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Hi everybody, and Welcome to all new members!
As I write this now, the Pod is approaching its two-year anniversary, so I find myself thinking both about where we’ve been, as well as where we are going from here.
As many of you will be aware, the Integral Pod was created back on August 5, 2006 (on my own birthday coincidentally…), as a sort of joint project between the Integral Institute and Zaadz, and so the Pod was originally known as the Integral Institute + Zaadz pod (a bit of a mouthful), or “I-I+Zaadz” (or “IIZ” if you were really pressed for time). Since then, Zaadz has become Gaia; the Integral Institute has begun a (long, slow) process of becoming Integral Life (at least as far as the “Multiplex” online community side of things is concerned); and IIZ has become the Integral Pod (or “the Pod” with a capital “P” as I like to call it)… to make a long story short.
So now as we approach our two-year anniversary, it seems only fitting that we take another look at our vision and, as a result, our guidelines. Until now, and because of the connection there was between this pod and the Integral Institute, the Road Rules for Transformation have essentially served as the Pod’s vision and guidelines, and they are still very much the main inspiration for the “new” (reworked) vision and guidelines outlined below. The only real substantial difference is that we are now making these road rules our own, and no longer just a direct copy of the road rules for the Integral Institute forums.
Before I get to the actual vision and guidelines, I also wanted to point out that, although no one from the Gaia Team is directly involved in managing this Pod anymore, Gaia’s vision is, nonetheless, very much aligned with our own, and we obviously wouldn’t have such a great space as this for us to all come together if it wasn’t for Zaadz/Gaia. And so while the Pod is, indeed, something of an Integral sanctuary, I think it’s very important for us all to think of the Integral Pod as being just one social holon (see note 2 here, for example) within the larger social holon that is the broader Gaia community, which itself is a part of the social holon of all of cyberspace, and so on and so on… with all that implies in terms of our responsibility to and interaction with that broader community.
So without further ado, here are the Integral Pod’s vision and guidelines – our Integral Pod Transformative Practice (IPTP) you might say – that we hope all members will share and follow.
Much love,
~Grey (and the entire Integral Pod moderating team)
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Our Vision
In an Integral Naked podcast with Neale Donald Walsch not too long ago, talking about how to help people develop through the stages, Ken Wilber said, “One of the most important things that we can do is provide safe spaces for […] people to come out.” In other words, having a space where we can meet like-minded people who support each other as we all continue to grow plays a key role in fortifying the progress we have already made, so that we can continue expanding our ability to take on multiple perspectives. This is, in a nutshell, the primary purpose and vision of the Integral Pod.
So the Pod is intended to be a safe, harmonious We-space where we can all support each other in “being the change” that we want to see in ourselves and in the world, to integrate some of the Gaia language in there, too.
(For more on Gaia’s vision specifically, we would encourage you to check out the Gaia Community Vision group, and these threads there in particular: Our Dream, Our Vision, Our Guidelines.)
Our Guidelines
So what does this mean in terms of the Pod’s guidelines? Well, the I-I Road Rules for Transformation (“transformation” being the key word there) are based largely on what you might call the “Turquoise Rule”, which goes like this:
“Let the next words out of your mouth (and into this forum) be from your Highest Self as you understand it.”
And this basic principle is the underlying inspiration for the guidelines that follow, which are essentially a condensed version of the Road Rules, reorganized to describe the ideal process you’ll go through each time you post.
Before each post
1. Before you start to write a post to the Pod, take a moment to “feel the thinker”, feel the self, or the self-contraction, the ego. Try to make subject become object, as this will help you to communicate from your Highest Self, from the Witness that is able to observe the self (small “s”).
2. Also take a moment, as you do this, to recognize your “emotional buttons”. See if you’re being “triggered” by anything in particular as you think about what you want to say. Are your thoughts now mostly an emotional reaction, a self-contraction? Or are they coming, again, from your Highest Self?
3. And finally, remember that your perspective is just one of many possible perspectives. Before you write, have you made an effort to integrate other perspectives into your own? Try to distill out clear observations from your own interpretations or subjective assessment. Make sure your own house is in order, first and foremost.
When you post
4. Once you’ve done the “prep work”, remember the “Turquoise Rule”. Let the next words you write be from your Highest Self as you understand it. Act from “I-I”.
5. Also, don’t wait for others to make the experience you’d like to have. Ask explicitly for what you want and take steps to help create it. This is something like the “Golden Rule”, which is found in virtually all spiritual traditions in one form or another (“Do unto others…”, and so on).
And just in case…
6. Your participation in the Integral Pod indicates that you have read and accepted these general guidelines, and that you will do your best to live up to them. Like pretty much any discussion forum, we reserve the right to refuse community service to anyone for whatever reason. We very much encourage and enjoy diversity of perspective, but we also value basic respect of this We-space. If you are routinely causing a disturbance or not living up to these guidelines, you will likely be asked to leave the Pod. By entering this Pod, you are agreeing that you can be removed for any reason whatsoever at the discretion of the Pod moderators. You are entering this We-space with that understanding and agreement. This mutual understanding is a pledge we all make to each other to engage or live up to the highest, deepest, best, brightest, clearest, most caring Self (capital “S”) that we can. This is our promise to each other, because we are here not merely to share, but to evolve together and help make the world a more integral place.
Oh, and a few other things, which really shouldn’t need to be said because they are already implicit above:
No spamming
No trolling
No flaming
No personal (ad hominem) attacks
Thank you all for making the Integral Pod a great place to be!
~The Integral Pod moderating team
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