The 4th Spinning of Hip Hop

The 4th Spinning of Hip Hop

Hiphop is largely studied from the outside in. We enjoy the music, the art and the dance. We judge, argue, evaluate and rank it, but not much attention is paid to what happens inside the artist. The 4th Spinning is an attempt to look at Hiphop from an Integral perspective, which simply means exploring the inside-and-outside of individuals (behavior, psychology and spirituality), and the inside-and-outside of groups (culture and society), to not only understand but to manifest Hiphop in all of its fullness.
The Many Ways We Touch

The Many Ways We Touch

We have the intuition that everyone is at least partially right, that no human being is capable of being 100% wrong. But how do you tell just how right everyone is? Some are more right than others — how do you tell the difference? And how do you handle interfacing with limited or partial perspectives when engaging with people in real time? This eBook, from the upcoming Vol. II of Ken Wilber's "Kosmos Trilogy", will help.
The Four Faces of Truth

The Four Faces of Truth

In an era when our collective notion of “truth” is being weaponized, balkanized, and smashed to smithereens, it’s important to remind ourselves how we go about discerning truth in the first place. In this introductory chapter from The Eye of Spirit, Ken Wilber explores the four primary methods we use to acquire and verify our knowledge, allowing us to escape our current “post-truth” quagmire by bridging the ever-widening divide between conflicting views, values, and verities.
No Boundary: A Union of Opposites

No Boundary: A Union of Opposites

Ken Wilber explores the intrinsic dualism of the mind, offering a simple but cogent way to "transcend the pairs" and discover the nondual heart of the Always Already.
Integral Semiotics: The Language of Liberation

Integral Semiotics: The Language of Liberation

How do we derive meaning from the words we use? An integral approach fundamentally changes how we understand the nature of language, communication, and shared meaning. Integral Semiotics offers a comprehensive map or framework of most of the known worldspaces available to humans. Since most of these worldspaces do not possess simple location or material form, they are likely to be denied reality by most realist, empirical, or behavioral schools—where in fact they are home of the vast majority of those things most humans hold valuable. Integral Semiotics is thus a matter, not just of linguistics, but of emancipation.
How Zen Can Provide Leadership in a Post-Truth Trump World

How Zen Can Provide Leadership in a Post-Truth Trump World

Ginny Whitelaw offers some valuable advice on how presence, resilience, and centeredness can help us illuminate a better path forward in the midst of the "post-truth" collapse.
Making Sense of Trump’s Exit from the Paris Accord

Making Sense of Trump’s Exit from the Paris Accord

Last week, Trump stated his decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement regarding climate change. Trump announced that the USA will withdraw based on the sense that it will negatively affect US jobs. To explore this, I turn to Integral Theory, which is a comprehensive transdisciplinary theory developed by contemporary philosopher Ken Wilber and applied by others across several professional fields. We can draw upon these ideas regarding the dynamics of social groups to make sense of Trump’s exit from the Paris agreement.
Shapes of Mind: The 10 Stages of Consciousness

Shapes of Mind: The 10 Stages of Consciousness

At Integral Life we sometimes refer to different stages of consciousness in order to make sense of various issues or complex situations. So I thought it might be useful to briefly outline the ten stages of consciousness-or what I often call the ten shapes of mind–in order to provide an orienting primer for those who are new to Integral Life. For those who have been with us a long time, hopefully you'll enjoy a refresher.
Michelin 3-Star: The Culinary Art of Joel Robuchon

Michelin 3-Star: The Culinary Art of Joel Robuchon

Can food be transformative? In this first-of-its-kind integral review of Michelin 3-star restaurant Joel Robuchon, Robb Smith explores why the world’s best dining has always been at the center of his aesthetic Integral Life Practice, and what integrative metatheory brings to a night at one of the world’s best restaurants.
Zen Leadership and Putting the “Happy” in Happy New Year

Zen Leadership and Putting the “Happy” in Happy New Year

Welcome to the New Year! In the Chinese system, we’re entering the Year of the Rooster and, my, doesn’t it already feel like a wake-up call?
We’ve Elected a Wartime President

We’ve Elected a Wartime President

I'll get to the point. The United States has just elected a wartime president, a Commander in Chief who is already on a wartime footing and was on a wartime footing from the moment his campaign began last year. And he won because a significant portion of the country were the war’s first casualties and they wanted a president who could help them stop losing. This isn't a military war. It’s a jobs war.
Always Already: The Brilliant Clarity of Ever-Present Awareness

Always Already: The Brilliant Clarity of Ever-Present Awareness

In this excerpt from The Eye of Spirit, Ken Wilber offers one of the most powerful (and beautiful) pieces of spiritual writing he has ever produced. This is the very first time these words have been reproduced on the web, and we invite you to share this chapter however you like.
Right Bucks: Money and Spirituality

Right Bucks: Money and Spirituality

In dealing with this issue of money and Dharma—or money and spirituality in general—there are at least two very different items that need to be teased apart and addressed separately. The first is the appropriate monetary value of any relational exchange (from medical care to education to goods and services in general); and the second is, should monetary exchange ever be linked to Dharma teaching?
From Rationalism to Nationalism: How the Internet Ruined Everything

From Rationalism to Nationalism: How the Internet Ruined Everything

We no longer enjoy a “shared reality” in any meaningful sense. We now live in a time-shifted honeycomb of mediated views and values, a flat and fragmented reality that has completely changed the shape of our consciousness, our culture, and our conduct in the public sphere.
The Morning After

The Morning After

Americans have just elected Donald Trump as President-elect of the United States of America. I know that a few of you are elated and many more are terrified. I can understand both emotions. I am far from a natural-born Hillary Clinton advocate, but during the course of the campaign there was simply no possibility that I would be voting for Trump, a man who who speaks against many of my deepest principles. And yet he won — by the slimmest of margins — but a clear win nonetheless.
Campaign Fever: How We’ve Turned Indignation into a National Pastime

Campaign Fever: How We’ve Turned Indignation into a National Pastime

It seems we have caught a kind of fever, where anger and indignation are becoming an art form, where one-sided views are called news, and where we can get stuck in a place of no progress. That place could be called coping, as opposed to transforming, and it precedes what I call the "first flip" of Zen Leadership...
The 500 Lb. Gorilla Raging Through the World: Demographics

The 500 Lb. Gorilla Raging Through the World: Demographics

Available below is an adjustable data visualization for Europe. Adjust the year of analysis and retirement ages to see how the population shifts and worker:retiree support ratio changes.
What is Transformational Learning?

What is Transformational Learning?

Transformation is the process by which a person “grows their mind” by building a broader worldview, deeper skills, better habits and expanded perspectives. Integral Life is a member community designed to offer experiences, media and practices that help you grow your mind and evolve your life.
Beauty and the Expansion of Women’s Identity

Beauty and the Expansion of Women’s Identity

The history of women’s beauty is written in bodily gestures that express both the constraints of their culture as well as the unfolding desire of their interiority. Embracing the power of beauty has always been problematic for feminism, and for good reason. This article offers an integrative analysis of the current views that dominate feminist discourse on women’s beauty, as well as a personal story of Vanessa's own ongoing journey as a young woman trying to reclaim her beauty for the benefit of all beings.
Trump, Hamilton, and the Zen Leader Walk Into a Bar…

Trump, Hamilton, and the Zen Leader Walk Into a Bar…

...the Zen Leader would want to learn from these two cultural phenomes how to message in a culturally resonant way — how to inspire people to pause in their busyness, connect with what is, to resource their lives and leadership from a place of centered connectedness.
The Meaning of “2nd-person”

The Meaning of “2nd-person”

There has been, for quite some time, a considerable misunderstanding about how the Integral Framework views 2nd person (e.g., "you," "thou"). Ken Wilber thought it was time to address it.
The Shape of Things to Come: A Singularity in All Four Quadrants

The Shape of Things to Come: A Singularity in All Four Quadrants

It seems clear is that we are seeing a general pattern of accelerated returns in at least four irreducible dimensions of our lives. It is a "singularity in all four quadrants" — Post-Humanism, Post-Scarcity, Post-Irony, and Post-Metaphysics. Let’s take a brief look at each of these dimensions.
Why We Desperately Need an Integral Islam

Why We Desperately Need an Integral Islam

Amir tells his own story of coming to a more integral Islam, finding new ways to embrace and express this rich spiritual lineage while helping to carve a new path beyond the fundamentalist extremism so often associated with Islam in today's world. This piece is heavily adapted from Amir’s book, My Isl@m: How Fundamentalism Stole My Mind–and Doubt Freed My Soul.
Brave New Future? An Integral Look at Super Artificial Intelligence

Brave New Future? An Integral Look at Super Artificial Intelligence

These days, discourse about intelligent robots—thinking machines—is as widespread as discourse about zombies. Both have been the subjects of recent bestsellers, which are the basis of two forthcoming films. Popular culture's depiction of humankind under attack by either the undead or by the never alive (autonomous machines) suggests widespread anxiety about and fascination with technical developments that may generate a future out of human control (as if the future ever were under our control!)
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