Integral Spirituality

I'm in Tantrika heaven reading Ken Wilber's "Integral Spirituality" book! I can only read a small amount at a time and I get so excited I have to put it down and savour and integrate for a while. Just in the first chapter, he's talking about practices that facilitate pure consciousness being liberated from their "cultural embededness ... that ignorance that allows social and cultural interests - patriarchal, sexist, ethnocentric, androcentric - to ride undetected into the awareness of a meditator even during [flashes of enlightenment]"

He postulates that you cannot separate cultural from transcendent without first seeing and including all the parts, then we can choose what to interact with and what to leave behind. Yes! See and be aware of ALL! Don't choose the path of transcendence to turn our backs on what is in front of us in our current stage of evolution! It's all One! *bounce*

This is so relevant to my recent, passionate questioning of "Why does it matter?" I could feel deep in my body and soul that it did matter, but the teaching seemed to tell me it shouldn't. "Why does it matter if I live in India or Virginia? If Consciousness is perfect and I am That wherever I am, it shouldn't matter." Based on Wilber's statement above, it DOES matter. Just living the practices I've learned thus far (saying that chanting and mindfulness is all I need to be happy and effective living in Virginia, for example) is the ignorance he's talking about, and that is perpetuating the things that are so damaging to our very existence on the planet.

Patriarchy, sexism, ethnocentrism, androcentrism: these are the things that the Occupy and Environmental movements are calling to our attention; these are the cultural biases that have killed our socioeconomic and physical environments. To truly be empowered and to empower others, I have to acknowledge and include the cultural biases that are inherent in Virginia as well as the ones inherent in the meditation practices I've learned and then get masterful at separating them. It does matter! Until I am masterful, I will be carrying them forward. Until I am masterful, I need a nurturing, supportive environment to live in.

OMG!!! This is powerful!!! I see this Integral philosophy as key to our living in the new era that is arising. It's the first concrete thing I've seen that shows me how we're going to get through this transition and move forward as a species. It's not just swinging the pendulum in the other direction, it's including the whole of what came before within a new dimension that gives us so much more room to operate. It is applicable to science, environmentalism, business, art, spirituality, medicine, academia, everything! This rocks!!!

And so it begins...

Welcome to the inaugural post in my River of Sound blog! Stay tuned for a peek into my current spiritual quest. I depart a week from today on a grand adventure, a pilgrimage of sorts, to deepen in the study of sound and spirituality in exotic India! Innoculations and meds have been procured, tickets and visa obtained, now the packing commences.

I'll be blogging about my daily spiritual practices for my Spiritual Practices class at CSL and general news of my well being for family and other friends. All of you reading this will be with me on this journey. I can sense your presence already and it brings me joy. Be prepared for a wild ride!