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aikido
August 2009 
Awakening Integral: Part 4 - Fractles of nature
Posted on Sep 24th, 2008
by 
Miles
Miles
I just received these thought provoking images from "What Is Enlightenment?" magazine's weekly "Think About This" e-mail:
Nurons To Cosmos
~ ~ ~
Part of the awakening of Integral is that as we are increasingly able to take more and more perspectives on reality, our intuitive understanding of the Kosmos grows. And as we grow, gradually the "Integral Map" becomes the "Integral Territory". From the microscopic patterns of physical phenomena, and the extreme subtleties of meditation, all the way to the infinite vastness of galaxies, and the dark matter in the Kosmos, fractal patterns repeat themselves again and again. And this understanding begins to enter into us as a felt and intuitive sense. We begin to actually get what Ken Wilber means when he says: "Turtles all the way up, turtles all the way down."Taking a new point of view is essential for growth. But it is just the beginning of a good Integral Practice. We must first take a perspective and then we must make a contemplation of it. Contemplate, contemplate, contemplate. Contemplate to the point where the outer merges with the inner, where the microcosm is seen in the macrocosm, and where fractals are seen all way up and all the way down. This is an extremely necessary part of the practice so that the perspective fully sinks into consciousness.
When a perspective fully sinks into us at the level of consciousness, the felt sense is that it hits home. The perspective then arises as an intuitive insight, and it becomes ours. It is no longer an intelectual perspective that is "out there", but rather it becomes an intuitive perspective that is "in here". It becomes an expression of who we are, and we become a manifestation of it. A gift that naturally radiates outward and is expressed onto the Kosmos.
OK. So, then what? Well, then we write poetry....
To see a world in a grain of sand
And heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
William Blake
And heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
William Blake
Access: PublicTagged with: awakening integral, part 4, what is enlightenment, aikido, dark matter, nuron of a mouse, william blake
Cool pictures.
It always surprises me how people (WIE, in this case) avoid making the obvious yet rattling connection between the two pictures - they are one and the same, seen from different prespectives.
Is it really that impossible that the cosmos has allowed us to view it from more than one perspective? To me it seems like the big-small dimention is really circular. Maybe if you fly out far enough you will end up as a sub-atomic particle - or an idea - in a mouse's brain.
I think this is important in the process of taking new perspectives because it brings home a very trite yet profound concept - the universe is me and I am the universe. These neurons, these dark matter galaxies, might as well be in your head.
But, Miles, I'm feeling like something is missing. In order to assimilate a perspective it is not enough to observe this prespective with your mental faculty, analyze it, and try to figure it out. This would only give you the “IT against I” perspective. I'm standing here, and I am studying this perspective. Contemplating will help you understand this perspective but not take it.
In order to take a perspective, you need to literally view the world from that point, be it very low, very high, or very far from where you are in life. The human faculty which allows us to project ourselves into the shoes of another perspective and truly experience it for a minute, in other words empathize rather than sympathize, is your heart.
This is no conincidence - compassion comes from the heart, and it is exactly the emotion which seeks to awaken us to the oneness of all things. When you hurt someone you are hurting yourself, your own flesh; when someone hurts you, it is something in you which attacks your conscious aspect, like an auto-immunity disease. This is not to say that we should never hurt anyone, or should never be hurt; sometimes, all parts of us need to be hurt before they wake the hell up. But keeping compassion in mind allows you to have respect for all beings, offensive or benign. After all, they may be a spec on a planet near a star in a galaxy which is your neuron :-)
Hi Amit,
I'm not sure exactly what you feel is missing but I suspect it's just how we're using words here.
For me contemplation and observation are not necessarily the same thing. Contemplation is not about trying to figure something out. Contemplation seeks depth, observation not necessarily so. Contemplation is a spiritual practice that has been practiced through out humanity and continues to this day. It is simply taking a perspective for what it is and consciously holding it as a contemplation without assuming that that is all it is. Be it the breath, the guru, love, emptiness, a koan, a question, an inquiry, an icon, a mathematical equation, art, a beautiful man or woman, a dilemma, an ability, and so on. Contemplation leads beyond physical boundaries, beyond mental concepts, beyond our deepest identifications and into the divine itself, be it absolutely empty (wisdom), or utterly full (love).
And yes, contemplation is experience (as you suggest) and not simply observation.
The perspectives that can be taken in the universe are endless and so too are the ways of contemplation. But basically contemplation can be in the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person. Contemplate an object by observing it (3rd person), empathizing with it (2nd person), or by being it (1st person).
You mentioned the “it aganst I” perspectives. These are points of view (3rd person and 1st person) which can fully experience any persective from the profane to the profound. Just as the “we” (2nd person can). As Wilber points out, these are the three faces of God.
I'm not sure, but from your post it sounds like you have a prefrence for the “we” over the “I” and the “it”. Prefrences are fine, even the spiritual traditions have the prefrences with the “I', “We” and “It”. But canceling out the other perspectivies seems to go too far as they true doorways to the divine, even if they arn't our prefered doorway.
Contemplation can be done through the body, the mind, or the heart. It can be partial, or whole, fragmented or integrated. It can be of the interiors, or the exteriors. But what ever the case may be, in contemplation we never assume that what we are contemplating is all. Because there is always more.
None the less I stand by my post when I said that at its deepest level contemplation is a function of spirit and a faculty of consciousness. We can do (as many traditions do) a contemplation practice through the body, through the mind, or through the heart. But before the body, before the mind, and before the heart, there is consciousness. So, whether we contemplate a perspective through the body, mind, or heart, or from the “I, WE, or It” perspective, when it sinks into us at the level of consciousness then it truly becomes ours. It is an understanding that we “own” to be expressed through the body, heart, or even the mind (least it become a dirty word).
I don't agree that the faculty that allows us to experience a new perspective is the heart. I don't deny it, but I feel that this statement is only partial. We have to be able to cognitively take a perspective first (only mental…like a mouses nurons) and then gradually inhabit that perspective on all levels. We may not experience it this way but first the possibility has to arise in the mind… or the heart won't go there.
My experience in life, but especially in meditation, is that a perspective truly does have to sink into us at the level of consciousness for it to become an intuitive insight. This is how wisdom proceeds.
In Buddhism they say there are two aspects of Buddha nature, or the awakened mind. Wisdom and compassion. Depending on ones personal karma they may have a tendency towards one, or the other. But turning around and saying that one, or the other is the true way is attachment. Our history is full of examples that have lead to pathologies of attachment.
Let's not trash the mind in favor of the heart (or visa versa). They are both valid perspectives and are both valid doorways to spirit. As is the body.
To touch on what you said, O'sensei from aikido often said “uchu soku ware” - “I am the universe”. But he also said “to truly understand the essence of aikido you must fully understand emptiness”. All is one, or all is zero. Yes, indeed. And at the point where these words are a spiritual truth ALL perspectives colapse into one, or into zero.
For me the reason that the Blake poem above is so powerful is that it is an expression of brilliant wise mind that comes straight from the heart. And that is exactly how I experience it when I take it as a contemplation. Such wisdom, of such a beautiful heart. Such a beautiful contemplation.
Just for referance, here is the definition from the Oxford American dictionary:
contemplation |ˌkäntəmˈplā sh ən|, noun
the action of looking thoughtfully at something for a long time : the road is too busy for leisurely contemplation of the scenery.
• deep reflective thought : he would retire to his room for study or contemplation.
• the state of being thought about or planned.
• religious meditation.
• (in Christian spirituality) a form of prayer or meditation in which a person seeks to pass beyond mental images and concepts to a direct experience of the divine.
ORIGIN Middle English : from Old French, from Latin contemplatio(n-), from the verb contemplari (see contemplate ).
Yeah, I agree with literally everything you said.
The body-heart-mind triad allows us to experince things from the I-we-it presepectives – I'm defiantely NOT downplaying body and mind, and I agree mind has to percieve it before heart can work on it, I'm just saying many people stop there and don't bring it down through the mind, into the heart, and finally to the body (or any other combination). There's plenty of heart-oriented people out there who leave out mind and body, that's for sure.
I agree that if you try to experience the entire world solely through one of the three you will experience some severe shock and difficulties. To me, a true practitioner actively seeks out the aspects (called 'centres' in some traditions) in which he\she is not innately comfortable. They do so because they realize growth is present there. However, as somewhat aware people, I don't see our personal preferences as a hindernace. Rather, I think my affinity to heart will enable me to guide someone with an underdeveloped heart aspect or centre into greater clarity, just as Aikido teachers have guided me to a deeper connection with my body.
Same goes for contemplation. I agree consciousness is the most basic building block of the spiritual path and it indeed transcends, or rather powers, the mental, emotional, and physical centres. As for its source, nature, etc. that's all to do with one's school and preferences. If by contemplating you mean delving into that consciousness then woo hoo - contemplation rocks!!! :-)
and then there was poetry…
Spell bound
Waves like of a tuning fork
resonates through the body
I relax and let go
of all my desires
I can feel my toes
Now with intention I expand
filling the whole universe
with my soul
Breathing in, I close the light of day
breathing out gently, it all comes alive again
How is this not ordinary?
My eyes turns into constellations
and I loose count
of how many times you've said
I love you
wishing you were here
brings you closer
My will, I realize
is a mighty sword
to sweep this night away
Beautiful, Bjorn, beautiful. No, let's never forget that the whole point is the poetry……and, of course the dance too.