Terry Patten – Beyond Awakening
Integral theory offers an overarching understanding of the physics of the internal universe, of evolution, not just of the external world but also of our interior realities.
This is something that has been observed with so much insight and with such valuable orienting generalizations through the work of people like Teillard de Chardin, Sri Aurobindo, Jean Gebser, and especially Ken Wilber. This has spawned an international community, which is where I am mostly known through my teaching and through writing a book with Ken Wilber.
Really though, these two words just emphasize two different aspect of a single phenomenon—a more profound and inclusive understanding of reality. They offer a way of understanding what is going on right here, right now in the largest possible frame, from 30,000 feet, but in a way that helps us zoom in also for close-ups. They help human beings show up with a sense of wonder and immediacy and aliveness to every living moment.
Omtimes: You wrote a book with Ken Wilber called Integral Life Practice: A 21st Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening. Since then you’ve developed your own teaching based on Ken’s work, Integral Spiritual Practice. How have you expanded upon/contributed to the field of Integral Theory and Ken’s work with Integral Spiritual Practice?
Terry: Integral Life Practice was developed by Ken Wilber working closely with a whole team, in which I was a key participant. We were advancing a new emerging field, the field of Integral Practice. It had already begun to come into being through pioneering work like that of Sri Aurobindo, which in turn fueled Michael Murphy’s experiments at Esalen and informed the California Institute of Integral Studies which grew out of Haridas Chaudry’s partnership with Alan Watts and the integration with East and West psychology and spirituality. Then George Leonard and Michal Murphy put that together in formulating the first contemporary system, which they called “Integral Transformative Practice” (ITP) in the early ‘90s.
