Maps feed our minds, poetry feeds our souls, and in all the feasting and fasting Spirit is forever adance.

Today has brought a facinating confluence of thought on the soul in integral theory to the fore for me. I’ve been rereading Ken Wilber’s One Taste, while reading some compelling takes on the role of soul from William Harryman’s Integral Options Cafe and Joe Perez’s Until.

William’s take on integral in “Soul in Intergal Theory” is that it neglects Soul in favour of Spirit. He associates Spirit with agency and Soul with communion, among other distinctions.

In William’s experience, if I understand him correctly, integral theory, as a map of reality, is too rooted in intellectual, transcendential, non-experiential and non-sensual approaches.

Joe responded to William’s piece with “How We Care for the Soul“. Right away he reminds us that the map is for the mind and then goes on to encourage us to include soul as we include mind and body, but to not limit ourselves to soul when Spirit and our true identity awaits.

Joe is framing soul, I believe, as a manifestation of Spirit, an aspect of our Self that follows body and mind in the holarchy of our being. Here I think the two diverge in a way that has more to do with definition than outright disagreement. William seems to be addressing the difference between involution and evolution (understandably wanting more of the former in his life), while Joe is addressing an aspect of our selves that is immersed in the involutionary and evolutionary currents.

In One Taste, Ken Wilber writes poetically about both the involutionary and evolutionary plays and the manifest layers it has in soul, mind and body. I find his description of personal involution from Spirit to be beautiful.

My take on Ken’s work is that he deftly balances involution and evolution, experience and theory, agency and communion, style and subtance, mind, body and soul. But I sympathize with William’s stance and understand that spending too much time exploring the map leaves us longing for adventures in the territory.

I have a huge sense of admiration for both Joe and William, and enjoy the genuine dynamic that is formed when sharp minds go exploring in this space we are moving into. William’s call for inhabiting our lives with embodied, connecting grace is vital, as is Joe’s reminder of just what’s behind the masks.

~C4Chaos, one of my favourite internet personalities, posed the question, “What’s in your library?” and pointed to an article on the value of libraries to the successful. As a bookworm, I have to respond to that.

Like C4, I have been collecting Ken Wilber‘s books, though I envy his possession of The Collected Works of Ken Wilber. Also in my collection are fiction, graphic novels, meditation, yoga and religion books, art, photography and poetry collections, some magazines such as What is Enlightenment? and Shambhala Sun and an assortment of other treasures.

And then there is my sprawling digital collection that I wish to subsume the rest. I deeply want publishers to embrace digital media so that we can have a small hard drive rather than a room of books as our library. I just want to be able to fill a book chair with books to lend and leave the rest in 0s and 1s. Vast knowledge nested in minimalism is the future!

I should flesh out my Zaadz bookshelf and import what I list at All Consuming.

I’m between books at the moment, so I’d love some suggestions.

What’s your favorite question?
What are you passionate about? It’s such a telling question. So much about us is defined by what we care enough for to live, fight and die for. And for me? Evolutionary unfolding.

Who would you most like to connect with?
I would love to connect with more people interested in Integral, Zaadz and the things these communities are exploring. I have some wonderful friends, but few who are engaged in evolution to the extent I hope to be, and I do believe we should connect with the people we most want to become like.

Where do you get your ideas?
Ideas are endless. Every day I pour through hundreds of articles on various topics, am inspired by rare people and have experiences that provide a fountain of ideas. Ideas are the easy part, the realization of them is the real adventure.

What is real to you?
Something is real for me if it can be experienced. This doesn’t mean that I have experienced it, just that it has been experienced. So I believe that spiritual, mental and physical truths are real, though interpreted in various ways, some less right than others. The best method we have of showing something to be real is experimentation, and this can be done in every realm.

What would you like to remind others of?
I would like to remind all of us of the incredible responsibility we have to evolve. The unprecidented challenges we face require us to grow and radically change in order to move beyond them. As Einstein said, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” This includes technological, personal, cultural and social advances that we must consciously explore and embrace. Too often we are complacent and concerned with trivial matters in our lives when the great challenge lies before us and demands our courage and conviction.

What do you need to be reminded of?
I’m feeling right now that I need to be reminded of my connection with the people I love. I spent time with my family this weekend at my sister Ilea’s wedding, but there are many others I love that I haven’t been in contact with as often as would be best.

How are you going to change the world today?
I’m going to cut down obstacles that are in the way of giving myself in service to the world. I’ll be clearing away tasks and objects cluttering up my life so that I can have the freedom to be more fully engaged in the growth and work I have before me.

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I’ve been meditating for several years now, with a loose Buddhist orientation, but I’ve done so without the privilege of a community or teacher. Lately I’ve been trying to decide on a tradition and sangha (a Buddhist community) to join in order to deepen and anchor my practice. Taking into consideration my location and religious tastes, I hope to make a selection soon.

Halifax, my home city, is an odd place to consider a hub of Buddhism, but it is actually home to one of the largest communities of Buddhists in North America. Our port city is central to the early history of the continent’s European colonization, but it’s also the international home of Shambhala Buddhism, founded by Trungpa Rinpoche. Other, smaller Buddhist groups also have taken root here and the Shambhala Sun Buddhist magazine is published in Halifax. For more on this, read “Halifax a quirky heart of Buddhism“.

Buddhism is loosely divided into three branches, Nikaya, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. Zen, for instance, is in the Mahayana branch, while Shambhala would be considered to be of the Vajrayana branch. Each of the three branches can generally be said encompasses more teachings than the previous. Mahayana includes and expands on the Nikaya texts and teachings and then Vajrayana includes Mahayana teachings and adds further teachings. It’s a nuanced and confusing unfolding, but it can be summarized as one of increasing complexity and inclusion.

My personal affinity is more with Vajrayana, largely because I like comprehensiveness and the emphasis on tantra, or bodily spirituality. In balance with this, I have a lot of interest in Mahayana in general and Zen in particular. It turns out that the two sanghas I am most interested in happen to be Zen and Shambhala centres, which makes my decision very hard.

The Atlantic Soto Zen Center in Halifax offers monthly newcomer sessions on the first Monday and seems to be an accessable, though not well known, Zendo. It is associated with an Atlanta centre and offers weekly services. I’m not very familiar with the community, so I would be diving in a bit blind, which could be fun.

Soto is the largest of the Japanese Zen branches, and focuses on shikantaza meditation, quiet mindfulness. My practical experience with Zen has come primarily through work with Genpo Roshi‘s Big Mind process, which is an emergent form of Zen practice. The formalism of traditional Zen brings up aversion in me, but I suspect that working with that and overcoming my bias would be helpful.

The Halifax Shambhala Meditation Centre, as I mentioned, is the home of the Shambhala tradition, founded by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. It has a very robust calendar of practices, with weekly meditation instruction, 2 weekly meditation sessions and other frequent events. The sangha’s presence in the community is strong, and I’ve heard a lot of praise for the work done through it. This vitality of community is a strong draw for me to this organization.

Shambhala is a recently revealed Buddhist sect that builds on Tibetan tradition with the teachings of Chögyam Trungpa. Trungpa was a very controversial and important figure in bringing Buddhism to the west, and had a lot of serious shadow issues that have been noted. Despite this controversy, Trungpa is revered as a great master and his teachings are likewise valued.

I’m still working out the fit of these two options with my life, and I’d appreciate any insight or personal experiences you might have in regard to these two forms of Buddhism.

Tonight I recieved a new newsletter from Zaadz, a social networking site that encouraces conscious capitalism. “How to make money, change the world, and live happily ever after…” lays out a vision of a movement from a knowledge economy to a values economy. You can read more there about the great potential we have to create genuine and lasting change in the world with conscious capitalism, but I want to focus on a company that may be a surprise leader in this emergence.

Nintendo has made huge strides in the past few years to change an industry in a positive and conscious way. With their DS and Wii systems, they are pushing gaming out of the narrow confines of mere entertainment and fostering social, mental and bodily interaction that the video gaming world hasn’t known.

The first breakthrough came when the video game industry came under criticism for not aiding the development of young people and otherwise failing to provide social good, notably from neuroscientist Dr. Kawashima. Rather than ignore or deny the criticism, Nintendo embraced the challenge and brought Dr. Kawashima on board to develop Brain Age, a game for the portable system DS that promotes cognitive health.

Nintendo’s next system, the Wii (as in We space), has become an unprecidented sales success by appealing to a wide demographic that transcends age, gender and other divisions gaming usually is unable to. This new system is more social than its competitors, more family-friendly without alienating avid gamers and is focused on innovative play, which includes a new level of physical activity fostered by the Wiimote.

The Wii encourages players to physically play in games. In Wii Sports players use real movements to swing a tennis racket or throw a bowling ball, rather than sitting still and pressing buttons. In an era when obesity and lack of physical activity is rampant and a huge problem, this may be one of the greatest social goods any entertainment company has produced; kids and adults are having a ton of fun while becoming more active.

And Nintendo is running with this push to make gaming healthier. Nintendo announced this week that it will release a new controller, the Wii Balance Board, that senses body movement for the Wii Fit product. Now aerobics, yoga, other exercises and games with full body motions will be key features of Nintendo’s offerings.

Not only is Nintendo pushing mental and physical health, the Wii is causing a decrease in television watching. Families and other groups in Japan are choosing to spend time with the Wii rather than watching television, with ratings dropping as more homes acquire Wiis.

With the most innovative and affordable system of this generation, Nintendo is on course to be the leader of the market. While the Microsoft and Sony behemoths are stuck trying to create mere entertainment hubs, Nintendo has reinvented itself as a lifestyle company. It has embraced gaming as a positive cultural force and is injecting new value and better values into the industry. While doing this it is still creating games of the caliber it has been known for over the course of generations.

So, is Nintendo a new global leader in conscious capitalism? I would venture to say yes. Nintendo is enjoying tremendous financial, critical and popular success and at the same time is having a real impact on the quality of life of millions of people around the globe. Nintendo is doing good, creating social value, and doing well financially. Zaadz claims this is the future of business, and I’m inclined to agree. Value and values are a potent pair, as Nintendo is proving.

Yesterday William from Integral Options Cafe tagged me to take part in a What is Your Learning Edge? meme. What a coincidence! Minutes ago I finished selecting classes for my return to university in September, and I wanted a good excuse to share that. And I’ve been pursuing some other interests as well. Oh, but first I should share what this “learning edge” thing is, right?

I’m heading back to Dalhousie University in September and plan to pursue a degree in psychology. I need to get the intro classes under my belt before diving in to the more focused program, so I had some space to pick classes I have some interest in outside of psychology. I’ll be studying Spanish, philosophy (logic: deduction), politics (freedom and government), English and, of course, psychology and neuroscience. I’m very excited to be back in an academic environment. As much as I would never have learned and developed in the ways I have if I had stayed closed in school, there’s a lot to say for the structure and focus it can offer.

In the meantime I’m always reading across a wide spectrum of disciplines. My focus recently has been marketing and communication in general. I’m very interested in learning to be more effective in conveying the bits of wisdom and knowledge I have access to, so I’ve been reading up on blogging strategies. Finding a way to merge depth and span is a thrilling challenge.

I have some constant learning experiences that I stick with. My meditation practice is always allowing me to discover new twists and turns in my innerworkings. My resistance training gives me a better appreciation and knowledge of my body even as it strengthens my muscles. My relationships disclose more mysteries than I could count and I learn more about myself and others in the maze of We space.

What’s next? I am weighing options for where to deepen my meditation practice. I’m trying to choose between the Zen and Shambhala centres here in Halifax, and it’s more difficult than I anticipated.

7 Random Facts

Nancy of Waterfalls’ also tagged me for a meme. Seems I’m net-popular this week. She wants seven random facts about me, so I’ll see what I can come up with.

1. I’ve long held a goal of having everything I own fit into the trunk of a car.
2. The furthest from here I’ve been is California, much to my wanderlust’s dismay.
3. I’ve voted for the NDP in every election I’ve been able to.
4. I prefer most media in digital form because of my minimalist leanings.
5. I’m double-jointed in my left hand.
6. I’ve lived in several apartments during the past few years, each one within a few blocks of the Halifax Shopping Centre.
7. I’m in a monogamous relationship but I consider myself to naturally be polyamourous.

I’m supposed to tag people for these, but please just do this if you feel like doing so.

(and fall flat on it!)

This week I was reading the latest issue of Shambhala Sun and came across an article dealing with some of the meditative obstacles I’ve become familiar with. Shozan Jack Haubner’s “True Confessions from the Cushion” is an honest look at just what goes on as we meditate and brought humility to the fore of my attention. As meditators, we are involved in a very messy game with our own minds, and we set as many traps for ourselves as can be imagined. The moments of clarity are stunning but the long stretches of frustration are stinging. I could immediately relate to the comparison of meditation to internet access.

Oh, I’ve suffered the torment of lost spiritual connection and lost internet connections often enough in my life. But when our patience, humility and methods become stronger, the path does develop a sense of ease, even when we stumble and GMail isn’t loading.

Twitter Mosaic is a social networking art project that takes Twitter user icons and forms large mosaics with them. I was included in the most recent creation, The Blue Marble, and can be found in the 13th icon of the top row of the negative version, if you care to look.

To be an inseparable part of the earth in art as in reality is pleasing. But to authentically embrace the world in its entirety requires much of us. We must stretch our identities, our perspectives and our abilities beyond what most of humanity has been capable of.

Today we are being called by luminaries such as Al Gore at Live Earth to take action in our care for our world. This is a new emergence and such a fragile one. That we actually care about all of humanity and all of the life this world holds is incredibly rare and intrinsically new. Because of this, the challenges in communicating a rare stance to people who have not already developed a care for the world stemming from their structure of consciousness is immense.

One tool in communicating to people about the importance of environmentalism that I’ve been enthusiastic to learn has been an understanding of altitiudes of consciousness, which help to determine what we value, the perspectives we can take and our capacity to understand the world. Integral Naked has offered Communicating Integral Sustainability, a wonderful series of lecture videos that gives us strategies for promoting environmentalism effectively to people who are not at a worldcentric or higher level of being.

In my life lately there has been quite a lot taking place, and nearly all of it positive. I’m perched in lingering good spirits and I want to share a bit of the happenings here. Bear with some mixed points of personal spillage as I set up the future.

I’m heading back to university to study psychology. My first spin through Dalhousie was as a computer science student. My heart wasn’t at all into the program (or programming for a living), so I’ve taken a couple years away from school. Now I’m thrilled to be returning to studies in a discipline I’m passionate about. September will have me moving to just off the campus and diving into new territory, and I’m entirely excited.

This week my roommate Jana left to live in Ottawa. It’s strange to have someone who has been so constant in my life suddenly gone. Our time here was good, with some wonderful gatherings, including the best last weekend. I’ll be a bit sad to leave this place in a few short weeks but I’m also looking forward to the changes coming.

I retired my old messenger bag and now have a “swiss army bag” that I’m very happy with. It’s surprising how much difference a well designed bag can make. I feel much better organized and stylish with this new piece of my wandering gear.

I’ve fallen in love with the new Smashing Pumpkins album Zeitgeist, and I’ll share more about that soon.

Enough of the context of my life, forward to more direction.

Where did you come from?
I come from the only Source, from Spirit. But I also come from a small rural community called Dean, where Lemmon Hill can be found. My roots are deep there amid the maples, along the road flanked by my family’s homes and in so many favourite haunts. I was formed there and imbued with the life and love that I am endlessly thankful for.

Where are you going?
I am going beyond and beyond beyond. I’m leaving myself behind sometimes, but most often still wrapped up in what I think is me. I’m going into the mystery, the only place to find freedom.

Share a piece of art that’s moved you recently.
I was deeply touched this week by a sketch that was posted over at Craig Thompson’s blog. “Her tears intertwining with my veins” gave me goosebumps. Craig is one of my favourite comics creators and he has a gift of depicting tenderness and beauty. I am always urging everyone to read his masterpiece, Blankets.

Pick three words that describe you as you are right now.
I’m ambitious, spacious, and smooth.

Where do you feel most yourself?
I feel most myself when I am intimate with other people. In the context of intimacy all my flaws and strengths come into clearer light and I can more easily see the contractions that hold back who I am.

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