“I <3 Integral,” as the netspeaking kids would type. At least those kids into Integral would.
I’m happy to now be a sponsor member of Integral Institute, the organization doing the most to unfold integral consciousness and unleash “a force for greater wholeness, excellence, beauty, brilliance, and compassion in the world.” I’ve been consistantly impressed by the work I-I does to promote integral and benefit the world. I am overjoyed to lend whatever resources I can to that work. The subscriptions to Integral Naked and Integral Spiritual Center and an I-I sticker to cover a glaring scratch on my laptop are wonderful bonuses to supporting the avant garde of our evolution.
The integral vision has become a key factor in all aspects of my life, as those of you who have witnessed me since I first discovered Ken’s writings have surely noticed. At the very least some of you have suffered through ramblings on the integral framework. I can’t recommend becoming immersed in integral enough; Doing so has sparked the most powerful transformations I can recall experiencing.
I’ve been lax in my ILP (Integral Life Practice) lately, something I very much want to change. One vital aspect of an ILP is shadow work, integration of hidden aspects of ourselves and I’ve been moved recently to make attention to that a priority. What reminded me of the importance of shadow work is Ken Wilber‘s recent “Shadow Series” blogging. He has issued a challenge to us all to begin exploring and embracing our shadows so that our work, interactions and overall living can be more authentic and healthy.
I intend to make my blogging a genuine part of my ILP from now on. My delayed relaunch will be a symbolic step toward that, I feel. Another small death in a long string of them. I’ll be doing some diving in the shadows for starters. I know I have need of addressing them.
~C4Chaos is one beacon of integral blogging that I’ve been enjoying keeping up with. His “Blogging with Passion and Compassion” is a succinct expression of what blogging from an intergral level can be.
Healthy bloggers are not confined to cyberspace; linking also occurs in meatspace. Bloggers who share the same passions and concerns schedule group activities, conferences, and implement their ideas in the “real” world. They understand that cyberspace, no matter how cool, fluid, and timeless, is just another domain of existence. Until technology enables our senses and consciousness to roam in cyberspace, flesh and blood is still the way to go.
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Integrally-informed or not, healthy or not, with or without compassion, blogging touches all dimensions of the 4Q. My only hope is that bloggers do their blogging, with passion and compassion, so that in time, their egos would transcend and include even infinity itself. This is the essence of integral. The rest are just details.
This article is a reminder for me of the direction I want to take my work in and of the deepest hopes I have for the medium of blogging. At some point it became unconscionable to not use this tool responsibly and I have to work toward making that a reality. Thanks for the reminder ~C4Chaos!
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1 comment on “I <3 Integral”
Yes, blogging is a very powerful tool and its importance and reach has not been lost on the traditional media. Many newspapers have begun creating dynamic websites which attempt to incorporate blogs and other such interactive features. However, to my knowledge, most attempts haven’t been very successful.
Speaking of traditional media, one of the debates out there at the moment is about the validity of so-called ‘citizen journalism’ – in other words, non-journalists who report on events via blogs.
I believe there was a US senator two years ago who made a speech where he praised a former senator for something or other, saying America would be a better country if they had more politicians like him (or something like that, I’d have to look it up to be 100% sure). Thing is, the senator he was praising was a strong segragationist (pro-white). The traditional media didn’t pick up on that point for whatever reason until after the blogging community had made a big deal of it. When the newspapers got hold of it became a scandal, but like I said, the bloggers got there first.
Now, political campaigns, online media and other such organizations take the blogging community into account when they do anything.