Gaia Community: jpjako's Blog

366 days of ILP

http://jupsa.gaia.com — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 19:05:33 GMT

I finished my one-year Integral Life Practice (ILP) challenge a couple of weeks ago. I am extremely happy having done it. Although I didn't blog about it here in Gaia very often, I kept a blog in Finnish for the whole year.

Now, we're moving on to new challeges with my family. In one month we are moving to a lighthouse island in the middle of the sea. The island is called Utö and it's the most beautiful place I have ever seen.

Life is a good thing if you let it be so.

Tags: ILP, Integral Life Practice, integral, Ken Wilber, Finland, Utö

Ok, I'll just stop trying to remember the weeks...

http://jupsa.gaia.com — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:27:33 GMT

My 1-year Integral Life Practice experiment is now halfway through. I feel I have stabilized my meditation and excercise habit pretty well; same goes for my mind expansion (although at times I feel like running in circles from Ken Wilber to Gurdjieff to Ken Wilber to...I'm expanding, I'm expanding!). Shadow work has been OK as well. Since all of these areas have almost unlimited possibilities, I have tried to create and maintain a "basecamp", a stable core. Well, stable and stable, teetering on the brink to be more excact, but anyway. I've tried.

I finished translating A Brief History of Everything into Finnish. Now it'll go through several stages of revising. I hope it'll reach a wide audience here in Finland. Especially since I have my translator's copies to sell...

What is ILP for? What is Life for, anyway? "To live it in such a way that the need to ask that question does not arise", I was told recently. Well said.

So, to live it "in such a way" is precisely what practice is about. It is a mental attitude coupled with real-life excercises like meditation, reading, studying, observation of one's self and lifting weights, to name a few, with which one approaches the daily grind. How we meet our own consciousness, how do we relate to being alive with ourselves, other people and the Kosmos; how do we relate to waking up each morning and then some - that is living, and practicing, in such a way that the need for all sorts of dumb questions arises only now and then.

Tags: Integral Life Practice, ILP, Ken Wilber, Finland, Gurdjieff, meditation, Shadow, Mind, Body, Spirit

Weeks 10-13

http://jupsa.gaia.com — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 10:41:29 GMT

What I been up to? Apparently doing something else than updating my blog. Let's see:

* took a trip to the Netherlands' Roadburn festival & saw some of the coolest bands around
* translated A Brief History of Everything past page 250 (!)
* decided to give my studies at the University one more year (sixth)
* started reading secondary material to my Master's thesis on Ken Wilber (first book: Turn Off Your Mind by Gary Lachman, excellent stuff!)
* got a phone call by another Finnish Ken Wilber enthusiast who's studing at the JFK Integral Studies program
* decided to hold the first gathering of integrally-minded people in Finland next autumn
* changed a few diapers
* been trying to concentrate on just one book at a time & liking it a lot
* got into Boris who restored my faith rock music once again

I try to write on a more regular basis in the future.

Tags: Ken Wilber, integral, Brief History of Everything, books, baby, Netherlands, university, studying, Finland, music, travelling

Weeks 8 & 9 - Life Is Born

http://jupsa.gaia.com — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:16:53 GMT

Whew! What a day, what a week! Actually, what a slice of life I got in my feeble, trembling hands.

Vauvakuvia 005

Today me and my dear wife came home from the hospital with our first-born, a beautiful baby boy named Jura Aleksanteri. This week I've been shuttling between my desk where I'm working on a translation of philosopher Ken Wilber's amazing book A Brief History of Everything, and the local hospital where my wife + our son were stationed. So lots of changes at the moment going on, lots of adapating and lots of reasons to keep on excercising body, mind, shadow and spirit.

Actually my practices have been so and so during the last two weeks. I wouldn't say it's because of the changes, but there is something I've learned through them neverthless. When new stuff appears on our radar, we have a tendency to get caught up in it. Better yet: get caught up in our reactions to whatever it is that takes our attention.

It is nigh-on impossible to control the world. What we do have control over is our reactions to what happens, to what is. Intelligent thing to do is -at least at first- to accept what is. That requires not letting our attention to be mesmerized by our habitual, machine-like, knee-jerk reactions to what happens, to what is. Acceptance may then lead to actually doing something about what is, if that is called for. But at first, we must try and stay centered, not get flying after every fancy of our mind.

So many more reasons to keep on trying to practice; consistently, diligently, humbly. To bow in front of the greatest mystery, the conondrum of life, in front of living, breathing, gesticulating human being, is indeed, the function of this proud new dad's Integral Life Practice. Whatever forms it will take in the coming days, and weeks, and maybe -hopefully, I pray- even years, I will keep on relating in this blog. Keep reading! :)

Tags: Integral Life Practice, ILP, baby, children, Life, Living, Acceptance, Controlling, Ken Wilber, Integral, A Brief History of Everything

Week 7 - Integral Naked Seminar @ my place

http://jupsa.gaia.com — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 06:45:43 GMT

Blog 007

This weekend I hosted a seminar for me and my wife. It was held in the comfort of our house, based on a series of videolectures by mr. Ken Wilber. The topic was "Integral Buddhism".

I love organizing it as if it were a "real" seminar I'm attending. I always make a brochure for it with Microsoft Word and print it out. It's the next best thing to flying out to one of Integral Institute's gathereings. And besides, it suits my budget.

Besides the seminar I've continued excercising daily, getting up at 6 am, and continuing with my studies and the translation of Wilber's book. I have noticed the power of ritual: yesterday I got up late, at 9 40 am, which meant that the rest of the day was spent trying in vain to get my mind back to decent tracks. Eventually I eneded up renting Saw & Saw II, and that gave me some rest. Desperate measures, indeed, are sometimes needed.

So what I've learned is that I really do tend to get the 80% of my good cheer for the day from the 20% (or less) of my time that I use with my morning rituals (getting up early, reading some good blogs, exercising + today I added meditation, and writing a blog). I guess as human beings we are always addicted to something. What we can choose is what it is we're addicted to: bliss, sorrow, good mood, sulking, whatever. I choose happiness!

And if that doesn't work, I'll go for horror films.

Tags: integral, Integral Life Practice, meditation, happiness, Ken Wilber, Integral Institute, ILP, excercise, body, mind, spirit

Weeks 5 & 6: The Power of the Smaller Route

http://jupsa.gaia.com — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 04:35:57 GMT

The word "routine" is really a powerful one. It is dervived from Latin, and from there it's found its way to French, where it means literally "a smaller road". In essence it means a path or a clearing in a forest.

By working with different parts in ourselves we little by little cut down our inner wilderness and make way for something else to appear. With our daily routines we create something alive inside us, a place of rest where we can take refuge when the going gets tough. I guess the tough get going like that.

Routines must be many-sided, I reckon. Just making a singe path in the woods is like putting all the eggs in one basket. Man is a many-storied machine, and so should be our practices as well. The big idea behind my Integral Life Practice is just that: by creating routines in body, mind, spirit and shadow, I actually make every respective path a bit stronger. Or that's my working belief, anyway.

As to my actual practice, I've now successfully gotten up at 6 am every morning for almost four weeks now. This week I started excercising daily in addition to that. Both of those practices have a behind them an actual value, that I wish to acquire into my being. Namely, self-reliance and will. Getting up early increases my feeling of being able to rely on my self, my promises, my being. And doing what I dislike almost the first thing in the morning is an attempt to create a small path to the refuge of Will, where I can have a certain sense of trust in "mind over mattress", as Robin Sharma put it.

Today I will give a lecture of sorts on the basics of AQAL philosophy of Ken Wilber. That should be nice. And it's just about two weeks before our baby should arrive! Kinda exciting, to say the least... :)

Tags: Integral, Life, Practice, ILP, Ken Wilber, AQAL, Robin Sharma, Getting up early, Will, self-reliance, routines

Week 4 - Changing habits one at a time

http://jupsa.gaia.com — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 07:11:41 GMT

Final week of the first month has gone well. I've given up meditation and weightlifting for trying to build my ILP with baby steps. That is, getting up 6 am every morning, including weekends. Extremely useful: I feel so happy and so much more in control of myself than before.

What I used to do was force myself to engage in practices in order to be happy. Now I feel a tide turning. Why not try to do stuff to make myself happy in the first place, and build practices around that? I might be a bit shaky without the grounding effect of meditation, but at least I'm not feeling the Parent "shoulds" ordering the whole of my being as if from the outside.

I've really come to appreciate the emphasis of the Gurdjieff Work on building will before engaging in esoteric practices. Meaning that one must try to get some sense of order in the inner chaos by, (1) seeing the chaos and (2) creating a "deputy steward" who orders the chaos by assining every little self to their own place. In my own life that means figuring out the bottlenecks of my personal growth.

Although man is a many-storied-machine, with body, mind, spirit, and shadows all as one, I've found it tedious and troublesome to try and engage them all at the same time. What I see to be the sly man's tactic is -although acknowledging them all- to tackle one "bottleneck at a time". Starting with the 80/20 'neckers.

Pareto Principle, or the 80/20 principle means that 80 % of our results come from the 20 % of our efforts. I have seen that getting up early is way, way, way more important than mediation, weightlifting, reading comics...whatever. If I sleep in, all the rest is just repairing damages. So my first practice for making Integral Life a habit, is to get up early for a month to lock in the habit. So far, so good. Applying the 80/20 to my ILP seems to be the way to go.

Here are some random suggestions for effective change of habits:

1) One habit a time,
2) The worst bottlenecks first;
3) Doing what feels uncomfortable next,
4) Rewarding the inner Child by celebrating small wins
5) Finishing what I start.

All this is good for building the character needed for self-mastery that is needed for further growth. To try to tame the lesser hippie in me for the higher Hippie to manifest, that's gotta count for something, right? ;)

Tags: ILP, habits, changing habits, getting up early, 80/20 principle, Gurdjieff, meditation, weightlifting, Integral Life Practice

Guided by Voices - Teenage FBI

http://jupsa.gaia.com — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 20:00:14 GMT

The best rock band to tramp the earth since the Who, playing the opening track from their 1999 masterpiece, Do the Collapse.

Guided By Voices - Teenage FBI

Tags: Guided by Voices, music, rock, pop, greatness, Robert Pollard

Weeks 2 & 3

http://jupsa.gaia.com — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 06:30:23 GMT

I have been a bit overwhelmed writing my other blog daily in Finnish. So here's a summary of the past two weeks of my 366-day Integral Life Practice.

In mid-week of week 2 in got sick. First I thought it was my stomach, then I realized it was all of me. Having had occasional troubles with my stomach all my life (I dread my appendix! Don't ask.) I got to see having dissociated my head from my body and heart big time. All I could do was rest. That marked a minor major shift for me.

You see, doing nothing's a drag if you're an enneagram seven. Truly. For me, though, it turned out to be a liberating experience. I noticed just to what extent I escape into my head, into constant doing, into ceaseless motion. Having to stop was just what my inner doctor ordered. So I just lied down, finished a couple of books I had started before and enjoyed just excisting. What a thrill!

It also turned my ILP experiment on its pointy head. I started out with a full-fledged plan: 5xweek excercise, 6xweek meditation, 5xweek translating a book and studying for my Master's degree + shadow work whenever appropriate. I came to notice just how much I am demanding of myself. It wasn't fun. So I decided to start all over, building my experiment from scratch.

I set just one objective: get up early, at 6 am every morning for a month. That's all. Sure, there's stuff that comes with the territory and has to be done, like my commitments for the translation and the master's. But overall, I made a commitment to try and lessen my inner producer, and give more power to my inner director, so to speak. Loosen up and take it more easy. Starting out by being happy and then adding to that, gradually, excercises from my ILP plan.

Speaking of the devil. My plan is to have a pretty grounded and fairly steady diet of regular strenght & aerobic excercise, daily meditation practice, time commitment, reading, and shadow work by the end of the experiment. That is, just a tad under a year from now. Pretty different than starting from all of that and trying to desperately hold on to it, keeping it up "no matter what" for a year. Whew! What a relief.

Tags: ILP, body, mind, shadow, spirit, Integral Life Practice, waking up, Ken Wilber, meditation, excercise

ILP in 366 days - Week 1

http://jupsa.gaia.com — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 07:58:27 GMT

One week ago I made a commitment for a long-term ILP. That's Integral Life Practice, a program for waking up body, mind, spirit and shadow. I have been practicing meditation, doing some yoga now and then, going to the gym occasionally, and even went to see a therapist for a few times (not that common in Finland, let me tell you). But my main problem remains the lack of long-term commitment, mostly in anything I do. So I kind of jumped in head first and made a commitment to keep up a form of ILP for 366 days, and hopefully for the rest of my life. It is, after all, an Integral Life Practice.

So this is week one. I will write about the details of my routine later, but suffice to say for now I do meditation, weightlifting, three body workout (explanations forthcoming!), studying for my Master's thesis, translating a book (A Brief History of Everything by Ken Wilber; his first to be translated into Finnish!) and attend fourth way (Gurdjieff Work) group meetings on a weekly basis.

I most sincerely hope this does not sound like bragging (for that, I have a shadow blog "All the chicks I've boned"...that's a joke! Just a joke!) but that it might give to others or help me recieve ideas on Integral living. That's it for now. I intend to give a report of sorts probably once a week. And if you got any suggestions based on your own experiences or want to ask something please leave a comment. Thanks + cheers!
P.S. At the moment I am in Copenhagen with some friends & my wife, about to attend a Big Mind seminar led by Genpo Dennis Merzel Roshi. Very nice!

Tags: Ken Wilber, ILP. integral, meditation, weightlifting, Big Mind, Gurdjieff

I just need to share this

http://jupsa.gaia.com — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 10:54:37 GMT

Dinosaur Jr. - "Sludgefeast"

One of the best bands there ever was (and gladly, still is)! Certainly my reason for picking up the guitar in the first place. I just needed to share this!

Tags: music, Dinosaur Jr, guitar, bands

In praise of Obyvatel

http://jupsa.gaia.com — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 08:35:23 GMT

When I was younger I worked as the editor of a fanzine called Being Different. That was way back when I though being different was an end and a light unto itself. Since then I've started to feel otherwise.

Gurdjieff once said that his method of waking up, the Work, can only begin from the level of ordinary man, obyvatel as he called it. No "lunatic" or a "fool" can have the required stabilty in themselves for working out for one's salvation. Having had a lot of new stuff and challenges in my life in the past six months, I finally agree with him. Being different is required, for sure: it is the power that makes us want to go beyond what is given to us. But attaining something from that beyond requires us to work.

Work is the normal man's territory. We have both the Normal Man and the Extraordinary Man in us. So we need to keep alive a playfulness that draws us towards something different; and we need the stability, the seriousness, the grit of the normal man to continue that playful exploration.

Tags: Ego, Gurdjieff, Work, play, growth, spirituality, ordinary life, normal man, obyvatel

My Summer was a Lighthouse Keeper

http://jupsa.gaia.com — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 18:39:36 GMT

I was right. I can see the future. A couple of months ago I was pretty sure this summer will be one of the best I've had. Turns out I was spot on.

First there was

India

India, my darling of a goddaughter. She spent the whole summer in Finland with her mom, my lovely sister Mia. That was the first time for both of them; my sis has lived abroad in UK and France since she was 18 years old. I sure do adore her courage, grace and grit. Cheers!

Then, my and my wife (did I say we got married in May?) headed off to the barren lighthouse island of Märket for a week right after midsummer. I can't even begin to tell you how amazing it was. Silence, so beautiful, seals singing on the rocks nearby, someone preparing dinner in the makeshift kitchen of the long-since abandoned lighthouse...

Piquenique

After that it was time to take some time off. How about spending a week in the middle of absolutely nowhere, in the midst of Finnish pine trees and a lake noone knows about, surrounded by my heavily extended family? Sounds like my kinda time! In addition to having sauna every night (and sometimes in the morning as well; 9 am to be exact) the highlight of the week was driving to a really obscure "Finnish traditional festival", the highlights of which were seeing tractors revving up and drinking moonshine straight from the still. Oh, the good times!

Hanging around for a while, we went for the trip o' the summer. A busload of Finnish nutheads went to camp out for a week in Norway in the mighty Storås festival. And what a week it was! Meeting so many cool new people, some of which I can honestly say I miss having in may life, was not a waste of one's time. Plus, Dinosaur Jr was playing.

hein kuu 07 065

And, after all, everything got back to business as usual. Very cool to be hanging out & working in the local library.

My work's there almost over. Now it's off to new adventures. I got a lot of groovy stuff to do. How nice is that! :)

Tags: summer, Europe, Finland, Norway, books, library, nature, lighthouse, music, life, love

Reflections on a Song of Love + Rebirth

http://jupsa.gaia.com — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 21:00:20 GMT

Here's a song written + played by me. I play it through a Fender Bassman amp from the 70's. I wrote the song five years ago when there was nothing more valuable for me than making music.

Armoury of Love

The video is filmed in the bedroom of our apartment. You can see an old mandolin, probably from the 1950's, on top of the amplifier. It was supposed to keep my former girlfriend's grandfather from drinking. It didn't work.
The banjo on the right was given to me by my sister Mia. Her friends found it in the garage of their house in a garbage can after moving in. I remember trying to fix the poor fella, sitting in an easy chair in front of my sister's house in Camargue, the sun shining, snakes hissing and the Mistral wind moving the tall grass in steady undulating waves. I was alone for the first time in another country, and my sister and her boyfriend were away from home working. I sat there plucking the rusty old strings, trying to make it sound as least annoying as I could with my meager talents and my garbage sale instrument. I remember a neighbour passing me by on the dirt road in front of the house. He looked unphased, probably having been used to people raising a ruckus in the midday Camargue sun. After all, Pastis was and still is a favourite drink to cool down from a morning's worth of riding horses, herding cattle or dealing with German tourists.
Coming back home I tried to retain something of the impressions of Camargue. I rarely played the banjo again, to be quite honest, but having it hang on the wall gave me certain confidence. You know, when you got something like that looking at you all day long it's got to give you an idea or two, at least on an occasion. I wouldn't know that for a fact, though. Having a heartbreak certainly gives you ideas. That's where this one comes from; of that I'm pretty damn sure.

Tags: video, music, song, love, rebirth, guitar, harmonica, Fender, folk, mandolin, banjo

My hyp-r-link'd plans for the summer

http://jupsa.gaia.com — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 14:32:25 GMT

Summer!!! is here and it sure is fun. I have some great plans made and I'm slavishly going to follow them. They include as much lying around in the hammock, reading good books, listening to great music, camping out, walking in the nature, watching excellent movies and bicycling as possible. For starters. This summer, unlike the last one, I decided to have a proper holiday. Financially it could be a disaster - I'm forced to sell my trusty ol' Fender Bassman Ten amp to support my high-life - but man oh man does it beat working for the man in an (y)awning factory, like I did last summer. We got to go to Scotland, though, but this year I prefer the mental travels I'll be making with the pile of great books I got waiting for me. At the moment I'm reading The Eye of Spirit by the darling Ken Wilber. I am keeping my hands busy by working on a translation of Wilber's A Brief History of Everything into Finnish, writing a bit each day and looking out for a publisher. Idle hands are the devil's tools, as they say, so I try to keep one step ahead.

I put together a mixtape of my favourite music through a groovy new playlist tool called Finetune I found through Gagdad Bob's high quality blog. I am really excited by it. After I begun concentrating more on my studies a couple of years ago my previously very keen interest in music has waned. This summer I hope to finally get my act together and buy an iPod or a Creative player bigger than my current 128 MB MuVo that holds either two whole albums or some ten densely packed podcasts, like the ones from Integral Naked I listen to regularly. Having at least a fraction of a good record collection on the go might help my lazy ass out in getting out of my head and back to my ears.

After midsummer, which is a big party here in Finland - the sun doesn't really set at all! - me and my dear companion head out to the lighthouse island of Märket, far out in the sea of Åland. That's something I'm really looking forward to. It's supposed to be the stormiest place in all of Finland, as well as the westernmost point of the country. Having been automated in 1976 it's been opened again in May 2007. People are doing voluntary shifts of one week, repairing the place and stuff. If the weather sucks there's no going in or out of the island. Tractors have been known to wash off the island (which is really no more than a block of bedrock sticking out of the sea). When it was built in 1885 no one was thought to be able to live there due to its "horrible location". Well, it may not excactly be a realtor's dream but it's got lots of seals hanging on the surrounding rocks and maybe some ghosts too. Granted sufficient privacy from the other two people accompanying us on the island my possible future kid can be endlessly made sick by playing The Incredible String Band. Not exactly a hippie's dream, either. What a bummer ;)

All right, so that's how my very cool summer looks like from today, having just started by writing this blog. Go do something that makes you happy. It's really important, that, is it not?

Tags: summer, holiday, books, reading, music, camping, movies, bicycling, nature, walking, Scotland

Play, Irony, Growth & Transcendence - Chatting with Ken Wilber

http://jupsa.gaia.com — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 22:25:59 GMT

I just finished a four-hour marathon of a conference call with Ken Wilber, being one of the five chosen participants to present their question on Wilber's latest book Integral Spirituality. It's a strange experience hanging on the telephone for the duration of a crappy European art film listening to the world's foremost integral theorist discuss the finer details of Integral Life Practice. I was somewhat nervous before the call. That's not very usual for me so I had to rely on some heavy duty feng shui shit: the finest ammachi insense, a water fountain, a couple of glasses of chilean white wine, some water fresh out of a tap plus chamomille tea - with honey!

"Play, irony, growth, transcendence are [approximately] the same thing!", said Wilber on the call. Right on! Asking what I intend to do after I finsh my studies I didn't have a stock answer so I rambled something incoherent. Reflecting on it now I kinda see myself facilitating more of the aforemenioned synonyms into the world. Growth, irony, play, transcendence. What could be better than that? Could one make any better use of the merciless heropass, as Mr. Gurdjieff called time? Is there honestly anything more worth our while, anything more True, more Beautiful or more Fun than the same sacred foursome: Play, irony, growth & transcendence. That's where I see the future, including mine, heading. Thank you for asking, Ken. Took a while to come up with a good answer. How sweet will sleep be now.

A prayer is always good before bed, though. So Dear God: please bless Mr. Ken Wilber. He has done so much to make the world a better place. Let him get the recognition he deserves. And let his re-cognition become our cognition. Let his subjectivity become at least an object for our awareness, and possibly become our subjective experience too. For integral philosophy and AQAL thinking is the now thing for a messed up world.

PS. If you're not yet familiar with Ken's work, here's a good introduction - a bit of a mind strecther, but you're savvy - you'll get it!

Ken Wilber - Spirituality and the 3 Strands of Deep Science

Tags: Ken Wilber, AQAL, Integral, philosophy, spirituality, Integral Spirituality, Europe, Art, Amma, Feng Shui, Play

Beyond the beyond

http://jupsa.gaia.com — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 11:14:15 GMT

I am listening to the new Dinosaur Jr album. The band is my all time favourite and was a reason why I picked up the guitar in the first place. I wasn't overly enthusiasted about their re-union but having listened the new album, Beyond, a few times through I got to say it kicks some major ass. The songs are top notch, playing is tight and loose (kind of a trademark) and the sound...what can I say, I love it! J Mascis' latest release was a collection of chanty song written in honour of Amma and that wasn't bad either. But this new stuff really gave me back my faith for rock and roll music. With all the crap they call music these days it's just so refreshing to hear soul shining through the chords of a guitar. Truly a wonder of all wonders, if any.

My call with Ken Wilber will take place this evening. Too cool! I spent the best part of yesterday evening at a school mate's housewarming party trying to convey the excellence of Integral thinking to some friends who'd never heard of it before. Not sure if I did a good job. At least they didn't throw me out, which is always a good sign ;)

Here's the video for Been There All the Time from Dinosaur Jr's new album - out in two days!

Dinosaur Jr - Been There All The Time

Tags: Music, Video, Dinosaur Jr, J Mascis, Guitar, Spinal Tap, Amma, Soul, Ken Wilber, Integral

My Coolest Email Ever - DAY!

http://jupsa.gaia.com — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 06:59:26 GMT

"Hello Juha

Thank you very much for this excellent question! We'd love to have you on the call, if you can make it."

Although my name is technically Juha-Pekka and I don't like to reduce it to its constituent parts I won't be holding any grudge towards Mr. Rollie Stanich from whom I got the above lines. Rollie is Chief Facilitator of Integral Spiritual Center and Managing Editor of Integral Naked, both of which I am a member. Ken Wilber's latest book, Integral Spirituality, is covered chapter by chapter in the form of conference calls on the Integral Spiritual Center website. Anyone who's a member of ISC can submit their question via email and maybe get to present it in a phone call to the author himself. Well, looks like I got lucky this time!

So yesterday was the Official Coolest Email Ever Day for me! Today is the official get-to-deepen-my-spiritual-practice-by-getting-my-teeth-drilled-day, so I'll be off to the dentist soon. Anyway, catch the call tomorrow live on the website or later on when it comes available online. And buy the book! It's probably the most important book I've read on the topic of "science" and "religion".

Tags: Integral Naked, Integral Spiritual Center, Integral Institute, Ken Wilber, Integral Spirituality, Spirituality, Dentist, Books, Science, Religion

In praise of imperfection

http://jupsa.gaia.com — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 12:38:29 GMT

"I am willing to sell my product despite what I think about it".

This simple yet revealing sentence stopped me in my tracks last weekend. It was formulated with the assistance of Steven Sashen as a part of an exercise in the Quantum Wealth workshop I attended. What it got me to notice was how I can expand my thinking from a limited perspective to something that might yield better results. From a fear/acceptance/control-based thought like "I need this to be perfect, otherwise I can't let anyone (including even me!) see it" realizing that I really can think otherwise.

I started to see the perfect beauty of imperfection all around. Watching my bookshelf I caught a glimpse of Herman Hesse's Narcissus And Goldmund. It's good but not that good. I looked and saw my flat. I love it. It's not perfect, but I love it. Suddenly I saw how everything that exists must be, by its very existing-nature, in the state of imperfection and becoming. Everything from atoms to molecules to cells to animals to humans to my dad is constantly and perfectly imperfect. This state is vibrating with aliveness. And I dig it!

Taken on a practical level (something my girl always asks me to do) it means that I am free to create into existance whatever is my heart's calling. I can see the beauty where there's supposed to be none. There is absolutely no sense in striving for perfection that never comes. Seeing the world with eyes that are more real makes everything glow. There is nothing that could not be imperfect! Anyway, the joy and release of imperfection is the acceptance of the Noble Truth that every thing is in-perfect. Imperfection is resting in-perfection. The "funniest guy on the internet", Mr. Ze Frank has an excellent v-cast on the subject called Brain Crack. Go see it. Now.

Tags: Steven Sashen, Quantum Wealth, Imperfection, Perfection, Beauty, Freedom, Joy, Creativity, Free Will, Herman Hesse, Fun

Silence So Beautiful

http://jupsa.gaia.com — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 08:42:30 GMT

I attended a Quantum Wealth workshop last weekend. It was led by Mr. Steven Sashen from Boulder, Colorado. Luckily I didn't have to travel there (although it would've been nice) since it took place in my hometown. It felt really a priviledge to be able to attend. Steven's teachings were all about using our relationship with money as a practical spiritual practice. A lot of the stuff was based on The Work by Byron Katie, which I was only anecdotally familiar with before. I liked the direct approach of it. The other "Work" known to me is G.I. Gurdjieff's Fourth Way practice. Katie's to-the-point inquiry seemed like a great supplement to the sometimes tedious but very stabilizing practice of the Fourth Way which I've been involved with for some years now. Another point of departure was a meditative standpoint similar to that of vipassana meditation. I attended vipassana (as taught by S.N. Goenka) course in the summer of 2005. Although I prefer zazen as my daily sitting meditation practice, the "passionate equinimity" of vipassana was appealing. I'm glad it appeared again in my life in the form of Quantunm Wealth. In that it was all about finding the still point, the fulcrum where the opposite ends of the pendulum meet. That still point exists as a compassionate acceptance of all our conflicting desires. By resting in that Witness it is easier to let whatever decision might arise lead us into taking the next step.

That is what brings me to the actual topic of this post. What I've come to notice is that our lives tend to go around in circles. We have our set of desires and aversions. Swinging from one end to another we are bound by what we want and what we don't want. I've been painting myself into that corner for a while now, and experiencing that empiness beyond the opposites, however slightly, is a great relief. In my daily life it sometimes comes in the form of a feeling that I'm lying as I speak "my mind". More often than not it could be such a good practice just to refrain from choosing. Just seeing and feeling into those opposites that claim their space inside our beings, and realizing them as the contours of my limiting self. I think I might've written a song about that a while back. I'm not sure, since I mostly don't have a clue what my songs are about, but I think so.

PS. As a part of the course we had to make an exchange with two "million dollar bills". The point was to see what comes up not only in the form of concrete results but also in form of thoughts & emotions about the task too. Well, I won't go into those now, but I'm pretty pleased with the trade I made. I got a friend to work totally illeagal hours in filming & editing a music video for me, and another friend (who's a graphic designer) to make unique covers for it. Really cool! I might post the video here later on. It's for the song I mentioned above called Silence So Beautiful.

Tags: Equinimity, Compassion, Quantum Wealth, Steven Sashen, Wealth, Spirituality, Byron Katie, Goenka, Vipassana, Zen, Meditation