4squareviews

I got the course at the beginning of the month and am very excited because it helps me in what I refer to as “spiritual multitasking”, or combining work in the various areas of Integral Theory:

• Showing up (quadrants)–being able to shift perspectives from the individual to the collective, from the internal to the external
• Growing up (levels)–being able to climb the ladder of the levels or stages of psychological and spiritual development
• Opening up (lines)–being able to increase one’s intelligence in various lines of development, not just the cognitive (e.g., social intelligence)
• Waking up (states)–being able to use meditation to access higher states of spiritual awareness
• Cleaning up (shadow work)–being able to bring conscious awareness to what has been repressed into the unconscious

Doing all of these forms part of an Integral Life Practice, which was one of my goals to create by the time of my birthday on May 29th at the end of next month.

The Full-Spectrum Mindfulness program helps with the Growing Up and Waking Up portions of the Integral Theory program mentioned above.

The states of consciousness are:   1) waking, 2) dreaming, 3) dreamless sleep, 4) witness (pure subject), 5) non-dual (no distinction between subject and object).    All of us are familiar with the first three states of consciousness, but the fourth is one where we have to drive ourselves outside the back of the room so to speak by realizing we are not our bodies, but the part of ourself which is witnessing our bodies.   We are not out thoughts, but the witness of our thoughts, etc.    If we identify with the objects of our awareness, we are in the role not of the witness, but of the ego.   I’m right at the part where Ken Wilber gives us practice instructions on how to connect with this “witness” or fourth state of consciousness.

In the next part of the program, he teaches us how to use this “witness” state to peer into the stages of consciousness that are part of the Growing Up portion of the Integral Theory Program.   We start out as egocentric beings known as babies, and are incapable of empathizing with other individuals until we reach a certain level of psychological development.   Most of us go on to the socio-centric stage where we identify with a certain portion of society (e.g. white, baby boomer, middle class, Christian).    Some of us go on to the world-centric stage where we are able to empathize with all of the people of the world.

If we are stuck at a certain stage or level of development, we need to be aware or mindful of the hidden assumptions that we take as true.   Once we realize these assumptions are not facts which are objectively true, but just certain conventions or boundaries that the group we identify with in society have chosen, then we can transcend those boundaries and go to the next stage of development.

What is unique about this program is that it develops the tools of mindfulness, used in Waking Up, and applies them to the domain of Growing Up, the stages or levels of development.   I look forward to this program and will make it an integral part of my Integral Life Practice that I am in the process of setting up.

Filed under: Uncategorized |