Gaia: The Integral Pod - Chapel Perspicacious - Blogopalooza Day 3: Trans-hippie Integral Consciousness

Re: Blogopalooza Day 3: Trans-hippie Integral Consciousness

http://summit.gaia.com — Sat, 26 May 2007 16:38:42 GMT

Respect Ewan,

your language is echoeing (and communicating) 'unity' in all its manifestations.
iam also loving the flavour and direction of how your chanelling the energy of life to create and recreate the reality your experiencing..

embarking on the territory of transformation is the penultimate reward for facing and fully encountering ourselves hey. a nice testament.

that was the poetry of evolution kiddo,

cyberhugz & smiles

Lisa

Re: Blogopalooza Day 3: Trans-hippie Integral Consciousness

http://riversong.gaia.com — Sat, 26 May 2007 13:14:13 GMT

Ewan, Today my son Daniel, age 17 is graduating from highschool. the time thing is a joke in a way.....I can remember being 17 and buzzing with life like he is. It was not until 25 years later that I found all of Ken's writing. Those intervening 25 years were almost a picture perfect science experiment on moving from the Green Meme to the Mean Green Meme to the Anti-Mean-Green-Meme to the arrival at the depth perception that comes from second tier cognition. It was a painful path for me, and one that hopefully can be shorn up and worn smooth by all successive travellers. I love that you are still in your 20's and you can see so much of what was unclear to me at that time in my life. I look at my son, getting all duded up in his suit, looking like one of the Hardy Boys, barely off his skateboard, filled with a cyber fluidity that I will never have, still loving high skill thrills, not much of an environmentalist yet anyway, hungry for whatever comes his way, not really a trans-hippie though though who knows!?....and I realize that he is caught in a time and context which reflects an amazing abundance that appears perched on a plethora of dark consequences. I worry as much as I also consciously let go of that worry. My mother always said, "it is not up to us to balance the scales." and "We must not rob our children of their experience." I remember the naming ceremony conducted when Daniel was a baby, introducing him to all the corners of the earth, "may his way be easy over the next hill." I love the energy that both you and Melv bring to this discussion board. I don't entirely know how to share all of these lessons that have been so critical to me, but I love that you are so clearly already resonating with an openess and clarity decades before I have. This brings me hope..... I might have to send Daniel over with his skateboard to hang out with you. He could use those cooking classes too, Melv! thank you both so much Jane

Re: Blogopalooza Day 3: Trans-hippie Integral Consciousness

http://maryw.gaia.com — Sat, 26 May 2007 10:01:04 GMT

Go on with your bad self, Ewan! Fuck, what a kick to see your contribution posted on KW's blog! Wheee!

Mary

:-)

Re: Blogopalooza Day 3: Trans-hippie Integral Consciousness

http://Mascha.gaia.com — Fri, 25 May 2007 15:44:31 GMT

"Does that mean I'm a star now?"

Yes! Ewan, you're so cool...

Re: Blogopalooza Day 3: Trans-hippie Integral Consciousness

http://ewantownhead.gaia.com — Fri, 25 May 2007 15:09:20 GMT

Jeez these smileys are addictive... I blame you Pelle!

I can't think of any tenuous justification for this one...but just had to post it anyway

Re: Blogopalooza Day 3: Trans-hippie Integral Consciousness

http://ewantownhead.gaia.com — Fri, 25 May 2007 15:06:32 GMT

Thanks mate

Does that mean I'm a star now?

Re: Blogopalooza Day 3: Trans-hippie Integral Consciousness

http://kessels.gaia.com — Fri, 25 May 2007 14:13:34 GMT

Hey Ewan,

I just saw that your piece is on Ken's website! Congratulations, buddy!

Peter

Re: Blogopalooza Day 3: Trans-hippie Integral Consciousness

http://ewantownhead.gaia.com — Fri, 25 May 2007 10:07:47 GMT

Lol - Thanks for your kind words. It was really wonderful to meet you and your son. Thanks for your hospitality! It was great to witness and recieve your energy directly, really wonderful.

I look forward to hearing about your adventures when you get back form retreat. Take care bud.

Gitanjali - It is exciting! Life is exciting! I feel like I've spent 25 years building and developing my vessel, gathering my equipment for the journey. Now I'm pushing off from the bank, starting to ride those currents. Bring it on!

Ewan

Re: Blogopalooza Day 3: Trans-hippie Integral Consciousness

http://gitanjali.gaia.com — Fri, 25 May 2007 01:28:35 GMT

Dearest Ewan

I feel a fresh wind from your integral consciousness. You stand ready, bold, excited. And it is energising and emboldening and exciting!

I remember how confused I was when I was 24... I went into a dark and winding and mossy place. I hid, I subterfuged, I played all manner of games to keep my emerging soul protected from the harsh world. But without knowing it I hid from myself, I played games with myself...the suffereing was excruciating. I found noone to turn to and no wisdom (though I read like crazy searching searching).

Later I was a teacher at uni and teaching was what I enojyed most. But the thing that pained me was to see fresh energies of young people change over time. They became embattled and diminished by the slings and arrows of "life". They accepted this as the norm. Their elders accepted this as the norm. They were given so little clarity, wisdom and direction.

It is so good to see you being ready for direction, given direction through marvellous synchronicity, embracing it with your body and soul.

So to your stand, in your truth, I say yes! Bring it on Ewan, bring it on. And I exhale.

Love Gitanjali

Re: Blogopalooza Day 3: Trans-hippie Integral Consciousness

http://mqs.gaia.com — Thu, 24 May 2007 18:05:35 GMT

Lol,

Take care out there. We'll be missin' ya.

yer pal,
Michael

Re: Blogopalooza Day 3: Trans-hippie Integral Consciousness

http://ma-rig-pa.gaia.com — Thu, 24 May 2007 12:34:43 GMT

Yay Ewan!

What a beautiful, vibrant, integral statement! I really appreciate the opportunity you've given us to see the Kosmos through your eyes.

"My life is about integration: learning to live in a unity of mind and body; introducing my estranged shadows to my conscious self, drawing them in, being them; constructing better understanding of the world out there, and in here; living in relationship, giving myself to friendship and love."

Here you speak so freely and eloquently of something that's true for me, and that I resonate with within myself, and yet might struggle expressing outwardly so easily.

"And yet, as the integral project gathers pace, the impulse is shifting, changing, growing. The torches are being handed over; the old boomers and hippies are getting closer to their twilight zone, the master is fading, the student is growing. “Hey teacher, leave those kids alone!” This is not a revolution, this is an evolution."

Heh heh. Methinks that twilight zone is always closer to all of us than we might think. And I'm not quite sure what you mean by ".. the master is fading .." but if you're talking about the masters (m&f) of a certain age currently out there, yeah they'll pass away but will come back or be replaced depending on how you want to look at it. They'll be around making themselves available for a long time to come, of that I have no doubt.

How you end your piece is so great ... I get confidence, fearlessness ... bon voyage, mon ami!

"Where this river will lead, I'm uncertain. But this time I'm not lost, I'm exploring. So here I sit, surrounded by possibility, guided by perspective, driven by truth, nourished by beauty; this is how I live."

Ewan, it was so great to meet you and your dad last week, shame Melv couldn't make it and that we didn't have longer but I know it'll happen again and I look forward to that.

Melv, you've really come into focus for me on this thread. I've been reading you with interest and fascination before, but now I really get you coming across a lot more clearly and I'm likin' what I'm hearin' ... I'm going to have to check out your blog. Look forward to when we meet, bro.

Michael, your post was so great ... affirmation, astute reflection and wise words. Well said, my friend.

Lots of love to all, I'm going to be away sans Zaadz for nearly three weeks from next Wednesday, and don't think I'll have much time to podilove before then. Will miss you all and everything you all bring .... but there are compensations, I'm off to see my ageless master and dance with the dakinis on Isla Margarita.

Au revoir,

Lol

Re: Blogopalooza Day 3: Trans-hippie Integral Consciousness

http://ewantownhead.gaia.com — Thu, 24 May 2007 11:46:19 GMT

Hey everyone

Thanks for all your kind words. They mean a great deal to me, really. To lay out my own worldspace, how it really manifests for me, genuinely - no more, no less - and receive such appreciation and encouargemt from you all is a real blessing. I thank you deeply.

Michael - Wow, just wow. Your vulnerable honesty is humbling. But Michael, don't carry too much weight! You have passed on your gifts and deamons to us, just as we will to our own children. Our inherited shadows may be heavier than any other generation, but so are the blessings. Thats the nature of evolution is it not? From a kid, to a wrinkley...thanks pal

It IS about the money, about the stagnant wealth, about the love energy, lost and weary behind the bullets and bulldozers. Your generation does stand at the stargate - a simple choice in hand: do you turn to protest the waste and devastation, the wanton disregard, the sacriligeous trespassing of your elders? Or do you lead forward, blameless, innocent by choice, tractable, willing, available, brilliant, Integral?

This is the chorus from an old song of mine...pre-Ken ;)

Don't just think the chance is gone,
The changing times could still be on.
I don't know if we can, but I believe.
It could happen, a fast reaction,
Recompense our parent's revolutionary actions.
Youthful embrace of the changes we face,
Take up your dreams, don't watch what we're throwing away.

Melv -

Absolutely, and what i also love is that i can see a rapid movement and growth that is spiralling upwards, see that i'm actually able to contribute happily and meaningfully, and revel in this, yet know also that there's allways gonna be those that trod ahead and those that walk behind - a realisation i first had in relation to Kung Fu after the first 4 months or so, when i first realised that all the hard was making a big difference, that i was making progress, but that i'd allways have further to go and better to aspire to - in other words perception of a 'mountain' that i was actually making steps up, but that didnt have a peak, at least not one that i can see now and for the forseeable future. I experienc e the same with spiritual developement, and it's both encouraging and humbling.

Wonderful bro. And astounding that most of that is a single sentence!!! ;) Yeah, thats the realisation isn't it - no more, no less; just this.

Ewan

Re: Blogopalooza Day 3: Trans-hippie Integral Consciousness

http://melv.gaia.com — Thu, 24 May 2007 07:16:07 GMT

Fuck, what a kick! I feel so alive; the world is so vibrant before these new eyes of mine. The lights are that much brighter, the space that much deeper, my consciousness is that much wider. And do you know what the most exciting aspect is? It only gets bigger baby!!

Absolutely, and what i also love is that i can see a rapid movement and growth that is spiralling upwards, see that i'm actually able to contribute happily and meaningfully, and revel in this, yet know also that there's allways gonna be those that trod ahead and those that walk behind - a realisation i first had in relation to Kung Fu after the first 4 months or so, when i first realised that all the hard was making a big difference, that i was making progress, but that i'd allways have further to go and better to aspire to - in other words perception of a 'mountain' that i was actually making steps up, but that didnt have a peak, at least not one that i can see now and for the forseeable future. I experienc e the same with spiritual developement, and it's both encouraging and humbling.

I wasn't in this place a few years ago. My journey had stopped at a very different point, one that is shared by so many of my generation. The playground we're given is so huge it's overwhelming. I see so many of my peers fall by the wayside, wasted through drink or drugs, giving up because the choices are too many. We're given the most freedom of any culture in the history of the world, we're told we can do and be anything we desire, the shackles are off, and we've been given the keys to the whole damned castle. But with no map to know where the hell to go; its chaos. It is chaos.

Ken saved my life. I was floundering; overwhelmed by choice, lost through freedom, wandering the endless halls of a relativistic maze. I was ready, had been ready for some time, yearning for the lift up to the next floor, but with no map to find my way there; I was getting desperate. As my frustrations took hold, I got meaner and meaner, stretching my crumbling worldview past any sense of decency or rationality. Cue Ken….

Same same brother. Its amazing how even though there's no clear answer to those once burning questions, they have been answered enough - perhaps by adressing the how to do rather than the what to do, perhaps through beecoming more comfortable in this existence and more accepting of myself. That freedom can now be felt as a gift, not a burden of choice.

I think many/most people on this pod had that kind of Ken ahhhhh experience. I sure did, and just like you said, he took my crumbling world-view and gave tools to re-organise it and make it oh so beautiful and workable. Big big up to the man and his work!

I love to learn: clarity of thought, rationality. If I have a distorted understanding of the world, my relationship to it will be distorted. If I have a partial understanding of the world, my relationship with it will be partial. If I have a distorted and partial understanding of myself, then I will be distorted and partial. For me, learning is about cognition in the best sense: widening my ability to see, to perceive. A good map not only helps me navigate the territory, it helps me see more of the territory!

Wonderfully said! - all i would add - you know me {;-) is the importance of personalising the model through living it - making a dynamic 'guide book' to supplement the map, which in many ways proves the validity of the AQAl map.

I sometimes see caution thrown over the cognitive, rational side of integral, “be careful not to live in your head too much”; an understandable fear indeed, but one I don't feel, or share. Is rational cognitive experience the only way I interact with, and learn from the world? Certainly not! What a death that would be! But do I find a rational reconstruction and unpacking of my experience crucial? Yes. Without it-without an accurate map- my ignorance and shadows can get lost in contradiction, sauntering off on tangents, withholding and distorting goodness truth and beauty. I know, because I have tasted that dream world.

It's funny how i see the same caution often being (as perceived by me) being unwarrantedly pointed at non-rationality in its many guises, both theoretically and in the walk of action with twin concepts such as the morality of authority moving through the morality of association to the morality of principles (from Integral Psychology). I guess this just reflects the strengths and tendancies we both have to offer, though i really value your perspective, because although i am having my 'integral status' affirmed by life's reflection, i do know i currently need more rational cognitive clarity to balance by comfort with chaos and paradox.

Rationality and feeling are not opposites, it is not an either/or choice. They are lovers; the perfect marriage. Without each other, they wilt, unable to embrace the fullness of life. Without feeling we lose touch with the world, floating, disembodied, and dead on the inside. Without rationality we drift with no guidance, no filter, naked to contradiction and narcissism.

So we're the perfect match <rehearses bending down one knee with diamond in pocket...> No Ewan, thats what's so cool about having you as a friend - you have a really good balance of feeling and rationality, and i value it very highly.

I love to feel, to touch life. I flourish through the visceral caress of relationship, of loving. This is part of my very nature, instilled by my parents and their own world. Rationality does not negate or repress this, quite the opposite, it allows it to flow freely, chaperoned by context and integration,

What a cool place to use the word chaperoned!

Where this river will lead, I'm uncertain. But this time I'm not lost, I'm exploring. So here I sit, surrounded by possibility, guided by perspective, driven by truth, nourished by beauty; this is how I live.

Thats a very good way to describe the move from feeling choice as burden to choice as gift, but more universally. Beautifully put.

To add a one-liner to what i was trying to get at in my response to Michael (i hope it wasnt too unclear and tangentic - i was a bit fried from me day...)
To the 'teachers leave those kids alone' impulse i would add

''If you listen, we listen''

If we feel heard, we will listen (i say that almost voicing what the students i work with say in their truth-full yet uncontrolled response to educational approach, though ive certainly echoed a big version of that voice, and sometimes still do). ''we dont need {no rigid and unlistening} education''

Wilber remarked how jealous he was of the young folks nowadays, having so much knowledge to go on that was not available when he was growing up. He said he felt like choking the young shits.

Totally Balder - i relish and respect the gift of evolution and the giant's shoulders we stand on, and even look forward to handing the torch over - i allready do with our students - there's nothing more satisfying than seeing a student become better than what i can teach, and the fact that a load of you guys run on a similar humility makes interacting such a joyful honour, and in the case of my job, such humility enables an honest and free 'submission' to 'authority'.

Mascha its a joy to read what you wrote regarding this too!

Michael, its all about the money - again, the point where i could embrace the neutral yet immense power of money as something that is not bad, when i was watching my green world crumble to dust, was a point of massive liberation.
Money is almost like a lower right equivelent of the subtle body - a powerful energy that can be guided to immensly constructive action, or if left un-examined and without conscious rationality can become a malignant growth with a force of its own that is hard to reign in. Once that was realised, from then i have been able to walk with a much lighter backpack and with a lot more trust and energy, and a lot more excitement and bubbling potential.
Watch this space - social entrpeneur on the rise. I have seen enough glimpses of the possibilities that arise from authentic 'dreams' that connect with a higher ideal to know its no longer a matter of if or if-only, but when.

Re: Blogopalooza Day 3: Trans-hippie Integral Consciousness

http://melv.gaia.com — Wed, 23 May 2007 22:58:39 GMT

respect to that Mascha!

Re: Blogopalooza Day 3: Trans-hippie Integral Consciousness

http://melv.gaia.com — Wed, 23 May 2007 22:56:31 GMT

<back from finally eating inna lovely persian resteraunt and a de-brief with wine and friend session>

Before reading your words again Ewan, Michael, you hit the nail on the head with what im experiencing here at work at the mo and in general...

It IS about the money, about the stagnant wealth, about the love energy, lost and weary behind the bullets and bulldozers. Your generation does stand at the stargate - a simple choice in hand: do you turn to protest the waste and devastation, the wanton disregard, the sacriligeous trespassing of your elders? Or do you lead forward, blameless, innocent by choice, tractable, willing, available, brilliant, Integral?

When you see so much imcompeteance and stuckness in the older genration its easy to dismiss more than what is useless, and luckily i've been in touch enough with my higher voice and reason to constantly check back on that one, but dang its smarts when something so simple gets missed by so many who are being paid to persue exactly the approach they're missing.
In this job (there's a bit in me blogs if anyone doesnt know what im talking about, but it kinda doesnt matter too much), its stated in our handbooks that we:
mustnt react emotionally to their behaviour or take it personally
musnt shout at the students and show overt authorative behaviour
should respect their freedom and autonomy due to their age
approach all elements from a person-centered start
must be accountable for our action with the students
and so on.
all of these basically say; put the students first when you're being paid to (more if you wish, which is an unspoken requirement for this kind of work); work on your own shadow and aim to be self-aware as much as possible.
That is allready ignored by many, and what really irks, one of them is a senior manager who honestly shows a competance with the students that is near the bottom of the scale of ability in the staff here, and who often talks subtly and not, about how we young ones have less experience and therefore need to listen to the authority of them older ones. In many ways this is true - ive been is this job and this work 9 months, fair enough, i got a lot to learn, but not in a way where im modelled and controlled to an outdated way of doing.

There's basically two approaches to working with young adults. Authorative imposing of structure in a rigid and controlled way - structure and authority in a sense are vital, as long as they are predominantly ego-less, or not ego-driven;

or a completely honest and open relationship as the starting point - young people have such a strong sense for truth and honesty, especially ones with learning difficulties, with an ideal of putting their needs above our own, although boundaries are vital, and easy to implement when respect is gained. Engaging their enthusiasm while honouring their freedom is the only way to make lasting change.
Its that simple

Time and time again i am reminded of the absolute value of experience and wisdom, and those that work on above principles or similar are aware of all this, and no doubt more, and i simply love submitting to such authority - truth that is out of ego's grasp, matured and ripened by experience and infused with wisdom. As long as that holds, i'd hold dear respect for someone however many years they notch up.

Lead and be lead, rejoice in the diversity of perspectives, honour truth above all else, fuse youthful vitality and energy with mellow and time-precise wisdom, link the open and rapid-shifting view from the journeyman's years with the all-embracing and joyfully slowed down perspective of those who have had time at the front, who are willing to share their humilty and knowledge and in return receive energy and willingness to put a lot of energy into positive change.

Michael ive allways eagerly respected your perspectives, and you and many others here are a prime example of all that is positive in gettin older.

Respect and love

Melv

Re: Blogopalooza Day 3: Trans-hippie Integral Consciousness

http://mqs.gaia.com — Wed, 23 May 2007 22:10:15 GMT

Ewan,

Fresh young prince of the Integral! You and your ilk Melv do us aged master Boomer's proud.

Ewan: "And yet, as the integral project gathers pace, the impulse is shifting, changing, growing. The torches are being handed over; the old boomers and hippies are getting closer to their twilight zone, the master is fading, the student is growing. "Hey teacher, leave those kids alone!" This is not a revolution, this is an evolution."

You will come to learn just how difficult it is for parents and teachers (elders) to leave their children and students "alone." We know that you can drive the car. We know that you can make good choices. We know that you can balance reason and emotion. We know that you do not "suffer" the same set of illusions we were called upon to shatter. We know that you still are burdened by the shadow that we have not yet fully processed. We know that we have, unwittingly perhaps, passed on cultural shame to you that was handed to us to carry. The ultimate boomer legacy is the realization that the buck is supposed to stop at our desk. This recognition of deep, tetra-arising responsibility is the instant-karma for our me-oriented excesses. Reality arises.

Boomers are inheriting the largest fortune ever assembled on the planet. At an average age of 50, boomers will hold this fortune for at least 30 years. By then, you will be our age and due to inherit almost twice the fortune currently changing hands. How capable you will be of managing this phenomenal pile when it comes to be your turn, is utterly dependent upon how successful you are right now at convincing us Boomer fortune holders, that your ideas are worth financing. Feel deeply, think well, seek advice, write good business plans and know that your bucks-up "elders" would rather slam their fingers in the car door than finance a bad idea.

It IS about the money, about the stagnant wealth, about the love energy, lost and weary behind the bullets and bulldozers. Your generation does stand at the stargate - a simple choice in hand: do you turn to protest the waste and devastation, the wanton disregard, the sacriligeous trespassing of your elders? Or do you lead forward, blameless, innocent by choice, tractable, willing, available, brilliant, Integral?

Yer pal,

Michael

Re: Blogopalooza Day 3: Trans-hippie Integral Consciousness

http://onthetrail.gaia.com — Wed, 23 May 2007 21:40:07 GMT

Ewan, WOW! That's quite the writing - I love it. You say: "I was ready, had been ready for some time, yearning for the lift up to the next floor, but with no map to find my way there; I was getting desperate." That is me all over - Ken's "A Theory of Everything" started me on the next plane - and never forget - this is just the beginning!!!!!!! Frans

Re: Blogopalooza Day 3: Trans-hippie Integral Consciousness

http://melv.gaia.com — Wed, 23 May 2007 20:44:55 GMT

Ewan bud i was looking forward to fully digesting your post this evening, but work dragged into the evening sortin out me tutee's stuff, so it'll have to be tomorrow.

This evening is actually very relevant to what you're getting at - almost like its been played out in micro. Older wisdom and insight was useful, even essential, but ultimately the one's who were keeping things stuck were older ones, partly because teenagers relate better tp a 20something role model, and partly because things can and often do get stuck.

I'm looking forward to a mug o black coffee and a good ol read of your post. From skimming its good stuff!
Speak to you soon - you up for some sheffield vibes this weekend?

Laters

Melv

Re: Blogopalooza Day 3: Trans-hippie Integral Consciousness

http://julianwalkeryoga.gaia.com — Wed, 23 May 2007 19:42:16 GMT

lovely passionate post ewan - inspiring and bold!

Re: Blogopalooza Day 3: Trans-hippie Integral Consciousness

http://Mascha.gaia.com — Wed, 23 May 2007 19:32:41 GMT

Invigorating, Ewan. I'm shouting, HAH! as I write over here.

I crave to hear this energy behind the words, well-chosen as they may be... they don't matter half as much for me as the s-p-a-c-e they're coming from, that spaciousness at the edge of taking form... I'm in love with it, madly, this cutting edge abyss where emptiness becomes form, a song, a cry, an oomph, a kick in the pants that makes lard asses worldwide jump up for joy - especially mine.

Soar, eagle, I tell you: fly! Higher, wider and deeper than I,

your "other"