciousness," as Ken discusses here, which offers radical insight into the long-overdue synthesis of Eastern and Western philosophies. 

"Structures" or "stages" of consciousness represent a measure of our growth and maturity.  Stages have been studied in the West by developmental psychologists like Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg, Carol Gilligan, Abraham Maslow, and Jean Gebser, all of whom have created sophisticated models of development that can be generically summarized as moving from "ego-centric" stages, to "ethno-centric" stages, to "world-centric" stages, and beyond. These stages are experienced in succession—that is, you have to move through "stage 3" of psychological development before you can hit "stage 4".

"States" of consciousness, meanwhile, have been extensively studied in the East, and represent our various degrees of freedom in this and every moment.  These states are ever-present, meaning they can be experienced at any time in our lives, and are often accessed through spiritual practices like meditation or prayer; through physical practices like athletics or yoga; through deep intimacy, sexuality, and relationships; through altered- or drug-induced states; or even completely spontaneously while walking down the street or taking a shower.  States of consciousness will always be interpreted by the stage of development a person happens to be at when he or she has the experience, which means that the same universal states of consciousness have been described in a multitude of very different ways throughout history. Understanding the deeper similarities between these very different conceptions of the universal gives us more direct access to the circuit-board of spiritual reality.

Not only does the concept of "states and stages" go a long way to help us understand the history of consciousness, culture, and religion, but it helps us become more skillful communicators and more potent lovers in our own lives.  Adapting the ancient Buddhist concept of upaya-kayshalya (roughly "skillful means") for the 21st century, we recognize that there is no one-size-fits-all interpretation of reality that works for all people at all times, but that there is a "sliding scale" of truth, as well as many different ways of expressing and comprehending that truth.  With a sophisticated understanding of how states and stages of consciousness interface in our own experience, we can open our hearts to more of the world, more of each other, and more of ourselves than ever before possible—loving everything and everyone in existence, exactly as they are, without exception or hesitation.