California Institute of Integral Studies
California Institute of Integral Studies librariesNot a member yet
1665 research outputs found
Sort by
Transformation, Soul Alignment, and the Collective Superconscious in Western Esoteric Wisdom
No full textThe transformation we aspire to in the Integral community must unfold on many interconnected levels. Successfully addressing the many crises facing humanity and the planet will require a shift in collective consciousness, and this collective shift will necessarily reflect (and be reflected) through the aggregate of shifts in many individuals. In this dance of reciprocity, individual expansions of consciousness necessarily reflect the absorption and expression of wisdom emanating from higher levels through humanity’s collective superconscious. How may we proactively recognize, cooperate with, and manifest an overshadowing wisdom that can propel us through the conflicting interests and limited perspectives that result in the impasses so evident today? This presentation will explore the relationship between individual expansions of consciousness and what might be called the Collective Superconscious through the lens of Western Esoteric Wisdom (WEW). From this perspective, we see the human soul as an individualized unit of a group consciousness that transcends and overshadows our evolving human personalities, which are all too often caught up in partial, fear-based, and destructive patterns. For those who are ready, meditation and contemplative practice can increasingly become the means for precipitating the Wisdom of Humanity’s Collective Oversoul into conscious realization and applied action in the testing ground of daily life. Crucial to the practicality of this vision is an understanding of how the subjective work of meditation can, over time, translate to tangible impacts within a person’s daily life and sphere of personal influence.
This presentation will address some of the basic tenets of WEW regarding humanity’s essential role in the evolution of both consciousness and form, and portray our age as a critical opportunity for conscious cooperation with the powerful evolutionary impulses impacting our entire planetary life. We will also consider how patience with ourselves and our fellow humans is, paradoxically, integral to our timely response to the current crises
The Peak at the Nadir: Psychological Turmoil as the Trigger for Awakening Experiences
Get PDFA study of 161 temporary awakening experiences showed that over 23% were triggered by, or associated with, intense turmoil and distress (Taylor, 2012b). Examples of some of these turmoil-induced awakening experiences are given, illustrating the wide variety of traumatic experiences involved. (The type of trauma was found to be less important than its intensity.) These temporary awakening experiences are contrasted with permanent suffering-induced transformational experiences (SITEs). A distinction is made between a primary shift, involving the establishment of a new self-system (which occurs in SITEs), and the secondary shift which may occur after temporary awakening experiences, when the individual’s self-system remains fundamentally intact, but she or he experiences a shift in perspective and values. Possible reasons for the connection between psychological turmoil and awakening experiences are discussed, arguing that the experiences cannot simply be explained away as self-delusion or a psychological defense mechanism. It is suggested that there is a connection between turmoil-induced awakening experiences and the dissolution of psychological attachments, together with an intensification of energy
A Declaration of Interdependence: Peace, Social Justice, and the “Spirit Wrestlers”
Get PDFThe struggle between the Doukhobors, a nonviolent society committed to communal values, and the Canadian Government epitomizes the tension between values of personal rights and independence on the one hand, and social obligation on the other. The immigration of the Doukhobors from Russia to the Canadian prairies in 1899 precipitated a centurylong struggle that brings issues of social justice, moral obligation, political authority, and the rule of law into question. The fundamental core of Western democracies, founded on the sanctity of individual rights and equal opportunity, loses its potency in a community that holds to the primacy of interdependence and an ethic of caring. The transformation of individual identity from an isolated ego to a transpersonal state of interdependence presents profound implications for personal morality, social justice, and ecological awareness. The struggle of the Doukhobors invites us to imagine self-interest and community interest as no longer distinct and work toward a transformed vision of relational interdependence that embraces all of life
Implications and Consequences of Post-Modern Philosophy for Contemporary Perspectives on Transpersonal and Spiritual Experience I. The Later Foucault and Pierre Hadot on a Post-Socratic This-Worldly Mysticism
Get PDFWhile Michel Foucault is chiefly known for his historical relativism and his critique of modern institutional power over the individual, his late writings, as further extended by Pierre Hadot, centered on the post-Socratic spiritual practices of the experience of here and now presence or Being in the Stoics, Epicureans, and Cynics. For Foucault the positive, expansive self-actualization common to these traditions, and contrasting with Christian self-renunciation, offers a guidance for a contemporary spiritual crisis in valuation of the person. For Hadot each of the post-Socratic traditions was based on the imitation and further development of key characteristics of Socrates, much as the charismatic figure of Jesus inspired the multiple forms of earliest Christianity. These post-Socratic practices of the Hellenistic-Roman era are examples of what Max Weber termed a this- or inner-worldly mysticism, in contrast to both the more other-worldly mysticisms of the East and the Judeo- Christian prophetical traditions, and saw as the most likely line of spiritual renewal in the modern secularized West. Examples of this form of spirituality are reflected in the Sufi influenced Gurdjieff-Ouspensky movement, Jung’s Self, Maslow’s self-actualization, and the Diamond-Heart approach of Almaas. Foucault and Hadot locate its specifically Western historical geneaology, which, given Jung’s controversial concerns over adopting spiritualities outside one’s own cultural tradition, may offer some context and direction amidst presently contending New Age and transpersonal spiritual understandings
To Be Integrated and to Be Integral
No full textTo be integrated and to be integral are both stages in parts of being. I say “stages” because I believe being is essentially “becoming”. Being never ceases to become as life never ceases to be but continues to express and develop itself further in other lives and thoughts. All our thoughts, feelings and acts, be they atrocious or be they benign, cause countless ripples in the minds of others, contemporary as well as future, due to the unstoppable process of biological-social evolution. Our ways of being unceasingly generate newer ways of being and thus never really die but forever “become”. For our being to be locked inside a shell is an aberration, a disability; such misfortunes can be sought to be remedied or otherwise contained by the more fortunate who manifest the gift of a free soul. The transformative process cannot come to an end upon attaining any particular stage labeled “integral”.
There is no final when it comes to consciousness. Even as the “sat” (being) attains “chit” (consciousness) and becomes “ananda” (joy), it still continues to “be”, and to be is to be manifest, to oneself and to others. To be is to give light, be it the subdued glow of trembling embers, or the flicker of a lamp or the radiance of the sun. As manifest, an integral being remains subject to exposure, in its own lifetime and into the indefinable future. Its exposure is a part of proving itself, through further integration of what comes to pass and may come to pass as time goes by. Time is the Queen and being and becoming are her ways to be.
Thus, the bliss of integral being may not be the unsullied joy and peace of an imperturbable whole absorbed in its all-inclusive state of rest. The bliss of an integral way of being is the joy of being available to become a part of other souls in various stages of their evolution and the ever-readiness to undergo further integration in the process
Interreligious Dialogue: Understanding and Friendship(panel discussion)
No full text“There will be no peace among the nations without peace among the religions. There will be no peace among the religions without dialogue among the religions“.
— Hans Küng, President of the Foundation for a Global Ethic
The term interreligious dialogue refers to constructive and positive exchanges between members or leaders of different religious traditions. There are numerous local, national and international interfaith initiatives, many of which are formally or informally linked and work together. The panelists bring to this conversation extensive personal experience in interfaith work both on national and global levels. After brief individual presentations, they will engage each other and the audience
Integral Counseling Psychology Newsletter
Get PDFThis is the Fall 2013 issue of ICP Newsletterhttps://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/integralcounselingpsychologynewsletter/1007/thumbnail.jp
The Ethno-Epistemology of Transpersonal Experience: The View from Transpersonal Anthropology
Get PDFThis paper introduces the topic of ethno-epistemology with regards to transpersonal experiences. The distinction between polyphasic and monophasic cultures is introduced and the interaction between a society’s world view and individual transpersonal experience is explained using the cycle of meaning model. A link to philosophical work on “natural epistemology” is made and the importance of the “projectability” of cultural theories of experience is discussed. The individual contributions to this special section of the journal are introduced
