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Hello All,
This is a friendly reminder that this week’s Integral Naked dialogue is with David Deida, which goes live at 6 a.m. Monday (EDT), September 22. As an IN subscriber you have unlimited access to this and all the archived dialogues on the site. To tune in, click here. [If you don’t see a link to click on, copy and paste the following into your browser: ]http://integralnaked.org/now.aspx]
David Deida and Ken Wilber: Workshop on Integral Spirituality, Part 1
David Deida
Ken asked David Deida to stop by one of the meetings of the Integral Art branch of Integral Institute. Unexpectedly, the meeting spontaneously developed into David and Ken leading an experiential session in how integral spirituality could be directly applied to life in general and art in particular. The recorded minutes of this meeting turned out to be a recording of this rare and moving experiential workshop.
In Part 1, Ken outlines the integral “mini-model” that David and other spiritual teachers have adopted to summarize the essentials of their work. The mini-model is an abbreviated version of AQAL (or the overall integral model). AQAL is short for “all quadrants, all levels, all lines, all states, all types,” and the mini-model is, as Ken puts it, “the fewest of those items you need to have an integral practice.”
The mini-model, as it applies to an individual, consists of 5 basic components: states of consciousness, stages of consciousness, bodies or energies, masculine and feminine, and unhealthy masculine and feminine. In a fast-paced summary, Ken begins Part 1 by succinctly outlining each of those 5 items. For reference, here are a few definitions:
1. States of Consciousness--Ken focuses on the three great natural states of consciousness: waking, dreaming, and deep formless sleep. The wisdom traditions maintain that these states especially help to access gross body, subtle mind, and causal spirit, respectively.
2. Bodies or Energies--Every mind has its body, and thus each state of consciousness has a corresponding felt body or energy. Ken focuses on the gross body, the subtle body, and the causal body, all of which can be directly experienced by virtually anybody. Taken together, the gross/waking, subtle/dream, and causal/formless realms are the 3 ever-present gateways to awakened body, mind, and spirit.
3. Stages of Consciousness--Unlike the natural states of consciousness, which are ever-present, stages of consciousness developmentally unfold in waves of increasing embrace (such as egocentric to ethnocentric to worldcentric). Ken emphasizes that any integral model, including the mini-model, must include both states and stages, or else several unfortunate confusions result. How states and stages fit together is one of the constant themes of this dialogue. The main conclusion of Ken’s extensive work in this area is that repeated exposure to altered states accelerates the speed of development through the stages, but does not bypass or replace them, and David strongly agrees.
4. Masculine and Feminine Types--All of the previous components have both masculine and feminine types or dimensions. David’s work especially focuses on the stages of the masculine and feminine in individuals, and Ken outlines how these stages fit in the mini-model.
5. Sick Boy, Sick Girl--Both masculine and feminine dimensions exist in healthy and unhealthy forms, and an exploration of any pathologies or kinks in consciousness--"sick boy, sick girl"--is a quick way to begin contacting the more balanced and harmonious versions of these profound energies, thus accelerating one’s own growth and development through body, mind, and spirit.
When David joins the discussion, he leads the assembled group in several experiential exercises designed to touch bases with all 5 of the components of the mini-model. (The ii-art branch of I-I has men and women, but this small group happened to be all male, so the seminar naturally centered on the masculine dimensions of sexuality and spirituality: all the more reason for women to listen in....)
David especially focuses on the 3 great realms of gross, subtle, and causal, and ends up giving two basic exercises that both men and women can use to enhance experiential contact with each of these 3 great domains--body to mind to spirit, all of which are ever-present states or realities that can be directly realized through these experiential means.
This spontaneous seminar turned out to be a good example of how the integral model (and mini-model) can help spiritual teachers flesh out their own work by beginning to consciously include not just states but also stages, not just mind but also body, not just consciousness but also energy, not just interiors but also exteriors in their own teachings--hence not subtracting but adding to their own good works.
For a more detailed summary of the Integral Model, please see the pdf file “What Is Integral?”
This seminar is the first of many Integral Naked presentations designed to give a small taste of integral spiritual teachers in action. Stay tuned for examples from Buddhism, Christian mysticism, Kabbalah, and many more. These are all part of I-I’s vision of an integral spirituality touching all of the important bases of human transformation, as well as the beginning of an Integral Spiritual Center, now in development.
Part 2 of this seminar, to be aired in the near future, continues to set the context for David’s presentation, and Part 3 focuses on the experiential exercises themselves.
transmission time: 35 minutes
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