The Integral Heart and Our Evolutionary Future

by Terry Patten -

The "Integral Heart" embodies a disposition that pays attention to the core of all things—the center that also connects with—and integrates—all dimensions of reality. 

The word "heart" comes from an Anglo-Saxon root-word connoting the "very center" or "core." 

The ancient lore of yoga posited three hearts — the beating physical heart on the left, the subtle feeling heart chakra in the middle, and the conscious causal heart on the right.

The core of things can be found quite practically right here in the physical plane; it can be found through the opening of the heart in transpersonal love; and it can be found by realizing the radical consciousness at the root of existence. 

The Integral Heart explicitly emphasizes the connection of consciousness, care and embodiment. It stands in the inseparability of the intelligence of the Integral impulse with the unified, awakened feeling awareness associated with the heart and the body.

It opens up a conversation: How do we actually live the Integral Heart? —especially in this time and place.

Living the Integral Heart

We live in "interesting times." We face multiple challenges so large they transcend human history, challenges that can only be understood on an evolutionary scale. 

Such conditions require profound, inclusive, caring intelligence and commitment, not mere calculation. 

That’s what is signified by the words "Integral Heart." 

Our political, social and economic institutions seem helpless, bound by a spaghetti-tangle of tunnel-vision karmas and Catch-22 dynamics. 

We Are Each Called

Only mighty, multidimensional, whole-being intelligence, anchored in the heart, has a hope to meet the challenges of our time.

We are each called by our evolutionary emergency—by problems that cannot be solved at the level through which they were created. 

We are called to wake up, to heal ourselves, to serve others, to cooperate and to evolve human culture and society. 

We must transcend and include all that has come before us, and embody our highest heart-intelligence in our personal commitments, our intimate relationships, our careers and our contributions to the world.

It's a big task. It's a humbling, sometimes painful task and it's a joyful one. But it doesn't help to get hyped up over it, or grandiose. If we are going to survive and evolve, it will only be with our feet planted firmly on the ground. 

This means we must engage in a deep, authentic process of growth and transformation. It means we must respectfully help each other evolve. 

We must further the great adventure of human consciousness, which, with all its twists and turns, peaks and pitfalls, is the process of history itself.

A New Enlightenment

In the 17th and 18th centuries, an "enlightenment" swept over the Western world—a new level of consciousness that sought to liberate individuals and institutions from the tyranny of tradition, guided by the light of reason. 

The enlightenment brought us democracy, human rights and such notions as equality and "justice for all." But of course, it was an incomplete enlightenment. 

It left a lot of people out. It glorified rationality at the expense of other legitimate forms of consciousness. Thus, in many postmodern circles, the whole notion of any kind of “enlightenment” was discredited. But nothing was offered to take its place.

In fact, we now need an even higher level of enlightenment. A greater, more inclusive, trans-rational enlightenment. An enlightenment of both the Mind and Heart (not to mention the Body, Soul, and Spirit!).

Just as the old enlightenment was inspired by the ideas and philosophies of the great thinkers of the time, our own enlightenment must also have its own grand ideas and maps.

This is important, because if we’re going to engage the process of waking up—and helping each other and many others, to wake up (imagine a viral or grassroots enlightenment movement)—we must make use of the best distinctions, vocabulary, and maps of reality we have available. 

We must understand, transcend, and integrate our global inheritance of human wisdom and know-how—ancient, traditional, modern, and post-modern. We must be changed in our very way of being. 

We must comprehend and thus masterfully participate in a nuanced, flex-flowing, multi-dimensional world. We need Integral maps, Integral consciousness and an Integral Heart. That Heart has no way into the world except through us.

Realizing the Integral Heart

Ultimately, this site is part of a larger conversation between people who are concerned with the big issues and questions that we face not just as individuals but a species and as a nascent global society. 

How can we bring greater love and spirit into the world? 

How can we peacefully coexist coming from different cultural contexts, different religions (or non-spiritual backgrounds), different histories, different politics, different ecological sensibilities and even different levels of consciousness? 

What's next for the inhabitants of this strange little planet in a boundless sea of stars and emptiness in all directions? Contributing to our evolutionary future is a great matter. It inspires me (and many). We often fall short of what's needed. I fall short. Yet we must keep trying.

More Background on The Integral Heart

• Integral Agency-in-Communion - A short essay on the importance of balancing the "agentic" (masculine, individualist) orientation of many expressions of Integral consciousness, with a balanced and corresponding "communal" orientation (feminine, collectivist).
• The AQAL Integral Map and Other Sources of The Integral Heart - A summary of the theoretical context of The Integral Heart, including a link to a 40-page PDF by Ken Wilber introducing the AQAL ("All Quadrants, All Levels" model of consciousness, the Kosmos, and human development.
• Integral Life Practice - General introduction plus link to a preview of the first two chapters of the book by Ken Wilber, Terry Patten, Adam Leonard, and Marco Morelli.

terrypatten.com

Evolutionary Activism

by Terry Patten -

At the Integral Theory Conference a couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of participating in a panel on Integral Politics.

During the discussion, I found myself outlining a 3-part strategy for evolutionary activism—using the metaphor of Bodhidharma, the bushy-eyebrowed sage who is said to have brought Buddhism to China from India and to have founded Chinese martial arts at the Shaolin Temple.

The question I was addressing was: 

How can conscious citizens effectively help bring about a positive future in the face of our current crises and stuckness? Do we have a workable strategy?

According to ancient legends, certain Emperors of China ruled wisely and well, guided by the advice of great sages—including Lao Tzu, Confucius and perhaps also Bodhidharma.

A Bodhidharma Strategy

Such stories suggest a broad approach that evolutionaries can adopt:

• Become Bodhidharma.
• Help create enlightened sustainable solutions— ‘spare parts’ for 4-quadrant systems redesign.
• Gain the ear of the Emperor.

Okay, let’s unpack that a little. First, some meta-context:

Evolutionary Urgency, “Pre” and “Trans”

One of the problems with conventional political activism is that it can be so painfully egoic. Egos commonly experience anxiety, and on that basis they feel an urgency to take action. But anxiety-based activism tends to recreate the disharmony that motivates it. 

If you’ve ever volunteered in a political campaign or for a political cause, you’ve probably come across the incredible narrowing of vision—and often the incredible lack of understanding or compassion for the “other side”—that accompanies these efforts, even if the candidate or cause is otherwise just. 

That anxious urgency frequently leads to unnecessary conflict, emotional burnout and even a disaffected cynicism that gives up on the very possibility of meaningful change.

Spiritual development awakens people beyond such urgency, conferring a great sense of relief as we recognize, deeply and truly, that everything, in a real sense, is perfect just as it is. 

Since ultimately, everything is Spirit or God, nothing really needs be done. “Non-effort,” or simply practicing a peaceful attitude in everyday life, is held up as the ideal. And this is a valuable and legitimate way of being, as far as it goes.

But the process of spiritual development doesn’t end there. 

It then awakens us beyond mere contentment and freedom from dilemma. It liberates us into a profound enlightened commitment to serve, a passionate participation in life that is capable of great urgency—a trans-enlightened urgency altogether different from the ­pre-­enlightened egocentric, dilemma-based urgency with which we began.

Our Evolutionary Dilemma

The very idea of a strategy for evolutionary activism may appear naïve, grandiose—or even dangerous, considering how frequently such grand idealistic aspirations have fed totalitarianism. 

Nonetheless, the continued survival and evolution of human culture may now depend upon us making a critical transition to sustainability—one that’s not spontaneously emerging via the market’s invisible hand, nor the wise decision-making of our economic and political elites. 

 The hardwired motivations of “the selfish gene” aren’t designed to meet threats like the depletion of fresh water aquifers, the resolution of culture wars or global warming. And the transition before us requires evolved leadership and an organizing rationale.

Therefore, responsible citizens need a credible strategy for enlightened action. 

In most of the world, and egregiously in the United States, vested interests and political parties are locked in zero-sum power struggles between traditional, modern and postmodern value structures. To resist the abuses of one inadequate approach often seems impossible except by contributing to another.

During the George W. Bush presidency, for example, I repeatedly found myself stirred to political action only to the déjà vu experience of my voice being drowned out by the roar of disappointing “progressive” (postmodern leftist) rhetoric. Resistance often seemed futile.

Efforts to enact enlightened reforms are necessary and laudable—but often extremely frustrating. 

To enact an integral evolutionary commitment we need a vision of how we can get past (or around) the current political and cultural stuckness that seems to make adequate responses to escalating crises impossible.

A “Soft Landing” for our Overheated Global Culture.

What’s the evolutionary objective for our activism? 

I suggest that THE political issue of our time is doing what we can to create a path to sustainability with minimal catastrophic disruptions. 

We should focus on optimizing global human culture’s passage through an epochal adaptive transition.

Since our current social patterns and habits are overheated and unsustainable, the goal is to transition as quickly as possible to more sustainable modes of living, while minimizing traumatic disruptions—it’s especially important not to trigger cultural regression (small or large “dark ages”).

Preparation is everything. 

Realistically, most well-informed observers believe that big disruptions are probably inevitable — huge shocks, disasters, and crises seem not only likely but maybe even necessary to catalyze the political will for us to change human choices and behavior. 

The “silver lining” is that these crises will punctuate our current deadlock and stuckness. Each will present “windows of opportunity” for more fundamental systems redesign.

In October 2008, Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke, facing a liquidity crisis that threatened a meltdown of the world financial system, had an opportunity to consider heretofore unthinkable policy moves — even nationalizing the nation’s biggest banks. But they had to act fast.

That’s the way it is when a crisis hits. 

All of a sudden, huge changes are possible but urgency and fear are off-the-charts and there’s little time or bandwidth for deliberation.

What if, among Paulson’s and Bernanke’s circles of respected advisers, there had been a network of enlightened thinkers who had already thought long and hard about these issues? 

What if they had written white papers describing the kinds of solutions that could be considered, and what if they had thought deeply not just about how to successfully address the short-term crisis — but how to do it wisely, with a view toward long-term transformation?

What if, using grounded, well-informed, complex, nuanced, higher vision-logic, they had looked for solutions based on the following key criteria?

KEY CRITERIA

• Seek policy solutions that would gradually move the US and world financial systems—at least incrementally—toward sustainability, increasing the likelihood of smoother transitions.

• Avoid approaches that would merely delay key moments-of-reckoning, increasing the likelihood or inevitability of more disruptive adjustments.

• Do so in a way that’s politically feasible given the current climate, but also pushes the body politic (and media) to grow in its capacity for more profoundly sustainable approaches to our most challenging problems.

With all that context and meta-context on the table now, let’s unpack the simple 3-part summary of the strategy outlined at the beginning of this post.

3-PART STRATEGY

1. Become “Bodhidharma”. 

Practice, grow, evolve, mature into the deepest, clearest, most powerful, authentically wise, trustworthy, skillful and persuasive human being you can be. 

This is the essential foundation and it will last all of our lifetimes. 

Part of that life of practice take place in relationship to others. Help to co-create a wiser integral evolutionary culture—a conscious community of practice and civic responsibility. To paraphrase Thich Nhat Hanh, the next Buddha—or Bodhidharma—may be a Sangha. This, too, is an essential foundation. 

Notice, it is not necessary to be Bodhidharma or “radically enlightened” but only to be authentically aligned with and engaged in the process of becoming that kind of being. 

2. Help create enlightened sustainable solutions— 

‘Spare parts’ for 4-quadrant systems redesign out of which we can gradually build more sustainable societies and that decision makers can draw upon as elements of responses to crises. 

This step includes a diverse array of “spare parts,” projects relating not only to sustainable energy or land and water use but also to financial and monetary policies, organizational governance, political reforms, as well as clarified higher values, culture and spirituality.

A key point here: Many individuals don’t self-identify as “leaders.” A truly integral evolutionary culture (rather than a merely intellectual movement) can contribute directly or indirectly to the process of developing them, including cultivating qualities of leadership even in individuals who may not be in conventional leadership positions. 

3. Gain “the ear of the Emperor". 

By this I mean, become credible, expert, influential, and powerful in the cultures and institutions with the greatest influence over high-impact decisions (or even moderate-impact decisions—we need engagement across all scales). 

If it’s not your dharma to become a decision-maker, become an advisor, a teacher or influencer of them—or an advisor to such advisors—or just serve such people. 

It may be your path to simply be a deeply conscious human being who helps create an integral evolutionary spiritual culture that nurtures and supports others who do this work. 

In any case, you can live a life that expresses a fierce evolutionary commitment to enable sanity and wisdom to guide human affairs. 

SIMULTANEOUS

This 3-part strategy is simultaneous, not sequential.

You obviously don’t have to get enlightened before you work on sustainable solutions to practical problems, nor do you have to have enlightened solutions in hand before you gain access to power and influence.

If your intentions and behavior are deeply guided by all 3 of these injunctions, you won’t fall into the errors that have tended to thwart enlightened activism.

Activists generally make two errors: They fail to become deep and wise; and they tend to react against the abuses and errors of the powerful rather than guiding them skillfully. 

On the other hand, those who embrace the spiritual path make their own species of errors: They tend to avoid working “in the trenches” to forge detailed practical sustainable solutions; and they cede power to benighted egos for whom it is the only focus.

For enlightened responsibility to awaken in the human system, a new kind of responsibility must awaken in each of us—in me, and in you. 

We can’t delegate it all to elected officials and CEOs. The process will inevitably be messy and imperfect, so no single strategy sums it all up. 

But these 3 injunctions can guide us to good effect. To reprise them:

• Become Bodhidharma.
• Help create enlightened sustainable solutions—‘spare parts’ for 4-quadrant systems redesign.
• Gain the ear of the Emperor.

terrypatten.com

The Evolving Global Revolution

by Terry Patten and Marco V Morelli -

Consciousness, Culture and Society:

We live in edge times, when it seems anything is possible. People everywhere are waking up to the reality that the world as we know it is dying and a new world is struggling to be born.

Across the globe, the streets are filled with people demanding change. Some are even giving their lives. And millions more are working for change more quietly, yet no less profoundly.

Our digital age lets us see more clearly than ever that our diverse political, cultural, and spiritual struggles—from Tahrir Square to Wall Street, from Tibet to the tribulations in our personal lives—are fundamentally not separate, but part of a bigger story of our evolving humanity.

Even as our culture and institutions scramble to preserve an unsustainable status quo, some of us are busy imagining a new future for humanity. And we’re not just imagining it—we’re beginning to make it happen.

A Beautiful Crisis

We all know the problems we face. A global economy held together by duct tape. Ecosystems under assault. Political systems in paralysis. A culture of careless consumption. And the list goes on . . .

On the other hand, in many ways, we’ve never had it better. We’ve never had more material wealth and cultural openness; more technological and policy fixes to deploy; more learning and wisdom at our fingertips; or more widespread willingness to make the needed changes to foster a thriving human presence on the planet.

The zeitgeist—the spirit of our age—is animated by this simultaneous recognition of crisis and possibility. We live with anxiety and uncertainty, as old structures wobble on the verge of collapse, yet we're inspired by the promise of a new world that's shining through the cracks of the old.

And as with any birth, it’s a beautiful and dangerous time . . .

A Dream Deferred?

For millennia, history has been made by human beings on fire with the radical dream of a better world to come.

We’ve toiled, sacrificed, raised our voices, and gone to war . . . been beaten, jailed and crucified . . . starved ourselves and self-immolated for the sake of this more beautiful world.

We’ve also written books of poetry and philosophy . . . meditated, prayed, worshipped, and danced . . . made art and love and peace . . . advanced scientific knowledge and invented new technologies to bring an amazing and sacred world into presence, here and now.

In the process, we’ve evolved from scattered bands of primitive hunter-gatherers to a global, diverse, hi-tech, interconnected civilization of billions. 

Yet, for all our real and significant advances, we continue to abuse and enslave each other; we perpetuate a dissociation from the natural world; and, indirectly, we stifle the development of our highest creative and spiritual capacities.

That why, for many of us, the dream of a better world burns more brightly and more urgently than ever. 

An Integral Consciousness

We’ve come to realize that our existing ideologies and philosophies are no longer adequate, by themselves. We feel called to enact that ancient dream with a new consciousness.

It’s a consciousness that’s beyond conservative or progressive, inner or outer, skepticism or faith—yet it’s inclusive of each.

It’s a consciousness that’s evolving to meet the challenges and possibilities of our time—and it’s quietly yet insistently arising in millions around the globe.

An Idea Whose Time Has Come

To make it through our evolutionary crucible will require a whole new movement in consciousness and culture—one that we call “integral” because it will be defined by the integration of previously separate, partial, fragmented and one-dimensional approaches to reality.

Integral describes the evolutionary practice of engaging the crisis/birth of this miraculous moment in our social activism, our creative work and our personal lives.

The word “Integral” also names and connects the many efforts already germinating at every level and in every segment of society to bring greater wholeness, health, balance, intelligence and love into the world.

When we commit to not just “be the change” or “do the change” but to enter the territory of enacting both at once, we aspire to something that’s never existed before: a sustainable and thriving planetary civilization that supports every human being’s capacity for consciousness, creativity and connectedness.

Around the globe, (extra)ordinary people are coming together and rising up—sometimes in the streets but just as radically in homes, churches, classrooms, laboratories, office buildings, meeting rooms and of course, online—not just demanding change but manifesting it . . . making the dream of a more beautiful world a reality.

In other words, an Integral Revolution is not only necessary—it’s already underway.

integralrevolution.com