an active approach to spiritual practice

8/2/2019 An Active Approach to Spiritual Practice

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An Active Approach to Spiritual Practice

Integral Enlightenment Practices are designed with one goal in mind: to help you

break free from the self-perpetuating prison of the ego and learn how to live

every moment of your life from the deepest, most awake, alive center of yourbeing. By helping you break with the habit enePondrgy of the past, they enable

you to become increasingly free to consciously co-create an enlightened future.

This is an active, engaged approach to spiritual practice. In pursuing these

practices, we encourage you to view your life as a laboratory of conscious

evolution, and to engage each practice as an experiment in liberating and

evolving your consciousness and your way of being in the world.*

Integral Enlightenment Practices are broken down into five distinct categories of

practice, each approaching the task of conscious evolution from a unique and

important vantage point.

Where do I begin?

If you are beginning the practice as a solitary individual, choose one practice

from each of the first four categories listed below and commit to engaging it

daily for one week. If you are part of a group that is interested in engaging these

practices, your group can also choose one of the Group Inquiry Practices listed

below to engage during your next gathering.

Awakening the Impulse to Evolve

Practices to Prepare for Meditation

Experiencing the Freedom of Being

Meditation Practices for an Enlightened Life


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Aligning with the Purpose of Life

Transformative Inquiry Practices for Conscious Evolution

Embodying Spirit in Action

Engaged Inquiry Practices for Enlightened Living

Creating Evolutionary Culture

Group Inquiry Practices for Collective Enlightenment

*A Note on Spiritual Dilettantism (and why this is completely different)

One of the biggest problems of contemporary spirituality is what some have

called the cafeteria approach to spiritual life. Unlike the traditional religions,

which provided us with a strict, prescribed regimen of practices, the popular

spiritual marketplace encourages us to pick and choose those practices and

ideas which suit us. The great limitation in this approach is that the individual

ego usually remains firmly in control of the spiritual path, choosing those

practices and ideas that dont threaten its reign.

At first glance, Integral Enlightenments approach to spiritual practice could be

seen as yet another form of cafeteria spirituality. Rather than encouraging you to

do one single spiritual practice for the next ten years, we are instead presenting

you with multiple practices and encouraging you to engage all of them, turning

your life into a living experiment in conscious evolution. The reason this is not

another form of cafeteria spirituality is that we encourage you to continue to

engage all of these practicesforever. If you study the menu of different

practices outlined below, youll see that these practices are in fact designed to

help you learn to engage with the challenges of life from a radically different

vantage point. As you engage each practice with sincerity and commitment, it

should eventually become second nature to you. Thats the meaning of Integral

Enlightenmentwhen the light of Truth and Wisdom becomes integrated into

your life so completely that you walk through the world shining that light on

everything you see.


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Awakening the Impulse to Evolve

Practices to Prepare for Meditation

Before each meditation session, spend 5-15 minutes engaging one of the

following preparatory practices. By reminding us why we are meditating in the

first place, these practices help to clear away any ambivalence about practicing

meditation, and also help to ground us in a clear and strong intention to give

everything to our practice for the highest reasons.Raindrop

Awakening to Evolution

Reflect on the evolutionary journey of the Cosmosthe 14 billion year creative

unfolding that began with the Big Bang. Feel the evolutionary impulse that

surged forth, first as an impulse to create and organize the material universe,

then as an impulse to create and evolve life in all its beauty and diversity, then,

with the birth of the human, as an impulse to create and evolve culture into ever

higher expressions of complexity and integration. Now, feel how this same

impulse is surging in your own heart as the desire to grow and evolve in

consciousness, to both know the Source, and to participate in the higher,

creative unfolding of consciousness and a more evolved, enlightened humanity.

Recognize that by practicing meditation wholeheartedly, you are helping to

liberate consciousness from the patterns of the past and the inertia of its

embededness in matter, so that it can consciously and freely evolve through

your participation. Enter into meditation rooted in this pure intention to free

consciousness for the highest possible reasons.

Confronting the Human Condition

Reflect on the current state of your own life and consciousness. How free is your

soul? How awake is your awareness? How liberated is your mind from the

conditioned habits of the past? How open and expansive is your heart? Do you

act in habitual, unconscious ways that cause yourself and others to suffer

unnecessarily? Are you held in the grip of any addictions, small or large? Do you

spend your time preoccupied with the past and fearing for the future? Do you

know deep down that your life could be so much more? Are you living in full


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alignment with your deepest values? Are you living up to the highest, most

profound spiritual truths youve realized? How are you impacting the world

around you? Are you a vibrant, radiant force for evolution? Recognize that

whatever limitations you are currently experiencing and expressing are simply

an expression of the current evolutionary state of humanity. Face the truth that

these limitations will almost inevitably continue unless you and others engage inintensive, committed spiritual practice. Become aware that by giving yourself

wholeheartedly to meditation practice, and to other authentic spiritual practices,

you can liberate yourself from all the patterns and limitations of the past. In

doing so, you can discover an extraordinary and unimaginable new life, and

become a living expression of the answer to the human predicament. Ground

your meditation in the intention to awaken from the limitations of the human

condition, not merely for your own happiness, but for the sake of evolution itself

and the creation of an enlightened future for humanity.

The Call of The Soul

Reflect on the real reason you entered the spiritual path in the first place. What

was it that compelled you to seek a deeper, more meaningful, more enlightened

life? What did you sense was possible for human life? What was it that pulled on

your soul? Allow yourself to be naked before the purity and vulnerability of this

calling. Does this longing connect you to something larger than yourself? Can

you recognize that, in its essence, this longing is not your longing to bring

something into your life, but is in fact a profound and sacred mystery longing foryour participation in its unfolding in the world? Allow yourself to feel the deepest

yearning of the Divine beckoning for your attention, calling to you for your

submission before the throne of the Ultimate so that you can become a vessel

for its manifestation in time and space. Enter into your meditation practice

rooted in the intention to give all of yourself to the practice in surrender to this

greater calling.

Experiencing the Freedom of Being

Meditation Practices for an Enlightened Life

Silent meditation has always played a central role on the spiritual path. By

allowing us to step directly beyond the mind and ego, authentic meditation


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provides us with both a direct experience of the goal and context of spiritual life

and an opportunity to ground our being in that ultimate context. Woman

Meditating

In its highest form, meditation is about disengaging entirely from the world oftime, action, and becoming, and resting freely and effortlessly in the ground of

Being, in Awareness itself. Given this goal of radical disengagement from the

world, how then can we make our meditation more integral, and more related to

the lives we are living? The answer is: by shifting the context in which were

meditating. Are we meditating simply to find greater inner peace for ourselves?

Or, are we meditating with the intention of liberating our consciousness in order

to make ourselves available to fully participate in the further evolution of Life,

Humanity, Consciousness, and even God? When we ground our meditation

practice in a deeper, higher intention for practicing, we discover an unlimited

source of energy and passion for our practice, and a previously invisible doorwayto the Infinite.

In Integral Enlightenment Meditation, we always first ground ourselves in the

deepest reasons for meditating. We do this by engaging in one of the Inquiry

Practices to Prepare for Meditation.

Before each meditation session, spend 5-15 minutes engaging one of our

preparatory practices. By reminding us why we are meditating in the first place,these practices help to clear away any ambivalence about practicing meditation,

and also help to ground us in a clear and strong intention to give everything to

our practice for the highest reasons.

Click Here to Learn About Practices to Prepare for Meditation

Meditation Practices

These practices each take a different approach to the same goal: giving you a

sustained experience of who you are beyond the mind. They can be practiced for

any amount of time, but we recommend engaging them for anywhere from 20


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minutes to one hour. You can practice them all day if you have the time for a

self-retreat. But, due to the power of what can be unleashed by intensive

practice, we dont recommend all-day practice to beginners or those with

psychological disorders. If you want to practice all day, we recommend taking at

least a ten-minute break every hour.

Allowing

For the entire period of the meditation, allow your experience to be exactly as it

is. Dont try to change anything on any level. Just allow everything to be,

whatever it is. Notice how we are always trying to change our experience in

some way. Were trying to be more relaxed, trying not to be tense, trying toquiet the mind, trying to feel better. See this movement for what it is, and simply

refuse to engage it. Resist the temptation to try to change anything at all. No

matter what is occurring, just allow it to be. Leave everything alone. Even if

there is immense inner struggle, or breathtaking inner bliss, just leave it alone;

dont try to make difficult feelings go away; dont try to amplify or hold on to

positive feelings. Allow them all and let them be.

Relax and Pay Attention

One of the simplest ways to enter into profound meditation is to relax and pay

attention at the same time. Usually, when we are deeply relaxed, we become

less attentive. And the more attentive we become, the less relaxed we tend to

be. In this practice, simply allow yourself to relax as deeply as possible. Relax

your body, relax your mind, let go of any tension on any level of your being. At

the same time, make the effort to be as awake and attentive as possible. It is not

necessary or helpful to pay attention to anything in particular. Simply pay

attention to attention itself. Pay attention to what it is to be awake, conscious,

attentive. All the while, keep allowing yourself to relax more deeply. As with all of

these practices, regardless of what enters into your awareness, simply leave it

alone, and keep returning to the simplicity of the practice instructions.

Abandon the World


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In its essence, meditation is about discovering who you were prior to the

existence of any thing. In this practice, allow the world in its entirety to fall away

from you. Let everything go. Allow yourself to be completely alone, with no

connection to anything that ever happened in time and space. Simply rest as the

conscious presence that is unaffected by and uninvolved in the world. As

thoughts of the past and concerns for the future float across your awareness,

tempting you to engage with them, practice remaining untouched, unmoved by

the swirl of time and becoming. Keep returning to the simplicity of being itself.

Let go of everything. Abandon the world.

Abide As Awareness Itself

For the entire period of the meditation, place your attention on awareness itself.

Normally we are aware of things that are arising within our awareness. Were

aware of objects. Were aware of other people. Were aware of our thoughts and

feelings. But what is it to be aware of awareness itself? Consciously turn your

attention away from all the things in consciousness and place it on

consciousness itselfon the part of you that is aware. Keep turning your

attention away from what is being perceived and experienced and place it on the

one who is perceiving and experiencing, on the space in which that experience is

occurring. Realize that from the point of view of consciousness itself, allexperience is the same, and It is untouched by all the movements that take

place within it.

Dont Get Involved

Whatever happens in your inner world during the period of the meditation, dontget involved with it. Often intense feelings arise, and we get pulled into either

trying to make them go away, or trying to understand them. Similarly, intriguing

thoughts, worries, problems to solve, and creative ideas can emerge in our

awareness, and we feel compelled to engage with them. Do not get involved in

any of it. No matter what occurs within you, or outside of you, leave it completely

alone.


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Wanting Nothing from Meditation

For the period of the meditation, dont demand anything from your practice.

Simply show up and be available for whatever occurs. We often engage in

meditation because we want a specific result. We want to feel better. We want to

clear our mind. We want some peace. Practice not wanting anything from your

meditation. Approach your meditation as a giver, not a taker, with the following

intention: Im here to give all of my attention to this practice. I dont need it to

give me anything back. If bliss or peace does arise, dont even cling to that. If

discomfort arises, dont want it to go away. Discover the liberation of wanting

nothing at all.

Opening to the Great Perfection

There is a Great Perfection at the heart of the cosmos. An immaculate,

untouched Ground of Being that includes and enfolds everything that happens in

time. This Great Perfection needs nothing from life, nothing from the world to

sustain its perfection. And it is the essence of who we are. In this practice, allow

yourself to simply abide as the perfection that is already fully here. Simply allow

your experience to be exactly what it is, and see how nothing you have

experienced, nothing you are experiencing now, and nothing you will ever

experience will in any way change that Great Perfection. Realize that your

experience is irrelevant to that Perfection. And allow it to be irrelevant to you.

Let everything that arises in consciousness simply arise and be whatever it is, let

it do whatever it does, and make no attempt to change any of it. See that this

Perfection interpenetrates everything and yet remains untouched by anything.

Simply allow it to be.

Aligning with a Higher Purpose

Transformative Inquiry Practices for Conscious Evolution

The power of transformative inquiry is only beginning to be tapped. Cultural

evolutionary theory tells us that, as postmodern humans, we have capacities for


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self-awareness and introspection that none of our forebears could have

imagined. Yet, only a few spiritual pioneers have explored what it would mean to

leverage these newfound capacities for our spiritual advancement. The practices

outlined below each offer a window into deeper self-awareness, and an

opportunity to use our advanced introspective capacities to propel us into new

heights of clarity and spiritual alignment.

There are three ways to engage these practices:

1) In solitary contemplation. Just reflect on the questions in any way you can.

This is generally most effective if done sitting quietly for a dedicated period of

time, but it can also be done while taking a walk, running, riding the subway, or

even driving.

2) As a journal exercise. Writing down your reflections can be a powerful aid to

deeper contemplation. It can also help to capture the deeper insights that

emerge, so that they are harder to forget later.

3) With a trusted spiritual friend. Sit with someone with whom you can open up

completely and take turns sharing your reflections on the questions. Depending

on the depth of trust and shared spiritual commitment in the relationship, you

can also give each other permission to probe and inquire for deeper answers.

Is My Life Really My Own? Embracing the Truth of Interrelatedness

Weve all heard that were interconnected. The ancient mystical scriptures and

todays frontier sciences testify to the reality that, in visible and invisible ways,

we are all woven together in a vast web of interrelatedness. Yet, although most

of us would say that we believe we are all connected, how deeply have we

allowed this truth to impact our relationship to being alive? If we look deeply into

what this truth reveals, we come upon an arresting discoverythat our life is not

really our own. That, in everything we do, we are impacting the whole, and that

we therefore must be accountable to that whole for every choice we make.

Whereas we once thought that we owned our life and could do with it what we


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pleased, we now awaken to the reality that our life in fact belongs to the greater

unfolding process of which we are a part. Everything we do, even our

relationship to our thoughts and feelings, affects that larger process. And as

such, we can no longer afford the security of the illusion that there are any

private acts. When we look at this insight within an evolutionary context, we

realize that, in fact, we have a very specific obligation. Every important choicewe make is either contributing to the evolution of the whole or not. And if its not

contributing, chances are that it is exerting an inertial drag on our collective

evolution. So, to be true to the recognition of interrelatedness, we must commit

every moment of our life to furthering the evolutionary process, knowing that the

entirety of humanity, life, and consciousness is counting on us. Ask yourself: Is

my life really my own?

Am I Living What I Know?

There is a great sacrifice in giving up the need to experience more insight or

revelation. In most of us who have been seeking for a long time, there is a deep-

seated belief that we need to have more spiritual experience, insight, or

revelation in order to be Free. At the root of this belief is the conviction that the

goal of the Path is about finding ourselves in a permanently altered state of

consciousness within which our every thought, feeling, and impulse is in perfect

alignment with the Greatest Good. Because many of us have had at least a

glimpse of such a possibility, we therefore assume that what is needed is for us

to expand that glimpse until it becomes a permanent experience or state of

being. But there is an unimaginable liberation that begins to dawn when we

finally give up this need to have more, know more, and see more, and turn all of

our attention to living in alignment with the deepest Truth weve already seen,

the deepest experiences and insights weve already had. Ask yourself: Am I

living up to the deepest truths I know? Am I embodying the most profound

insights Ive discovered? Most of us already know far more than we are living up

to. If you dedicate every moment of your life to being a perfect living expression

of the deepest Truth youve already seen, you will suddenly find yourself on the

True spiritual path for perhaps the first time. You will have taken on the ultimatechallenge of aligning yourself with the Source without asking anything from It in

return. And in so doing, you will be forced to transcend or overcome all of the

obstacles to that alignment. This is the great sacrifice of spiritual life. But you will

find that you have the strength, courage, or conviction to make this sacrifice,

because your attention is not on the obstacles but on the goal itself. In walking


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this path, your insight and experience will naturally deepen, but when it does,

your only interest will be in aligning yourself with that depth as it reveals itself.

Authentic Happiness: Am I Ready to Give Up Wanting?

The illusion of personal happiness has us all under its spell. Even the most

spiritual among us tend to remain under the subtle influence of the belief that

fulfilling our personal needs and desires will bring happiness and contentment.

We are fed this message on a daily basis. And because in our world of endless

possibilities there is always more to have and more to experience, most of us

never get to fully test the hypothesis. But those who have had the luxury to fulfill

their most grandiose desires find that wanting is a bottomless pit. There is notrue happiness to be found by getting what we want. As the great sages have

always known, authentic happiness is found only in transforming our relationship

to wanting itself. When we no longer need anything for ourselves, then we find

that a deep and abiding contentment is our natural state. But at that point,

having truly given up wanting for ourselves, we dont even want that

contentment for ourselves. In this, we have discovered liberation from

everythingeven the desire for happiness. Ask yourself: In what ways do I still

believe that getting what I want will lead to fulfillment? In what ways am I still

chasing the dream of personal happiness? When will I be ready to finally let it go

and allow my life to be about something much bigger than my own fulfillment?

Surrender: Am I Willing to be Taken Over by a Force I Cant Control?

Surrender has always been the heart of spiritual life. Yet, in contemporary

spiritual circles, surrender has often been interpreted to mean simply accepting

what is. This is a profound misconception. When you undertake a sincere

engagement with an authentic spiritual path, at some point you will come into

contact with an overwhelming presence and power that seems as though it

wants to take over your life. That power is what has traditionally been called

God. And it does want to take over your life. In theistic terms, we could say that

God wants you to become a vehicle for Its will. In non-theistic terms, we could

say that it is the evolutionary and moral imperative of the cosmos calling us into

alignment with a deeper order of being. But God cant take you by force. It needs


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your compliance, your surrender. Most of us believe that, if faced with the

opportunity to surrender to a greater, divine presence, we would happily fall to

our knees in submission. We think we want God to rule our lives, but when the

opportunity beckons, most of us cling to the certainty and security of our

smallness, holding on to our illusions for dear life, terrified to let go and be

consumed by the Infinite. The holy life is indeed the most blessed, joyous life ofall, but only because we have been stripped of our petty wants, needs, fears and

desires. How ready are we to let them go? Contemplate the following: Am I

willing to let a presence and power greater than myself overtake me? Am I

willing to let a higher priority govern my life? Am I willing to say Not my will but

Thy will be done? If the honest answer is no, ask yourself why not? And

keep asking why not? until the only possible answer is yes.

The Deathbed Perspective

Imagine you suddenly learned that you are going to die tomorrow, and are now

looking back on your life from your deathbed. Face with ruthless honesty into the

big choices youve made in your life. Ask yourself:

-What was the most important thing in life?

-Did I make sure I gave the most important thing the highest priority? Did I put

first things first, always? Or, did I compromise what was most important in favor

of what was comfortable or convenient or expedient?

-To what degree has my life been an expression of my highest ideals and

understanding?

-Did I consistently do the right thing when it mattered most? What are my

regrets?

Bring this perspective back to the life you are now living, with the future

stretching out before you. Ask yourself what you will do differently based on this


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perspective. Is there anything new you are willing to commit to in order to make

sure you live a life you can look back on with perfect contentment, knowing that

you gave it your all? Throughout your week, keep returning to this deathbed

perspective on what youre doing. Ask yourself, Am I giving my time to the

things that matter most?

What Would I Do if the Evolution of the Human Race Depended on Me?

We all influence each other in visible and invisible ways. Are you willing to take

responsibility for being an example for all others to follow? Spiritual teacher

Andrew Cohen asks his audiences the following question: How would you live

your life if you learned that the further evolution of the human race rested onyour shoulders alone? In other words, if you knew that all of your future actions

were creating the action templates, or habits in consciousness, that would guide

the actions of all future humans, how would your behavior change? Would you

suddenly find that you had the strength and courage to leave behind all forms of

victimhood and emotional indulgence, and step into a heroic relationship to this

life? Would you find the conviction to overcome whatever obstacles seem to

stand in the way of your becoming a powerful and undeniable expression of

liberated consciousness in this world? Contemplate this question as though the

future of humanity depends on it. Because it just might.

Embodying Spirit in Action

Engaged Inquiry Practices for Enlightened Living

OceanIntegral Enlightenment Engaged Inquiry Practices are practices that

defuse, disarm, and deconstruct the ego in the midst of engagement with

everyday life. Many of us have noticed that there is often an enormous gapbetween the clarity and wisdom we can attain in the midst of meditation or on

retreat, and our capacity to express that clarity and wisdom when confronted

with challenging life circumstances. If we want to be truly awake, it is therefore

imperative that we find a way to challenge the many faces of the ego as they

present themselves throughout our day. If engaged with sincerity and


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consistency, the following practices can have a profound, liberating impact on

your consciousness and, more importantly, on how you show up in life.

Live As If You Were Always On Camera

Imagine you have been given the sacred task of demonstrating a model life for

all other humans to learn from and follow. In this cosmic reality show, every

moment of your life will be followed on camera and broadcast throughout the

world, watched by the entire human race as an example of how we all should

live. Go through your week imagining that you are always on camera, and that

the rest of humanity will be watching and imitating your every move. If you lose

your temper at someone inappropriately, this will create a cascade of violence

across the globe. If you respond with wisdom and generosity, you will create a

ripple effect of wise and generous behavior.

As you engage this practice, honestly observe how frequently you adjust your

behavior from what might have been your default response. Ask yourself: even

without the camera, do I really have a right to behave in a less than exemplary

way at every moment? Given that we all affect one another in countless visible

and invisible ways, dont we all have an obligation to the whole to live the most

exemplary, evolved lives we possibly can? Use this as a catalyst for deeper

inquiry into what it would mean to live a truly impeccable life.

Why Am I Doing What Im Doing?

Most of us react to life habitually, driven by motivations that are largely

unconscious. One of the most foundational elements of living a conscious,

evolutionary life is bringing all of our murky motivations into the light of

conscious awareness. Only when we know exactly why we are doing what were


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doing can we discover the freedom and power to do something different, and

begin to break the chains of the habit force known as karma.

In this practice, we allow our awareness of our own unconsciousness to push us

deeper into conscious engagement with our interiors. Knowing that withoutgreater self-awareness, we will inevitably cause unnecessary harm to our self

and others, we reach for the courage to question ourselves to the core of who we

are. Throughout the week, maintain a constant inquiry into your own

motivations. Why did I respond in that way? Why am I about to respond in this

way? Particularly when you or others feel that you might be reacting with a force

or in a manner inappropriate to the situation confronting you, ask yourself: is

this really an appropriate response to this event? And, if not, what is driving

me? Engaging this practice will take a great degree of courage and humility. It

may also take some time to begin to penetrate through the armor of your own

deeper psyche. But, if you stick with it, you will find that a newfound clarity willemergeand with it, an unimaginable experience of freedom from the patterns

of the past.

The Only Way to Change is to Change

We are all conditioned creatures. Most, if not all, of our behavior is driven by our

conditioned emotional responses to life. These patterns of the past will play

themselves out indefinitelyuntil and unless we actively break the cycle. Most of

us have been taught to believe that what is needed to break free from these

deep-seated patterns is either some kind of insight into their origins or some

kind of energetic release. Yet, no matter how much time we spend in therapy,

and no matter how many times we release the old pattern, it returns again and

again. It is possible to break any pattern, no matter how entrenched it might be,

if we are willing to accept the stark truth that the only way to change is to

change. When we face the fact that no gimmick is going to change us, thatlasting change almost always flows from a clear decision followed by committed

action, a previously dormant resource becomes activewhich is our will. And our

will is strong enough to move mountains.


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Try this practice: choose a pattern in your life that you know needs to change in

order for you to truly evolve to a higher level. Face the truth that the only reason

you continue acting out of this pattern is because it gives you some kind of

emotional payoff. Then make a decision that for the next week, no matter what

happens, no matter how you feel, no matter how tempting it is to indulge in that

pattern, you are not going to do it. Make this decision as if your life depended onit. If you have a tendency to lose your temper inappropriately, decide that for

one week, you are not going to express your anger, no matter how much your

blood might boil. If you have a tendency to withdraw into negative self-talk when

confronted with criticism or rejection, make a decision to not withdraw, no

matter how strongly you feel pulled to.

What you will find through this practice is that each time you successfully break

the pattern by acting directly against it, you will liberate tremendous pent-up

positive energy, and will have an immediate experience of freedom from yourconditioned ego. And this will give you even more power and more conviction to

go against the pattern the next time it arises. If you are persistent, you will find

that within a very short time, you can dissolve a pattern that has been plaguing

you for years, decades, or your entire life. And with this discovery, youll realize

that true freedom from all the conditioned responses of the ego is within your

grasp.

Navigating the Stormy Seas of Life: The Liberating Power of Decisive Action

Deep inner clarity is hard to find. Most of the time, our inner worlds are a sea of

confusion, a cacophony of voices competing for our attentionand for our will.

Particularly when the going gets tough, when we confront challenges that blow

wind into the sails of our greatest fears and insecurities, it can be extremely hard

to know how to navigate, which inner voice to listen to. This is why its critical

that when we have a moment of clarity, we act decisively and with our fullcommitment.

Imagine you are traveling at sea in a storm, following your compass bearings,

but no longer sure whether youve been blown entirely off-course. For a moment,

the clouds part, the sun breaks through, and there you see it off in the far


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distance: land! What does the captain do? The novice captain assumes the sun is

here to stay, relaxes, forgets about his compass and begins steering toward the

land that he can so plainly see. But the seasoned captain knows from years of

experience that although the skies are clear for the moment, it is more than

likely just a temporary break in the storm. She thus seizes this moment of clarity

to get out the map and compass, determine her whereabouts, and set a clear,compass-guided course that she can continue to follow even when the clouds

descend again.

It is the same with our lives. In the midst of confusion, we plead with God for

clarity. But then, when the moment of clarity actually dawns, we tend to think:

wow, its all so obvious! How could I not have seen this? And, fatally, we then

assume we will never forget. More often than not, we eventually find ourselves

back in the confusion again, wondering what happened to the blue skies of

wisdom, and again beseeching God to bring us to clarity once more. The way outof this cycle is strong, clear, decisive action during the moment of clarity.

The next time you find yourself in the midst of an experience of profound clarity,

resist the temptation to take it for granted. Remember how rare it is and use that

clarity to reflect deeply on the most challenging questions and confusing issues

in your life. Rather than getting high on the experience of clarity, take the time

to clarify your true priorities and set a clear course of action that you can

continue to follow even if you become confused and overwhelmed again. In this

way, you can begin to live a life guided by wisdomeven if your day to dayexperience is one of confusion and uncertainty. When you allow your actions to

consistently be guided by the wisdom of your deepest moments, rather than the

ambiguities of daily life, you will find that those moments of depth and clarity will

begin to become more and more frequent, until ultimately, that source of

wisdom becomes your only home.

What if This is Entirely My Fault?

We all tend to be victimized by life. We tend to blame our circumstances or other

people for our failings and misfortunes. We struggle to find the humility to look

honestly at our own weaknesses. One of the most direct leverage points into the


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victim consciousness that permeates our culture is found in the area of relational

conflict. When youre feeling victimized and blaming someone else for a

relational conflict, turn the tables on yourself and assume, for a moment, that

you are entirely responsible for the conflict. How are you the cause of this

problem? This doesnt mean that you are entirely responsible. But what can you

see when you look through the lens of total self-responsibility? Discover theempowerment that comes from stepping out of victimhood into radical

responsibility. (Dont worry. This doesnt mean you let other people get away

with murder. Youre doing this for your own spiritual evolution. And once youre

standing in a place of total self-responsibility for your part in any conflict, youll

be in a much better position to give appropriate feedback to others).

Dont Pretend

The essence of ego is self-image: the deeply rooted psychological need to be

seenand to see ourselvesin a way that aligns with our deepest beliefs about

our self. One manifestation of this is our attempt to appear smart, or informed,

in the eyes of others. To do this, many of us often act as though we know

something that we really dont. If someone brings up a news story we havent

heard about, we often pretend weve heard about it. We do this to save face, to

not appear ignorant or stupid. This week, resist the temptation to pretend. Ifsomeone says, You know what Goethe said about commitment . . . and you

dont know, say, no, I dont know. What did he say? Discover the precious

humility, freedom, and lightness of being that comes from not needing to be

seen as anything other than you are.

What If The Evolution of the Human Race Depended on What I Do Right Now?*

(*This is a variation on one of the Transformative Inquiry Practices)


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We all influence each other in visible and invisible ways. Are you willing to take

responsibility for being an example for all others to follow? Spiritual teacher

Andrew Cohen asks his audiences the following question: How would you live

your life if you learned that the further evolution of the human race rested on

your shoulders alone? In other words, if you knew that all of your actions were

creating the action templates, or habits in consciousness, that would guide theactions of all future humans, how would your behavior change? Would you

suddenly find that you had the strength and courage to leave behind all forms of

victimhood and emotional indulgence, and step into a heroic relationship to this

life? Would you find the conviction to overcome whatever obstacles seem to

stand in the way of your becoming a powerful and undeniable expression of

liberated consciousness in this world?

As you go through your week, each time you are confronted with a challenging

situation, ask yourself how you would act if the further evolution of humanitydepended on your enlightened response to the situation. In challenging

moments, we are often tempted to let go of our ideals and respond from the

least enlightened part of ourselves. By holding ourselves accountable to the true

evolutionary moral context for our lives, we can find the strength to rise up in the

face of challenge and begin to create more enlightened pathways in

consciousness for the rest of humanity to follow. Engage this practice as though

the future of humanity depends on it. Because it just might.

Creating Evolutionary Culture

Group Inquiry Practices for Collective Enlightenment

Collective Enlightenment is one of the great spiritual frontiers of our time. As the

ancient archetype of the solitary spiritual quest grows increasingly out of step

with a crowded and conflicted modern world, more and more of us are feeling

called toward a new, higher form of collective transformative engagement. group

The practices outlined below are gleaned from some of the leading-edge

experiments in collective spirituality. When applied with sincerity and discipline,

they can propel groups into profound experiences of higher states of

consciousness far exceeding the individual spiritual attainments of the

participants. As such, they not only hold tremendous potential for catalyzing


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individual transformation; they reveal to us all a new possibility for human

relationship beyond ego.

Essential Reading: Principles of Evolutionary Culture

This list of principles of engagement is a must read for any group interested in

conscious co-evolution. We recommend printing out a copy for everyone in the

group and reading it aloud before each meeting.

Group Inquiry Practice #1: Meditative Dialogue

This form of collective, active meditation allows us to experience what its like to

speak together from a place beyond the mind and ego, from the ground of being

itself. To begin, read the Principles of Evolutionary Culture aloud. Then, engage

in one of the Integral Enlightenment Meditation Practices for 15 minutes. Then,

without stopping the meditation, ask everyone to gently open their eyes, while

continuing to engage in the meditation practice. Moving very slowly, and without

disturbing the meditative field, invite group members to begin to describe the

qualities of their current experience of meditation. Use prompts like:

-Describe the experience of consciousness itself

-What is the deepest part of your current experience?

-What do you feel in the room?

-What does the energy feel like between everyone?

-What is the deepest truth you are aware of?


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-What is meditation?

Throughout this process, allow plenty of time for silence. There may be longperiods of deep silence, and this is a natural part of the process. Just gently draw

out the group by inviting them to share from this deeper, wider experience of

who they are, of consciousness itself. At some point, you may notice a tangible

shift in consciousness, a sudden deepening in your experience. Chances are, this

is a collective experience. One of the most powerful things you can do is to

simply observe this experiential shift aloud, saying: I just felt the meditation

went deeper, the energy shifted when Rebecca spoke. Did anyone else feel

that? By naming the collective experience, you facilitate the deepening of the

collectives awareness of the unified nature of consciousness, which then carries

everyone deeper into the collective field itself.

These sessions are best kept to about an hour in length. When it feels as though

the group has reached a plateau, just invite everyone to enter back into silence

and meditate together for another 5-10 minutes or longer if it feels appropriate.

Once the meditation is complete, take another 5-15 minutes to explore the

following questions together.

-How was this different from other experiences of being in groups

-What did you notice about yourself?

-How did you experience other people differently?

-What did you see about consciousness itself?

-What did you learn about Life?


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Group Inquiry Practice #2: Awakening Through Conversation

This exercise in collective transformative inquiry allows us to leverage the powerof group intention to catalyze powerful openings to higher states of collective

consciousness and insight. To engage in this practice, first print out one of the

Transformative Inquiry Practices from the Transformative Inquiry Practice section

of this site. This will be the leaping off point for your discussion. Then, print out

the Awakening Through Conversation Context and Guidelines. This resource

contains a context-setting article and guidelines to read aloud at the beginning

of each meeting. These meetings tend to require more time than the one-hour

Meditative Dialogue Practice groups. Generally allow 1 hours, and be willing to

extend it a bit if needed to bring the meeting to completion.

Begin the meeting with a few minutes of silence, just inviting everyone to leave

behind the cares of the day and bring their attention to the group and to their

intention for the time youll be spending together. Then, read the Awakening

Through Conversation Context and Guidelines aloud. Ask if there are any

questions about the context and guidelines and, if there are, do your best to

answer them.

Now, read the chosen Transformative Inquiry Practice aloud two times through.Invite the group to begin to engage the material, keeping the guidelines present

in their mind. Encourage everyone to attempt to penetrate to the deeper

meaning of the passage you read aloud. The goal here is to have a non-personal

dialogue that reveals a deep truth about the human condition and the nature of

enlightenment. This is not an intellectual exercise. Everyone should aim to speak

from a deep and authentic place in themselves, and to speak in a way that draws

the entire group deeper into contemplation.

Encourage the group to self-regulate. If someone veers off into mere intellectualcommentary, they should be invited to offer a more authentic contribution. If

someone slips into mere personal sharing, they should be encouraged to leave

their personal story behind and instead speak about the deeper truth they are

seeing about Life. If someone takes the group on a tangent, they should be

invited to bring their contribution back to the topic being discussed.


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Through a disciplined and wholehearted attempt to follow the guidelines and

engage the material, it is possible for a relatively inexperienced group to break

through into extraordinary experiences of collective awakening.

Group Inquiry Practice #3: Deepening Our Individual Practice Through Collective

Exploration

These meetings are for a group whose individual members want to engage the

Integral Enlightenment Practices in their own lives throughout the week, and

then come together with a group to explore their experience and seek support

and inspiration from the collective. To pursue this collective practice, have the

group members commit to engage one practice from each category for eachweek; then come together to discuss the insights and learnings from one or two

of those practices. Invite the group to approach this practice as a team of

evolutionary pioneers, exploring the inner landscape of the human experience.

Each member should bring their own data to the meeting to compare notes

with other members.

At the beginning of the meeting, read the Principles of Evolutionary Culture

aloud. Then, sit together for a few minutes of silence, inviting everyone to leave

behind the cares of the day and bring their attention to the group and to theirintention for the time youll be spending together.

Begin the meeting by deciding together which one or two practices you want to

explore. (You will have engaged four different practices that week, so youll need

to decide which ones to discuss). In general, the Transformative Inquiry and

Engaged Inquiry practices will probably make for the liveliest and richest

discussions). Once youve decided which practice to start with, invite participants

to share openly about their experience of engaging that practice throughout the

course of the week. Guide the conversation, as necessary, by asking thefollowing questions:

-What new insights did you have as a result of engaging this practice?


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-What experiences did the practice catalyze?

-What did you learn about yourself?

-What did you learn about life?

-What did you learn about enlightenment?

-What did you see about conscious evolution?

-What challenges did you confront in doing this practice?

-How did you deal with those challenges?

-What else do you want to share about your experience of this practice?

It is not necessary for everyone (or anyone) to answer every question. The goal

here is to simply catalyze an authentic, meaningful conversation that enriches

the practice of all the participants.

Once the group feels complete with the discussion of the first chosen practice,

move on to the next one if there is time. In general, these meetings are best

kept to 1 hours, but if there is sufficient enthusiasm, 2 hours is also a

reasonable length. Beyond that, be wary of the invisible fatigue that can set in.

Its good to always end on a high note.

Before breaking up, be sure and choose your practices for the following week. If

everyone feels compelled to go deeper, you may at times decide to continue

with the same set of practices for another week to apply the new insights and

perspectives that opened up during the discussion.


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Resources

Principles of Evolutionary Culture

This list of principles of engagement is a must read for any group interested in

conscious co-evolution. We recommend printing out a copy for everyone in the

group and reading it aloud before each meeting.

Awakening Through Conversation Context and Guidelines

This resource contains a context-setting article and guidelines to read aloud atthe beginning of each Awakening Through Conversation meeting

Further Reading on Collective Wisdom

Thinking Together Without Ego: Collective Intelligence as an Evolutionary

Catalyst

by Craig Hamilton and Claire Zammit, PhD(c)

Come Together: The Mystery of Collective Intelligence

by Craig Hamilton

Collective Wisdom Audio Resources


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"Exploring the Landscape of a New Consciousness"

Chris Parish in Dialogue with Craig Hamilton for WIE Unbound

Chris Parish, who pioneered, along with Craig Hamilton and others, the cutting

edge approach to dialogue called Enlightened Communication, describes the

extraordinary creativity that emerges when an entire group of people reaches

beyond what they know to collectively explore the frontier of consciousness.

Dissolving all barriers of separation, this remarkable spirituality technology holds

the potential for solving the enormous problems caused by human conflict and

division.

Presence of the Future

Otto Scharmer in Dialogue with Craig Hamilton for WIE Unbound

Does a future potential exist, seeking to emerge, that is already part of you, that

in fact depends on you, and that can be experienced by you right now? Yes, says

this MIT researcher, and he coined the term presencing or pre-sensing to

describe it. Increasing numbers of people, says Scharmer, are beginning to

directly perceive our collective emerging future, and not just in rarified settings

or during solitary meditation. People are having this mysterious and profoundexperience in everyday circumstances, social settings, in large groups, even

while at work. More than that, Scharmer believes our collective capacity to

literally pre-sense the future will help activate the latent potential within us to

respond appropriately and wisely to the global, social, and environmental crises

we now confront.

The Wisdom of the Whole

Tom Atlee in Dialogue with Craig Hamilton for WIE Unbound

Beginning with his first experience of collective mind on the Great Peace March

for Nuclear Disarmament in 1986, this passionate activist tells one astonishing

story after another about the power of collectives. And he discusses how co-

intelligence can revitalize democracy through wisdom councilsgroups of


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ordinary citizens who access a higher wisdom to determine what's best for the

whole.

Collective Dialogue, Collective Wisdom

Juanita Brown in Dialogue with Craig Hamilton for WIE Unbound

A conversation with the co-founder of The World Caf on the mysterious magic

in the middle that occurs when separate minds coalesce into a transparent,

accessible intelligence. Juanita recounts these and other signal moments in her

life and work. She also shares with us her concerns for the future and the search

for a source of wisdom and insight deep enough to see us through the complex

challenges that lie ahead. For Juanita, this guidance is always to be found in the

limitless power of the human collective in dialogue.

The Individual and Matrix Consciousness

Chris Bache in Dialogue with Craig Hamilton for WIE Unbound

Could our collective potential for learning be almost unlimited? This religious

studies professor describes his discovery that the courses he taught had a

mind of their own. Not only did a group field develop between himself and his

students in each class, but every year, students would enter the class at a higher

level. Bache explores how our recognition that the mind is collective radically

changes the way we think of ourselves as individualsand could be the

foundation for a new human society.

Flocks, Fields, Teams and Telepathy

Rupert Sheldrake in Dialogue with Craig Hamilton for WIE Unbound

The remarkable dance of birds in flight, the bonds between people and their

pets, the creative synergy of a sports team in flowthese are but a few of the

examples that this pioneering biologist uses to illustrate how social animals

create fields of connection. In fact, Sheldrake argues, when a group field iscreated between people, then telepathy becomes a natural extension of our

biological nature.

an active approach to spiritual practice

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