Terry Patten – Beyond Awakening
Ken took a look at what had been done before, and in his brilliant way he identified some key “orienting generalizations” of a truly integral practice. He saw that a truly integral practice must be broader than any single prescribed formal practice. So he defined a modular approach, embodying the principle of integral cross-training. If you meditate and also lift weights, you’ll progress more rapidly not just in your weight lifting but in your meditation as well. Because when we are in a growth mode in one dimension of our life and being, we grow more rapidly in all ways.
Integral practice includes practices of Mind, Body, Spirit, and Shadow, the four “core modules” of Integral Life Practice. We also made a point of addressing ethics very richly in Integral Life Practice, first in a series of seminars, and then, in much more depth, in the book
Integral Life Practice, which I created with Ken Wilber, Adam Leonard, and Marco Morelli. I was the senior writer.
After we developed Integral Life Practice, I taught it to thousands of people. Over six or seven years my approach evolved naturally. I gradually created a more organic approach. That’s what I have begun to call Integral Spiritual Practice (ISP).
Instead of “modules” of practice, in Integral Spiritual Practice I talk about the “spheres” of our lives and practice. Instead of focusing on “suchness” which I think is a profound and beautiful term, but something of an abstraction for many people, I point to “the Mystery.” I focus more on how practice expresses itself in our relationships—with our intimate partners, families, at work and as citizens. I pay attention to the step-by-step practical realities of what we actually do every day and in every moment, and how our practice can light up and transform our way of relating to every aspect and moment of life. I also focused on the context of practice, on our understanding of our life purpose and meaning, and how we actually embody that every day through our work and projects.
