I often have to remind myself that we are all One. Each a unique manifestation of the infinite. Chris at Blogging the Singularity has some touching words on this subject:

The Earth is a single organism of which we are a part. You are the Earth, we ARE the Universe. You are Korean, You are African. You are the rivers, the trees, the galaxies, and the fire. You are every animal, every burning star and every square inch of the vastness of space. You are the most beautiful thing because existence is beautiful and enchanting.

Lonely it may be,
confined within our nervous systems
remember,
communication binds us
and extends your reach and understanding
to the vast corners of existence.

Do not feel lonely,
for you are One
with all things
small and large
alive and dead
and connected
with understanding
to all.

We are One, All
travelers
wherever time takes us.
A Universe alive.
A fate unfolding.

Toward only
God knows what.

It certainly can feel lonely to be bound up in our little cages of flesh and bone. We are so much more than our shells indicate. Not only bound by body, but by our expectations, assumptions, roles, and history. Remember to stretch your own boundaries each day. God is creation, expansion and your own growth is divine.

I just returned from a seven day meditation retreat. It was an experience that I whole heartedly encourage everyone to undertake. During my time, sitting in meditation and walking in meditation (and eating in meditation) I considered my Grandparents. I went to visit them in early April in Alabama. They are both in their eighties and doing fairly well, but the signs of some troubles were clear. They were a little to isolated, had a little too much pain and need just a little bit more help then they had. With some attention on a semi regular basis their quality of life would be greatly improved. However, they live in Alabama, their children live in Minnesota and Oklahoma (and I live in California). The questions about what to do in this situation are hard. It’s not clear what path to take, how to best help and what to do. It’s especially difficult on the children, who may have old wounds or painful patterns they find themselves repeating when they are around their parents. This kind of pain often clouds the children’s judgment when deciding what path to take. I don’t have any answers or sage advice, but I do want to acknowledge this issue and am writing this post as a way to invite a dialouge from the readers and as a reminder to myself to really consider what I can do. As well, I offer this comment from the Dali Lama on the subject (thanks to Integral options Cafe)

…This samsaric body keeps us running all of our lives. We have to run to fulfill its endless needs, to keep it away from things that may harm it, and to protect it from anything unpleasant. We have to give it pleasure and comfort. We become ordained, and at first this is very satisfactory; but soon our body makes it so difficult for us that we think our practice would be less disturbed if we were to live as a layperson. So we give up and return to ordinary life; but then we end up with a family to support, leaving us with no time or energy for meditation. We have the pressing tasks of feeding, clothing, and sheltering our children, and of arranging their education and so forth. Our lives are spent alternating between work and worry, with occasional short periods of pleasure, and then we have to die; but even this we cannot do in peace, for, when we lie down to die, our last thoughts are worried ones concerning the family we are leaving behind. Such is the nature of worldly existence

….To care for our old people–these ones who have given us our body, our life, and our culture–is a sacred duty of humanity. But most humans act more like animals than people, and often we see old people who have been abandoned by their families. Family units were very strong in Tibet, and old people were usually cared for directly by relatives. The national care for the old that we see in the West is something very good, a healthy sign, although perhaps here the spiritual and psychological basis is somewhat lacking.

…The suffering of old age is something we all must face, unless we die prematurely. There is nothing we can do about it. Gone will be that false sense of personal ability and strength that made us so proud when we were young. Instead, helpers or friends will bathe us, dress us, spoonfeed us, and have to take us to the toilet. Rather than live under the delusion of permanence, we should engage in spiritual training so that we can enter old age at least with the grace of wisdom.

~ From The Path to Enlightenment by H.H. the Dalai Lama, edited and translated by Glenn H. Mullin, published by Snow Lion Publications

Here’s a classic:

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

From Dogen (a Soto Zen Master)

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass, or even in one drop of water. Enlightenment does not divide you, just as the moon does not break the water. You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky. The depth of the drop is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long or short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop, and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky.

Ok, truth be told, I’m getting tired of blogging about the conference. I think the first three days filled my head with so many great ideas, I could hardly fit anything else in toward the end.

Most of the presentations on the last two days were about specific projects. The projects were incredible, but I was much more excited by the theory discussions than the details of actual projects. What does that say?

What I did take away from the last two days of the conference was a big sense of hope that Integral is a powerful tool for reframing problems and taking new perspectives. I was especially impressed with Anna Cowen’s work in South Africa and Anne Caspari’s work in Syria. They both seem to be using Integral to solve unique problems. Keep up the good work, ladies!

I also felt that we had built a very strong community space by the end of the conference. It was very sad to see everyone go home. I look forward to seeing many of the same faces at the Integral Theory Conference in August.

(Sorry about this anticlimactic conclusion to the conference blogging. I’m just not feeling it anymore.)

(Just another thing we talked about in Istanbul.)

Integral loves perspectives. So let’s look at God from three places:

I - This is the perspective of Buddhism. I can realize my own Buddha-nature. I am all. I am God. Nice!

You - Most popular religions take this perspective: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc. I can pray to God and have a relationship with him (or her). I can know God and connect with him. God loves me and I love God.

It - Taoism and nature mysticism take this perspective. The Tao, the Way, the Universe is divine. When you see the Infinite in a beautiful sunset or the night sky, you are taking this perspective.

Most people naturally gravitate toward one of these perspectives. All three are valid paths, but its important to realize that there are other dimensions to the divine. Infinity is multi-faceted, to say the least.

Learning about the three faces of God was very helpful for me. I have always leaned toward the third-person perspective, which is woefully underrepresented in Western culture. Consequently, I’ve never been able to get into mainstream religion and thought I was an atheist for a long time. Now I can see that my perspective is just another way of looking at God and it is just as valid as the first and second-person perspectives. Hooray!

Day Three of the Integral Without Borders Conference was the first day of presentations. I am not going to attempt to recap each presentation in its entirety. I will give you the interesting points that stood out to me.

Vernice Solimar - Integral Spirituality and Social Change

Love = expansion = transcend and include

Love = capacity for presence

How love is expressed at various altitudes:

• Red - Love is power. Domination/submission.
• Amber - Helping, serving, loyalty
• Orange - Self-love, self esteem, self reliance, values freedom & justice
• Green - Love another by empathizing with their path, dialog, holding space for another
• Teal - Understand levels of love, interconnection of all beings, each person’s truth is a partial truth
• Turquoise - Everything as a dynamic unfolding of consciousness

Carissa Wieler - Integral Perspectives on Resilience

Resilience = Being present to paradox

In individuals resilience looks like bouncing back from challenges and being present to ambiguity and loss.

In systems this is the capacity to absorb resistance, to change and develop.

Panarchy: growth -> conservation -> release -> reorganization. Think of a forest. It grows and settles. Then a fire comes along and it has to restart. It’s capacity to thrive in this cycle is its resilience.

Lisa Chacon & Julian Gonzalez - Towards an Integral Theory of Human Needs

This was a very interesting presentation of Manfred Max-Neef’s fundamental human needs as an alternative to Maslow’s hierarchy. I’ve always been sort of fascinated by Maslow’s nifty pyramid, but lately it hasn’t been sitting well with me. After Lisa and Julian’s presentation I have a lot of new ideas on this topic. Let’s begin by looking at Max-Neef’s needs, which arise simultaneously, not hierarchically (with the possible exception of Subsistence for obvious reasons); in no particular order:

• Understanding
• Identity
• Freedom
• Affection
• Transcendence
• Subsistence
• Protection
• Creation
• Idleness
• Participation

A person can have a poverty in any of these areas which they will attempt to fill with satisfiers and sometimes false satisfiers. For example, to satisfy my need for affection I might find a fulfilling relationship. Or I might sleep with a prostitute, which would be a false satisfier; I’d feel better for a little while, but the poverty would not really be alleviated.

I have a lot of thoughts on this topic that I will dedicate a full post to. I look forward to hearing more from Lisa and Julian at the Integral Theory Conference in August.

Emine Kiray - Integral Politics: The Islamist Movement and the Recent Political Crisis in Turkey

This was fascinating, but very complicated. The best I can offer is a post by Emine on this topic from last year and my encouragement to come to the Integral Theory Conference so you can hear her talk firsthand.

Karen O’Brien - Climate Change Adaptation

Karen is trying to bring an Integral awareness to her work on climate change. Essentially, until we address the problem through all four quadrants, we will not be able to solve it. Again, you can hear more about this at the Integral Theory Conference. Can’t plug it enough.

That’s it for Day Three! See you tomorrow for Day Four.

Awhile ago I promised you an ongoing series of posts introducing you to some of our favorite music in a variety of genres. I’ve been slacking. I do most of my blogging at work without speakers so I can’t search Songza for working links, but I’m home sick today so let’s dance:

Untrust Us by Crystal Castles is my favorite song today (it changes frequently). I can listen to this on a loop for an hour. Really.

Tombstone by Midnight Juggernaughts makes me feel serious and mean.

Justice is meaner though. Embrace your inner anarchist.

Aerius Light is a former title holder as my favorite song. Makes me dance around the house.

A New Sky from The Presets keeps you up.

I Monster will bring us back down to earth with Daydream In Blue. Nice and calm.

If you enjoyed my selections, I highly recommend checking out The Sound Culture podcast and Missing Toof. Both are great resources for new music.

Laura and I talk about the virtues and vices of vegetarians a lot. It’s surprising that vegetarians face so many cultural roadblocks these days, even in California. Slate has a great article on the tribulations of going meatless:

Every vegetarian remembers his first time. Not the unremarkable event of his first meal without meat, mind you. No, I mean the first time he casually lets slip that he’s turned herbivore, prompting everyone in earshot to stare at him as if he just revealed plans to sail his carrot-powered plasma yacht to Neptune. For me, this first time came at an Elks scholarship luncheon in rural Oregon when I was 18. All day, I’d succeeded at seeming a promising and responsible young man, until that fateful moment when someone asked why I hadn’t taken any meat from the buffet. After I offered my reluctant explanation—and the guy announced it to the entire room—30 people went eerily quiet, undoubtedly expecting me to launch into a speech on the virtues of hemp. In the corner, an elderly, suited man glared at me as he slowly raised a slice of bologna and executed the most menacing bite of cold cut in recorded history. I didn’t get the scholarship.

The Elks don’t strike me as the most accepting group to unveil your hippie-diet to, but even less stereotypically old-fashioned audiences can react oddly to vegetarianism. We’ve noticed that people take a defensive posture as soon as we mention we don’t eat meat. Why is this? Flashbacks to a frightening encounter with militant vegans? Unconscious guilt for eating our furry friends? Enlighten me, meat-eaters.

And if you’re really brave, watch Earthlings. Guaranteed to turn you vegan, at least for a day.

The conflict dates from the day when one man flying in the face of appearance perceived that the forces of nature are no more unalterably fixed in their orbits than the stars themselves, but that their serene arrangement around us depicts the flow of a tremendous tide - the day on which a first voice rang out, crying to Mankind peacefully slumbering on the raft of Earth, “We are moving! We are going forward!” It is a pleasant and dramatic spectacle, that of Mankind divided to its very depths into two irrevocably opposed camps - one looking toward the future and proclaiming with all its newfound faith, “We are moving!” and the other without shifting its position obstinately maintaining, “Nothing changes. We are not moving at all.”

I *heart* Big Mind! Zen Master Genpo Roshi devised the Big Mind process as a bridge between East and West. It combines Zen Buddhist practice with Jungian archetypes to allow one to reach higher states of consciousness quickly. On Day Two of the Integral Without Borders Conference in Istanbul, we were treated to a full day of Big Mind facilitated by Genpo Roshi’s student and fellow Zen master Diane Hamilton. This was my favorite part of the conference.

The facilitator of Big Mind asks the group to call upon and speak as different voices they have within themselves. Here’s how:

Facilitator: I would like to speak to the voice of the Skeptic.

Group: (shifts position to reset the mind and body as the Skeptic)

Facilitator: To whom am I speaking?

Group: The Skeptic

Facilitator: And what is your job?

Group: To be skeptical.

From there the facilitator will ask a series of questions to illuminate that voice’s role in your life. In the case of the Skeptic, you might learn that this voice is useful in helping to protect you from false information, however it is always skeptical and never satisfied. This is an aspect of yourself that is never trusting, however it is not who you are at the core.

There are a number of videos on YouTube showing Genpo Roshi facilitate Big Mind. You can also follow the course at Integral Naked if you are a member.

Now for my personal experience using Big Mind.

We began with the voice of the Controller. As soon as Diane asked for that voice, I knew I was in for trouble. The Controller is a very strong and very problematic aspect of my personality. It was very easy for me to embody the Controller, but also very uncomfortable. My whole body tensed up, as the Controller I was not going to let Emily out of my clutches for a second. Later we did the voice of the Protector. This was much more comfortable for me as my Protector voice tends to deal with outside threats by being apathetic and detached, whereas my Controller is convinced that I am about to fly off the handle unless it keeps me bottled up tight. See the difference? Both are problematic, but the Protector’s tactics are much less uncomfortable.

Next we did the Skeptic. This was also easy for me and very comfortable. This voice used to be much stronger in my life, but it has calmed down over the last year or so. No problems here.

Then Diane asked us to go to the Wounded Self. Huh? I could not find the Wounded Self anywhere! I was trying to summon this voice, but nothing came out. The rest of the group easily found their Wounded Selves and seemed to get very sad in this voice. I was at a loss. This happened again when we were asked to find the Victim and Egocentric Compassion. See a pattern? I am generally unwillingly allow myself to feel that I am damaged or that I have been wronged. I usually think everything is my own fault or that I deserve it. No Wounded Self, no Victim, no Egocentric Compassion. If I can’t recognize my own Wounded Self, how can I recognize it in others? This makes it very difficult for me to feel compassion towards individuals’ suffering. Big Mind pointed all of this out to me.

We also did the Innocent Child, which I loved although some people could not get into, the Oppressor, Compassion, and Forgiveness. With some of the voices we explored different altitudes: egocentric, ethnocentric, worldcentric, and Kosmocentric. This was very interesting, let me take you through an example.

Egocentric Compassion: I can (presumably) feel my own suffering and see how I have been wronged by other people and life circumstances. I can extend love towards myself at this level.

Ethnocentric Compassion: I can feel the suffering of my people, my family, my nation and any other group I identify with. I can extend love toward my people.

Worldcentric Compassion: I can feel the suffering of all of humanity, this includes “oppressor” groups like Nazis.

Kosmocentric Compassion: I can feel the suffering of all living things, of all non-living things, of stars, of ideas, of beings in other realities. I can love all of it. My compassion is infinite. This is also known as Big Heart.

Fun! Later we were in the middle of Forgiveness when the afternoon prayers began in Istanbul. The conference was held right next to the Hagia Sofia, so the prayer was extremely loud. Diane asked us to sit in Forgiveness and listen to the prayer. So there I am as Forgiveness, listening to this beautiful Muslim prayer and suddenly I slip into Ethnocentric Wounded Self and I have all these visions of 9/11 and the towers falling. It was totally bizarre. Then I felt this big Forgiveness for what happened on 9/11 and I started to cry. I didn’t even know that I cared that much about 9/11. It was crazy.

But let’s not forget Big Mind itself. When we got to the voice of Big Mind, we had already been working up the altitudes. Big Mind is a sort of non-dual state where you identify as everything, as the Kosmos, as infinity, or as the Tao if you prefer. It was pretty trippy, needless to say, especially for a non-meditator like me. Big Mind is being all and Big Heart is loving all. I had a much easier time with Big Mind, but everyone was different. Big Mind felt a little cold for some people.

That about wraps up Day Two and Big Mind. I highly recommended trying Big Mind for yourself. My descriptions pale in comparison to the actual experience.