Spirit of Blogging

Let me wrap up this ISC inaugural event blog with a story telling by Ken Wilber about how theology becomes poor facing the new moment of the world. He began with the theme "God is a blogger." He told us that God have been blogging from the very begining about atom to animal to human being to theologian. Suddenly, evolution becomes conscious of itself. God starts to look back what He wrote before and realize that He has to reconcile what He write today with what He wrote yesterday. God knows for long time ago that He is omnipotent, ever-present, and infinite. But when He looks back in the blog He has written, He see the evolving theologian from believing in egocentric God to ethnocentric God to worldcentric God. Now after realizing the evolution, what kind of theologian will God blog about today?

Integral Spiritual Center is a place that, I think, try to answer this question. ISC, as a form in the finite world that God is blogging about, is co-creating the up-to-date theologian that can reconcile himself to the evolving finite world.

Even this event blog has to end, but the Blogging still go on. Please go join and helps co-create this new form of theologian with ISC at http://www.integralspiritualcenter.org.

Love and Light,
Pongsathorn Tantiritthisak

Hugging Moments

After the inaugural event ended, we were filled with love and light. I stood there right in the middle of the conference room and saw wonderful moments of heartfelt hugging. My heart absorbed the loving-kindness spreading all over the room. These are only two pictures I took after I realized that I had a camera hanging around my neck.

This inaugural event might be very short but it has already made incredibly deep connections among us in every aspects from body to emotion to mind to soul to spirit. It is this interbeing perhaps that give us power to make a global shift towards a more awakening and transforming way of living. It is this nexus perhaps that is hugging us all in the very subtle senses.

Fuller and Freer Life

Living in the complex world is not easy, sometimes distressed. Yet it challenges us to move beyond the way we live our life before. Some choose the path to transform their capacities to deal with more complexity. Even that path gives them a fuller life but they are still entraped in some ways. Some, on the other hand, choose the path to find Spirit within. They live a freer life. Yet that life does not give any clue to deal with complex problems.

These two paths go into different directions as they may seems (and actually are, see the figure above). However, why do we have to choose? Can it be possible for us to embrace these two paths together?

An answer may lie in Integral Life Practice that is designed to deal directly with these two different directions. There are possibilities to live a fuller-and-freer life as we are now in the age that virtually open to access all practices. With an integral map like AQAL, we are now more integrally-informed how to enact all potentials we have. Let's unleash our energies to the highest possible of human reaches.

(Note: One may consider Integral WET as another choice.)

Integral Spiritual Corner

A corner in the ISC conference room was decorated by images, idols, and scriptures of world's great religions. Putting all religious symbols together on the same shelf was a signifier of the possible integral spirituality to come in the modern and postmodern world.

[The world's great religions] are the only systems in the world today that can act as a great conveyor belt, helping people move from red to amber to orange to green to turquoise and higher, because they alone can pronounce all of those stages kosher, imprimatur, sacred, acceptable, within their own lineages.

--- Ken Wilber's Integral Spirituality, p.96

Take Your Time for A Minute to Rest

In a 10-minute break after the first session of the public forum, ISC staffs were preparing for the next session of ISC event. The seminar table on stage was replaced by two comfortable chairs. While attendents were resting, walking, chatting, drinking a cup of coffee, Ken was sitting in one of the chair on stage and starting to close his eye. I don't know how many states he was going through in that moment but it felt very relaxed and took no more than a minute or two.

I'm quite familiar with Thich Nhat Hanh's sangha practices. In Plum Village, they will stop from doing their works for a while and come back to their breath after hearing a sound of bell of mindfulness. By doing this, we will refresh our energies to continue work with clear and relaxed mind.

Come back to simple awareness, have a rest in our true home for a minute and welcome to the ISC event.

What is Integral Spirituality? by Ken Wilber

Integral Spirituality: The Role of Spirituality in the Modern and Postmodern World
, a brilliant book written within a week by Ken Wilber for the inaugural ISC event is already open to public. It's posted on Integral Spiritual Center website in the "Library" section. You can download it for free!

Did I mention that he wrote this book within a week!!!

Collaborative Integral Art Performance

On the stage in the middle of the room, all artists took turn to perform their uniqueness of art. Sophia Diaz stepped up to perform an indian temple dance. She explained the meanings of each posture so that we can flow with her dance in a meaningful sense. Every firm and calm step she trampled on the floor produced heartfelt beats in my soul.

The sacred and aesthetic atmosphere continued to spin around the room with the very next performance by Eddie Kowalczyk of the rock band Live who was inspired to play his new song "Sophia" after her inspirational dance. Eddie invited Stuart Davis to perform next. He rock all spiritual teachers and attendents with his songs.

Subtle energies in Huy Lam's body started to ramble and he stepped forward to perform his Tai Chi to celebrate the beauty of sacred energies in this room. You had to focus your eyes on his movement 'cause he was very fast. He ended his performance with the most secret posture you've never seen before, I call it "Break Dancing Dragon." :)

Next performer is Willow Pearson who is a vocal artist, psychotherapist, and music therapist. Her beautiful voice with the sound of guitar balanced the atmosphere with female appearance. Masculine and faminine forces unified and sprung to the awakening state in the last performance by Linda Groves-Bonder. Her voice of melody without any words was directly referential to Spirit.

I saw the light in my heart...

Chanting for Integral Sangha

In the very last moment of the ISC event, Rabbi Marc Gafni guide us to create the "we" space between us. We brought our energies together through chanting and realizing that we really cannot write a book of life without others. We closed our eyes and sensed the gentle and caring space between us.

And the chanting began...

...nan na na...nin na na na...nan na na...nin na na na...nan na na... na nin na na... nin na nan na na na nin nay na...

After chanting, he asked us to turn to the person next to us and speak from our first person that "I'm not willing to be written in a book of life without you".

...I'm not willing to be written in a book of life without you...

With the Spirit in each of us, with the integral map, we are here together to create the integral sangha. To complete the new millennium "Three Jewels," we practice charity, tonglen, and love from our deepest heart to help all of us grow, to heal self and others, to feel the light glowing all over being-in-the-world.

Formal Dinner with Intimacy

I'm just a man off the street who appears to be involved in a formal dinner in the Hotel Teatro, Denver. I'd say that ISC team did a great job on organizing it in formal settings on behave of I-I's and Ken Wilber's gratitude for all spiritual teachers gathering together in this historical event. I first felt uncomfortable for the formality but soon that feeling seemed to disappear because of intimacy each spiritual teacher has when you have conversation with.

One of the impressions that I has was Genpo Roshi walked to our table and poured red and white wine for each of us. He turned to me and asked what type of wine do I like. Then I said "No, thank you." Oops! sorry Genpo, I'm a "neo-theravada" who don't drink for several reasons. He then walked back to his seat with, I think, a "questioning mind." :)

Structurally-informed Tonglen

There are more things to blog about this fascinating event than I'd imagined. Two days ago I thought to blog in sequence but I change my mind since there are some moments and topics that are more important and deserved to have priority. Anyway, I'll scatter around the 2 sessions that I joined: Dinner with ISC teachers on June 25 and a press conference on June 26th. You'll know since these two sessions are quite different in their context.

The first topic that I think the most important is about Tonglen that Ken guided us on June 26th conference. It is a practice on compassion for others in the most profound way I've ever known. In my interpretation, it is almost the same as the process of taking other's suffering feelings and giving happiness and light in our own heart towards others as we've learned traditionally. The only difference is that Ken add to the content of practice, which is normally of 1st-person perspective, with the knowledge of "structures" or "stages", which is of 3rd-person perspective. Or it is a combination of Zone#1 practice with Zone#2 information

(Note: Zone#1 methodolgies use 1st-person approach to 1st-person experiences of 1st person. Some prominent methodologies in this category are meditation, contemplation, and phenomelogy. Zone#2 methodologies use 3rd-person approach to 1st-person experience of 1st person. Some famous systems using this type of "structuralism" are Spiral Dynamics, Kegan's Order of Mind, Maslow's needs and so on. For more details please check out here)

First, we start practicing with entering the "non-grasping mind" (here he used an example from "Big Mind Process" system. For me, any higher states is okay too, the idea is to change states so go as deep as you can) and then imagine about the other(s) who is/are suffering. We breathe in the suffering through nasal cavity to our heart and breath out happiness, joy and peace to the other(s) and see the other(s) is now released and peaceful.

We let the suffering go inside and take it. As we take it we have the suffering inside ourselves so much that you can feel it and then we observe it in "non-grasping mind". As we observe it we are not it, we transcend it. Put it in another way, we first take the sufferings as our own "I" feelings and then move ourselves out of embeddedness in the feelings by turning them into our object. Moving subject of one level into the object of the subject of the next level.

These steps are required in sequence. Especially the step of taking in suffering you need to make it so intense that you can feel and become you. After it is already inside of your "I," you move yourself out using higher state (nondual is the best but other higher states are okay too.)

Out of disidentifying movement from subject to object, we breathe out happiness and light towards the other(s) with understanding that he/she/they are still embedded in his/her/their structure. Suppose they are in Red structure (such as terrorists), we give wholeheartedly happiness, love, and light towards them and move them out of their structure that operates behind their sufferings.

We practiced this several times in the conference and Ken encouraged us to practice everyday.

I'm sure that all this description is NOT exactly what Ken said cause I write it out of my memories (which is not good ^_^!) and interpretations. For your info, I'm MBTI's intuitive type so I tends to take the overall pictures and patterns. For raw capturing of this moment, please wait for the vdo clip which I think it will be posted soon on the IntegralNaked website.

ISC Website

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Pongsathorn for his companionship on a most profound weekend and for sharing his thoughts, feelings and emotions with us through this weblog.

A wealth of experience and understanding was packed into a few short days and we will be sharing much of that with you here in the coming days and weeks.

For now, the website for Integral Spiritual Center is online at Integralspiritualcenter.org and there will be more guest authors on this ISC blogsite soon.

Greeting Spiritual Beings

Today in the evening, I stood with Casey Capshaw, the managing editor of IntegralNaked.org, waiting for greeting ISC spiritual teachers coming to have dinner at the Hotel Teatro. In a while, a wave of spiritual beings came toward us and their sudden presence altogether makes me feel deep down in my heart so overwhelming that I brought my two hands come together and paying respect to them simultaneously.

I bended my forehead to touch my lotus hands and raised my head as of a Thai style of paying respect. At the very first glance after bowing, there a gentle and graceful presence of Brother David Steindl-Rast right in front of me. He stopped and received the symbol of lotus offering. He kindly asked me about what I'm doing, where I'm from and how I got here. In our talk, it felt like a light shining into my soul, warming and embracing.

The group of spiritual beings moved into the other room and left the subtle energies that you could still feel. My heart was warmed, my soul was shining.

Journey to Integral Spirituality

On the plane flying to Denver, I was reading Integral Spirituality, a new book just written by Ken Wilber for the ISC inaugural event. Actually, I haven't finish it yet. But the first 50 pages is really brilliant. I have listened and read about the idea of "stages" and "states" for quite a while but the refinement in this book brings me much clearer picture of how "genuine spirituality" is for the modern and postmodern world (more blogging on this soon).

Today is the first day of the event actually, but I'll have a chance to join a session on the ISC event tomorrow. So wait for tomorrow for a kind of "man-on-the-street" blogging on this event.

Winning the "Fly You to Boulder" contest brings me lots of excitement and joy, like a chance to go inside the office of Integral Institute and see how I-I staffs working behind the scene and a chance to hang around with cool I-I staffs. It also brings me the unbelievable opportunity to join this ISC event. Oh I'm sooooo happy.

(for more of why I appear here please click here and here)

The Overture

Here it is

Portrait of my experiences

within AQAL frame

for the sake of the unfolding Kosmos,

Here I am

A human being

naturally endowed with primordial perspectives

acting like a kosmic researcher,

Here I am

in the nexus of spiritual beings

collaborative and creative community

for the Awakening of All.