Integral Consciousness II (providing wisdom)
Is the everyday world of the visible 3rd dimension not a unique, infinitely instructive and, at times, painful or joyful stage for experimentation and experience, brimming with beauty? – turquoise observes these challenges of life in their manifold antics and dramas, comedies and tragedies, plays of joy and sorrow, which trigger all those who identify, in their feelings and thoughts, with themselves and with this spectacle.
Do the worlds of joy of the 5th dimension – which are invisible to the physical eye, such as the subtle realms of feelings and thoughts, creativity, dreams, intuition, beings of light (angels, ancestors and ‘spirits’, elementals, fairies and elves, etc.) – constitute realities that can be tangibly experienced? – turquoise recognises these realities as divine potential for learning and creation, for personal and collective development.
And does the enlightened primordial source of love in the 7th dimension – which is formless, timeless and without shape, and which bears an infinite number of names yet is nameless – reveal parts of its secrets and wisdom? – In meditation, turquoise experiences this spiritual reality as the stream of life, as a force of being and action for humanity and all of creation, for the primordial source IS everything!
Life is a balanced system of interlocking forces, waves and vibrations, in which the triad of spirit, psyche/soul and matter/body is highly valued as a dynamic organism of the multidimensional human being. Everything is connected and interlinked with everything else in a living interaction: the physical, such as cycling, with feelings such as courage and compassion, with knowledge such as swarm intelligence, with the spiritual, such as basic trust, and with creativity, such as cooking.
Anyone who has integrated all previous levels of consciousness can freely utilise their positive powers and draw on them as the situation requires. Specifically, this means:
1. Providing Life – Reactivating
With a loving heart and eyes full of wonder, I live fully in the moment, fully in the here and now, in BEING, and reconnected to the web of life[1] in a natural sense of belonging, unity and security. I sense my fundamental needs in life, recognise them and fulfil them in a way appropriate to each situation. In this way, I feel consciously grounded and connected in harmony and balance with myself, the world around me and the cosmos – carefree and without intention, gracefully and with innocence and a sense of primordial, innate trust.
2. Providing Connection – Reconnecting
With my spirit of inquiry and discovery, I question everything that seems clear as if it were unknown; I embrace the impossible as possible and the improbable as probable. I am constantly creating new possibilities, for example to connect with all four elements – earth, water, air and fire – and with all five realms of Grandmother Earth – the stones/land, the plants, animals, humans and beings of light – so that they may guide me and share their stories with me. I am present wherever these stories of life unfold, so that I may receive them with an open heart and interpret them. As everything is ‘sacred’ to me, I am open to those experiences that awaken within me memories of the wisdom for which my innermost being yearns deeply, and which help me to live out that wisdom without prejudice.
3. Providing Strength – Realigning
As a ‘noble knight’, a ‘peaceful warrior[2] or a ‘selfless hero’, trained in ‘high courtly love’ – that is to say, in dance, music, song and poetry – and living a life of selflessness, virtue and discipline, responsibility and love. I train my physical strength and inner fortitude daily, because true happiness, inner peace and fulfilment do not lie in external success or the future, but in the conscious experience of the present moment and the harmony and balance of the triad of body (outher strength), soul/psyche and spirit (inner strength). In this way, I stand up to opposition, set clear boundaries and, when necessary, ‘bang on the table’; I ignore ‘naysayers’ where required and, with moral courage and a reconciled heart/Ahimsa, stand up for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation.
Because my determination, clarity and courage to face my own shadow[3], have led to all constraints and attachments dissolving, and all perceptions of the enemy and desires for possession becoming obsolete, and because I am able to distinguish between opposition and enmity, all encounters become win-win experiences for everyone involved.
Everything in everyday life is a mirror, because the illusion that anything exists separately from me has dissolved, and everything thus becomes part of my own training/learning process, so that every moment and every encounter is equally important and of equal value.
4. Providing Beauty – Rediscovering
Within the tension between freedom and obligation, clear values, rules and laws, the development of a strong sense of self was essential for leading a conscious, balanced life, so that, as I developed personally, my ‘I’ or ego could increasingly take a back seat and allow the Higher Self to take the lead.
At the same time, beauty and divinity become apparent in (almost) everything. It is a force that I sense in everything that is in inner balance or natural harmony – for example, in the harmonious balance of mandalas or in the golden ratio found in roses, sunflowers, snail shells… – as well as in the aesthetics, sensualism, grace and meaningfulness of nature (a rainbow, a leaf, a waterfall…), art (music, dance and movement, poetry, film and painting…) and arts and crafts, in gardening or cooking, in architecture (Taj Mahal) and design, and in the simplicity of stillness. I encounter beauty wherever balanced, clear structures are discernible, and wherever profound connections of various kinds or a sense of reverent wonder can be felt. Guided by the four principles of Zen Buddhism – harmony (Wa) order (Sei) respect (Kei) and tranquillity, peace and stillness (Jaku) – I consciously and mindfully bring beauty into all my personal and everyday affairs, in order to create soothing, harmonious and healing spaces and fields in which others, too, feel at ease.
5. Providing Understanding – Re-exploring
As a spiritual being, I have a variety of human experiences on this wonderful blue planet, Earth,[4] and I experience the physical reality of everyday life as one of several levels of experience and sources of insight.
My sparks of curiosity lead me to initial ideas and fleeting insights, which I then examine, explore in greater depth and gather background information on. However, I do not stop at this static knowledge; instead, through my own explorations, experiences and insights, I try to grasp further connections in order to arrive at a deeper understanding – a process that sometimes takes years.
In order to tackle the many tasks, duties and challenges of everyday life conscientiously and responsibly, and to be able to express myself creatively, I make a conscious and efficient use of technical resources as a useful tool.
I value the fundamental principles of humanism, such as dignity (for both people and the world around us), freedom and personal responsibility, which foster our coexistence – a coexistence based on reason, idealism, conscientiousness, mutual respect, tolerance and trust, as well as a deep respect for life – and which thereby also strengthen democracy.
However, I refrain from constantly judging and evaluating – which only leads to tension and dissatisfaction – and recognise polar opposites as two sides of the same coin.
6. Providing Love – Reawakening
‘All you need is love’, sang the Beatles. This call during the ‘Summer of Love’ in 1967 for unity, peace and humanity, compassion and sensitivity, social commitment and spirituality touches (not only) my heart, but it also brings home to me the difference between naïve love, which seeks to tear down healthy boundaries and structures and yearns for artificial harmony, and mature love, which embraces all realities – with all their light and dark sides, their complexity and their contradictions – unreservedly and unconditionally.
From an integral perspective, love as ‘Eros’ is the evolutionary driving force of the universe, the flow of life – and thus far removed from being merely a feeling! Love is also the force that brings together what is separated or broken, and enables healing and wholeness.
This love flows from the reawakened inner perception and enables me to see diversity as an enrichment and to accept and respect all people, regardless of their age, background, education, religion or sexual orientation.
The humanisation of the workplace (from the 1970s onwards), with its participatory management style – which involves everyone actively, as equals and on an equal footing in decision-making, planning and design processes – I experienced very positively, as it fosters a sense of purpose and personal commitment.
Social engagement also gives life meaning when I volunteer my time, without pay, for the common good, a worthy cause, other people and nature. When I learn new skills, develop social skills and thereby foster my personal development, I also strengthen the community.
As part of my ongoing personal transformation and inner growth, the depth-psychological insight into the inner world of my soul/psyche enables me to recognise and interpret with understanding and loving care the ‘collective shadows’ of society’s unconscious, historically evolved, shared values, rules and laws, taboos, belief systems and dogmas[5]. This process is akin to the painful awakening of the ‘prisoners’ in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, who see through collective projections, constantly question shared idealised images, challenge shared illusions and begin to swim against the mainstream.
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A regular spiritual practice of stillness or meditation (in various forms) leads to a immediate form of BEING. This deeply felt spirituality or inner religiosity, which is based on inner experience, contemplation and insight, results in outward social and political engagement.
The ability to draw upon non-rational, inner sources such as intuition, dreams and flashes of insight opens up a second pathway to knowledge: felt knowledge (right hemisphere, feminine principle), which reveals and unravels itself. It supports the making of meaning from experiences and the awareness of meaning in life. This implicit knowledge is action-bound, perceptual, process-oriented knowledge – ‘without being able to say how’ – such as the correct ‘moisture’ of a dough, or the highly complex ability to ride a bicycle or to compose music, and is just as significant as rational insights (left hemisphere, masculine principle).
These initiatives are: Integral Politics - Switzerland in Silence (german) - Foundation for Integral Peacebuilding (german)
Urban
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[1] Permanent life-network of unity, to which all living beings are always connected in a natural manner unconsciously, but to which the human being loses the memory due to his ego-development, but which one can consciously remember and consciously reconnect to later on.
[2] See Millman’s two books: Way of the Peaceful Warrior and Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior – the ideals of medieval knights of ‘high courtly love’ are similar to those set out in Bushidō, the code of the Japanese samurai warriors.
[3] Integrating the shadows: ‘Shadows’ are all the unconscious, traumatic and life-impeding aspects within us that we (had to) repress or deny during childhood as a means of self-protection, and which, as adults, we sometimes project onto others. They are mysterious, often elusive; they cause adults to behave like children; they destroy relationships; they drain our strength; they block our energy; they lead to addictions; and yet, at the same time, they harbour extraordinary potential, abilities and talents that can find expression once these dark aspects are recognised, integrated and thus resolved within the soul/psyche and redeemed through connection with the spirit.
[4] Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience.”
[5] Take, for example, the ‘culture of fear’ in the 20th and 21st centuries: from the Red Scare of the McCarthyism in the USA in the 1950s, the Cold War (1947 to 1989), the ‘Satanic Panic’ (the 1980s and 1990s) with its global conspiracy theories, the War on terror following 9/11 (from 2001 onwards), right up to the algorithm-driven fears on social media today, including fears of the so-called ‘cancel culture’.
Urban
Spiral Dynamics - Integral Consciousness II - as pdf
